Is "Keeping it Quiet" REALLY the best thing?!

I have been amazed at how many institutions--and individuals--seem to think that "keeping it quiet", i.e., not disclosing a wrong, is always the first and best thing to do. It is almost as if the "telling" is worse than the "doing"! This is especially perplexing when practiced by churches. The following are just a few examples from my own personal knowledge or widely reported in the public media:

The Los Angeles archdiocese of the Roman Catholic church recently continued that church's pathetic tradition by settling claims of over $660,000,000 from more than 500 persons who were sexually abused as children by priests. The same sorry tale has been repeated by several other archdioceses around the country. The offending priests were simply moved to a different parish and the major push was to keep everything quiet rather than deal constructively with this horrible and criminal behavior. Unfortunately, "keeping it quiet" is a common theme across many churches; not just the Catholic church.

A friend recently was relating a story of a youth minister who was "counseling" a vulnerable young girl from an unchurched family. When she became pregnant by him, she refused his request to have an abortion. The senior minister urged that all be kept quiet. The youth minister was sent off to seminary for more training and a fresh start--with no blemish on his record, of course. Not sure of the outcome for the young girl, but it was hushed up as quickly and quietly as possible. Keeping it quiet was the major concern!


Another friend told of a former roommate of his in college; a seemingly nice guy who went into mission work. After several transfers, he ended up at his hometown and was caught exposing himself to young girls there. Turns out he had a long history of deviant sexual behavior; thus all the transfers. Each time, rather than get the guy into treatment, and remove him from positions of power over children, it was all kept quiet and he was simply transferred and became someone else's problem.


A relative of ours learned that her church treasurer had absconded with the building funds they had been saving for several years. When she tried to discuss this with the elders, she instead hit a brick wall. No one wanted to talk about it. They definitely were not interested in bringing charges or holding the perpetrator accountable. They were hoping to keep the information from the church members! Keeping it quiet seemed to be very important; holding the church treasurer accountable was not an important consideration.


The list could go on and on, and I am sure each reader knows their own horror tales. Why is this so common in churches, of all places?! The problem is not limited to churches, of course. A prominent family in Auburn suddenly moved away, and some wondered why the sudden exit, but no one wanted to say. It turns out he had embezzled thousands of dollars, but no one wanted anyone to know. He was allowed to simply move away. No prosecution at all, of course. Let a person from a lower social strata take far less money and you can be sure they will serve many years in prison.


When I was serving as a faculty advisor to a service fraternity at Auburn University which provided care for AU's mascot golden eagle, we worked hard to raise funds to support the housing, care, transportation, etc. for the bird. Our treasurer embezzled a pretty large sum of money we had raised and held in savings. When the loss was detected, the great majority of members of the service fraternity were only concerned that he not be found out! He had apparently spent the money on frivolous things, and had no intention to repay the money. They saw it as simply a "write-off", but felt it was very important to keep it quiet. Not only should we not involve law enforcement, but we should work very hard to protect his good name. Why, this could damage his reputation and future life if it were found out! I tried to argue for a more responsible approach to the problem, at least having him feel some sense of remorse for his actions, but to no avail. I ended up resigning from my advisor role with them.


I don't pretend to know the full answer to why this behavior is so prevalent and accepted, but it is indeed very prevalent, largely accepted, and very perplexing. I think in part it is because we have lost a sense of responsibility for individual actions. We don't really believe we, or our friends, should be held accountable for our actions. Of course we think--and hope--we have taught our kids that actions have consequences. The Bible says " we will reap what we sow". They must wonder if this is really true, however, for those with "connections", "status", or whatever causes us to give a pass to so many. We like to think, and we say, "Justice is blind", but in fact that is far from the truth. Justice is largely determined by one's social status, bank account, "connections", etc. We think criminal acts are primarily committed by the lower economic and social class, and we gladly prosecute those folks when caught. However, let a friend or neighbor, or even a stranger who is "like" us, commit a wrong and very often our first impulse is to protect them. It just seems very harsh to actually hold them accountable for their actions.


I believe the results of this kind of thinking and behavior, if left unchecked, will be devastating to churches and society in general. "Keeping it quiet" is certainly tempting at times. I understand the dilemma elders and other church leaders face in dealing with problems in the church. People get upset and make rash statements and take rash actions when told of wrongdoing--especially in churches. We are tempted to think "the less they know the better" for many people. Keep them ignorant at all costs. However, I believe this only reinforces the errant behavior of the perpetrators. If someone is not held accountable, they figure maybe I can do it again ...and again ...and again. Most of the Catholic priests were repeat offenders--some were many-times offenders. The missions minister mentioned earlier did not stop his horrific behavior until he was finally caught and prosecuted. Would anyone really want that youth minister, mentioned earlier, at their church?! How could we believe he had truly repented and changed his life, if he was never forced to face his actions and their consequences?!

I know we all make mistakes. I have, and do, make many. However, we all must face our mistakes, take responsibility for them, and truly repent of them. This is more likely if we are not allowed the easy "keep it quiet and transfer the problem to someone else" approach so prevalent in all of society today.

A Difference of Perspective... I Guess

I have marveled over the years at how very differently we all seem to see, hear, or otherwise experience the same facts, situations, events, people--nearly anything, and reach such differing conclusions about what we have seen or heard. Nowhere is this more true than in politics and religion. As a committed Christian, I am bewildered that many Christians read the Holy Bible and seemingly do not see or give heed to the many, many admonitions of concern for the poor and defenseless among us. The book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, the four Gospel accounts of Jesus' life and ministry in the New Testament, and many of the others books in both the OT and NT are replete with these admonitions. Not only was Jesus greatly concerned for the poor in general, but he also freely interacted with prostitutes, tax collectors, and other "undesirables" in that society. He was constantly among the "unwashed". Was that behaviour an example for us or not? Do we somehow think that was only appicable to the first century? Why is this not at the forefront of any Christian's political agenda? It is said there are over two thousand references to concern for and helping the poor and defenseless in the Bible, and very, very few on homosexuality, and yet gay issues are in the forefront of many Christian's political agenda while concern for the poor and vulnerable in our society is not even on the list. Why is that?!

The so-called "Christian Right" seems to me oftentimes neither very Christian, nor right, in their positions. Does anyone take the Christian Coalition's agenda and put it alongside the Gospels for a comparision? What Would Jesus Do (WWJD) is a popular motto among some of our youth. That is a good question to ask in this context. Does anyone really believe Jesus would join, or approve, the Christian Coalition?!


Telling untruths, not telling the whole truth, misleading, being deceitful, being disingenuous, etc. (lying in any of its many forms) is clearly and strongly condemned in Scripture. We are told that God hates a lying tongue. Why then, do we simply ignore or wink at lying politicians if they are of our political group--whichever one that may be. All lying should be repugnant to a Christian. The list could go on and on of the differences between accepted political behaviour and acceptable Christian behaviour.


The real underlying problem may be our tendency to overly-mix politics and religion. Talk about oil and water! How anyone can so mix and intermingle as to even confuse the two is beyond me. But it has become very common for some folks, seemingly, to have their faith as rooted in their political party as in their Lord Jesus Christ. Talk about missing the mark! Don't misunderstand me, I think every Christian has a duty to positively influence society, and voting and being active politically is one way that is done. However, and it's a BIG however, one has to be careful to keep one's Christian perspective clearly in the forefront. It is very easy to be co-opted by the political world and lose one's Christian perspective.

I was very impressed when the head of the President's "Faith-based Initiatives" resigned and talked very frankly about this very thing. He simply said the whole process was about politics and not religion. Decisions and actions were totally made from a political--not at all Christian--perspective. Anyone in politics could have told him that would be the case. The President may quote Scripture, written for him at Karl Rove's direction, but that is primarily to influence a segment of our society. Pragmatic politics is the basis on which decisions are made. Anyone who believes otherwise is very naive. All the political insiders seem to understand this. It is just us outsiders who get confused.


I think we should all pray for God to give us discerning hearts and wisdom to understand the issues and candidates better and to make the best judgements we can in voting and involvement in politics. I also hope we can clearly understand that no political party nor candidate in any way, shape, or form is worthy of our devotion. Only our loving God alone, as revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ, is our only hope and anchor. May He guide our lives each day.