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“Trinity Baptist was among 10 churches named by Greear in a Feb. 18 report on sexual abuse to the SBC Executive Committee.” - BPNews

Discussion

Sat, 03/09/19

This one is helpful for understanding some of the reasons churches/church leaders don’t deal properly with these cases…

Brown also told BP following Greear’s report the church’s minister of music allegedly confessed in 2013 or 2014 he had molested a “young teen” decades earlier and had repented. In response, Brown “fired him right there on the spot.” The man continued to attend the church, Brown said, though he was never allowed to be alone with children. At church leaders’ request, the church reinstated the man as minister of music, Brown said, adding the church felt the man was gifted for ministry.

It turned out that, because they didn’t report to police (apparently) and there was no investigation, there were additional victims the church didn’t know about.

So you have a combination here of…

  • Confusing disciplinary duties and legal/justice obligations
  • Naiveté​​ about professions of repentance and the possibility of additional victims
  • Confusion about when and how to forgive repentant church members (in part, forgiveness does not necessarily mean you get to do what you used to do… or necessarily even be there at all)
  • Confusion about what giftedness is supposed to imply in terms of qualification for ministry. (Tendency to rationalize failures on the grounds that someone is gifted, and, presumably, will be a greater loss to the ministry.)

As these churches clean house, I think there will be additional insight into what sort of thinking lead to their errors… and so, with that, exposure of where teaching is needed (or as we say in business, “training gaps.”)

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.