The Rush to Complaint. . .

The sad and terrible situation in our church with a District President standing charged with the production of child pornography and, Lord knows, whatever else not yet revealed has created the occasion for commentators to complain about the failures of ecclesiastical supervision or the processes set up by our bylaws.  I am under no illusions.  Undoubtedly there were things which our leaders and our ordinary procedures for discipline could have done better.  Nobody but a fool would say this was anyone's finest hour.  That said, it does not rise to the level of incompetence alleged by some nor does it mean that rather slow and deliberate procedures for dealing with such situations should be sped up when the will of the people desires it.  

Lets think about this a moment.  Our leadership is given no crystal ball nor do they possess a secret insight into the secrets of men.  In this case a district of lay and clergy elected the man now charged.  He worked with more than 40 others among his peers, the presidium of Synod, and other officers.  He worked with boards, commissions, and service organizations allied with the Synod.  What some claim to have seen in hindsight was not apparent going forward.  If for no other reason than liability, had there been something to see I am confident all the lawyers would have warned us going forward.  I suspect he went through a number of background checks without anything being flagged.  My point is not to come to the aid of this accused man nor to insist that our leaders did everything right.  It is simply a request that those who rush to complain and lay this at the doorstep of those leaders are venting their emotions more than dealing with rational facts.  As understandable as this is, it is not helpful and the public display of this kind of complaint feeds the mouth of the devil and all the other naysayers against the Church.  No one is helping by using social media as a bully pulpit to display their outrage or to vent their complaints.  Whether you like and support our leaders or not, no one was giving cover to this kind of behavior or sin.  

I know a bit about bylaws, perhaps more than most but certain less than some.  Bylaws are simply the rules we have chosen to live by.  No bylaw can solve a theological problem nor can any bylaw do ecclesiastical supervision.  The bylaws we have are not perfect but they are the rules we have chosen -- for good or for ill.  I have every confidence that they can and should and will be changed or adapted because of what has happened.  We learn more from mistakes than we do successes.  All of that said, one complaint that is particularly vexing to me is the suggestion that the processes we have work too slow and therefore protect the guilty.  Yes, they do work slowly in comparison to those who want to snap their fingers and have something go away.  But if you are the accused in any matter, you will appreciate that we have both rules and a rather deliberate procedure that takes a little time to unfold.  The rush to judgment, like the rush to complain, is not fitting to the work of the Kingdom.  We do not have courts, prosecutors, investigators, and judges.  Maybe we should have but we don't and it is foolish to act like we do when clearly we have a different structure in our bylaws.  We have other pastors doing ecclesiastical supervision (along with all the other things they do) trying to be fair as well as to be just.  As long as they work with integrity, a little slowness should not be an issue.  Remember that when you change the rules to make them work better for you, they will also be used by someone else who may not agree with you.  Rules or bylaws need to be a little out of step with public opinion and the quest for instantaneous judgment.  Matthew 18 has a few steps that mean to be played out over time and not in the blink of an eye. 

Finally, remember that the rules in the Church are designed not simply to dump someone who has become a liability but also to bring them to repentance.  I chafe under that like everyone else who wishes that the wheels of justice worked in the church and worked more quickly.  But that is not how things work.  Every one of us is a sinner and no one can sit in judgment like the righteous man except the One who is righteous, Jesus Christ.  Our call to warn the wicked is not designed to preserve the Church from sinful men but to call every one of them (and us) to daily repentance.  When that call is unheeded, we are not given the option of casting the sinner aside and forgetting about them.  No, instead we are called to preach the Word of God in an effort to bring them to repentance, restore their faith, and secure from them the faithful confession of Christ their Savior.  Nobody has a right to an office in the Church and repentance and restoration does not mean that the sinner returns to their same calling.  We all know that.  Sometimes, however, we seem a great deal like Noah who was motivated to run more by the prospect of the people repenting and then having to deal with them than he was the people hardening their hearts unto eternal condemnation.  As a pastor, I have had the uncomfortable situation of a public sinner who repents and asks forgiveness and restoration when all of us would rather he would go away so that we were not bothered by him anymore.  None of us have that luxury.  Our goal is not to clean up a mess so that nobody sees it anymore but to confront the sinner with God's judgment and His mercy.  This is its own kind of messiness that the world will never understand or appreciate.

So what should we do?  Lets rally around in prayer for all in this situation -- from the victims to the prosecutor to the judge in the court to the perpetrator of such a crime.  Most of all, let us pray for the Church and for the wisdom and discernment to keep things like this from happening as much as can be done and for those whose faith is shaken by the offense and for the Word of the Lord to bear fruit in the lives of all involved, bringing repentance where there is none and forgiveness where there is repentance.  In any case, the cause is hot helped by trying to act as judge and jury in social media anymore than it is helped by the false presumption that you would have acted more wisely in this than all the others in our church body have done.  Everyone of us thinks we are right in our speaking or we would not speak but not every one of us is correct in that thought.  And that is all I am going to say.