Scripture points us to restoration. Complete restoration. Restoration so perfect, that an old rend would never ever be visible.

Scripture doesn't point us to returning the office and privileges of a Pastor-Teacher to an individual who has stumbled like this.

The test of Haggards church is in the day he can sit in a seat and worship shoulder to shoulder with them.

Could he someday have a ministry of his own, a brand new one, with him as the starting point of his church? A ministry for people who have known the darkest depth of peverse error and have found a whole new life with God? Who are we to say no?

And this proscribing of Profumo style atonement is ridiculous. If that was sufficient, Jesus would have come to earth, laid down the floor-scrubbing-dish-washing-a­pology-regimen and gone back to heaven.

I agree that if Haggard is truly repentant than the test of the church is whether Haggard can sit shoulder-to-shoulder in the pew. What doesn't seem clear is whether Haggard has the humility to do that.