Do T4G Evangelicals care?

That is the question I had to take a break from twitter to consider. 

I am so sad at the hardness of heart amongst many fellow believers.  I had a conversation yesterday where someone corrected my apparent use of a false dichotomy, yet had no concern for the issue I was raising, however badly.  There is such a heartless attachment to getting the definitions right on the gospel and yet no concern whatsoever for the victims of lying church leaders and the perpetrators of abuse that they enabled and even supported.

The blindness in many Christian circles to our own sinful cover-up and enabling is disgusting.  I feel sick considering what victims of spiritual and sexual abuse have had to suffer to find a voice and cry out for justice to protect more kids from being targeted for abuse.  I am scared for my own kids.  I am hurt because of the rejection I have experienced in certain circles for being willing to be honest on much lesser things than sex abuse and cover-up.  I am angry for the time I sat through a church meeting in an evangelical church where we discussed for ONE HOUR whether our signage was in keeping with the history of the building rather than caring about the homeless who slept outside.

I am sick of much of evangelical Christianity.  I am sick and disgusted at lies and cover-up.  It is an open secret in certain Christian circles that CJ Mahaney knew about sex abuse, he has not denied this, and so many people still prefer to protect him than apologize to victims.  The lawsuit speaks for itself.  There was a conspiracy of sorts: to protect ministry at the expense of those run over by the bus of religion.  CJ Mahaney is NOT repentant, or he would step down, just as Mark Driscoll is NOT repentant for his own abusive style or he would stop preaching as if he has something authoritative to say.  All I can say is Ichabod: "the glory of God has departed" and this is not ministry.

I am concerned that very few of us really care about victims.  This means very few of us have our heads on straight.  People have lost everything because they have stood up for the truth of what happened, but in the end, God will vindicate them.  There is too often no fear of God amongst those who preach it most.  If there were, there would be humility and grief over this sin.  It would be called out and dealt with directly.  And instead so many are proud.  The evil man should have been put out of our midst immediately as well as turned over to the law for justice and child protection.  This is not a difficult concept.  Yet the Gospel Coalition thinks its articles on child protection should be "engaged with" by people they've blocked for asking why they are standing behind a man who did not protect children according to their own guidelines.  That's nuts.

I'm "nobody"; that is, I am an ordinary Christian. Most of us bloggers are.  Some have lost family members and close relationships for their commitment to truth.  So many people would rather live in the dark than face the Light.  Talking to our church leaders does very little, because they are too often political rather than concerned with the truth.  I am asking: do Christians care?  My concern is, how many of us truly love Christ WHATEVER IT COSTS US?  I'm sorry to shout-type, but it's so frustrating that anyone could think there is a different opinion on this, and that victims should be expected to just "forgive" (overlook and accept) blatant misuse of authority and refusal to deal with sin.  Authoritarian and unChristlike abuse has gone on long enough. 

Wolves are in positions of perceived authority these days in many areas, perpetuated by this evil hierarchical culture that ignores the priesthood of all believers, and if we love God, if we truly love Christ, we can no longer support people who care more about religion and abstract truth than love worked out in reality.  We are known by our fruits.  If our fruit is anything other than love, if it is in fact lies and deceit, I ask myself, are those truly Christians?  Because I believe true Christians- true "little Christs" care passionately about people, we are known by our LOVE, and God is no respecter of persons.

Imagine what Paul would say to us Corinthians now.





I conclude with a link to thoughts I entirely endorse:

http://boz.religionnews.com/2014/05/23/searching-jesus-todays-church/

- I grieve that many within the Church prefer the sounds of conference speakers, blog posts and tweets about theological nuances to the cries of the abused and marginalized.

- The Gospel needs no protection, and neither do we when Jesus is our source of security.

- I grieve that not even one pastor from the church came to court to support the brave victims who eventually came forward and testified.

What kind of hard heart does it take to silence survivors of abuse along with their families, while protecting "ministries" and "pastors" instead?

http://mattbredmond.com/2013/06/01/what-kind-of-hard-heart/

God sees and He will not be mocked. 

http://luthermatic.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-crime-of-partiality_28.html?m=1

Update April-16-2016: title adapted from "Do Christians care?" on 4-16-2016, because evidence suggests many do, including the one who corrected my poor reasoning skills at time of writing.  One link also removed as the others represent my point best.