Mainliners, Evangelicals, Catholics & Sexual Abuse

Mark Tooley on June 9, 2021

In a departing letter, Southern Baptist national leader Russell Moore cited the “spiritual and psychological abuse of sexual abuse survivors” in the Southern Baptist Convention. He recalled “sexual abuse survivors spoken of in terms of ‘Potiphar’s wife’ and other spurious biblical analogies.”

Moore concluded:

There will be Southern Baptists who will one day wonder whether they are just statistics, or if people even care about those who are raped and molested and then defamed as though they were adulterers. We cannot simply count on generational change. If there is not a radical culture change in this denomination, this will happen over and over and over again.

Recent sexual abuse revelations have plagued other evangelical institutions. Decades of misconduct by the late Christian para church leader Ravi Zacharias have stunned thousands of his admiring supporters who appreciated his smart brand of Christian apologetics. Of course, stories about sexual abuse by Catholic priests across decades have come to light over the last thirty years.

Sexual abuse also occurs in Mainline Protestantism as it does in every human institution and community. But seemingly Mainline churches have been less susceptible to pervasive sexual abuse that’s chronically minimized or covered up.

Mainline Protestantism has little about which to boast in recent history. It’s been losing members for sixty years and has moved from central to marginal in American public life. It’s severely compromised culturally and has downgraded or abandoned key Christian teachings including on sexuality. Mainline Protestantism is old, white, middle to upper class, and despite its inclusive rhetoric is far less diverse than other Christian communities.

Maybe Mainline Protestantism is less prone to pervasive sex abuse partly because it has far fewer young people for predators to target. Not many Mainline churches have vibrant youth ministries or large programs for children. But Mainline churches do have a genuine institutional advantage with wider systems of accountability that are likelier to address sexual abuse.

In contrast, most of evangelicalism is effectively congregationalist with fewer authoritative structures beyond the local church. Self protective pastors or congregational governing boards can more easily evade accountability than congregations within denominations. Mainline denominations have bishops, superintendents, presbyteries and synods that oversee congregations and clergy. Often this oversight fails to work effectively, but it can be better than no oversight at all.

Perhaps more importantly, there is culturally less deference toward and trust for clergy and for church governance in Mainline Protestantism. As I recall growing up Methodist, critiquing and tearing down the pastor is often the local church’s most fervent sport, sadly. Preoccupation with pastoral flaws obviously is deeply unhelpful and may help explain part of Mainline Protestantism’s dysfunction. But Mainliners are typically not intimidated by clergy or distorted ideas about pastoral authority.

The typical Mainline cleric is not invested with the spiritual authority that many evangelicals accord their pastors. And of course Catholic priests have more spiritual authority than do Protestant clergy. The reasons are ecclesiological but also maybe sociological. Wealthy Ivy League educated parishioners at an Episcopal parish who belong to country clubs, have many lawyer friends, and know the mayor, are less likely to defer to their cleric or congregational leaders than maybe less culturally privileged members of an evangelical church.

Evangelicals maybe are more prone to idealize their pastors than Mainline Protestants, who are more prone to see clerics as the hired help. It’s also true that sharp theological and political divisions in Mainline Protestantism have undermined trust in clergy. For many decades mostly right of center laity have learned to be wary of left-of-center clergy who challenge local church sensibilities with what they learned in liberal seminaries. Evangelicals have theologically and politically far more homogenous churches that mitigate against skepticism and perhaps also any open dissent.

Of course, evangelical mega churches and para church ministries are far likelier to produce large, charismatic personalities than duller, smaller Mainline churches. Such personalities can be exciting but also more difficult to challenge. This difficulty is doubly so if the charismatic pastor is singularly responsible for the ministry’s growth, maintenance and fundraising.

Evangelical pastors, if successful, may remain with a congregation or para church ministry for decades. They become nearly unassailable and sometimes have effectively usurped meaningful authority by placing their own family, friends and supporters in leadership. Mainline clergy more typically stay with a church for only a few years before moving on.

There is also a higher level of spiritual and church commitment by most evangelicals compared to Mainline Protestants. For evangelicals, the church is the most important human institution where cosmic issues of salvation are settled. Disrupting the church and its leaders with dissension and challenge might be harder. For many Mainliners, the church is often more of a religious social club that’s nice but not as essential. The stakes are lower and so challenge is easier. So is quitting altogether.

In short, and ironically, evangelical churches might be more susceptible to abuse by leaders because they are larger, more vibrant, attract greater commitment, command more trust and are invested with more authority and importance. Mainline Protestants are perhaps less susceptible to cultures of abuse because they are more divided, less committed and more skeptical.

But maybe Mainliners do offer this spiritual insight: don’t be overly trusting or deferential. Church leaders are merely fellow fallen humans. The church’s divine calling is holy but none of its members are consistently holy. Tragically, there will be sexual abuse wherever there are people.

Wariness and oversight should exist more so in the church than elsewhere because the church’s standards are higher and its insights into the human condition are deeper and more realistic.

Christians should be the least prone to prioritize institutional imagery over human decency. They should have confidence that while the earthly church institutionally often will fail thanks to its members, The Church as Bride of Christ is sustained forever by a Higher Power.

  1. Comment by Star Tripper on June 10, 2021 at 3:03 pm

    The only choice is testing everything by Scripture. Is it supported or rejected by Scripture? Then act accordingly. If it is not mentioned in Scripture than prayerfully consider and be watchful. As for the world, they will do what they do.

  2. Comment by Sky McCracken on June 13, 2021 at 8:25 am

    Mark:

    I’ve read this several times. I’ve asked two Southern Baptist pastors and professors, and one Catholic priest to read it as well. We all share a similar question: What are you trying to say?

  3. Comment by senecagriggs on June 13, 2021 at 5:21 pm

    My question would be: with a top down hierarchy such as the Roman Catholic Church, wouldn’t you see clergy with a questionable background being quietly pushed off to the next small congregation desperate for any male to lead?

    Also, since the mainline appears to have more than their fair share of female pastors; might not their sins be less likely to involve sexual abuse of teens?

  4. Comment by John Lambert on June 27, 2021 at 11:21 am

    I think the whole premise of this article is flawed. There have been multiple cases of abuse connected to the Episcopal Church. The premise that Liberal Protestant congregations do n9t suffer abuse is false.

  5. Comment by Harry on July 3, 2021 at 4:58 am

    Good insights. We need to do more to prevent and punish sexual crimes by clergy. There is no excuse for failing to conduct a thorough investigation any time this comes to light. Also, we must press charges in the criminal justice system. Clegy sex predators more than deserve the worst tortures ever practiced or devised by man. God will avenge their victims in hell. But we owe it to them to ensure these predators in each case receive the maximum punishment the law provides, whether that be life in prison or execution, preferably by hanging in the public square.

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