I’ve been a bit rattled lately by the revelations about Pastor Robert Morris and Gateway church. I didn’t name him in my other post because the church had not yet released a statement, he had not yet resigned, and the elders were still insisting this was just a 30 yr old youthful “moral indiscretion” with a “young lady.” It turns out she was actually a 12. yr old child. Also, it went on for several years.
I could really care less about things like extra marital affairs, scandalous tattoos, or past addictions. Those are the kinds of things the church often likes to “care” about. Child sexual abuse, not so much. I don’t have the time or the energy to type you a list of all the celebrity pastors who have resigned as of late because they used their position of authority to rape and abuse children.
Here’s the problem with that kind of skewed morality, that kind of moral ambiguity and confusion. What is the difference between a decked out drag queen doing preschool story hour at the public library and a freshly laundered pedophile pastor doing youth ministry?? Nothing but their clothing. In fact, that drag queen probably has more integrity because he’s not pretending. He’s also not called to represent the Lord’s word!
So what has had me a bit rattled right now is how so many Christians don’t want to judge. See, being able to judge is what creates safety, security, trust, and moral authority. Why does the church have so little moral authority right now? Well, in part because of our complete inability to simply call evil “evil” and good “good.”
I am especially irritated with Shawn Bolz at the moment who tweeted out, “Are you allowing yourselves to be swept up in the waves of negativity, gossip, and conspiracy? Are you nurturing suspicions and fostering divisions rather than seeking unity and understanding?”
You are darn right I am! The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:3, “Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? ” And of course in 1 Corinthians 5, we have “sexual immorality of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate…. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?”
Bolz is only one of many who have responded abysmally. Others have declared all these poor pastors are just victims of spiritual warfare. Sean Feucht responded by taking the time to call out…. Kamala Harris. This is how we as Christians behave AFTER a confession, after a victim statement, after a resignation, after the evidence is so glaringly obvious and apparent that not even an ostrich could bury their head in the sand far enough to avoid seeing it.
Safety is a bit more complex than providing physical safety for children in our care, although that’s a hugely important thing. Safety is for everyone. Safety is really just about being able to call evil “evil ” and good “good.” It’s about having a place to go, away from the moral ambiguity of the world where you are able to just rest for a moment in a bit of mutually shared objective reality.
I miss those days.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Recently I got in trouble with the headmaster.
In my classroom, right in front of me, like 2 feet away, two young ladies started going at it. Chick fight? Hardly.
These two young ladies were kissing and fondling each other like there was no tomorrow.
I got in trouble because I broke up the lady love fest by loudly saying, “Ladies! Ladies! No sex in the classroom!”
The headmaster, a priest, is a stickler for teachers not saying anything about sex in the classroom.
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Two feet away?? A rather “in-your-face” event. Sounds like a prank to get the proverbial “rise” out of you given your position and gender.
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Doug, “Innocent” out of control lesbian sexual appetite. It’s notable that the young men NEVER act that way toward the young ladies nor toward themselves.
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Well, I’ll not object to the obvious lesbian morality side to what they did, especially in your institution. I think you handled it well for their obvious ages. It’s not like you’re gonna whip out a crucifix and thrust it toward them as if they were vampires or something.
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I might also suggest, from my own simple religious affiliation… blasphemy is determined by the Almighty when the time comes. As Christians we try to save human souls wherever we can. I’ll admit, “save them from what?” defines the differences in ideologies.
My behaviorist side might suggest an individual sidebar with them separately to determine how “real” their actions were, their judgement process in their acting that way given their surroundings, and more about determining any stress from conflicting adolescent levels in their lives being played out in their actions. But… that’s all second guessing without context.
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Doug, You are ranting and raving like a lunatic. Snap out if it. The moral of my little story is how today, people, especially young people, are completely self absorbed and driving crazy by their appetites.
Oh well, Plato made a note of it 2400 years ago, regarding Athens, the world’s first democracy.
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You are an educator and that’s the limit of how you perceive young people??
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Doug, When was the last time you persuaded young people out of having sex?
I feel your pain.
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Were you the one complaining how your “boss” complained about the wording you used to contain those two girls?
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Doug, I complaint about a lot of things. But sex in the classroom is something I can do something about.
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I suppose sex is on your mind.. So be it.
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So? Sex is on everyone’s mind. Unless they are a Progressive eunuch like some many of you.
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I guess you put me in my place!
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Doug, I don’t complain. I am a man. You should try it some time.
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I should try being a man or I should try complaining? I guess we are done.
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The problem with religion is that it requires mankind.
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No. I don’t believe this is natural, biological, or behavior innate to mankind. It does nothing to create offspring, does not build community, does not strengthen the species, and if pedophiles are to be believed, it is often not even sexually satisfying. So the only purpose it serves is to make someone feel powerful through stealing a child’s mind, body, and soul. Therefore it is a dysfunction or a distortion, a perverting of what is good.
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All that has been happening the entire existence of mankind.
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Now, that’s not to suggest we accept it or condone it by any means.
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All well said. I go back to the days of Jim Bakker & Jimmy Swaggart and just shake my head. Then I pray. I have friends & have done interviews (both as an investigator & a reporter) with women, men, girls & boys who were sexually molested by priests, pastors, deacons, teachers, uncles, aunts, neighbors, cousins, friends, neighbors, strangers. I just took the information down, wrote the report or article. It was personally devastating & hard to cope in my 20s, (even dealt with ulcers) but in court I put on a factual & objective face. As time goes on, I struggle to remain calm. This news stuns me & i don’t quite understand why after all these years.
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Thank you for understanding. Much appreciated. Another definition of “revelation” is an unveiling, a jubilee even. It’s hard to perceive all this stuff now coming to light as a jubilee, a great blessing, a favorable judgment, but it actually is. Especially true if you put yourself in the shoes of some of these victims who have had to carry these burdens alone, often for decades.
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Avoiding judgement is useful for avoiding self-judgment?
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Bingo! Yes Jack, you nailed it. Indeed, avoiding judgment is useful for avoiding self judgement.
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These are the same people who are always complaining that our society is too weak to be judgemental and putting feelings and agendas before justice. Always bear in mind too, whenever we hear these scandals or crimes we’re only hearing about the one where the guilty party got caught.
I remember an old detective telling me about a case that he worked on when he was young where two little girls went missing. One of the neighbors organized a search party and his team found the girls dead. When they went back to the station, their old experienced chief (now a Dead White Male) heard the story and said that the leader of the search party was his main suspect; much to everyone’s surprise. They questioned the man and he confessed; since that State used to have a functioning legal system, he ended up in the gas chamber. It turned out too that he was suspected of other crimes against children elsewhere.
The moral of that story is that whenever we hear these self-righteous virtue-signalers pointing the finger at everyone else, we should always question what they’re distracting us from. Harvey Weinstein was a good example from the other side: he made a fortune in Hollywood demonizing men as sexual neanderthals and then got caught being one himself.
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Oh, now there’s a creepy story. Very wise detective to pick up on that truth. Reminds me of the arsonist who was also a fireman…and an expert on arson. We people do tend to project our own issues onto others.
I think Jack really nailed it above when he said, “avoiding judgement is useful for avoiding self-judgment.” That’s what this elder board and this church congregation did for years. Morris himself just pointed fingers at others and created lots of diversions.
In a spiritual context, all this refusal to judge doesn’t make one full of grace, it actually reveals a complete lack of grace. People who fear the concept of judgment that much have never really encountered the fullness of grace. David in Psalm 139 opens with a great line, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
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i guess my question is… why didnt his church at the time get the police involved?
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Right?! That would have been a good idea. There was a deliberate cover up because they wanted to protect his ministry. There was a lot of money involved. Pretty sure Pastor Morris resigns with some 117 million or so just in his own personal funds.
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I wonder if they can charge the Church with criminal neglect after 35yrs? I’m sure there are mandatory reporting laws that were violated
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Yes, that’s a possibility, but I doubt there will be any criminal/legal repercussions. There’s a statute of limitations and other obstacles. There could be civil lawsuits but those don’t involve any criminal charges.
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Then there’s “Judge Not lest ye be judged” None of us is purely good, but I believe there are those that are purely evil. But there is a process. If evil raises its head, we
1. go to the person and confront him. (Well, if we know the person…we don’t just show up at someone’s door and accuse them of something and leave. That would be weird.)
2. go to the person and take some of his friends with him and confront him.
3. go to the church and have the church confront him
4. turn him over to the police.
The idea is to get the miscreant to repent and make restitution. The purpose is that the perpetrator is pulling away from God, and we want to reunite him with God.
If there is no judgment, there’s no reason to change. It’s not evil if you don’t get caught. Then if you DO get caught, shift the blame to a political figure or feign persecution or both.
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Seems to me that rather than trying to hang the ten commandments in classrooms, we might want to try hanging them in our churches.
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You get lots of feedback; I’ve made posts on aberrant behavior since 2011 with little if any responses….
Must I quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer again? Parting company with the Sermon on the Mount; pedophiles deserve horsewhipping, Castration, -and I don’t mean the chemical type- a minimum of ten yrs in a high security penitentiary, or just simplify it and give ’em a dose of .357, .44, or .45. between the eyes.
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Engagement in the blogging world can be really challenging, especially since it’s not as popular as it once was. Today it’s mostly just word of mouth and engaging with other blogs. Feel free to leave any links you like, anytime.
That’s a very appropriate quote from Bonhoeffer and it really sums up the nature of the problem.
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It does disturb me that so many leap to the defence of the abuser in these instances (and to be fair to churches, this is hardly limited to Christianity, but seems to be an issue across various walks of life). Victim-blaming/shaming is never-ending.
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