By Douglas Lay (March 10, 2022) Part 2
Last week, I wrote an open letter to Christian leaders to address the problem of sexual abuse within the church. (See Post from March 3, 2022)
This evening, I am sharing three additional recommendations.
3. PREPARE FOR OPPOSITION:
We must be prepared for the onslaught of opposition from the religious community when we take serious Jesus’ words and actions towards victims.
It didn’t take much time before the religious leaders questioned and resisted Jesus healing victims of their physical and spiritual pain. For example, when Jesus offered the forgiveness of sins to the paralytic, the religious leaders questioned Jesus, accusing him of blasphemy. Jesus confronted the opposition by demonstrating Jesus’ authority to forgive sins by healing the paralytic. By meeting the physical need of a victim of paralysis, Jesus also demonstrated the power of the gospel to forgive that man’s sins.
When the religious community questions our motives for helping sexual abuse victims, their opposition not only can stop these victims from receiving healing for their physical and emotional pain, but also stop them from their spiritual recovery as well.
But why would Christian leaders today oppose sexual abuse victims and their advocates from speaking-out about the abuse?
For the same reasons the religious leaders opposed Jesus for speaking-out for the victims of physical and demonic suffering. For example:
1) On one occasion, Jesus encountered a demon-possessed man--naked, chained, isolated, and tormented. After Jesus confronted the demons, He cast them out into a nearby herd of pigs, driving them over a cliff to their death. The townspeople, however, filled with fear, cast Jesus out of the country because there was an enormous financial cost to healing the demon-possessed man. Likewise, people who minister to sexual and physical abuse victims by exposing the predators, may be, ironically, opposed by the church leadership because of the potential financial loss, manifested by civil lawsuits by victims and/or the loss of income due to a declining membership.
2). On another occasion when Jesus cast out a demon, the religious leaders attacked Jesus for casting out the demon by the power of the demon. They accused Jesus of allowing Satan to divide the church by healing and restoring a victim of demonic abuse by the power of Satan! How evil! Yet, if someone protects and supports abuse victims by publicly calling out the predator and the abuse within the church, the leaders may resist such public exposure because, in their minds, it is allowing Satan to divide the church. How ironic that an advocate, while supporting a victim from the diabolical evil of sexual abuse, is actually being accused of allowing Satan to divide the church. How evil!
3) Finally, as Jesus was focused on arriving in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, He encountered a blind beggar, crying out for mercy along the side of the road. Yet, the crowds tried to silence the blind man—they thought he was an inconvenience to Jesus. But Jesus stopped and commanded the man to be brought to him so He could heal him. Likewise, church leadership may hinder abuse victims from receiving help by silencing them and their advocates because the leaders think that sexual abuse victims are seen as an inconvenience as the leaders are on their way to "celebrate the Passover"!
4. CONFRONT THE OPPOSITION:
We must be prepared to confront Christian leadership's opposition to ministering to victims with the truth of Jesus’ words of warning.
Jesus spent nearly half of his ministry confronting opposition to his ministry, including direct and public dialogue with the reigning religious hierarchy, the Pharisees. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus placed six woes upon these oppressive leaders. The religious hierarchy
focused on the outside while ignoring the inside;
focused on the small things while denying the important ones;
focused on the public applause but engaged in private sins;
focused on the victimization of the victims but failed to comfort and support them;
focused on the protection of victims in the future but disregarded victims in the past; and
focused on the pursuit of knowing the truth but failed to lead people to the truth.
Woe to them and woe to any Christian leader who is engaged in sexual abuse and/or is guilty of covering-up sexual abuse!
We must publicly confront their hardened hearts. We must beware of their hypocrisy; their cover-ups will be revealed (Luke 12:1-3). We must not fear the leaders’ threats, but rather fear God who has the authority to cast people into hell (Luke 12:4-7). We must acknowledge Jesus and his heart and practice for protecting the victims, regardless of how church leaders attempt to undercut the truth (Luke 12:8-12).
5. WEEP OVER THE COMING JUDGMENT:
We must identify with Jesus’ gut-wrenching sorrow of God’s judgement upon the religious leaders’ misuse of their position towards sexual abuse victims.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem--over the deceit, evil, and hypocrisy of the religious leaders, blinded to His liberating power for the oppressed, the weak, the poor, the abused, and the outcast.
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:41-44 ESV).
As Christian leaders, we must be broken with profound sadness when Christian leaders commit sexual abuse and when they hide, ignore, and cover-up that sexual abuse. We are to hold fast to God’s justice that will come upon any church leadership for ignoring the “least of these.”
Instead of being ashamed of our professions, may we redeem our calling with the words from the Rock and Foundation of the church:
So I exhort the elders among you; as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed:
shepherd the flock of God that is among you,
exercising oversight,
not under compulsion,
but willingly, as God would have you;
not for shameful gain,
but eagerly;
not domineering over those in your charge,
but being examples to the flock.
And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. (I Peter 5:1-4, ESV)
Comments