I hope that the Jeffrey Donaldson revelations will cause us to reflect deeply on the culture that we have allowed to develop, which is insufficiently loving and insufficiently committed to truth.
Belfast, Northern Ireland. / Photo: [link]K. Mitch Hodge[/link], Unsplash CC0.
I have refrained up now from making any comment on the biggest story in Northern Ireland’s headlines in the past couple of weeks.
On 22 June 2026, Jeffrey Donaldson, once leader of Northern Ireland’s largest Unionist party and its longest serving Westminster MP, was convicted of historic sexual offences.
The jury found him guilty of offences committed between 1985 and 2008 against two women who were children at the time, including 13 counts of indecent assault, four counts of gross indecency, and one count of rape.
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My silence on this case is for two reasons.
Firstly, respect for the victims, whose anonymity should be preserved and whose courage should be applauded. I cannot see how further discussion of the details of the case by me would be helpful for them.
Secondly, my personal disappointment and discouragement. Donaldson was the MP for my constituency. I met him once in his Lisburn office on constituency business and believe I was present at an event he attended on at least one occasion.
In Northern Ireland, where many politicians profess Christian faith – especially within his Democratic Unionist Party – Donaldson stood out as one whose faith was particularly prominent. He always wore a fish badge on his lapel and he shared his testimony in churches.
In the post-Ian Paisley era, he was the archetypal Christian in public leadership in Northern Ireland for many.
I disagreed with aspects of Donaldson’s politics and there were areas in which I appreciated his stance – especially his strongly pro-life views. But I thought he was a man of Christian integrity and a genuine public servant.
The first story I know of that cast doubt on this image was in 2009, when it was revealed that he had claimed expenses for watching pay-per-view films in his London hotel room.
At the time he denied that any of these were adult movies and he repaid the expenses. Since his conviction, a stream of other stories describing a double life during his travels have been published – including drunken behaviour, visiting a gay sauna, and an alleged sexual assault.
The facts in these allegations have not yet been established in court, and criminal acts should be distinguished from those that are immoral but not crimes.
Nonetheless, the picture is deeply troubling. Pressing questions are being asked of what others knew and what they did with that knowledge. This story has not concluded yet.
It seems that Jeffrey Donaldson was living a double life for many years. What are we to make of this?
In a BBC Spotlight documentary entitled Politician, Predator and Paedophile, David Archer, who was Donaldson’s personal assistant from 1997 to 2001, said:
I know a lot of Christians, I have family who are Christians, and I know them to be good and true Christians. And then there are people who profess to be Christians and they’re not.
The reporter then asked him, “Would you have described him as a Christian?” Archer replied, “Well, he claimed the title; his actions suggested otherwise.”
The documentary then added that Donaldson “is reported to have spent his first day as a prison inmate studying the Bible”. Reports from the courtroom, meanwhile, said that Donaldson, who has not admitted to any of the crimes for which he was convicted, showed no visible remorse.
Was Jeffrey Donaldson a genuine believer who gave in to temptation and fell into sin? Or, as Archer implies, was his faith never genuine – perhaps even a cover for his immoral and criminal secrets?
Only God knows the definitive answer to that question – such knowledge of a person’s heart is not given to us. But Scripture tells Christians to be alert to the fact that some who profess to be Christians are not genuine believers.
The Lord Jesus spoke of the final day of judgement in terms of some who would be excluded from the kingdom (Matthew 7:21-23):
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
These people call Him Lord and claim to have done great things in His name, but He calls them workers of lawlessness and says He never knew them.
In the verses immediately preceding these He speaks of false prophets as wolves in sheep’s clothing and says that the genuineness of a person’s faith can be seen in their actions, just as the nature of a tree is revealed by its fruit.
The apostle Paul also spoke of people who profess to be Christians, but whose lives are inconsistent with that profession. He wrote (1 Corinthians 5:11):
I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
We may not be able to see into a person’s heart, but Paul tells us we should not associate with people who are guilty of certain sins. In the following chapter, he adds that, “the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9), followed by an expanded list of vices.
Importantly, Paul concludes the list by saying, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
The Christian message is not one of condemnation for sinners, but the hope for sinners to be made right with God, cleansed and set apart to belong to Christ.
Christians do not look down on others from a ‘holier than thou’ position. We implore people to come to share with us in the grace of God that saved us. But we recognise that is only possible when there is honesty about and repentance for wrongdoing.
Of course, Paul is not saying that a professing Christian should be treated as an unbeliever when they commit a single sin. The New Testament does not teach that Christians will be sinlessly perfect. We are not subject to sin any longer, but we can be tempted and sin.
But the New Testament gives us a clear pathway to deal with sin by a brother or sister. Jesus describes it in Matthew 18:15-20. We must confront the person lovingly, hoping he or she will repent.
Only if they refuse to repent, even after the fact of their sin has been established by two or three witnesses, should they be treated “as a Gentile and a tax collector” rather than as a brother or sister.
The great tragedy in my experience of years of Christian service is that this biblical mandate to deal directly and honestly with sin is widely ignored by Christian leaders in two distinct ways. Not by all Christian leaders – many of whom are faithful in these regards – but often enough to be described as patterns.
Firstly, Christians often do not confront sin in other Christians
In some cases, this may be because they are afraid to do so, but I fear that it is more often a lack of love. Instead of speaking to the person who they think has sinned, giving them an opportunity to repent or to provide an explanation that may exonerate them, people turn a blind eye.
Worse, they may gossip about the person to others. They become a reviler – which is one of the sins on the list of people Paul says should not be treated as Christians!
Secondly, when Christians do confront a sinner, the process of restoration is not often followed
Some Christian leaders can be naïve, underestimating the seriousness of sin and its consequences. Wanting to be gracious, and aware of their own weakness, they do not wish to be hard on anyone else.
This is sometimes seen as a loving response, but it is no more loving than turning a blind eye. Biblical love rejoices with the truth and to fail to grapple with sin is to be unloving towards those who have been harmed by it.
In other cases, the problem is the opposite. The person who sinned is not given the opportunity for restoration - they are either shunned or quietly avoided. This too is unloving and disobedient to Christ.
I realise these are generalisations, and, as I have said, many godly Christian leaders deal well with sin within their flocks. But these problems are widespread enough to cause great harm to the cause of the gospel.
I hope that the Jeffrey Donaldson revelations will cause us to reflect deeply on the culture that we have allowed to develop. A culture that is insufficiently loving and insufficiently committed to truth.
When this combines with a tendency to be impressed by charisma and gifting without adequately testing the character of people before entrusting them with leadership responsibilities, the results are disastrous.
When a leader falls, it is a moment with potential for unhelpful responses or deep reflection. I have written before about pitfalls in how we process these moments.
We desperately need Christian leaders of integrity and a culture within which they can flourish. I have defined integrity in Christian leadership as: the ongoing integration of character around Christ Jesus, expressed transparently and accountably in thought, speech, and action across every area of life, through good times and bad, in the service of others for the sake of Christ.
Integrity is not something we achieve once – it is a continuing process of growth. It is about consistency in every area of life and it shows in our words and actions as well as in our thoughts.
It stands the test of pressure – a person does not have integrity if they slip into sinful patterns when it is tough. Integrity seeks transparency and accountability. It is committed to the service of Christ in serving others.
I have proposed ten markers of integrity to be cultivated by Christian leaders in the Christian Leadership Integrity Commitments.
No Christian or Christian leader is sinless. I am well aware that I have feet of clay as I write about the sins of others. But a person of integrity will seek feedback, will receive it humbly and non-defensively, and will repent if they have fallen short of Christlikeness.
If that kind of behaviour is not habitual for a Christian leader something is wrong. If it is not normal in a leadership team, then you have a culture that feeds hypocrisy.
Churches and Christian organisations must take accountability for leaders seriously.
No system is fool-proof – and unless an individual seeks accountability it will always be limited – but we can put in place measures to facilitate accountability. I suggest five, using the acronym DRAFTS:
Disclosure – bringing as much as possible of the leader’s life into the open and making sure there is no aspect of life that is not known to someone else (e.g., spouse, mentor).
Reflection – regularly taking time to prayerfully consider our actions and the values that underpin them, repenting where we have sinned and seeking transformation.
Appraisal – formal annual review not only of performance but also of progress in character and relationship with God and others, ideally involving a 360 approach with input from those serving over, under and alongside the leader.
Feedback – ensuring it is invited and received non-defensively.
Team – building a healthy team in which direction, decisions and discipline are collective, with mutual accountability.
Structures – policies and procedures for discipline, complaints, grievances and whistleblowing overseen by people who are committed to fair governance in line with best practice outlined by charity regulators and consistent with Scripture.
If you would like practical suggestions for implementing any of these, please contact me.
I am glad that some of those who have commented – like Archer – can testify to knowing sincere Christians and do not dismiss Christianity outright because of the wrongs done by high-profile Christians.
Sadly, others may do exactly that and it is deeply discouraging for ordinary believers when stories like this are in the news.
The following are some suggestions as to how we can pray, think and act in the midst of these stories.
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