Of late, sexual abuse in churches has been in the news.
Last year, a grand jury report here in Pennsylvania mentioned 301 priests, including one I knew personally but not well, in six Roman Catholic dioceses who were credibly accused of such dating back to the 1940s.
Last week, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio News-Express published an investigative story noting that 200 pastors and deacons in the Southern Baptist Convention had themselves participated in such.
And, of course, those are the ones that could be confirmed, the issue likely being far more widespread than mentioned.
It’s really easy to say that the problem is sexual deviancy (especially in the case of the priests, who are vowed to celibacy) or the position of power that they hold in their respective churches.
In taking a “Soul Care” class at my church, however — the class is based on a book of the same name written by a pastor in my denomination — I've come to realize that part of the problem is that due to their positions clergy often have no one holding them accountable for not just their actions but also the brokenness that they brought into the ministry in the first place.
Put another way, it can be an issue of pride — that they couldn’t admit that they too suffer from the disease of sin and are in constant need of the grace of God in order to maintain the positions to which they felt called. Thus, attempts at “damage control” often make things worse, as offenders end up going from church to church bringing their unaddressed baggage with them.
Yes, clergy ought to be held to a higher moral standard than the laity; that being said, clergy likely face more spiritual attacks due to their position. My pastor is not afraid to ask for prayer because he knows full well that he can’t carry out the tasks to which he’s been assigned — “run errands” for the Holy Spirit, as one of the church founders put it — without it. And I myself have occasionally laid hands on him.
It might be that if these folks had come clean long ago, their respective churches might not have a crisis.
Last year, a grand jury report here in Pennsylvania mentioned 301 priests, including one I knew personally but not well, in six Roman Catholic dioceses who were credibly accused of such dating back to the 1940s.
Last week, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio News-Express published an investigative story noting that 200 pastors and deacons in the Southern Baptist Convention had themselves participated in such.
And, of course, those are the ones that could be confirmed, the issue likely being far more widespread than mentioned.
It’s really easy to say that the problem is sexual deviancy (especially in the case of the priests, who are vowed to celibacy) or the position of power that they hold in their respective churches.
In taking a “Soul Care” class at my church, however — the class is based on a book of the same name written by a pastor in my denomination — I've come to realize that part of the problem is that due to their positions clergy often have no one holding them accountable for not just their actions but also the brokenness that they brought into the ministry in the first place.
Put another way, it can be an issue of pride — that they couldn’t admit that they too suffer from the disease of sin and are in constant need of the grace of God in order to maintain the positions to which they felt called. Thus, attempts at “damage control” often make things worse, as offenders end up going from church to church bringing their unaddressed baggage with them.
Yes, clergy ought to be held to a higher moral standard than the laity; that being said, clergy likely face more spiritual attacks due to their position. My pastor is not afraid to ask for prayer because he knows full well that he can’t carry out the tasks to which he’s been assigned — “run errands” for the Holy Spirit, as one of the church founders put it — without it. And I myself have occasionally laid hands on him.
It might be that if these folks had come clean long ago, their respective churches might not have a crisis.
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