Must Pastors Report Abuse? Some States Aren’t Clear, But the Bible Is

I won’t have the same perspective as a pediatrician, but where pastors and church members have evidence consistent with physical or sexual abuse, I do have some reasons that churches ought to bring in governing authorities:

• First, there are often criminal and civil penalties for failing to do so. Even in places where reporting isn’t mandated, failure to report can generate a civil lawsuit.
• Second, the police and social services have the ability to take physical evidence that we don’t have. I can’t collect or process DNA properly. Can you?
• Third, the police and social services have a good way of sorting out real claims vs. nonsense claims—a nonsense detector as it were.
• Fourth,government authorities have a pocketbook that is incredibly deep, resources that we don’t have.
• Fifth, if the police or social services are notified, but don’t take action, they will tend to take the blame. (e.g. FBI not doing anything with Nassar case)
• Sixth, if your church is sued, doing this looks really good to juries, and reduces or eliminates adverse judgments.
• Seventh, the government has the power to compel evidence to be provided and testimony to be made—we do not.
• Eighth, it’s the government’s job (Romans 13, Genesis 9) to punish these kinds of sins.
• Ninth, when something enters the civil or criminal courts, a bunch of legal protections for both sides kick in—the right to discovery of evidence, the right to counsel, etc..

No doubt that civil and criminal proceedings are tremendously expensive and traumatic, but at the same time, it’s a whole lot better for both sides than the alternatives. To draw a picture, do we want the cycles of revenge we see in societies without functional courts—do we want this kind of thing to be hashed out by brute force?