Now that movie star Mel Gibson's recent drunk driving arrest – and anti-Semitic comments he uttered at the time -- has stimulated a crescendo of criticism in Hollywood, how will the church at large react?

Hopefully with the kind of grace that should characterize God's people. Granted, Gibson's actions and anti-Semitic comments are distasteful. Before anyone points judgmental fingers, though, they should remember that during the past year we have seen the following men fall from grace:

* A leading Baptist pastor in Tulsa.

* A well-known evangelical seminarian and author.

* The would-be director of a Protestant denomination.

All stepped down from positions because of moral impropriety, proving nothing other than that even God's people walk on feet of clay. Those are the same feet that propel movie stars who earn millions while becoming household names. Yet they too fight personal weaknesses and shortcomings that afflict each human on earth.

Several recent news stories have mentioned Gibson battling alcoholism for years. But so do a lot of Baptists, according to a counselor at a Baptist church I interviewed a few years ago.

Noting that that two-thirds of his clients struggle with alcohol or drug abuse, he contends that Baptists' strict abstinence policy often serves to drive problem drinkers into the closet. While in hiding, they aren't too likely to find solutions.

Prize-winning author Philip Yancey opens his book, "What's So Amazing About Grace?" with a story he heard from a friend who works with the down-and-out in Chicago. When the man asked a woman who was prostituting her daughter to survive if she ever thought of going to a church for help, she replied, "Why would I ever go there?…They'd just make me feel worse."

The church has earned that kind of reputation through reactions to people's struggles that came off as judgmental, bigoted, or self-righteous, no matter how well-intentioned the motives.

As the world rushes to condemn Mel Gibson, we should remember "The Passion of the Christ" led to countless salvations, an awakening of a market for more wholesome, family-oriented films and societal reflection on spirituality that has created a wide-open door for churches wise enough to walk through it.

"Only the Savior is perfect, and every messenger of the gospel is flawed," Pastor Jerry Johnson of First Family Church in Overland Park, Kan., commented in a recent sermon on Gibson's troubles. That's worth remembering as we recognize how this situation represents a golden opportunity for the church to redeem its tattered image.