The church has a Cambridge problem

(RNS) — Fake testimony. Inflated credentials. Fabricated personal history. Embellished resume. Incompetent scholarship. Blatant, repeated and rampant plagiarism.

I’m not talking about Cambridge University and the recent tragedy involving Jason Arday , a professor who was accused of all these things, subsequently resigned and was found dead just a few days later, presumably by suicide.

No, I’m not talking about Cambridge. I’m talking about the church and Christian leaders.

The problems I list above are far more common and overlooked or excused than they should be among those who claim the Christian faith.

To be sure, charlatans and cheaters are everywhere. But Christians would do well to examine how the church attracts and fails to prevent these forms of fraudulent behavior, especially among leaders. Christians can criticize affirmative action and DEI hires all they want (and they do), but the continued employment of disqualified pastors in the pulpit — whether disqualified by sexual abuse, cover up of abuse, plagiarism or not upholding the character requirements of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 — is the church’s own form of an employment program.

This is partly why “…