What's the Difference?

This is just a little strange: http://www.news4jax.com/news/18286355/detail.html

And what does this mean: "I am a Christian, and that will never change. My relationship with Jesus has to do with me and Jesus, and he knows my heart," Hancock said."?

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Query: if a church catches a member in the sin of pride and confronts him, and if the member says, "I'm not proud; stop meddling with my life. I'm as humble as the rest of you and as humble as I need to be. The Lord knows my heart." Would it be appropriate to expose him publicly or expel him from the church?

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The Lord knows my heart. And it is black. A church doesn't (shouldn't) expel a person because he sins and is prone to sin. There is a lot of discussion about how Christians seem to harp on sexual sins while sweeping under the rug the sins of hypocrisy, pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, impatience, etc.

This raises an interesting issue. Assume my pastor comes to me and says, Jaired, I believe you are living in great sinfulness--pride and impatience seem to permeate your life. I would readily acknowledge my sin, repent, and ask for his prayers and advice on how I could remedy the situation.

Here the plot thickens--despite the sincerity of my response to his admonition, chances are, the very next day I'll behave pridefully and impatiently. Contrast this with a person involved in fornication. The pastor challenges this person. (1) He could repent, ask for advice, go break the news to his girlfriend, and then arrange to marry or move-out. If he is sincere, then chances are very slim that the very next week we find that he's moved back in with his girlfriend with no intention of marrying her. (2) He could blow off the pastor and continue life as usual (i.e. what the woman in the article above appears to have done).

Query: I said "despite the sincerity of my response to his admonition . . ." This begs the question: am I sincere when I say I truthfully struggle against my pride and impatience?

Should a church kick out a person who seems sincere in repenting to the sin of pride but who nevertheless seems to behave pridefully after the admonition?

Should a church kick out a person who does not repent of the sin of fornication and does not change his sinful lifestyle?

Is fornication worse than pride? Is there, nevertheless, a difference between the two scenarios that justify different actions by the church? Is it because fornication is so much easier of a sin to avoid that requires or allows churche's to crack down on it harder? After all, if we cannot master the straightforward, behavioral aspects of our faith, then how are we ever going to move on to become trully Christlike in our attitude and lifestyle?

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How very foolish we are. This woman doesn't care if her sexual relationship with her boyfriend becomes public. She went to the news for crying out loud. Here's the issue: the news doesn't paint her as a sinner. The news doesn't see fornication as a bad thing. Rather, by getting this into the news, she paints her former church as a bigoted, anachronistic institution of lunatics. She is distraught over the idea that her church is going to paint her actions as sinful and against the heart of God. After all...she's a Christian and Jesus knows her heart.

And her unspoken assumption: "My heart is pure. Who are you to condemn, you vile, gossiping tale bearer?"