Dog bites man

Pa Curmudgeon e-mailed me this New York Times article on the difficulty single pastors find in receiving a call in evangelical circles, thinking, no doubt, of my own experiences when a recent seminary graduate so, so long ago. Back then, I not only experienced the soft discrimination discussed in this piece, but actually lost a potential call due to being single. The elders of an OP Church were inclined to recommend me to their congregation, but decided not to because several members wrongly thought 1 Timothy 3:2 barred me and they didn't want to start a new pastorate with a fight.

If the quotes in this article properly represent Al Mohler's position, he's either ignorant or willfully ignorant. Of course evangelicals discriminate against single people in general and single pastors in particular. This prejudice is often more annoying than substantial, but is nonetheless real. Married Christians who would deny this are an awful lot like white people who don't think race prejudice still exists in America.

My advice to unmarried pastoral candidates: get over it. More precisely, why are you seeking the same sort of positions as your espoused and family-encumbered brethren? Paul, the patron saint of single pastors, wrote "I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is." (1 Cor 7:26) Singleness provides the opportunity to enter into the present distress and take risks for the sake of the Gospel and Christ's Church. Because I was single, I was able to take a relatively risky call which four married men before me had declined. Why would the Lord keep a man single unless he wanted him to take a chance for Jesus, a chance which a man who has to provide for a family really should not?

Ministers of Word and sacrament are in particular called to imitate and participate in Christ's sufferings (Colossians 1:24-27). Ironically, the discrimination into which Christians so easily fall can be a door opening to the privilege of filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body; that is, the Church.