Chapter 7 of the book:
The Failure of the Great Amish and Conservative Mennonite Dress Experiment
Why Christian Conservatism Isn’t the Answer and What to Do
Cover-up of sexual abuse and other sins by conservative pastors and church leaders is a big problem and failure of conservatism. The cover-up of sexual abuse and other sins is a problem that is happening over and over.
“How long will you judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.” (Psalms 82:2-4)
“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?” (Proverbs 24:10-12)
Are you looking for something more than just the same old concepts, interpretations, explanations, and perspectives you have heard regurgitated over and over again? This website will give you some new insights and things to think about. You may not agree with everything you read, but Biblical Research Reports will stimulate your thinking. Our goal is to help you to formulate in your own mind what is Jesus’ truth as you look at the research we share on the various subjects facing the Church.
One of the big mistakes that conservative church leaders, including Amish and Mennonite, have made is that when they hear about a sexual abuse case, they tend to deal with it quietly with a light punishment that does not draw much attention to the situation and everything is covered up. Church leaders are very embarrassed that this type of sin has happened in their church and don’t want the news to get out to others about what has happened. They are more concerned about their own reputation and image and the reputation of their church than about the welfare of innocent children. Many other people do not know that the person is a sexual predator. He/she continues to wear their pious religious conservative garb like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In many cases, other children and young people are molested because of the cover-up.
When church leaders cover-up sexual abuse and/or attack the victim, there is a good chance that they will receive God’s judgment for their actions. They can hide the sexual abuse from other people, but they can’t hide it from God. When other children in the church are sexually abused because the church leaders covered up the sexual abuse and did not publicly address it, God sees, and He knows their part in the sexual abuse happening again. The leaders have allowed the new sexual abuse victim to be entrapped and snared by the sexual predator because they hid the sexual predator from the child and his or her parents.
Additional sex abuse cases, as a result of church leaders covering up a sexual abuse case, may not necessarily be the result of the same predator reoffending. When church leaders give cover to one sexual predator, it gives significantly more freedom to others to prey on children. Either way, the church leaders are responsible before God.
A pastor covering up child sexual abuse to preserve a person or church’s image is also a serious, criminal act in many states, and reveals the true spiritual condition of the church leadership. The church, because of the Christian qualities of love and compassion, should be more concerned about protecting innocent children from sexual predators than what the government and many non-Christians are, but that is often not the case. This is hypocritical and disgusting.
Jesus warned us to not believe every preacher, but to evaluate them by their fruit, not just what they say. He told us that there will be preachers who are phony Christians who make themselves look very good on the outside, but they are not true believers. “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:15-21)
There is a strong temptation for church leaders to hide vile sins in the church, such as sexual abuse, because they don’t want others to find out how bad things really are and think negatively about their leadership. It is easy for church leaders to make things look good on the outside by wearing sheep’s clothing, and talking a good talk, but we are to look at their fruit, not at their outward appearance. The covering up of sexual abuse is part of their fruit. It shows what their true fruit is because true spiritual light in a pastor will expose sin for all to see. Those who are false prophets hide sins, such as sexual abuse, and do not expose them with light. God specifically commands that sexual abuse must be rebuked and exposed for all to see. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” (Ephesians 5:11-13)
Church leaders in any denomination are not qualified to properly deal with sexual abuse within their church or denomination because they have a conflict of interest. Their reputation and their church’s reputations are at stake. The sexual predators are their friends. The fear of what others will think of them and their church or denomination is a very strong motivator. In some cases they may fear that they could lose their job. Church leaders are not in a position to judge impartially and to give the victims support and a fair trial. They need to turn the perpetrator over to the police and recuse themselves from the case, just like any judge with a conflict of interest should do.
Many conservatives have wrongly used 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 about not going “to law before the unjust” as a reason for not reporting criminal activity to the police. This passage can be used wrongly by those who want to cover up sexual abuse by making a victim feel guilty if they report their abuser to the authorities and press charges. 1 Corinthians 6 is not addressing the reporting of criminal activity but rather suing someone for a wrong that they have done to you.
1 Corinthians 6 does not apply because sexual abuse is not just a personal offence or a wrong committed only against the victim. It is a crime that affects not just the victim but it also very much affects the victim’s family and future spouse, and it affects the family of the sexual molester. In addition there are often other victims involved as well who the victim reporting may or may not know about. If the sexual predator is not reported to the civil authorities, the sexual molester will likely continue to abuse other victims. So reporting sexual abuse is not just about a personal offence. It is also about protecting others.
The sexual abuse victim reporting the crime is often viewed by the church leadership as the person who is in the wrong and the real problem at the moment because the victim is damaging their reputation and the church’s reputation by exposing the abuse. Because it is such a heinous civil crime, sexual abuse of children needs to be reported to the police or someone outside the church or church denomination who will report it to the police. Reporting sexual abuse to church leadership often only results in cover-up and the victim being attacked, slandered, or blamed. This is true not only for Amish and conservative Mennonites, but also homeschool groups, and other conservative denominations as well.
The Victim is NOT a Criminal and
is NOT in the Wrong for Reporting
their Abuse and Pressing Charges!!
There is nothing Christian or Biblical about church leaders hiding criminal acts of sexual violence and not reporting it, and then acting like they have authority to handle the case and silence the victim.
Covering Up Sexual Abuse is Disobedience to Christ’s Commands
Covering up sexual abuse is in direct disobedience to what Christ commands in the following passages:
“It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:” (1 Corinthians 5:1-7)
I Timothy 5:19-20 “Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.”
The church is commanded that sins, such as sexual abuse, are to be rebuked before the whole church so that others will also fear public humiliation and not engage in such sins. Shedding light on sexual abuse by publicly rebuking it is one of the most important steps to prevent more sexual abuse from happening. Covering up sexual abuse and sweeping it under the rug takes the fear of being caught and exposed away from the perpetrators. Fear of being found out is a strong motivator to help people not to sin.
Galatians 2:14 “But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?”
This instruction from God to rebuke or discipline before all so that others would fear and not commit the same sin was also given in the Old Testament era as well.
Deuteronomy 13:11 “And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.”
Deuteronomy 17:13 “And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.”
Deuteronomy 19:20 “And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.”
Isaiah 26:9-10 “With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.”
Leaders Slow to take Action
Ecclesiastes 8:11 “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
A common complaint that runs through many of the sexual abuses cases in the Mennonite and Amish church groups is that the church leaders were slow or reluctant to take action. Many of the victims were made to feel guilty as if they were the cause of the sins. It is gravely wrong to blame the victim instead of the sexual molester. It is injustice!
A Time magazine article about the 2011 rape case of 130 girls and women in a Bolivian Mennonite colony has this quote:
“That entrenched, patriarchal seclusion, say those familiar with such communities, can breed behavioral rot and a culture of cover-up. ‘The denial of major problems in these colonies for decades has significantly compounded the problem,’ says Abe Warkentin, founding editor of the German-language Die Mennonitische Post, a newspaper published in Canada that circulates widely among the hundreds of thousands of Mennonites who live throughout Latin America.”
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2087711,00.html
The Mennonite Brethren Herald reports: “For years, Mennonites in Canada have turned a blind eye to issues of abuse and persecution by their South American kin.” http://www.mbherald.com/47/02/news-1.en.html
Amish Elders Plead Guilty to Failing to Report Sex Abuse in Ozark Community
“Four Amish men in southern Missouri pleaded guilty this week to endangering the welfare of a child.
“…The men, all elders within the Amish community, reportedly knew about the sexual abuse of the two girls living among their flock in the Ozark town of Seymour but failed to report the allegations to authorities.
“Like a similar story unfolding in an Amish community in northeastern Missouri, the elders had hoped to reform the sex offender on their own.” http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/10/amish_elders_plead_guilty_to_harboring_sex_offender.php
Two Amish girls in Lancaster, Pa. Sexual abuse in the church needs to be reported to the police and publicly denounced and spoken against if girls and boys are to be protected from sexual predators. Adding more modesty rules will not work. Photo credit: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utente:TheCadExpert
Mennonite Cover-up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
“Churches, just like families, tend to hide their dark secrets from the outside world. Many times leaders or parents don’t even need to tell families to do this; it’s understood.
“’…there is a way in which people relate to each other; it’s called the united front,’ said Pauline Zimmerman, a marriage and family therapist who is also a Mennonite abuse survivor. ‘And if they ever get any help at all, there are severe problems. Mennonites are part of keeping that united front – keeping everything OK.’…
“Victims and church members are expected to forgive abusers repeatedly, ‘to forgive 70 times seven,’ one Amish bishop said. Church leaders expect victims to let go of anger and bitterness quickly and reunite with their abuser.
“’It’s one of those comfort things that makes the church feel good,’ said Jim Laughman, deputy director of administration at Mental Health/Mental Retardation of Lancaster County…
“’It certainly feeds into the offender’s thing: ‘Well, it’s all done and over with; why don’t you let me go?’” said Laughman, who has worked with Mennonite and Amish sexual abusers, ‘At the same time, we have a victim, the hands-on victim, but also, what about the other kids in the home? The wife certainly is a victim, the extended family, the whole community is, in fact, the victim.’
“’And too many times, it’s just, ‘Hide it under the rug; let’s just move on,’ Laughman said. ‘Unfortunately that kind of behavior and ideology perpetuates continual victimization.’”
A typical Amish school house in Lancaster county PA. Amish children do not have much contact with those outside their community to be able to report their sexual abuse to authorities. It is one of the factors that enables sexual abuse to be covered up.
“Forgiveness” Used as a Tool in Covering Up Sexual Abuse
One pattern that emerges over and over in the sexual abuse cases that I have studied is church leaders using forgiveness as a manipulative tool that forces the victim and their family to remain silent about the abuse. I found this to be true not only among the Mennonites and Amish, but also in other denominations and among conservative homeschool groups.
What often happens is that after the sexual predator has confessed to the church leadership, the victim is then the one that the leadership puts the most focus on as the one who needs to change or repent. The victim and their family are pressured to forgive and never mention it again. Over and over victims are judged and made to feel guilty by being accused of having an unforgiving spirit. If they bring up the abuse, they are accused for not forgiving.
There is a tendency for people to put a disproportioned amount of responsibility on the victim rather than on the molester. Over and over, sexual predators are given a pass for their general, nonspecific confession and “repentance”, and then the victim is expected to give their abuser a blank check of forgiveness for things the abuser has not specifically repented of. Then if the victim brings something up at a later date, the accusation is made: “I thought you forgave _____”. This judgment and treatment of victims is wrong.
Sexual abusers need to be held accountable for repentance of specific actions and violations. Repentance also means that the abuser needs to state with their mouth what steps of action that they are going to do to make sure that they never do it again.
One Mennonite lady makes an excellent point that forgiveness does not mean that the sexual abuse should never be mentioned again and the lives of others endangered.
“I think the values that instigate the cover-ups are a particular understanding of forgiveness and something that doesn’t even touch forgiveness – hiding from the reality because nobody knows how to deal with it.
“In my grandparents’ church, there was a scandal uncovered. The perpetrator confessed and was forgiven. Nobody mentioned the incident again until years later it was discovered that he wasn’t entirely victorious. Not even the children of those who had dealt with the previous incident knew about it.
“Forgiveness to them meant–never more remembering with their mouths. And trusting their own children into the hands of the perpetrator again.” (emphasis added)
http://modern-parables.blogspot.com/2007/01/sexual-abuse-amongst-amish-and.html
Fox43 Central Pennsylvania, in their article “Fighting Abuse in the Amish Community”, relates this account of Amish church leaders telling a couple to forgive and forget as part of the cover-up of sexual abuse:
“’I grew up Amish, not knowing any different. And I loved it, I loved my parents. Yeah, I loved it. I never dreamed that I would not be Amish,’ said a former Amish woman whose name we are withholding. But one difficult day, she and her husband made the decision to leave the only way of life they’d ever known, after discovering their children had been sexually abused.
“When they brought up the issue with leaders of their church, they said they were told to forgive and forget, something the couple just couldn’t bring themselves to do.
“’Just because you forgive them doesn’t make it right what they did,’ she said. ‘And you don’t just leave them out there to go do some more.’”
http://fox43.com/2013/05/08/fighting-sexual-abuse-in-the-amish-community/#ixzz2iyb3YPtw
The Misuse of Matthew 18 in Sexual Abuse Cases and Its Use in Cover-up
In some sexual abuse cases, church leaders try to get the victim to follow the instructions in Matthew 18 and first go alone to the one who has sexually abused them rather than reporting it to the police. Following Matthew 18 for dealing with sexual abuse is foolish for a number of reasons. For one, the sexual abuse happened privately. Victims set themselves up to be abused or manipulated again by confronting in private. In addition, all that the sexual predator has to do is tell the victim that he did the wrong thing (without repentance or asking forgiveness) and then he can say that he took care of the problem and the victim is just not forgiving him. No one is witness to their private conversation.
Another problem is that sexual molesters are deceivers and skilled manipulators. They often have power over their victim. This is especially true of a church leader. They can use the private meeting to intimidate the victim into being silent and then shame them publicly if they bring up the abuse after their meeting.
Matthew 18 does not apply to sexual abuse cases because sexual abuse is more than just a private offence against an individual; it is also a public matter. Other children are likely to fall victim to the predator. Sexual abuse is not a mere personal offence. Child sexual abuse is a serious civil crime with no statute of limitations in reporting it in most states.
GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) has an excellent article titled “Child Abuse and Matthew 18: The Dangers of Distorting Scripture”. The following are some excerpts:
“GRACE is often encountering professing Christians who quote Matthew 18 as the biblical process by which child sexual abuse must be addressed within the Christian community. As a consequence, this passage is used as a justification for 1) not reporting abuse disclosures to the civil authorities and 2) convincing sexual abuse victims to privately confront their perpetrators. Needless to say, this misinterpretation of Matthew 18 is hugely destructive on a number of fronts. More importantly, this misinterpretation is simply not biblical…
“A fundamental point that must be understood early on in this discussion is that the crime of child sexual abuse is not merely a personal offense, but rather it is an urgent public concern. Child sexual abuse does not even fit into the paradigm of which Jesus was speaking in Matthew 18. Jesus never intended his statements in Matthew 18 to be twisted into the required method for handling murder, rape, torture, kidnapping, or genocide. Child sexual abuse is not a private matter but rather a public and civic one, rightly under the sword of the civil authority. All are endangered by this crime against a little one…
“In this, child sexual abuse is like murder or any other crime. Anyone who would demand that the family of a murder victim must first follow the Matthew 18 process before calling the police could be criminally charged themselves for being an accessory after the fact… What kind of twisted mind would reason that kidnapping or rape ought to be concealed from the civil authorities while a process of church discipline is pursued first?…
“It is imperative that we not misinterpret and misapply Matthew 18:15-20 to the sin of child sexual abuse. ‘Let the disclosing little child come forward privately and accuse me!’ the powerful one protests. That monstrous interpretation has not one leg to stand on before Jesus.” (Emphasis added) http://netgrace.org/child-abuse-and-matthew-18-the-dangers-of-distorting-scripture/
Requiring or implying that Matthew 18 must be used before talking with the church leadership is a significant intimidation by the church that keeps a victim quiet. Victims know that if they go to the church leadership, the leadership will refuse to hear them and make them feel guilty for not “obeying the Bible” and going to their sexual predator alone first. This is wrong. It is a wrong understanding of Matthew 18.
Cover-up of Sexual Abuse from Jesus’ Perspective
Anger and a lack of love and compassion for the victims and their trauma is one of the characteristics of a number of the Amish or conservative Mennonite leaders and church members as they covered up the sexual abuse in the sexual abuse cases that we have looked at. That is the same characteristic of the Pharisees. The Pharisees did not have love and compassion for their people – the handicapped, sick, blind, and lame that Jesus healed. In a number of Amish and Mennonites sexual abuse cases, instead of compassion, the conservatives went after the sexual abuse victim with a hateful attitude for telling authorities and for not sweeping the situation under the rug to preserve the family and church image.
The next time you read the story of the Good Samaritan, think about how it applies to sexual abuse victims that have been sexually robbed and left seriously emotionally wounded by sexual thieves, and how religious leaders often handle the situation when they find it. In many sexual abuse cases, Amish and conservative Mennonite leaders, like the religious leader who passed by on the other side of the road in Jesus’ story, leave the sexually abused victim to suffer alone “on the side of the road” after they have been robbed by the sexual abuse thief and emotionally beaten and psychologically harmed worse than the physical wounds of the man in the story of the Good Samaritan. A number of the Amish and conservative Mennonite leaders have gone even further, and did things that are much worse than what the religious leaders in Jesus’ story did. Instead of just walking by and leaving the victim to lay there for others to find out what had happened, they walked over to the sexual abuse victim and attacked and “kicked” (blamed) them for being sexually robbed. They then pulled the victim off the road and silenced them so that they would not tell anyone else that a sexual abuse thief had robbed them along the road (in their church).
Jesus told the story about the Good Samaritan to illustrate what it means to love one another. Love is an important part of what it means to be a Christian. A lack of love and compassion for the sexual abuse victim is much more serious than what many Amish and conservative Mennonite church leaders believe and understand. Their eternal destiny is at stake, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8) “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20)
If a pastor or church leader does not have love and compassion for the sexual abuse victim who they know and who is under their care in their own congregation, how can they love God whom they have not seen? There are many spiritually dead men, dressed in conservative Amish or Mennonite regulation dress, who are “blind leading the blind” and they and their people have fallen into the ditch.
Children are very important to Jesus and he will judge with strong discipline those who sexually abuse children or church leaders who allow it to happen to other children because of their cover-up of the sin. He also implies that He will judge those who despise, or look down on children as unimportant and don’t help them when they have been violated.
Young Amish children look so cute dressed in their Amish outfits. But it is heartbreaking realizing the rampant sexual abuse of many Amish children that is a result, in part, of the Great Amish Dress Experiment. Jesus sees the sexual abuse when it happens and He cares deeply. Jesus told us how He views it: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” – It applies to both the good deeds and the bad. Jesus views the sexual abuse of a child as the same as an attack on Him – “I was… naked and ye clothed ME not”. (Matthew 25:40-46) Sexual molesters are only fooling themselves if they think they will get away with sexually abusing children. In v.46 Jesus says about those who have explored the nakedness of children in the church (sexual abuse) instead of making sure their nakedness was protected – “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment.”
A significant contributing factor in conservatives not having compassion for the sexual abuse victim is that often at least some blame (possibly subconscious and unstated) is put on the victim for causing the abuse to happen. This is a consequence of the false modesty doctrine, which we will address a little later, which makes the women and girls responsible to keep the boys and men from “stumbling”. This false blame of the victim can result in conservative leaders not seeing them as a victim and not giving counseling to the victim to help them find emotional healing.
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their lack of compassion, and that rebuke applies to conservatives today who do not have compassion for sexual abuse victims and who are not concerned about justice for their abusers. Jesus said to the conservatives: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” (Matthew 23:23) The sexual abuse victims need mercy and compassion, and the sexual predators need judgment for their actions.
The way many conservative church leaders have gone about covering up sexual abuse cases is no trivial matter. They have Jesus to answer to. Jesus will judge them for their actions, even if the criminal court system never prosecutes them. The lack of justice for the sexual abuse victim is both a sin and a crime.
Be a person who investigates and exposes sin and wickedness. Do not be a person who covers over and hides sexual predators in the church from others.
In addressing predators (wolves) in the church such as sexual predators, Jesus said this about pastors who hide from addressing sexual abuse and instead cover it up: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.” (John 10:11-13)
Cover-up of sexual abuse in other denominations
Cover-up of sexual abuse is also a problem in many other church denominations as well. It is not just an Amish and Mennonite problem. Charles Wade, Executive Director of Baptist General Convention of Texas, says: “Too often, we receive reports from churches where the sexual misconduct of the pastor or another staff member has damaged the life of the church and many individuals. When churches discover this behavior, it is frequently swept under the carpet and kept a secret, thus doing further damage to the churches and to the individuals involved.”
http://stopbaptistpredators.org/pdf_documents/brokentrust.pdf (Page 5)
Cover-up – Turning Off the Spotlight
When a sexual predator in the church is “caught in the spotlight” – exposed – the first reaction of many, including the preachers, is to try to turn off the spotlight, often by going after the victim and trying to shut them up. If they can’t turn off the spotlight, they try to direct the spotlight at someone else to get the attention on them. Help the victim by adding spotlights on the sexual molester. The more spotlights that are shining into the darkness, the more difficult it is for the church to turn them off and the less place there is for sin to hide.
Cover-up Is a BIG RED Warning Flag
When you see people in the church covering up sin or not wanting to hear about sexual abuse in the church, it should be a big red warning flag to you that there is a good possibility that there is hidden sin in their lives. Those who are true believers will want sin and sexual abuse to be exposed and rebuked publicly so that this wickedness can be purged from the church.
Jesus told us why people cover up sin and don’t want it exposed – because their deeds are evil. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” (John 3:19-20)
When you encounter people who don’t want light exposing the darkness of sexual abuse in the church, the first response may be to feel frustration that Christians are not willing to deal with the sin. Instead, realize that the reason that those persons may be acting that way is because they hate the light and don’t want to come into the light. There is the possibility that they may be living in sin themselves, even if they are the pastors or church leaders, and they don’t want light exposing who they really are.
One day God brought to my attention part of a well-known passage that helps explain why many conservative church leaders cover up sexual abuse and don’t bring justice to the situation. There are a number of areas in which Amish and conservative Mennonites are not living in obedience to God’s Word. We have looked at some of that disobedience and will be addressing more later on. Because of that disobedience to God, they are not ready to bring justice for the sexual abuse victim. Instead, those conservative Anabaptist leaders look at the outward appearance. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-7)
What God is saying is that a believer who is truly living in obedience to Christ will have a readiness to revenge all disobedience, and a readiness to bring to justice a sexual abuse predator. They will willingly stand for the victim without being persuaded, and will not have any desire to side with the molester because of outward appearances.
We will conclude this section on cover-up with what God tells us in Proverbs: “He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13)
The next chapter – Reasons for the Failure of the Amish and Mennonite Dress Experiment
Why Biblical Research Reports uses the KJV
When I started in-depth Bible research, I was using the NIV translation. I was not prepared for the deception and misguiding information that I found coming from Christian scholars. I did extensive research into Bible translations and into the Greek manuscripts themselves that the various versions are translated from.
I soon realized that the most significant subject facing the Church today is the Bible, what version is used and preached from, the Greek text it is translated from, and the way it is translated. Every Christian doctrine is based on the Bible. The way the Bible reads, the words that it has and the words that it does not have, the way the Greek words are translated or poorly translated, all affect the beliefs and teachings of the Church. At one point I thought that most translations of the Bible were basically the same except for the modernization of the old English in the KJV. This is not the case. Most of the modern translations do not have everything that the KJV does, as a result of changes in the Greek texts from which they are translated. In addition, significant changes have to be made in each new Bible version in order to copyright it. As a result of that research, I switched to the KJV. To read more about my Bible translation research check out these Research Reports:
Evidence the NIV is Not the Best Bible Translation
Evidence the NIV is not the best Bible translation (Condensed)
What is the Best Bible Translation?
I highly recommend the powerful, Free E-Sword Bible program for your computer, cell phone or other mobile device. Make sure you also download the free Treasury of Scripture Knowledge – cross references for each Bible verse to other verses on the same subject. For a cross reference database that is much larger and more complete consider purchasing The Ultimate Cross-Reference Treasury (in the dictionary category).
