The Awful Truth About Clergy and Abuse

I've read a few articles this week about sexual abuse by pastors, ministers and priests. To be honest some of them just really make me want to throw up, almost literally.

Rowland Croucher posted a on facebook a report in The Age about an allegation of sexual abuse brought against Fusion founder Mal Garvin. Mal has since issued a detailed rebuttal of this claim. It's a classic "he said, she said" situation where nobody can really know the truth. It's easy to make both allegations and denials.

Anne Jackson wrote in her blog about the ongoing emotional effects of clergy abuse years later.

Then there are the almost daily disclosures of yet another paedophile priest in the Catholic Church.

But it was Andrew Bolt who got me thinking. He quoted a statistic regarding the number of teachers in Queensland who were sacked for sexual offences. He said that if it were priests the media would go ballistic, but with teachers, it was largely not even reported. He opined that his seemed unfair.

I think that, even though they don't articulate this, the media are right to react severely against clergy who misbehave, particularly in sexual abuse issues.

The first reason is that we expect better of "men of the cloth" to use an old-fashioned term. If we who are pastors are constantly exhorting our congregations to love one another and to live lives of purity, gentleness and holiness then we had better live up to our own preaching. Nobody expects ministers to be perfect in every part of their lives, but we should know where the boundaries are and understand that there are certain no-go areas.

However there is a more fundamental reason why pastors need to be blameless in the area of sexual behaviour. When men and women speaks for God, they represent God to their people. Not only do their words carry authority but their actions also represent God. This is a very fearful place to be in.

When a pastor or priest abuses someone sexually, using them to play out their needs of lust or power or anger, it teaches the victim that they are valueless not just to one person but to God Himself. That is literally soul destroying.

I spend a lot of time in individual conversation, in preaching, in small groups persuading people that they are of infinite value to God. That is what the gospel is about. The world does enough to convince us that we don't matter, and it's hard to counter that sometimes.

When a pastor demonstrates that a person is dirty, defiled and worth nothing then he/she denies the gospel.

I think that the media are right to condemn priests and pastors who destroy the souls of people by their awful actions.

But I also think they had better make sure they get it right before spreading too many allegations. The other side of the coin is that untrue allegations can destroy the soul of the pastor.

And all pastors, indeed all christian leaders, should always act with care and discretion, never being in a closed room alone with a person of the opposite sex.