Shame, Exile, and Opportunity

     I continue to be haunted and sobered by news of sexual immorality and abuse of power on the part of pastoral leaders.  You can scarcely take a breath before another horrible account reaches the news.  First, it was a collection of evangelical pastors, and a highly-visible one who capped off that list.  I wrote about him last time.  However, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was rocked, last week, by a Grand Jury report on 6 dioceses which, over the course of 70 years, miscarried their oversight of 300 priests who sexually abused 1,000 children.  The report was heavily redacted, and many others probably went unreported, so the likelihood is that the total number of victims may reach into the thousands.  Indeed, as of yesterday, more than 400 calls have been made to the clergy abuse hotline set up in the wake of the report.

     This, of course, comes hot on the heels of the June 20 removal from ministry of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.  Several credible accounts surfaced of him sexually abusing male seminaries under his teaching, and even a few minors.  On July 17, he was demoted from the office of Cardinal, and was ordered by the pope to a life of "prayer and penance in seclusion."  He is currently under a form of house arrest. It is especially ironic that Cardinal McCarrick had helped to lead a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002, who adopted a policy entitled "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" in response to an earlier scandal I'll mention shortly.

     These two scandals have done grievous injury to the hearts of Catholics in America, just as the recent Evangelical scandals have to Protestants.  To make matters worse, devout Catholics had considered themselves well along in healing from an earlier crisis, concerning the Archdiocese of Boston.  In early 2002, just a few months after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Boston Globe published an explosive report about approximately 70 priests who had sexually abused hundreds of children.  In the months that followed, further reports poured in, raising the number of predator priests to 249, and the abuse count to 1000.  But the true numbers are surely higher than that.

     The sheer amount of human suffering at the hands of so-called shepherds of God's flock is shattering to our consciences.  Worse still is how the reports were handled.  In the case of Evangelical abuse scandals like Willow Creek, the sheer power of celebrity pastors (a concept that may need to die) made them unaccountable and too big to fail.  Church boards initially chose to remain loyal to the pastor, making the victims feel unheard and ostracized.  In both the Boston and Pennsylvania scandals, church hierarchy dealt with documented cases of abuse, not by defrocking and turning priests over to law enforcement, but by giving them "counseling" and moving them on to other parishes, often without warning the new parishes of the priests' abuse histories. Many predator priests have gone on to perpetuate the cycle repeatedly. The Catholic Church requires that files on these proceedings be kept in the offices of the bishops, under tight seal.  That is why the Pennsylvania Attorney General is confident about his report; his evidence is largely taken from their own records.  Also preserved in black and white is the cover-up perpetrated by the bishops, including Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston (who was removed from office and "exiled" to a choice post at one of Rome's largest cathedrals), and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, formerly bishop of the Pittsburgh Diocese, but who is implicated over 140 times in the Grand Jury report.  His future as the head of the Washington Archdiocese rests on a knife's edge.

     To think that churches, claiming to speak in the name our Lord, would commit such atrocious deception and dereliction of their call is too shocking for words.  Not only that--this spiritual cancer seems to be everywhere at this time.  If it were just a few isolated tragedies, we could grieve, repent, make amends, and move on.  We don't seem to have that option now.  This sin has metastasized, and appears to be endemic throughout the system of today's church organizations.  I find myself in doubt that we can effectively address this by tending to individual manifestations of the disease--although we must continue to do that.  This has the marks of something systemic, and it seems that we are going to need work at the very heart of the Church in order to make real progress and recover our witness.

     The hopeful word is that this work is not solely ours, although we will certainly be called to repentance.  Ultimately, however, Scripture teaches us that the work is Christ's.  In Ephesians 5, husbands are commended to the example of Christ, who

loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (vv. 25-27)

     We must remember that the Church is not a man-made institution.  It was conceived in the mind of God, ransomed from sin and death by the shed blood of Jesus, and bound together by the indwelling Holy Spirit we all share.  At the end of days, Jesus will unite Himself to a Church that has been purified of all the sorts of corruption we have seen everywhere.  It is His own power that He will bring to bear, purifying us of all our sin.  Paul lists the sorts of corruption that is on Christ's cleaning list in verses 3-5: sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, coarse joking, foolish talk, impurity, and idolatry.  Though that's just a partial list of sins, I think we can agree that the Lord has His work cut out for Him.  Those sins are rampant in the church today.  God never undertakes a work He doesn't finish, so we can bank on it, He will purify the church.  Our job is to be humble and repentant, submitting to the Holy Spirit as He sanctifies us.

     That is not to say, however, that Christ's work sanctifying the Church will always be easy and comfortable.  When God's people fall short of His call, He does not hesitate to humble and exile them.  He has an eternal view of things, so He is not scared to let His people be shamed in the eyes of the world.  He did so, repeatedly, when Israel persisted in her rebellion and apostasy.  They were destroyed by Assyria in the north, exiled to Babylon in the south, and ultimately conquered, driven out, and scattered across the earth by the Roman Empire.  As final as that seemed, after two millennia we now see a re-gathering and re-constituting of Israel in their homeland.  It has taken a long time for the Lord to work on purifying the hearts of Israel, and who knows how long it will yet be until He calls His work finished.

     The Church of Jesus Christ can expect no less, because we worship the same God, who never changes.  Indeed, Peter writes this in 1 Peter 4:17 -- "For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?"  We know that the Lord intends to reconcile all things to Himself (Col. 1:19-20), and He intends to use His Church in the ministry of reconciliation.  Before He can use us, however, He must purge the rebellion from our hearts.  Thus, as part of His work of judging and redeeming the world (those who will repent and have faith in Christ), He will first turn His loving, cleansing judgment on us.  We should perhaps not be surprised that we are in this season of exposing our corruption, letting us face the shame of the world, and finally purifying our hearts.  He needs us fully consecrated and submitted to His work in the world.

     I  do not like the negative attention that the American church is getting these days.  I think it is just, but no sane Christian would want to be exposed to the type of shame we've received.  It grieves my heart that so many seekers and believers have been spiritually abused. They have been presented with a sick, blasphemous portrayal of God, by many who have claimed to represent Him.  Several of the victims have explained why they let this abuse go on for any time; they have said, "It was like saying no to God--how could I do that?" You and I know that we are not God, but we can't escape reality: for many people, their picture of God's nature and will is mediated through us, His servants.  If they are told they must accept what has been done to them out of obedience to God--which has happened--they will often conclude that God is a monster and turn their backs on Him forever.  Oh, the dreadful accountability that many will face at Great White Throne of God!  As Jesus said, it would be better if they had never been born.  When we attempt to share the Good News about Jesus, we must accept the fact that many will distrust us.  The Gospel has been so besmirched by wolves in sheep's clothing that it will take much work to demonstrate its true nature to them.

     Once again, even that work is not completely ours; it is the Holy Spirit who will draw, convict, and bring to faith those who will turn to Him.  But more than ever, we must now dedicate ourselves fully to the mission Christ has given us--to representing Him faithfully.  Half-heartedness and double-mindedness will only get us more of what we've had, and heap dishonor on the name of our Lord.  We must further go about our witness, not with a triumphal chip on our shoulders, but with deep humility and transparency.  Many church organizations have covered up the guilt of pastors because they were afraid.  They feared that the scandals would make them vulnerable, and threaten the good works they were trying to accomplish.  As we can all see, they proved themselves to be their own worst enemies.  By adding sin to cover sin, they wrought far worse destruction on themselves than if they had humbly acknowledged each failure, opened themselves to public scrutiny, and committed themselves to represent Christ in a more faithful way.

     It is time for authenticity from the church, even when it hurts.  I don't think the public will be fooled by any more shell games.  The more desperately we scramble to prop up the facade of our superior moral fiber, the faster we will lose them.  Already, many people you meet will hear you are a Christian, roll their eyes and shut you off.  The answer to that is not more of the same approach.  I think it is time for us to humbly tell our friends and co-workers that we are followers of Jesus, but that we are far from perfect in this journey of patterning ourselves after Him.  We should tell them that so many people, calling themselves Christians, have veered far away from the heart of Jesus' ministry and teachings, that this grieves and shames us terribly, but that we are on a quest to rediscover the core of who Jesus is and who He is forming us to be. 

     What would happen if we invite them to watch our lives, ask us questions, and even challenge us when they perceive that we have strayed from the values to which we've told them we're aspiring? When we do fail to imitate Jesus faithfully, what if we owned up to it, instead of obscuring it in a smokescreen of false piety? If we thanked them for pointing out the inconsistency, and asked them to give us feedback as we worked to reflect Christ more accurately in that area, I think it would generate respect from the people watching us.  Perhaps it would endear them to us, and even make them think about joining us on our journey, if we would live such open, honest, and welcoming lives.

     We all fear shame and exile, and that's a perfectly sane impulse.  But in some sense, it's already coming upon us, as the American church falls into greater disrepute and governments turn toward measures that crack down on churches in ways that feel increasingly discriminatory.  That's the situation; we need to figure out what to do with it.  Consider the example set by prominent spiritual leaders of Israel during times of exile.  Their shame was deserved; they didn't dispute that.  Think, however, of the humble posture of men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, Abednego, Ezra, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, and others.  They did not chafe against the authorities under which God had placed them.  Instead, they lived exemplary lives of hard work, respect, consistency in their values, honesty and guilelessness.  In short, they were so transparent and winsome that they won the respect of rulers like Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes.  Ultimately, their integrity and God's grace won for Israel the right to return home.  It even worked a change in the land of their exile, as brutal regimes like Nebuchadnezzar's gave way to the more humane rule of men like Cyrus and Darius.  We do not wish for shame, or exile, nor should we.  But neither should we despair when they come upon us, for if they happen, they will be used in the will of Christ, to sanctify His Church for her eternal union with Him.  Times like these can strip away our destructive, false loyalties, fit us for heaven, and make us far more effective witnesses for Christ than we've been before.  There are new opportunities for witness in times of exile.  Instead of fearing them, we should use them.