Do We Have to Throw Away All of Our Philip Yancey Books?
In case you have not heard, Philip Yancey is the latest respected Christian who has fallen into sexual sin. Christianity Today has reported his confession and a statement by his wife.
Whenever these things happen, at least with Christian authors, people begin to ask what we should do with all of our books written by these once respected thinkers?
Some people default to throwing away all books by any author who has fallen.
I will admit that I no longer have books in my library by Bill Hybels or Ravi Zacharias. I do still have a couple (but not as many as I once did) by Jean Vanier.
I am not convinced that there is a concrete rule that applies to all cases. If there is, it is do what your conscience tells you to do. It is not a sin to keep them or to toss them.
The things I take into account are the nature of the sin and the response by the author. In the case of Yancey, this does not seem to be abuse. It could be argued that as a Christian writer and teacher that there may have been a power differential. However, Yancey does not seem to have had an official position in an organization that he used to coerce someone into sexual contact.
And from what we see from Yancey’s official statement, he is taking this seriously and he considers himself disqualified from ministry. I hope that he sticks with that. One of my pet peeves is when a fallen Christian takes a six month break and then announces that they are restored and are starting a new ministry.
If you have a shelf full of Philip Yancey books, the choice is yours. However, nothing about this suggests to me that we are compelled to toss his books. If they are beneficial for you, then keep them. If you are not comfortable with that, then toss them.
BUT PLEASE DO NOT IMPOSE YOUR CONVICTIONS ON OTHERS!!!
