(Yesterday’s Wichita Eagle had yet another front page
article concerning sexual abuses among the priesthood right here in the State
of Kansas. It prompted me to re-post the
article below once again.)
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My middle school pastor had resigned a month
earlier, but had decided to let the world know he had since chosen an "alternative lifestyle." This wonderful young man who had such a
unique call on his life to minister to young people had left so many families
and youth devastated. I immediately
called him and asked him if it was true.
He confirmed and gave me assurances that he had never discussed his
decision with any of our teens. He had
never influenced them to believe anything different than what the Bible teaches. He was just tired of his internal battle and
had given up the fight. My heart breaks for him to this day.
Of course, my mind also raced to the possible damage this
could cause the church as this unusual news began to spread. But as I began to pray through my own broken
heart and concern for my former employee, the Lord spoke to me very
clearly. “You will meet this head on
with truth and love and I will walk you through it.”
Within 24 hours I had called a “family meeting” of any of
our church members who wanted to attend. Of course, I especially focused on
getting as many parents of teenagers to the meeting. Rumors had already started and the atmosphere
was tense as people filled our sanctuary.
I explained what I knew…how I found out…and exactly what my conversation
with the former youth pastor had been the day before. I answered several questions from concerned
parents and we closed the meeting with prayer.
As we were leaving, I felt weighed down by the burden of the
many confused and frustrated teens and parents who were in attendance. Our friend, our middle school pastor, our
confidant had seemingly betrayed everything he had been preaching for the past
2 years.
Then a parent came up to me a gave me a big hug. “Pastor,
you did the right thing. Thank you for
being honest and straightforward with us.
That means the world to us.” I
began to cry and the burden began to lift.
We are only as sick as our secrets.
This morning’s headline estimates that at least 1000
children were abused by priests in the Catholic Church over the past several
decades. That’s just in
Pennsylvania. Attorneys in Kansas are
working with victims to formulate lawsuits against the church for knowingly
covering up the same type of atrocities.
Attorneys General from at least 27 other states are currently
investigating similar stories. But it’s not just a Catholic church problem.
Our own headlines in Wichita recently detailed a local youth
pastor’s victimization of one of his own female youth group members over the
span of more than a year. He was
sentenced to 8 years behind bars. The local church who employed the youth
pastor for nearly 2 decades is now the focus of a civil lawsuit brought by the
parents of the victim. They seek hundreds
of thousands of dollars, claiming that church leadership knowingly ignored
warnings about this employee’s inappropriate behavior.
These kind of stories make our skin crawl and our hearts
ache. We weep for the victims of such
abuse. We don’t clearly know the ripple
effects of such crimes. Childhoods are
robbed. The ability to function in a
normal, healthy relationship as adults is brought into question. And so often…the victims become abusers
themselves. Trust of authority figures
is oft times shattered beyond repair.
The social, moral and spiritual foundations are cracked and weakened. The moral authority to preach the Gospel of
Jesus Christ erodes with every accusation that surfaces.
But shouldn’t we also be outraged by the cover up? The Vatican itself, even the Pope, is being
accused of complicity in knowingly ignoring and not removing perverted priests
in a timely manner. Often they simply
re-assigned the priests to different positions until the dust settled. Discipline not given. Protection of innocents withheld. Victims often accused.
It’s true. There is a millstone that is custom fit for the
neck of any adult who harms a child and causes them to stumble. If there were levels of judgment for sins,
these type would top of the list…at least in most people’s opinion.
Is there hope? Sure
there is. There’s hope for the victims
of such pain to find the help they need to recover and heal. There’s hope for a youth pastor, who now has
lost everything, to repent, seek forgiveness and find his path to recovery as
well.
Perhaps the greatest
hope is for a repentant church leadership to stand in their pulpits and tell
the truth, regardless of the price.
Tell the truth, confess their own sins of cover up and self-preservation
and seek the forgiveness of their congregants. Rather than hide, blame the
victims or make excuse for what really happened…they should come clean and
repent so healing can truly begin for all affected.
King David was guilty of great sins: an illicit affair with
another man’s wife and the subsequent cover up that led to having her husband
murdered. David thought he had gotten
away with it…until the prophet Nathan came to him with grim news. He called David on his failures. David
repented and the kingdom was restored to him.
Maybe we should pray
for spiritual fathers and modern day prophets who will not go quietly away when
faced with such sin. The ones who
will make it their business when some would tell them “it’s none of your
business.” Maybe God will use someone who can bring restoration to the Catholic
Church and to any church where leadership is tempted to hide and make excuses
for sin in ill-fated attempts to “save the ministry.” Let’s pray for accountability, transparency
and healing.
There is hope.
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