Tattered Fig Leaves - Christian Tribalism and Sexual Abuse

Our Tattered Fig Leaves

Christian Tribalism and Sexual Abuse

 

            There are whispers, even investigations, of patterns of sexual harassment and abuse.  There are whispers of sexual harassment at Christian universities that instead of being dealt with are covered up.  There are the stories of respected figures involved in patterns of sexual relationships, such that most of humanity would object to what is happening.  From most Evangelicals' perspective, these things would be wrong even if the relationships were consensual.  But many of the stories being told are not what we would consider consensual.  There are older trusted persons using "Christian counseling" to take advantage of a minor.  Or there may be patterns of harassment at a university where the institution would rather keep the problem secret rather than sully their institutional reputation by acknowledging a problem on campus.

            Christians in our era are divided among many groups, and often we doubt a different group's Christianity.  We are tribal, perhaps we have divided into warring clans.  We hear of another tribe or clan's problems and convince ourselves that the problem is a problem for that other tribe within Christendom.  If Catholic priests have been guilty of sexual molestation then it is because they are Catholics and don’t have good Evangelical doctrine.  If a Charismatic group has a problem, it is because they don’t have solid Reformed doctrine shaping their communities.  If a Reformed church has a problem it's because those Calvinists are always so legalistic.  But the truth is we imagine that if we have just the right doctrine, right tradition, right view of the Holy Spirit, then it makes us immune from the temptations that are common to mankind.  We could take any of my sentences and substitute different names and we'd all imagine that our group has an immunity from certain sins.

            Perhaps because we imagine that if we have the right doctrine certain sins won’t plague us we are set up for a worse problem in each of our tribes.  If we imagine that we are excluded from a certain sin, perhaps we will boast about our holiness, and the Gospel we preach will not just be about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but it will be here is the Gospel and you can see it wonderfully expressed in our particular group which is why you need to come to our particular church, Christian university, or participate in our Christian ministry.   We will assume that we are just a bit better than the rest of everybody else.  But what happens when despite all our advantages that sin we didn't think would ever be our sin shows its face in our midst?  We will be tempted I suspect to try to keep its presence quiet because in our prayers and praises we have humbly cried out in our temples, “Thank you Lord you have not made me like other men.”  But suddenly there is in our midst sins that make it seem like we are like other men.  At that point we will be tempted to keep it quiet for the sake of our institutional testimony.

            I am not suggesting that every sin needs to be broadcast.  We should desire during an occasion of sin that because love covers a multitude of sins that a quiet repentance might take place in which no one is necessarily covered with shame.  But that covering of sin is a far different situation than when a college or Christian ministry is accused of having a pattern of sexual harassment or abuse, that the institution or ministry seeks to cover the problem for the sake of institutional reputation.  When someone is being violated by patterns of sexual harassment or abuse, then the Christian institution should clearly desire to support the abused above maintaining its own reputation.  When accusations of abuse are brought forward the accusations should be given their due, should be investigated and reputation should be secondary to insisting upon a merciful justice that upholds those who have been violated.

            One of the institutions with a respected leader in some circles is Bill Gothard.  Here is a recent blog asking for a thorough investigation of Bill Gothard.  Gothard’s ministry, from my perspective, shows how institutions, with people seeing all sorts of abnormalities, will excuse the abnormal appearances based on a belief that our spirituality is above that of other people.  When an accusation is raised against the leader, the followers circle the wagon even when some things out of the ordinary become obvious after the fact.  We resist wanting to believe about the leader of our tribe or clan, what we might well see written all over the leadership of a clan or tribe foreign to our perspective.  People on Gothard’s staff knew he spent a lot of time with young girls in counseling, but I suspect that because they believed they had some of the best teaching on dealing with sin, they could not entertain the possibility that anything wrong was taking place behind the pattern of closed doors with teenage girls.  There was a circling of the wagons around their leader.  This is not a problem strictly religious.  The movie "Downfall" showed secretaries working closely with Adolph Hitler.  One from the city of Munich said she never saw herself guilty of anything done by Hitler until she saw a plaque honoring Sophie Scholl, who was born the same year as she.  She then realized that if she had asked questions, pondered over statements she heard, she would have seen what Sophie Scholl saw but she chose rather not to see.  According to one group intent on seeing Gothard’s practices curtailed there are now 34 women who have come forward against Gothard’s dealings with them.  It is in the least time for a thorough investigation.

            For the past couple of years Bob Jones University has had an ongoing investigation into a pattern of sexual harassment on the campus.  They asked an independent Christian organization to investigate the complaints and file a report.  The independent organization promised confidentiality until the report was completed at which time the findings would be made public.  As the investigation was moving into its final stages, Bob Jones University released or fired the investigators.  Since the investigation was not complete the independent organization will not be able to speak on their findings.  Bob Jones University has commented that it has made substantial changes in school policy and therefore the investigation in their eyes is no longer needed.  This article describes the abrupt dismissal of the investigators.

            Here are the lessons I think we should learn from these fiascoes.  First, let us realize that every temptation we undergo is common to humanity.  Our doctrine, our denominational structure, our gifts of the Holy Spirit, and our tradition do not exempt us from the temptations common to man.  I can recall how as one who was a naïve Evangelical I would read the Epistle of Ephesians and see that some of the sins mentioned among the Corinthians didn't seem to be mentioned among the Ephesians.  I imagined that meant that the Ephesians had it together so well that they didn’t have the problems the Corinthians had.  But in reality St. Paul prophesied to the leaders of the church of Ephesus as recorded in Acts 20:24-31 how some from within their church would lead many astray.  The church at Ephesus seems almost ideal in the epistle written to it, but not in Acts, and not in the Book of Revelation.  The Ephesian church, if it boasted at how much better it was than the Corinthian church, evidently had it all wrong.  The truth taught to us in the Bible and perhaps especially in the New Testament is that real temptations come upon the people of God and real sins plagued the church and this is true no matter how impressive our tradition, our doctrinal confessions, our view of the Holy Spirit, or anything else we believe gives us a special right in which to boast.

            So we need to take into account that we have no guarantees that what we have in our particular spiritual package makes us immune from sin.  There are no easy vaccines to give to God’s people wherein the plague of sin will no longer be able to reach us.  We seek instead a sensitivity for our nearness to sin, and a desire to see those violated by sin healed and dealt with faithfully, and a desire that when one has fallen into a sin that they would be dealt with in a way that may show them how to escape being overcome by that sin.  None of this is accomplished by hiding sin so as to maintain a ministry's reputation, but rather this is accomplished by acknowledging sin at whatever level necessary to encourage healing and restoration both for the victim and the offender when possible.

            We should learn to accept that among human beings there will be many diverse sins.  That does not make a church ministry illegitimate.  But when a church or ministry chooses to cover up how a person’s humanity has been violated under their watch because it doesn’t want its institutional reputation sullied, then that ministry is rapidly descending towards illegitimacy.  If we are to take these horrendous violations of humanity seriously then we must insist that our churches and ministries recognize that sin is a part of Christian community life on this side of eternity.  We must also make clear that hiding sin to maintain a façade of reputation among men is never a legitimate way of ministering on behalf of the people of God.  We must demand nothing less than a cultural shift within our churches and Christian ministries away from protecting institutional reputations, and towards encouraging the healing of human beings violated by sin as well as the restoration of sinners guilty of violating their brother or sister.  No institution involved in Christian ministry is any better than its failure to provide for its weakest brother or sister.