Responding to Clergy Sexual Abuse situations:
“There but for the grace of God go I,” says prominent Christian leader.
We have a problem with church leaders over-identifying and supporting predators in the church.
People–myself included–do not like feeling powerless. Yet victims are often the powerless ones in these scenarios. So, it makes sense that people avoid identifying with them, because to identify with victims would mean sitting with them in feelings of powerlessness.
This reality is true for both faithful spouses and Clergy Sexual Abuse victims. No one delights in facing the reality of our vulnerability to predatory people. It is scary and dark.
Yet we need to get better at a church facing these dark realities and stop being naïve.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
-I Corinthians 13:11, NIV
I wish our pulpits were full of people willing to allow faithful spouses and Clergy Sexual Abuse survivors regain their voices and share their stories as they wish. We need to hear more and not less from these individuals. THEY ought to be prioritized, NOT their abusers!
We need to become better at identifying with the crushed ones as opposed to those doing the crushing.
Before speaking on such matters, ask yourself how you would feel if prominent leaders said the same thing while you were a victim or friend of a victim? Would you feel seen or loved if they first place the leaders go is to ensure people do not treat your abuser “too harshly” in this? These are the sort of questions we ought to ask.
