Should churches and pastors be above reproach?

Someone recent­ly told me, “You need to get back in church.” Not in a friend­ly invite or even an area of car­ing. More like you-are-bad-this-is-my-solu­tion kind of way. But let me back up. 

There has been an increase in sex­u­al abuse and vio­lence with­in the evan­gel­i­cal church.  There have been sev­er­al reports in the news of pas­tors and youth min­is­ters who have been arrest­ed on alle­ga­tions of sex­u­al abuse of chil­dren and teens. 

Since 1998, there have been 700 vic­tims with­in the Southern Baptist Association alone. (Wikipedia) These are report­ed cas­es that have been proven.  I have seen two with­in the Southern Baptist Church in our small com­mu­ni­ty, rais­ing this num­ber to 702. 

Churches with­in the Southern Baptist Association often allowed pas­tors to move to oth­er com­mu­ni­ties to cov­er up the scan­dal. (Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News.)  Sound famil­iar?  The Catholic Church per­formed a sim­i­lar move by relo­cat­ing priests accused of sex­u­al mis­con­duct until they were exposed by The Boston Globe in 2002.  The vic­tims with­in the Catholic Church num­bered 18,565 chil­dren and 6,721 priests. (justiceinfo.net.) 

A 209-page report by Guidepost Solutions, which the Southern Baptist Convention appoint­ed, revealed that lead­ers had down­played and blocked sur­vivors from speak­ing out for almost two decades.  These are exam­ples of only two reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions.  The Mormon Church pro­tects itself from scruti­ny in cas­es of sex­u­al abuse by offer­ing large mon­e­tary set­tle­ments and dis­cour­ag­ing vic­tims from press­ing charges. (AP News.) The United Methodist Church issued an apol­o­gy for how it has “pre­vent­ed peo­ple from being held account­able for sex­u­al misconduct.”(umnews.org.) 

In Christianity, there are 47,000 denom­i­na­tions. (omsc.ptsem.edu) How many more vic­tims could there be? 

This is not to say that every pas­tor is a preda­tor or every church a cesspool of sex­u­al vio­lence. However, church­es need to step up in their hir­ing process and be aware of the peo­ple they put in posi­tions with­in the church. According to a local pas­tor with the Disciples of Christ orga­ni­za­tion, they have not only imple­ment­ed a rig­or­ous back­ground check, but all pas­tors must attend mis­con­duct train­ing.  When a mis­con­duct occurs, they are not allowed to serve and can­not be passed on to oth­er church­es. This is not the case with all denominations. 

The church can­not be allowed to cov­er up or down­play what is hap­pen­ing under their steeple.  They should be sup­port­ing vic­tims men­tal­ly, emo­tion­al­ly, spir­i­tu­al­ly, and finan­cial­ly through prop­er ther­a­py sup­port and the costs that go with that, as well as the cost of legal fees. 

I empha­size prop­er ther­a­py because often, cler­gy are used as a form of treat­ment even though they may have lit­tle to no train­ing with men­tal health dis­or­ders caused by trau­ma.  There needs to be sup­port in the seek­ing of treat­ment from licensed professionals. 

Much like the Disciples of Christ, strict hir­ing prac­tices and ongo­ing train­ing need to be adopt­ed for lead­ers and min­is­ters of all denom­i­na­tions.  The church has been so busy pro­tect­ing itself that it has allowed its parish­ioners to endure unimag­in­able strife.  Is this fol­low­ing the teach­ings of Jesus?

The evan­gel­i­cal church has been try­ing to con­vince us that soci­ety is turn­ing away from the church due to the evil of world­ly ways.  Of course, the dev­il is in the mix, lead­ing every­one astray.  They refuse to look inward to see how they present them­selves.  Sexual abuse scan­dals alone are an argu­ment against their view of the world and its rejec­tion.  But what about when they try to destroy a busi­ness own­er and threat­en to burn down her busi­ness?  Or what if they ignore your pleas to human­i­ty and instead label you “bad.”  We are the sin­ners, though, right?

Back to the state­ment that was said to me, “Get back to church.” 

The dis­cus­sion began as I was point­ing out that yet anoth­er pas­tor has been accused of sex­u­al vio­lence and that instead of attack­ing the LGBTQ com­mu­ni­ty as per­verse, the church needs to wor­ry about their own house. 

“One bad apple doesn’t make the whole bushel bad,” they argue. As we can see from the reports, there are way more bad apples in that bushel. I explained this point, even giv­ing exam­ples of local inci­dents.  They would hear none of it, telling me they would “rather be in church than tak­ing on the world­ly things that’s flood­ing our coun­try today.” 

Is the church not a human con­struct?  Did Jesus not com­mand us to help and love those around us?  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and great com­mand­ment.  And the sec­ond is like it.  You shall love your neigh­bor as your­self.” (Matthew 22:37–39). 

That does not read “only love the peo­ple who sit next to you in the pew and believe exact­ly as you do.”  It does not for­bid hold­ing your reli­gion account­able for atroc­i­ties.  Jesus made it clear what he thought of peo­ple who hurt chil­dren: “But whoso shall offend one of these lit­tle ones which believe in me, it were bet­ter for him that a mill­stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6.) 

That makes very clear where Jesus would stand in the cas­es of abuse and vio­lence with­in the church.  Religious estab­lish­ments are not above the law.  They are to be held account­able for their actions.  The church is not God.  God is God. 

I informed this per­son that their empa­thy for the vic­tims of sex­u­al crimes at the hands of the cler­gy spoke vol­umes. “Lisa, get back to church and learn where your pri­or­i­ties should stand.” 

My pri­or­i­ties are just fine. Are yours?