Sex abuse

[NOTE: After reading this post, Mary Lee was confused about whether or not I thought Marie Collins's resignation was justified or not? I have no idea, and that's my point in writing this post. Concerning sexual abuse and its coverup, the truth is harder to come by than we think or wish—and certainly harder to come by than those fomenting witch hunts would have us believe. Thus my recommendation of hard investigatory work and careful procedure.]

There's a witches brew of websites stirring steaming cauldrons of rebellion and mockery against male church officers faithful to Scripture. On these sites, no theme is more popular than sexual abuse committed by men—unless it is the coverup of male sexual abuse by male church officers. But note: you will never read about the sexual abuse committed by women on these sites. The women who write and comment are uninterested in any abuse that fails to strengthen their narrative of male oppression, so sexual abuse committed by sisters and mothers never shows up. And this despite female sexual abuse's steep growth curve.

Before we get to the point of this post, let me make it clear that nothing has consumed more time and tears among our pastors, elders, and Titus 2 older women at Clearnote Church, Bloomington than the sexual abuse of children and young people. We've done this terribly sad and difficult work for many years now, both in our own congregation and as advisers and helpers to other congregations around the country. We've worked with congregations from the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast... 

When Gospel Coalition puffed the LivingOut.org two-minute video by Anglican priest Sam Allberry, did you think it hit the sweet spot culturally and Biblically?

Sorry to disappoint, but no. Though parts of it were true, Pastor Allberry's testimony was carefully wrong at several key points—but in such a highly nuanced way that it's little wonder many people missed it. Pastor Allberry was wrong in the kind of way that listeners had to be highly educated to miss.

This sort of sound-bite plea of the pain of victimhood combined with sophisticated half-truths is what LivingOut.org specializes in, and there's a reason all men speak well of them.

Pointing out these errors Gospel Coalition keeps promoting is the subject of the book Juergen Von Hagen and I are close to finishing, now. We spent the past week...

Harry Schaumburg and Brian Bunn invited a group of pastors and elders up to Port Washington, Wisconsin, this past week. Harry is the author of two classic books written to help Christians on the road of repentance for sexual sin. The books titled False Intimacy and Undefiled are an extension of the one-week Biblical intensive counselling program Harry provides...

Here's the audio from our 2016 Shepherds Conference, "The Enemy Within: A Conference on Sexual Abuse in the Church." I'd particularly recommend "Recognizing Sexual Abuse" and "Shepherding the Sexually Abused."

Please let us know any criticisms or suggestions you have for us. We'll be doing a similar conference next year on the church's ministry to those suffering the gay/lesbian/transexual/BruceJenner/bisexual temptations. Here's the conference title and dates:

Not Ashamed: Gospel ministry in a post-Obergefell world

February, 15-17, 2017

Here then are the audio files for this year's conference on the sexual abuse of the church's children...

Conference information.

Conference registration.

How many souls are suffering incest, child molestation, and other forms of sexual violence in your own family and church without you realizing it or helping them?

In our culture of sexual wickedness, we are missing opportunities to show the love of Jesus Christ to the least of these burdened with shame, tormented by fear, and distrustful of authority. When they suffered, no one in their church knew the signs of incest. No one heard their cries for help. No one protected them.

Your church has men and women, boys and girls who are suffering because of present and past incest and child abuse.

Do you know who they are? Do you know...

Over the years, I've often repeated a truism I'd heard as a younger man concerning the sins typical of men during our youth, middle, and old age: we begin with sex, then move on to money; but we end with pride. The past few years this has come home to me with great intensity as I've watched men I respect suffer because of their pride. They have lost others’ respect for them. Their church or religious organization has imploded. Their leadership has become grossly attenuated. Their families have privately suffered severe conflict.

I’ve talked with my wife and closest pastor friends about this quite a few times the past couple of months and we have come to wonder whether we have not gotten things wrong with respect to what God hates? We think He hates rebellion and antinomianism—which He does, of course. His Word tells us that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

But then this...

Teachers, doctors, law enforcement officers, pastors, child protective service workers, deacons, judges, and lawyers can't escape the ravages of sin that others push the garage door close button to keep at bay. Take child abuse, for instance; we see it in the eyes before the mouth ever speaks. We choose to ignore it or to ask the hard questions depending on whether or not we fear God. That's pastors, deacons, and teachers. The others have no choice. They're told the gruesome facts, whether they like it or not, and it's their job to clean things up as best they can. Or can't.

This past year the following inquiry came across an e-mail list for attorneys... 

If Indiana University is the alma mater (lit. "nursing mother"), not just of her students, but also the town and county that surround her, it's time to bite the hand that feeds us.

Living in Sodom and Gomorrah can inure us to wickedness, so in the interest of waking God's people up...

Indiana University's latest president, Michael McRobbie (pictured), just announced a capital campaign on the occasion of IU's bicentennial. The announcement was made at a "celebration" held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. There a large gift was also announced to spur on the campaign. President McRobbie and his fellow administrators set their goal at $2.5 billion...

Let's dive further into the discussion of how to deal with God's people concerning sexual abuse, both the perpetrators and their victims, but also the weak, potential victims and potential predators. Why now?

Because it just so happens that this is a giant problem in the church today, whether reformed, evangelical, libertarian, homeschool, credo or paedo, family-integrated, or program-central. Of course, somebody might object that right now is not the best time because there's a war on. Or maybe they'll say that discussing it now is going to cause undue pain to a particular perp or victim. Consider this your trigger warning, if you're that sensitive, and stop reading now. 

Cross-fire and friendly fire are part of the terrain in war. We don't stop fighting the war out of fear of such things. And yes, we correct one another and redirect our friend's attention to bigger problems even while screaming orcs are trying to kill both of us. Remember when Aragorn yells at Legolas in the middle of the battle of Helm's Deep? Legolas doesn't respond with "Can't you see orcs are attacking me?" Both of them know full well that orcs are attacking everybody good on all sides. He assumes, rightly, that if his friend is yelling a warning at him...