Will the Real Scandal Please Stand Up?

Re: 7 “Tragic” Myths about Sexual Abuse: JD Greear at ERLC Caring Well Conference

First, a few qualifications: I am not a Baptist. I was once, but whenever Baptists understand what I teach, they want no part of me, so I won’t pretend to be a part of them. However, I do have a decent understanding of Baptist politics. The problem with sexual abuse in churches in general, and among Baptist churches in particular, is greatly exacerbated by internal church and denominational politics.

Therefore, I see a serious problem with any solution: You cannot have a biblical answer to any church crisis if you ignore biblical church structure. The entire New Testament stands on the Old Testament tribal feudalism defined by God as the essential nature of human existence in a fallen world. The church should be tribal and feudal in organizational structure, a big family household. It should follow a priest and elder model of leadership, not a priestly-elder model, as is currently the rule in Western Christianity. Organizational matters must be separated from ceremonial matters. Further, it must be tribal-feudal polity; nothing else meets the requirements of the Bible.

Sexual abuse is endemic in the fallen world; the more the church looks and acts like the world, the more likely there will be sexual abuse in the church. It cannot be eradicated, but it can be handled well or poorly. It will not be handled well in Baptist churches, nor any other brand of mainstream churches, until the churches become less worldly. Having any other structure for the church is a choice to be more worldly.

In cases where the church body tends to follow the human instinct for tribal feudal government, it’s denounced as “corruption.” To the degree this is an accurate accusation, it’s because they tend to follow a Western feudal tribalism, versus the Ancient Near Eastern model of the Bible.

Here’s Greear’s list of myths:

1. The noise about church sexual abuse is just one more leftist attack on evangelical religion.
2. Church sexual abuse is mostly the product of religious ideology, instead of a matter of fallen nature.
3. Church sexual abuse should be handled internally, without involving secular authorities.
4. The accused should be given a greater benefit of the doubt.
5. Divorce is a greater sin than spousal abuse.
6. Abusers are generally easy to identify.
7. The problem can be ended with tweaking administrative policies.

We might agree with some, but not all, of these. There’s nothing special about this list; it does not demonstrate any particular genius on Greear’s part. Just about any thoughtful leader could come up with this list. However, for all his Bible verse quoting, Greear still doesn’t cling to the biblical model. The third item in particular is a flat rejection of the New Testament command to avoid going before secular judges for conflicts within the church. However, with churches aping the secular models of political structure, and seeking to make definitive associations between political agendas and good religion, and any number of other entanglements, it’s no surprise than any church leader would eventually come to this position.

Just so you’ll know: Given the context of this problem, I endorse the idea of making all cases of sexual abuse a criminal matter. Since the churches are so completely compromised by secular politics, there’s no reason to imagine God is going to protect the church by making things work as they should.

This brings us to the fourth item on Greear’s list. The madness of thinking church leaders are somehow too precious to risk, as if there is some major issue of sunk costs here, is the result of the false model of church organization. Old Testament priestly influence was one thing, but the danger of priestly political power was born of Israel’s departure from Moses and the birth of Talmudism (AKA Judaism). American churches in particular still have this subconscious image that confuses the mendicant priest with priests as part of the noble class. The confused mixture of those two images results in a very ugly perversion of how we should view church leadership. There’s a pretense of being a humble parson, but the real behavior and handling is more like aristocracy.

The sixth item on his list is directly related to this whole fallacy. Somehow our cynicism about humanity in general gets left outside the church doors. Once we get inside the church, all our expectations are shifted into another realm regarding human nature. It’s as if the building is supposed to be magical. That’s the real myth.

Again — I’m not picking on Greear, since almost anyone else in his position is likely to say the same kind of thing. Rather, I’m pointing out that the problem cannot be solved until American evangelicals ditch their Western model of church organization. The sexual abuse is one problem; it will never go away as long as humans are fleshly and fallen. The way churches handle it is a much bigger problem.