My last article Pedophiles in the Church a has drawn some attention. Partly because it is a controversial topic and partly because most evangelicals have a naive view of sexual abuse in the Church.
The Christian mission field is a “magnet” for sexual abusers, Boz Tchividjian, a Liberty University law professor who investigates abuse said Thursday (Sept. 26) to a room of journalists.
While comparing evangelicals to Catholics on abuse response, “I think we are worse,” he said at the Religion Newswriters Association conference, saying too many evangelicals had “sacrificed the souls” of young victims.
While we point our fingers at the Roman Catholic Church for their open sexual abuse scandals, we give a pass to the abuse scandals of the evangelical Protestant Churches. This happens mainly because the evangelical community is so individualized and privatized that sex scandals are often overlooked. The Roman Catholic tradition, due to its public hierarchical system, when it is found out, it is found out in a profoundly public way.
One individual who read my post summarized my position with these words:
“To exclude a blood-bought child of Christ from the body for past sins or present temptations is wicked.”
He assumed that I was excluding someone from the kingdom of God because of sin. But not all sin is created equal. The sacrificial system makes this point clear. This is almost an inexcusable error from that particular reader. Here is what I did say,
“We are dealing with a profoundly sick disease; a disease for which the Gospel has the answer, but the answer is not to re-incorporate these sex offenders into a community of faith where children play a large part.”
The grace of God can rescue and redeem these sinners, but the way to flesh out this redemption is not by incorporating this individual into the midst of corporate worship, but rather to realize that certain sins carry with them a certain level of gravitas that ought to force leaders in the Church to act in a way different than in other situations. I am not excluding him from the Church of Christ, I am simply excluding and protecting him from himself and others from the proven record of sex offenders.
As I mentioned, there are other ways to provide the type of help and renewal offered in the Gospel to repentant pedophiles. But, because of the extraordinary gravity of such sins, we as pastors, ought to provide extraordinary ways to minister to such individuals without putting into danger the flock of Christ.
- https://uribrito.com/pedophiles-church/ (back)
