Why protect the institution of the Church instead of letting God protect the church?

arrepto veritate said:

I ask because it seems churches want to protect themselves. We have seen it with the Catholic church, the Southern Baptist Conventions is now trying to deal with it and now the Assembly of God Chi Alpha has been accused covering up sexual abuse sandals. Are they afraid, if so of what?

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Churches cover up sexual abuse for the same reasons all other organizations who are faced with it do. There was a time when sexual abuse by some member of an organization was swept under the rug in exchange for that person leaving the organization and never returning. If you read some of the release of documents from the Boy Scouts and their battle with it you find that's the way they dealt with it. Not only that, but when law enforcement got involved with it they oftentimes would do the same. Basically make the person swear to never have anything else to do with boys and they wouldn't be prosecuted. It was for the most part to spare all the parties the distasteful embarrassment of the whole thing.

If you remember the Occupy Wall Street movement of a few years ago a group of people staged a protest that soon became a tent city of sorts and rapidly degraded into a free for all of drugs or whatever. There were reports of sexual assaults in the midst of the sit-ins. Occupy Wall Street organizers responded to it by send their hall monitors out to tell people that in the event of a sexual assault "privacy of the victim is paramount" and that all such cases should be reported quietly to them to protect the privacy of the victim. It was simply a way of covering up the sexual assaults that were happening so they wouldn't be associated with it.

arrepto veritate said:

I ask because it seems churches want to protect themselves. We have seen it with the Catholic church, the Southern Baptist Conventions is now trying to deal with it and now the Assembly of God Chi Alpha has been accused covering up sexual abuse sandals. Are they afraid, if so of what?

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Power. I think it mostly comes down to the desire to control others and keep power. In particular, it's a desire to retain the power of the institution. It's not about the spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental health of those who are victims. Covering up abuse, which inevitably perpetuates it, is not a Christ-like approach, obviously.

arrepto veritate said:

I ask because it seems churches want to protect themselves. We have seen it with the Catholic church, the Southern Baptist Conventions is now trying to deal with it and now the Assembly of God Chi Alpha has been accused covering up sexual abuse sandals. Are they afraid, if so of what?

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No church should hide crimes but rather should expose/report/stop them

arrepto veritate said:

I ask because it seems churches want to protect themselves. We have seen it with the Catholic church, the Southern Baptist Conventions is now trying to deal with it and now the Assembly of God Chi Alpha has been accused covering up sexual abuse sandals. Are they afraid, if so of what?

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As someone who believes that part of the Church's mission is to be a body of penitential sinners, confessing our sin because we believe in the God of mercy and love who forgives us; I don't view covering up scandals is protecting the Church or "a church". It's a fundamental failure on the part of those who have been granted responsibility within the Church to live up to their calling. The Church does not excuse bad behavior, but rather preaches repentance and godly sorrow over sin; and those who engage in coverups to save their own skin, or who are more interested in power and the appearance of godliness rather than actual godliness will have to face Judgment when they stand before God on the Last Day.

Because the Church does not need people to "protect" her. She has God as her protector, Christ promised that not even the gates of Hades can prevail against her. The Church may experience many difficulties, internal and external. But the Church is promised she will endure. She does not depend on the power of princes or popes, but on the word of God. Christ is her Shepherd and Lord. She is called to abide in Him, be faithful to Him, and to bear Him before all nations.

The Church, obviously, being a congregation of sinners, will always have to deal with people at all levels within her institutions having failings and shortcomings. But that is why she is to always be reminded of her first love, which is Christ. Always to be committed to honesty over sin, being transparent, and bold in speaking of forgiveness. A place where, ultimately, abusers must answer spiritually through contrition, repentance, and confession--but also they need to own up to the temporal consequences of their actions (e.g. facing trial in a secular court of justice); and at the same time, to be a safe haven for the victims of abuse, by providing for the needs of the victim--not only spiritually through the comfort of God's mercy in the Gospel, but also the material needs of the victim--food, shelter, drink, clothing, medical care (both for the body and the mind).

That's how the Church should be. But tragically, the responsibilities which the Church has been afforded are at times themselves abused, and there is a lack of proper accountability. And that creates scandal, our Scriptures themselves warn against this problem, and condemn the allowance of such scandal through poor action or inaction. But, again, that is why there must always be, afresh, those speaking and preaching repentance, there must always be those who point back to the word, point back to Christ Himself.

-CryptoLutheran

arrepto veritate said:

I ask because it seems churches want to protect themselves. We have seen it with the Catholic church, the Southern Baptist Conventions is now trying to deal with it and now the Assembly of God Chi Alpha has been accused covering up sexual abuse sandals. Are they afraid, if so of what?

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Probably afraid of lawsuits and having to close down.

The institutions created by people will always crumble.

But Jesus will continue building His church, and nothing will stand against it.

arrepto veritate said:

ViaCrucis you make an excellent point about temporal consequences. I am reading a "A History of Penance" and reflecting back on my church days consequences was never spoken of. It seemed that once an apology and asking for forgiveness was made all should be ok. If the victim/offended was not back to "normal" then they were shamed and told they must forgive and forgiveness also included reconciliation. If someone hurts you that badly why should you trust them, why let them back in your life? Just because they said sorry please forgive me, that makes things good, no.
In cases of abuse consequences should be a forgone conclusion, then the abuser should want to work on themselves to change. If you read the studies, most abusers don't think there is a reason to change, and most don't.

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I've seen how some of the disciplinary teachings of Jesus and Paul have been abused by people in church leadership. My childhood church was an example of this. However, there is a reason why such disciplinary teaching exists for the Church, about how a person who commits a grievous action must face discipline, and even be cast out of the congregation if necessary. Because, for example, a sexual predator who doesn't have to face real consequences is likely not to actually come to a place of real repentance and contrition. That's why Paul says it may be even be necessary to hand such a person "over to Satan".

It's why preaching real repentance, and also exposing real darkness to the light is so important. Of course it hurts. But it is necessary. If a person is a sexual predator, or an abuser of power, they have to face real consequences, not only internally through the Church, but also through civil channels. Being a Christian does not excuse a person from having to deal with real consequences. In fact, those real consequences are probably going to be the means to actually bring a person to their knees. And reconciliation, healing, begins with repentance and contrition.

-CryptoLutheran