Albert Mohler and Church Leaders’ Response to Sex Abuse in Christian Churches
I ran across a blog post that made me shout, “YES!” Blog author, Laura Lowe at Connections and Conundrums, has graciously has allowed me to cross post it here. Thank you, Laura, for speaking out on such an important topic! ~Julie Anne
Dr. Mohler, Churches DID Know
Sometimes things simmer just under my surface for a while until they erupt and I can’t ignore them anymore. I grew up in the Baptist church (SBC) even though I left that church about two decades ago. My parents are still Baptist, as are many of my friends. I still care about issues within the Baptist church, so when I hear a highly-respected leader within the SBC make a statement that is absolutely false and hurts victims who are still healing from past abuse within churches, my heart breaks, and then I realize that I’m very, very angry.
Dr. Albert Mohler is president of the flagship Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Recently, Dr. Mohler participated in a panel discussion at the 2014 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. He has been criticized for supporting the embattled former head of Sovereign Grace Ministries, C.J. Mahaney, under whose leadership at least one pastor admittedly failed to report sexual abuse committed by a fellow pastor. In the panel discussion, Dr. Mohler told pastors to call 911 at the first knowledge of any sexual abuse. Good advice, but he should have stopped while he was ahead.
You can watch Mohler’s comments on a video at this link. The comments on sexual abuse start at 55.50. Even though I find it inconceivable that anyone needs to instruct clergy to call 911 upon learning about child abuse of any kind, I was happy to hear Dr. Mohler make the point so strongly. But then, he kept talking, and I began to wonder what his real motivation was for making that strong statement:
“This [the requirement to call 911] is something that churches have had to learn,” Mohler continued. “You go back 30 years, 20 years, churches didn’t know what to do in this kind of situation. We’re in a different situation now. There’s no excuse right now for not knowing what you’re going to do before you have to do it. It is a gospel ministry stewardship imperative. Be ready to dial 911, and do so before you leave the room.” (Bold and italics are mine.)
Let’s put that in perspective. Dr. Mohler says that as recently as 1994, pastors didn’t know what to do if someone reported an instance of child sexual abuse to them.
I’m sorry, Dr. Mohler… exactly why are we in a different situation now? We knew right from wrong back in 1994 and 1984. The Bible had been in print for, oh, 528 years. Mandated reporting of child abuse by school teachers, health care providers, daycare workers, etc. was the law in all 50 states, and in most states, it was the law for clergy as well. I was a 22-year-old school teacher in 1987. Every teacher in the country was familiar with mandated reporting. Members of the clergy don’t live in some sort of bubble that protects them from the knowledge everyone else in their community possesses. I mean, good grief, how many of their wives are school teachers, nurses, and daycare providers?! No matter what a church’s or religious school’s internal policy might have been, those pastors knew that failure to report abuse was both illegal and immoral. I will allow them no excuse on the basis of some mythical ignorance, nor on the basis of an arrogant belief that their counsel would be more effective than seeing the perpetrator brought to rightful justice. It’s ridiculous to suggest otherwise. Anyone with a conscience knew. Put yourself in the shoes of a child who, 20 or 30 years ago, found him or herself in an abusive situation not knowing how to handle it. To suggest that the church leaders were in some kind of difficult situation that they didn’t know how to handle is more than merely insensitive; it perpetuates the abuse.
Dr. Mohler has certainly made strong statements about the reporting of sexual abuse, particularly after the conviction of Sandusky at Penn State. “The moral and legal responsibility of every Christian – and especially every Christian leader and minister – must be to report any suspicion of the abuse of a child to law enforcement.” Those are Mohler’s words. So, why did he make this caveat during the panel discussion about the ignorance of church leaders 20 or 30 years ago? Well, unlike his carefully-penned article about reporting abuse after the Sandusky situation, these comments were extemporaneous and as such, a very transparent window into his real state of mind. Fueled by a bit of applause, he seized the opportunity to spin the moment to his advantage.
And why would Dr. Mohler want to spin this issue? There are two reasons.
The first is Mohler’s unfortunate letter of support for C.J. Mahaney. From Wikipedia: “In late 2012, a lawsuit was brought against Sovereign Grace Ministries for allegedly not reporting sex abuse that allegedly occurred 20 to 30 years ago.” I see what you did there, Dr. Mohler. We can all see.
The second reason is during the first 18 years of Mohler’s tenure as president of Southern Seminary, the school’s policy was that sexual abuse be handled in-house – reported to a supervisor, not the police. Mohler made a big deal of changing it right after the Sandusky trial, saying, “Since we update our policies regularly in light of best practices, I had been fairly certain that our Seminary policy, published in our handbook and documents was adequate.” (Really?) “Upon review, we found that it was not.” (Huh! Who’d have thought?) “The very day we discovered this, we changed the policy.” So, we’re supposed to believe that he himself was ignorant of his legal and moral responsibility to report abuse prior to November of 2011, much less 20-30 years ago. Who knows when someone may come up and make a sexual abuse claim and Mohler finds himself involved in a cover-up scandal? I’ll bet he’s really sweating that possibility. No, best to claim that we were all just ignorant about such things until we recently saw the light, conveniently after Sandusky was convicted.
Here’s another extemporaneous quote from that panel session that I believe shines a light on Mohler’s biggest concern: “If you’re not doing that (calling 911), you’re not only putting those children at risk, you’re putting your entire ministry at risk.” Well, then. If the MINISTRY is at risk, we MUST call 911. I’m sorry, Dr. Mohler, but the right advice is that pastors call 911 completely for the sake of rescuing the child, no matter the cost to their ministry. Where are the heroes?
Some people will say that I’m not being fair to Dr. Mohler, but I’m not willing to cut him any slack for these extemporaneous words. He is in the business of communicating – communicating God’s truth, ministering with God’s love, and training students to do the same. He is responsible for every off-the-cuff word and the effect it has. If his words made me furious, and I wasn’t even a direct victim, imagine the effect on a child abused 30 years ago in a Baptist church.
In the late ’80s, the married pastor of my Baptist church was discovered making inappropriate propositions to young male adults in our community, young men in their early 20s. While this was not the same as child molestation, it was still inappropriate sexual conduct and an abuse of his position as a pastor, and at the very least, he was victimizing these young men by expecting them to guard his secret. Twenty-one may be the age of consent, but it’s still just a number. An insecure young man could easily have been unfairly influenced by an older, pastoral figure that he trusted. At least one of those young men blew his cover, but we will likely never know how many others he may have approached who didn’t then and never will speak up. I still consider this abuse, and the pain it can cause is huge. The pastor was already contracted to a new church and would have been moving soon. In our church, there was no cover-up. Our deacons did the right thing – they made the situation known to our congregation once it was discovered. We reported his actions to the church he was moving to. Had our church covered it up, and had he gone on to victimize someone at the next church, our failure to disclose that information would have been inexcusable, no matter the year.
God can raise up ministers from the very rocks. He doesn’t need Southern seminary, or SGM, or any individual church, but those victims need a hero. A ministry has no worth when it values its existence more than rescuing the “least of these.”
Dr. Mohler, when you say that 20 or 30 years ago, churches didn’t know what to do, you insult the intelligence of your fellow SBC members and indeed, your fellow Christians. You insult the victims of abuse within any church if their abuse happened during the “dark ages” 20 or more years ago when you deem people to have been too ignorant to know how to respond. How can you suggest that there was ever a learning curve about this? For clergy?!
Please, Dr. Mohler, use your considerable influence to tell the world that covering up abuse is not just inexcusable now; it was inexcusable 30 years ago or 100 years ago. No caveats. Please restore the faith so many are losing in organized religion. Be one of the heroes.
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Spiritual Sounding Board 
Excellent article and well written.
God can raise up ministers from the very rocks. He doesn’t need Southern seminary, or SGM, or any individual church, but those victims need a hero. A ministry has no worth when it values its existence more than rescuing the “least of these.”
That statement makes so much sense. Jesus made disciples out of fishermen with no education. Over the years I have heard more intelligent preachers that never went to college and/or seminary than those who did. Too much book learning and not enough God.
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“Response” as in “coming down (Gospelly, of course) on the side of the abuser?
With or without SCRIPTURE zip codes and long prayers?
(Especially if the abuser is a fellow Minister —
“These five Kings said one to another:
King unto King o’er the world is Brother…”)
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Well, well. The threat of legal jeopardy has cause the scales to fall from Mohler’s eyes when it comes to the question of reporting child sexual abuse. However, I wonder if the SBC has adopted a policy requiring the reporting of the abuse of women by their husbands? Do SBC pastors automatically call the police? With possible rare exceptions, I doubt it. They will likely resist reporting crimes against spouses until long after mandatory reporting requirements are put in place, should that ever occur. In the meantime there will be way too many “churches,” and not just SBC “churches” that will continue to relegate women to subordinate roles, roles that essentially condemn them to lifetimes of involuntary servitude.
Plus, am I understanding this correctly? Does Mohler only say call the cops in instances of child SEXUAL abuse? Good grief. Really, is it going too far to suggest that these people and their institutions have become major players in the Anti-Christ system?
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You tell ’em!!! It was 41 years ago in my own SBC church where this happened to me. The perp got away with it, no one reported it to authorities, and it was swept under the rug. Once I graduated high school, I left.
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I suspect Dr. Mohler is not alone among long time leaders who are beginning to realize their mishandling of abuse leaves them and their precious ministries very vulnerable. This sounds like the beginnings of a defense in case their past blows up: “Times were different back then … we didn’t know what to do … now we do – we even changed the policy manual … please forgive and let us keep our positions”.
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With the abuses in the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts, Penn State now in the open and the growing number of lawsuits against those in authority of these groups who knew, but did nothing, there is no longer any excuse. Mohler needs to act like a Christian and start defending people/victims. This behavior is not going to work anymore.
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“Times were different back then … we didn’t know what to do … now we do – we even changed the policy manual … please forgive and let us keep our positions”.
Their policy manual should have been the Bible. I don’t recall abuse of any kind being tolerated. There may not have been a lengthy trial, there would have been a stoning if found guilty. I am thinking that throughout all these years of coverup the phone book still had phone numbers to the police. We as Christians are instructed to follow the laws of the land. This is CYA on Dr. Mohler’s part.
Waitingfor the trumpet 2. (((((HUGS))))) are coming your way. The person that raped me was not in the church, he was my stepfather. It doesn’t matter who it is, it doesn’t make it feel better to know that justice wasn’t done. My stepfather died a few years ago. I doubt he likes his current home.
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Thanks, Brenda. No one should have to suffer abuse of any kind. NO ONE! There is No excuse for abuse. But I feel assured by God, Himself, that those who abused me will face His judgement.
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Yep, it was only when “ministries” were threatened they started to change their tune. In fact, I suspect it is more social media that has changed their tune and insurance companies demands. Of course Mohler only speaks “words” and the right “words” to the right venue. This is supposed to make us forget his promotion and protection of Mahaney all these years? His disparaging remarks about the SGM bloggers? Special perks for SGM at SBTS? I think not. What a fraud.
Mohler is disqualified. He should have been fired except the SBTS Trustees are enamoured with him. He can do no wrong and must be protected at all costs.
What saddens me is that a man like him has any influence at all with people.
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“Plus, am I understanding this correctly? Does Mohler only say call the cops in instances of child SEXUAL abuse? Good grief. Really, is it going too far to suggest that these people and their institutions have become major players in the Anti-Christ system?”
Gary, AFter protecting CJ Mahaney for a few years and the issue became very hot, groups like T4G and TGC started writing articles about how to implement child protection in the church. This included how to go about reporting child sexual abuse. It was so fake as to be obvious if you read the fine print. It was obvious they were trying to CYA by acting like they really cared about protecting children.
But always read the fine print carefully when it comes to these guys. Guess what they were teaching church workers? That they should tell the pastor/elder first and let him decide if it warranted calling the civil authorities. So basically they were teaching people the same thing that caused the problem in the first place. Let the guru decide whether it was sexual abuse or not.
People are so gullible with these guys. They actually fall for it. What a church worker needs to be told is to call the authorities right away. They can even stay anonymous doing so. Don’t even tell the pastor. He should be the last to know. Why? Because he is only concerned with image, income, etc. He is about growing church numbers and keeping negative swept under the rug. He is the last person to trust with the child’s welfare.
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Just wanted to weigh in and say let’s be careful about generalizing. Not every pastor, SBC or otherwise, is more concerned about his ministry than his flock. It’s devastating when you trust a pastor and discover that your trust was misplaced, but there are still good ones out there. I think the number one rule has to be “listen to your conscience.” Don’t give a pastor more authority in your life than the Bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit, and don’t trust any person who isnt family to have YOUR best interest at heart before their own. Think for yourself.
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Very true, Laura. There are some decent pastors out there. Thanks again for allowing me to post your article. 🙂
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I would go farther than that, Laura. I would say realize that the pastor/elders are in charge of the church NOT you. The word pastor is only mentioned in scripture one time. If they attempt to insert themselves into your life in a way that is improper, tell them to buzz off. If they have created a situation that results in legal liability, SUE them in a heartbeat. Civil litigation is going to be the only thing that turns this malfunctioning mess known as the local church around.
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Hi Laura, The question is what have SBC seminaries churned out by the thousands over the last 15 years? The result is not good for the SBC. Are there decent “servants” pastoring out there? Of course, they are a rare breed. And getting rarer by the day. Most are retiring.
They are pastor centric. They are taught to be. All roads lead to the “pastor” who has a “vision” for us. If you all know of the “rare breeds” out there, I would love to hear about each individual one.
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Change of topics: A reader asking me about this group: Gospel for Asia and its founder, KP Yohannon
Is anyone familiar with this organization or founder?
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http://educate-yourself.org/lte/kpyohannan30aug09.shtml
Scroll down for info
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And we can’t forget this one either: http://thewartburgwatch.com/2012/11/07/phillip-gunn-sbts-al-mohler-legal-rightmoral-right/
http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2011/12/dear-al.html
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@Julie Anne
Can’t find much, but found the following on Gospel for Asia:
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Gospel-for-Asia-RVW3792302.htm
http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Am-Christian/2064930
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Also: https://mennoknight.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/book-review-revolution-in-world-missions/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_for_Asia
Yohannan is apparently a hyper-charismatic who believes he receives direct revelations from God. I also know that his book Revolution in Missions contains a citation of C. Peter Wagner.
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It’s good to read in the gospels what to expect from these religious rulers, so that it doesn’t shock us. Ezekiel 34 is written for a reason.
If they’re not shamed when no one is looking, if they want to “handle it in-house” which is to say cover it up whenever they can, they’re not better just becuase they clean up their act a bit. The CYA is unchanged, but the environment has required a different way to play it. It’s what the proverb says, “Strike a scoffer and the simple will become shrewd.; reprove a man of understanding, and he will become wiser.”
There’s no gain in wisdom for these guys, just in shrewdness.
We need apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers – from God. Guys like this ain’t it. What did jesus say: “They’re blind leaders of the blind; leave them alone.”
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Reblogged this on Tùr Làidir.
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Doesn’t Al Mohler remember the very famous McMartin preschool trial that riveted the nation and attracted global coverage? The whole saga started in 84 and the trial ended in 90. The trial itself was a circus, but child sex abuse was the subject of many news headlines. It brought a lot of awareness.
Besides, as Christian leaders, should they be decades, if not centuries, ahead of the curve on this sort of stuff?
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I would say realize that the pastor/elders are in charge of the church NOT you.
Scott,
I do not only agree, I think that sentence refers to the entire church. Just because so and son doesn’t like what I’m doing or not doing it doesn’t matter. My only judge is the Lord Himself. Anyone else who judges me needs to get the RR tie out of their own eye before they take the toothpick out of mine. I will do what Christ has called me to do, not what they want.
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I only know of Gospel for Asia through literature I get from the mail. They have sent me a couple of books. One is “No Longer a Slum Dog”. They are collecting dust with some others from the to read list. I wasn’t able to find them on the charity searches to find out how they spend their donation dollars. They claim to have a 3 year missionary programs to train them in language to spread the gospel in Asia but also have several different programs for feeding the hungry etc. I only found one site that rates them and it is only on being a good organization it doesn’t spell out their administrative costs or a budget.
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Waiting for the trumpet 2,
Well it doesn’t sound good!!
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Another factor: Sometimes the child abusers are the wealthy donors in your church. They use their money to buy the pastor or leader’s silence. It’s going to take some backbone (and trust in God), to do the right thing and hand over abusers to the authorities, knowing that the reward for doing right comes from the Lord.
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Anon2,
Good point. I believe that is why the pastor of my church has no idea who gives how much. Only the treasurer knows for sure. This is well done. The pastor and elders cannot show favoritism for financial contributors if they don’t have that information. They are not tempted to treat people differently. The pastor has made mention of not looking down on those with less. He stated that we all know who has more, we can tell by the way you’re dressed on Sunday morning. I like that.
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Julie Anne,
If you think it appropriate, and if you don’t mind, could you tell us why you are asking about KP Yohannon? I’ve been sending his organization a small monthly contribution for about a decade. When I mentioned this to a pastor friend from India a few years ago, he frowned but didn’t say anything.
The author of the website WFTT links to comes across as maybe being something of a crusading conspiracy theorist (he’s opposed to modern medicine). However, what the former employee says about cult-like conditions in Nicholas’ link comes across as credible, and alarming. I recall that the Gospel For Asia representative that spoke at my Baptist church in the early 00’s was quite sour and dour. My attempt to engage him in polite conversation after the service went nowhere. Maybe what I attributed to personality was really a manifestation of this person’s having been brow beaten and made to be without joy or hope. Maybe he had a script from which he dared not risk straying.
I recall that, in one of his books, Yohannan went to great lengths to make the point how condescending and generally offensive it was when American Churches expected accountability for what was done with the contributions they made to Yohannan’s organization. I agree that gifts should generally be without strings, but I now see that it is a danger sign when large organizations keep their contributors in the dark on finances.
Yohannon’s church is described as having an episcopal form of government with Yohannon as the metropolitan, or head bishop (sorry, I don’t recall where I saw it other than it was on wikipedia.) I see this as affording all kinds of opportunity for the exercise of corrupted power and control, especially for the head of a large and wealthy organization that resists financial accountability. And finally, why don’t they want you corresponding with the individual ministers they tell you you are supporting? Is it really because they are busy? Or is it because they are being isolated?
More questions than answers. I don’t want to cross the line between cautious realism and rank cynicism, “but test everything; hold fast what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21 ESV)
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Gary W.
A reader was interested in getting involved in this ministry and wants to make sure there’s no funny business going on (my words) considering all the messiness in Christiandom.
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Hi, Lydia, I hear and sympathize with your feelings. I’m a bit unique in that I’ve been involved in about 17 different churches, either as a staff musician, an interim, or a member. Only two of those churches were Southern Baptist, but because I grew up in a baptist community and attended a baptist college, I can count 13 Baptist pastor friends. I can count about 30 pastor friends when I include Methodist, Presbyterian, episcopal, catholic, and non-denominational. That doesn’t even include the music ministers, youth pastors, etc. Believe me, I’ve seen every kind of behind-the-scenes political wrangling, and have been disillusioned enough at times to seriously consider leaving organized religion altogether. I have deep doubts about the worth of denominationalism. I firmly agree that many pastors, and too much of pastoral training (in every denomination) is concerned about maintaining the institution or the “ministry.” But, I don’t think that good pastors are all that rare. Of my 30 pastor friends, I can name about 4-5 that I think would be arrogant enough to fail to do the right thing in the case of abuse. That’s certainly 4-5 too many, but it’s not the majority. The remaining 25 of my pastor friends range along a continuum of “stellar examples of personal holiness and selflessness” to “about as human as I am” – in short, nobody I can throw stones at. Sadly only about 5-6 belong in the stellar category. As much as I am tempted to leave church, I stay because I need a community of faith, even when the pastor is as fallible as I am. My family belongs to the Methodist church, and we’re happy there even though we may sometimes have our differences on theological issues that are not the 1st tier ones.
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Laura, I thought I knew a few pastors/elders who would fall into the “stellar” category. Alas, it only takes some minor testing to reveal the true character of a man. Hopefully, your stellar category includes men who have had to personally sacrifice (reputation,money, whatever) for the good of the flock, not the “ministry” or “the reputation of the church”. I have yet to find such a pastor/elder. Antipas for sure. And I regard highly Billy Graham, Boz Tchividjian, and oddly, Wade Burleson (reformed and yet…not young or restless). I pray for the last two to continue in truth, and to continue to persuade with their example.
Laura, this was a great post. Thanks for sharing it.
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Jkpvarin, I agree with the names you mention, as well as Ed Stetzer who was a classmate of mine and is not afraid to speak out strongly on the abuse issue. I hope, too, that I am correct about those I deem to be stellar pastors. Only God knows, and of course, we are all growing.
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So does anyone else remember the McMartin preschool trial case from the 80’s? I was living in the LA area at the time, so there was a lot of coverage. But I thought it garnered national and global attention. Al Mohler sure should have been aware of this.
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Laura, Ed setzer deftly plays both sides. If he did not he would not last in his six figure position at Lifeway and while being paid to have so many failed church plants for the SBC.
Where was he on SGM and SBC relationship with Mahaney? He is very good at playing the court jester.
So yes he is spoken out on abuse generically. But he does not dare embarrass his bosses by being specific. Not exactly a man of integrity if you ask me
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Setzer and acts 29 and Driscoll? There is a lot of spiritual abuse blood on setzers hands
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@Lydia
Ed Stetzer has spoken about child sexual abuse and coverup in outside groups (like ABWE and the IFB), but not in the SBC. Christa Brown wrote a open letter to him about it to which he won’t respond:
http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/04/dear-ed-speak-up.html
http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2013/04/ps-to-ed.html
I tried to leave a comment on his old blog with a link to the letter but he deleted it instead of publishing it.
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I read the letter linked to above, and it is disappointing. I hope Ed will speak up more specifically when it is clearly called for.
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Not cool!
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Great column! And thank you, Nicholas, for trying to comment on Ed Stetzer’s old blog with a link to my letter, and for bringing it to light here that your comment was deleted.
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Lydia, I hope your message doesn’t get lost in the comments! You are correct, if you personally suspect or witness abuse, make the adult decision and call the authorities. It may or may not be a good idea to inform the pastor after you report it. And you are so correct, sometimes an anonymous call is safer and a much better option than telling a pastor to do it and it not happen. Thank you for this insight!!!
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@Christa
No problem! Thank you for all of the advocacy work you have done.
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“read the letter linked to above, and it is disappointing. I hope Ed will speak up more specifically when it is clearly called for.”
I am curious, I guess. But you don’t think SBTS’ involvement with SGM Mahaney after all the information came out about abuse/blackmail/coverup would have been something that would be “clearly called for”?
I see a lot of excuses made for Ed Setzer with the discerment folks. He is a nice guy but he is one that ignores the elephant in the room but pretends he is addressing the issue. I guess I find that even worse in a way. He wants to present himself as one concerned but does not deal with his own part in it. Especially Driscoll where he had much to do with Acts 29 including as a board member. He promoted Driscoll even after the porno divinations video and much else was out.
My point was he would lose his job if he defended the victims specificially for what Al Mohler and others in the SBC have done in protecting and promoting those who covered up so much evil. He is part of the problem and cover up.
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Brenda R said: “Their policy manual should have been the Bible”.
Amen, Brenda!! You are exactly right.
Mohler seems to have missed reading the part where Jesus said, of those who harm His little ones, “It were better if they had a millstone placed around their necks, and buried in the depths of the sea”.
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As do all those of his ilk, Mohler got the magic word “gospel” in there, whether or not it was appropriate: “It is a gospel ministry stewardship imperative.” I love the gospel – that’s why I hate to see it used as a kind of add-on to make a thought seem more legitimate. And I wonder why this “gospel imperative” wasn’t known about 20 years ago. I guess the meaning of gospel just keeps evolving.
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Excellent point, Jeff – that’s the same as adding “biblical” to a phrase to make it look/sound moe legit.
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I was sexually abused for the first ten years of my life by a southern Baptist Christian man, he never missed church and loved quoting the bible. I am from Louisiana, my whole family are Christians, I do not have a drip of respect for any of them. I grew up in Christian home school, I am an atheist now. Julie Anne, you are the only Christian that I have discovered who actually gives a damn about how brutal they are to us and will stand up to the vile thugs running Christianity. I have never had a woman for a hero, but you seem to be becoming one for me.
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Gone, I do give a damn and I am livid that people masquerading as Christians hurt you. I was at a meeting when I first read your comment and had to wipe away the tears. It is because of people like you that this blog exists. These kinds of atrocities in the “church” disgust me. I’m so sorry that the beginning of your life was robbed of innocence and normalcy and was tainted with evil perpetrated by “Christian” thugs. I think I would be an atheist today if it weren’t for God making Himself very real to me when I was at my lowest. You are always welcome here to post, Gone. Thank you sharing.
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Julie Anne and Jeff, I think the way in which words are used is so important. I love the Gospel, and the Scriptures, but when some people, like Mohler use it, the word or phrase is like a thought-stopping device used in a cult. To say to someone who disagrees with them that something is not “Biblical” or “Gospel-centered” becomes a means of stopping all arguments and all questions. The person being told to shut up thinks, wow, I don’t want to be opposed to the Gospel, or un-Biblical, and given the right amount of pressure, those words, which outside the spiritually abusive environment are good words, can be destructive.
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Andrea, I agree with you 100%.
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Gone,
I am so sorry for what has happened to you. I don’t know your story or what happened between you and your family, but can relate to resenting family that might have recognized there was a problem in your life and may not have. I was sexually abused by my stepfather, who made no profession of faith or step foot in a church in the over 50 years that I knew him. It doesn’t make it any easier to keep from resenting family for not seeing the girl with tight clenched lips about what was happening and always afraid, the church who didn’t recognize or want to or feeling that God hated me from the womb. I felt all of those things for a long time.
I hope you don’t mind if I pray for peace and healing for you. You matter!! and what happened to you is deplorable. There are many wolves calling themselves “Christians” who are far from it. There are others who give a damn and I am one of them. (((((((Hugs)))))))
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Yes, Andrea, exactly.
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Al Mohler was already on my “Naughty” list. He’s one of those worshippers of Eros, Hymen and Vesta rather than the LORD God. He has gone on record saying celibacy is impossible–therefore all Christian bachelors are deviants and predators.
A lot of self righteous Protestants have been laughing up their sleeves at the scandals in the Catholic Church. “Whad’dya expect all these UNMARRIED priests? They aren’t chaste and holy like us married guys.”
Seems like all you saintly family men can do nasty stuff too!
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