A Theft In Nashville (2)

 

As I’ve pondered the tragedy of sexual sin propagated by clergy and other religious leaders, here are some more thoughts:

 

Quite a few years ago, a ministry with which I was associated as its interim director, was domiciled on the campus of a large church. One day our female administrative assistant came to me with a complaint about an employee of the church and his uninvited behavior toward her, a behavior with sexual currents.

 

When I brought my colleague’s concerns to the church’s executive pastor, he was completely unprepared to respond to our concerns and my colleague’s fear of the future. It is not fruitful to provide anymore details, other than to say that the church’s lukewarm response, and its apparent lack of concern to protect my female colleague who felt threatened, exacerbated the situation.

 

Contrast this large and prominent church with business firms I have worked with, in which it was mandatory for all personnel to have annual training in preventing sexual harassment, and in which it was mandatory to report all instances of sexual harassment and of a hostile work environment. Furthermore, these firms had a protocol in place that was to be followed whenever incidents of sexual harassment or of discrimination were reported.

 

How can it be that the women who work in these firms are safer than many women who attend church, or otherwise work or attend school in “Christian” settings? Is some of it related to the fact that there are less legal protections in religious settings than in the business world? For example, while businesses cannot discriminate in hiring because of age, churches can stipulate that a pastoral candidate be in a certain age range. They might as well say, “Moses need not apply.” (Moses was 80 years old when God sent him back to Egypt to deliver Israel. Consider, we elect people to be our nation’s president who are well beyond the age at which many churches would consider as a pastor).

 

Ought not the standards of all religious groups be higher than the surrounding culture? Ought not organizations that profess Jesus Christ be the safest places on earth, rather than places which cover up sin?

 

“Christian” organizations are often some of the most closed and opaque organizations, seeing transparency as the enemy – and I suppose with good reason. What a contrast to the transparency of the New Jerusalem of Revelation chapters 21 and 22!