If you must have background checks, they belong at the time of nomination NOT after election. If something of a confidential nature is revealed at the background check, that person is publicly exposed when his or her election is declared null and void and another is appointed to fill the spot. That betrays the very nature of pastoral discretion that is the hallmark of good pastoral judgment. Never make public that which need not be made public.
Those nominated already fill out several forms. Why not authorize a background check at that point? If the person does not wish the background check, the nomination is withdrawn. That does not mean that issues found out on a background check or the circumstances that may lead someone to decline one are simply forgotten. It means that they are handled as they should be -- with quiet discretion and pastoral judgment.
Whoever wrote what is in the proceedings has obviously not thought this through and left us with the terrible circumstance of having to announce to the Church that a person did not pass the background check and therefore cannot be placed into the position to which he or she was elected. Really? That is the best we can do.
4 comments:
Now that background checking is available to anyone who wants to go online and pay around 20 bucks.....
It would cost a lot of money to do background checks on every single nominee. Wouldn't it work to not make it public,(if failed after the election?) but have the person with the second greatest number of votes be the person that fills the spot? I doubt the reason for it needs to be made public.
Most of the LCMS serves as a coffee and complaint club for old people. NOTHING ever gets done and nobody cares about the important stuff. Drives me crazy. We have the best theology, bare none, but we treat it as crap and dwell on pressing, trivial matters.
Hyperbole? Most of the LMCS are faithful folk, regularly gathered around the Word and Table of the Lord, seeking to live within the framework of His gracious favor, imparting that favor to the world in faithful words and works... Ah yes, there are crazies, loud crazies, and arrogant crazies but they are not yet the majority (do I sound like Abraham arguing with God for mercy for a couple of wayward villages?). I understand your frustration and it is often my own but I am consoled by the fact that the Church is where Christ and His name are and Christ and His name are where the Gospel is purely preached and the sacraments rightly administered... and that IS enough...
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