Category: Sexual Abuse in the Church

This post concludes this series. The subject has not been exhausted. Hopefully, it has raised awareness of the SBC crisis and its implications for all churches. I have no illusion my posts will have much impact, but I could not not write on the subject of sexual abuse in the church.
Conversation with clergy and others outside the bible belt revealed little awareness or interest in the SBC by their congregants. I suspect that is true for most non-SBC churches in the bible belt also. As one leader expressed, “I’m glad we don’t have to deal with this.”

I believe such responses are short-sighted. As is often the case, the presented problem is not the real problem. The SBC crisis is a problem but it is only the tip of an iceberg. I applaud the reform efforts that have been approved but they address symptoms not cause.

““‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”Revelation? 2:2-5 ESV (my emphasis)

The church is dying— the fragile local church,— not the Body of Christ, eternal and impervious. SBC is representative of every other church/denomination in western Christianity, not dead but on a trajectory that portends their demise. SBC by virtue of its size and influence is the leading edge of a tsunami . Receding waters that follow the initial crisis warn of what is to come. This is not a time to breathe a sigh of relief, but to repent.

That trajectory can be described in a number of ways:
— abandonment of “the love they had at first”.
— “I am the Vine, you are the branches…Separated, you can’t produce a thing. John 15 – MSG
— “..not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together…” Col 2:19 ESV
— “hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness…” Matt 23 ESV
Each of these offer insight into how the church (we) can be headed in the wrong direction and should be the subject of self-examination.

I want to suggest another trajectory— more subtle and insidious —secularization.
Secularization, for Christians, typically brings to mind culture war issues such as abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and drug use and multiculturalism, diversity, and school curricula, to name a few. Though each is important in their own way, they are a distractions from the real problem. Charles Taylor in his tome A Secular Age defines the essence of a secular age as disenchantment. An unfamiliar term , the following is helpful in understanding disenchantment.

The default mode for the disenchanted age is reliance on human ability/reason and scientific laws as an ultimate source for answers to the problems of modernity. Utility, efficiency and production are our preimemmant tools to achieve full potential as human beings. Inherently, disenchantment rejects the transcendent. Mystery, fantasy, spirituality, faith, divinity, magic, art, namely, enchantment, is rendered irrelevant. our existence in a disenchanted age is reduced to one dimension, removing depth and meaning and distorting the purpose of our lives. (Emphasis is mine)

http://www.georgeezell.com/2019/02/defaulting-to-disenchantment/

That definition led me to make this assertion: Living in a disenchanted age is the most significant challenge  we face in seeking a relationship with God. I have not changed my mind about that but have been affirmed by what is happening in Christian churches.

Expressed differently, disenchantment is loss of transcendence. Fr Stephen Freeman recently wrote about the loss of transcendence:

…a common element within human experience can be suggested by the word “transcendent.” It is an experience of beauty, of goodness, of wonder, that goes beyond itself. It demands poetry and art, songs and symbols. And despite our love of technology and the giftedness of our machines, it is the transcendent that speaks most fluently to our lives. We get out of bed in the morning because of transcendence (or so I believe). The loss of transcendence is something akin to death.
If, as I believe to be the case, we are created for wonder and transcendence, then it would seem that we are malnourished and suffer from starvation in our souls. If everything that troubles us within the “problem of evil” were to miraculously disappear, or even be diminished for the greater part, it would do nothing to nourish our souls. In a certain manner, we live in a vegetative state in which our “needs” are met while our true hunger is ignored.
The “belief” that is native to the human soul is among the casualties of the modern life-style (in all its aspects). We are not particularly nurtured with awe and wonder, but by the consumption of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Our pleasure/pain principle has created a shallow culture. In short, we do not suffer well (as in somehow becoming better, more compassionate people), nor are our pleasures remotely sublime. Two words: reality tv. We have become a people among whom the cheap-shot versions of atheism easily prosper.
The experience of belief begins, I think, with the experience of transcendence, the questions of meaning and significance. It is a conversation that struggles to find its way in a sea of commodities and mundane pleasure. We are not immune to the transcendent – but simply distracted.

https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2022/06/22/healing-the-soul-and-unbelief/

As a Christian, I believe there is a transcendent reality. An awareness that we exist and recognize our need for meaning and purpose which is unfulfilled in a disenchanted reality. This is our common need which can only be fulfilled in the transcendent. 

Christianity, at least western Christianity, navigating a secular age has chosen a trajectory leading to increased reliance on human ability/reason and scientific laws as an ultimate source for answers to the problems of modernity. Utility, efficiency and production are our preimemmant tools to achieve full potential as human beings.

It is my contention the problem for SBC and western Christianity is loss of transcendence.
Admittedly debatable, I find no joy my conclusion. For if true, Christian faith devoid of transcendence portends fulfillment of Nietzsche’s infamous declaration, “God is dead”.
Ironically, Nietzsche believed that scientific developments and the increasing secularization of Europe had effectively ‘killed’ the Abrahamic God, who had served as the basis for meaning and value in the West for more than a thousand years. (Wikipedia)

Perhaps the Apostle John writing to today’s western churches would say: ” I have this against you, that are abandoning our transcendent GOD. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, you will lose your place in the Kingdom of God, unless you repent.”

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

The Body of Christ is beautiful; “when the church gets it right, she is beautiful. When the church gets it right—when we fulfill the intentions of our Lord Christ and His character is revealed through us—”

(John Stumbo – A Stained Beauty

The past week was an emotional roller coaster. The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas continues to weigh heavy on my heart. The Guidepost SBC report is gut wrenching. There may be some tendency to discount media reports as overstatements or secular critics gloating over the moral and ethical failures of the SBC. I an currently reading the entire report and have found no reason to mitigate any criticisms. The depth and breath of the SBC Executive Committee’s malfeasance defies understanding.

If there was any encouragement in the SBC report, it was the story how the investigation came about.

For three minutes last summer, a call to investigate how Southern Baptist leaders have dealt with sexual abuse was dead in the water.
Then a little-known denominational bylaw and a pastor from Indiana saved it.
“I just had to do it,” said Todd Benkert, pastor of Oak Creek Community Church in Mishawaka, Ind. “It was me or nobody.”
About 15 minutes into a morning business session at the Southern Baptist Convention’s June 2021 annual meeting in Nashville, Southern Baptist leaders announced that a motion to set up an independent sex abuse investigation was being tabled.
Because the motion dealt with the internal workings of an SBC entity — in this case, the denomination’s Nashville-based Executive Committee — denominational officials, relying on bylaw 26 of the SBC’s constitution, decided to refer the motion to that entity.
In other words, the Executive Committee would be put in charge of investigating itself.
Then-President J.D. Greear was ready to move on when Benkert stood up at a microphone with a motion of his own, based on another section of bylaw 26.
“I would like the opportunity to make a motion to overrule the Committee on Order of Business at the appropriate time,” he said.
Benkert’s motion was met with applause. Then a second and, then, almost all of the 15,000 local church delegates, known as messengers, raised their yellow voting cards in the air ­— far more than the two-thirds majority needed to overrule the committee.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/05/27/how-apocalyptic-southern-baptist-report-almost-didnt-happen/

Hopefully my previous posts raised your awareness. I recommend these two podcasts that speak powerfully to the SBC crisis and the problem of sexual abuse in the church. The SBC information is not “tweetable”, it requires intentional time and effort.

SBC’s response is yet to be determined and will shape the future of its 14,000 churches and 14 million members. Their response will have profound impact on the reputation of the Christian church for outsiders.

Christianity has traditionally been seen as a stabilizing, even moderating, influence on American life. In 1975, more than two-thirds of Americans expressed “a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the church,” according to Gallup, and as of 1985, “organized religion was the most revered institution” in American life. Today, Gallup reports, just 37 percent of Americans have confidence in the Church.

To be honest, I have come to understand that my concern about sexual abuse in the church is not shared by many. Not to say they don’t care about sexual abuse, but it is more like our concern for starving children in Africa, terrible but thank God we are blessed— where can I send money?

It is my hope the information shared in this post and previous posts will somehow penetrate the shield we have erected to protect our idealized view of church. Confronted with the truth that the local church is very fragile, the SBC crisis can be a catalyst for self-examination and response in our own context.

Despite the negative impact of the SBC crisis, there is an opportunity to demonstrate the beauty of the church in our response and raise confidence in the Church.
The next few posts will address what I believe that response should look like.

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

My previous post presented information on the presence and prevalence of sexual abuse in churches. It is well documented factual information is not very effective in countering opposing views. I am confident that most readers, like myself, have a positive bias for the church. Information contrary to any bias is most often rejected and perhaps that happened when you read the post. One intuitive defense when hearing factual negative information is : “That may be true, but I have never known of or witnessed anything like that in our church.”
In 1991 a controversy erupted over accusations of sexual abuse in fundamentalist churches reported in the Nashville Tennessean .

Predictably, the article created a firestorm of reactions. Serving as an elder and aware of the presence of sexual abuse in my own church, I was encouraged that someone was speaking out. My optimism was quickly extinguished when I read a guest editorial in “The Gospel Advocate” written by a prominent and respected evangelist in the Church of Christ. Rather than considering any possibility of misconduct he wrote:

Guy N Woods in his guest editorial, responding to: “The more conservative the church, the more more incest you have in families”.  wrote:
“I have preached, I think, in more places and for more congregations than any man living in the churches of Christ today. .. In no instance— not one— in all the meetings I have heard so much as a rumor of any active member of the church being accused of incest. The “family life minister’s” statements though distasteful and offensive, are so ludicrous and patently false that most thoughtful people on reading them will smile, shake their heads and dismiss the matter as unworthy of further consideration.” 

The Gospel Advocate – 1991

Numerous others echoed Wood’s sentiments. Participants cited in the article were excoriated, receiving personal and professional scorn. I was angry. What an idiot, did Woods think his casual interactions would reveal incest? How could an, otherwise, intelligent person be so blind? Time and experience have tempered me. I have come to better understand how Woods and others, including myself can be blind to the “obvious”.

Which brings me to “The Dancing Gorilla”. a famous study from 1975.

It will be helpful if you take the test HERE. Follow the instructions carefully.

…the Invisible Gorilla Test, This study, a revised version of earlier studies conducted by  Neisser and Becklen in 1975, asked subjects to watch a short video of two groups of people (wearing black and white T-shirts) passing a basketball around. The subjects are told either to count the passes made by one of the teams or to keep count of bounce passes vs. aerial passes. In different versions of the video a person walks through the scene carrying an umbrella (as discussed above) or wearing a full gorilla suit. After watching the video, the subjects are asked whether they noticed anything out of the ordinary taking place. In most groups, 50% of the subjects did not report seeing the gorilla (or the person with the umbrella). Failure to perceive the anomalies is attributed to failure to attend to it while engaged in the difficult task of counting passes of the ball. These results indicate that the relationship between what is in one’s visual field and perception is based much more on attention than was previously thought. –Wikipedia

Attention Blindness – where we can become so focused on an individual task that we become blinded to other important variables in our midst.

Bias, prejudice and other factors can mask the presence of sexual abuse, but I am suggesting that attention blindness is a significant reason for rejecting any suggestion of sexual abuse in the church. Watching the Invisible Gorilla video multiple times, I found that the gorilla was always invisible when I strictly adhered to instructions to count passes by the white shirted participants; otherwise the gorilla was always visible.

The opposite side of the attention blindness coin is inattention blindness.

I see the challenge of recognizing the presence and prevalence sexual abuse in the church as two-fold : 1) attention blindness and 2) inattention blindness.

Research on a phenomenon known as inattentional blindness suggests that unless we pay close attention, we can miss even the most conspicuous events.

This post primarily addresses inattention blindness, pointing out a reality to which attention needs to be drawn. My hope is that attention to the subject will produce conversations and concerns resulting in meaningful actions. Attention blindness is its own “stain” and will be the subject of subsequent posts.

In churches across this nation, children have said, “Someone touched me,” not even understanding what was done to them, and in response, law-abiding citizens of heaven have said, “This doesn’t happen in our church. It cannot be true because the accused person is so nice, and teaches Sunday school, and would never do anything like that.” Instead of facing the truth, they discredit and ignore. Why? Because acknowledging the truth will completely disrupt the system.
We often confuse the system of Christianity (Christendom) with Christ. But no so-called Christian system is truly God’s work unless it is full of truth and love. To tolerate sin, pretense, disease, crookedness, or deviation from the truth is to do something other than the work of God, no matter the words used to describe it.So how should we respond to systemic abuse? It begins with facing the truth. Consider what a healthy response to a physical symptom looks like. A person discovers a lump on their body; they can choose to ignore the lump or to take action to protect their physical system. When a response is driven by fear of what the lump might indicate and how disruptive or painful treatment might be, the person may hide the facts from themselves, denying the presence of the lump even though it could cost them their health or even their life. But if they face the truth and do what is necessary to address the symptoms, they can bring healing to their body.

Diane Langberg – Redeeming Power – Understanding Power and Abuse in the Church

STILL ON THE JOURNEY