Thursday, August 16, 2007
Aiding and Abetting
MMI recently reported on criminal charges against pastors that failed to report child molestation in their congregation. Grace is the example of Christ, but grace does not always mean an absence of consequence, in fact, sometimes, grace demands consequence.
Is the miracle of the cross that the consequence of our sin was removed? NO! It is that our consequences were born by Christ instead of us. (I know, I know, some people don't but the whole "subsitutionary atonement" thing anymore, but here are the consequences of that theological viewpoint, in spades.) And that is all great for our eternal destination, but we still have a society to run and we cannot let people that victimize children run around with the opportunity to do it again. Nor do I believe that such is what God intends for us.
I have way too much personal experience with situations similar to this. Nothing with children this young, but teenagers and adults, I have seen it time and time again. And some of the offenders remain my friends, just so we are straight here.
I've shared this before on this blog. An aquaintance, now well into his retirement, but he was one the the best businessmen and more powerful politico's I have known, used to say "You fire them, then you help them." His point? When people screw up, as a leader you have to impress the consequences of their screw up on them, as a human, afterwards, you reach out to them and help them find their next job. Anything else and the offender doesn't ever learn to change and the organization suffers from a huge credibility problem. Need we look any farther that the scandals facing the LA Archdiocese to figure this out?
You see, the church has to extend grace not only to the offender, but to the offended. The actions of these pastors SPIT IN THE FACE of the offended, it added offense to offense, it added shame to injury.
So what is a churh to do? Yes turn them in, fire them - hard and publicly. Then send in your prison ministry teams - that's grace. When they are out of jail, help them find a job, just make sure it is one that minimizes their opportunity to do something like this again.
AND EMBRACE THE VICTIMS! Surround them with the love of Christ, hold them up, get them the medical and psychological help they are going to need, maybe for the rest of their lives.
These pastors have besmirched the name of Christ as much as the molestor, maybe even more. They have misrepresented grace and they have made victim of the victimizer and discarded the victim. Somehow, I do not believe that is Christ's example.
Related Tags: grace, consequence, molestation, organization, offense, offender
Is the miracle of the cross that the consequence of our sin was removed? NO! It is that our consequences were born by Christ instead of us. (I know, I know, some people don't but the whole "subsitutionary atonement" thing anymore, but here are the consequences of that theological viewpoint, in spades.) And that is all great for our eternal destination, but we still have a society to run and we cannot let people that victimize children run around with the opportunity to do it again. Nor do I believe that such is what God intends for us.
I have way too much personal experience with situations similar to this. Nothing with children this young, but teenagers and adults, I have seen it time and time again. And some of the offenders remain my friends, just so we are straight here.
I've shared this before on this blog. An aquaintance, now well into his retirement, but he was one the the best businessmen and more powerful politico's I have known, used to say "You fire them, then you help them." His point? When people screw up, as a leader you have to impress the consequences of their screw up on them, as a human, afterwards, you reach out to them and help them find their next job. Anything else and the offender doesn't ever learn to change and the organization suffers from a huge credibility problem. Need we look any farther that the scandals facing the LA Archdiocese to figure this out?
You see, the church has to extend grace not only to the offender, but to the offended. The actions of these pastors SPIT IN THE FACE of the offended, it added offense to offense, it added shame to injury.
So what is a churh to do? Yes turn them in, fire them - hard and publicly. Then send in your prison ministry teams - that's grace. When they are out of jail, help them find a job, just make sure it is one that minimizes their opportunity to do something like this again.
AND EMBRACE THE VICTIMS! Surround them with the love of Christ, hold them up, get them the medical and psychological help they are going to need, maybe for the rest of their lives.
These pastors have besmirched the name of Christ as much as the molestor, maybe even more. They have misrepresented grace and they have made victim of the victimizer and discarded the victim. Somehow, I do not believe that is Christ's example.
Related Tags: grace, consequence, molestation, organization, offense, offender
