Posted by J on April 03, 1998 at 20:57:20:
In Reply to: Re: forgiving the church? posted by Doug Showalter on April 02, 1998 at 00:01:15:
you said:
"You speak about forgiving "the church." It is hard to forgive any organization for wrongs committed in its name, because organizations, in and of themselves, have no real personal or moral identity. Rather, it's the particular people in a particular organization--who make the decisions, who are responsible for the organization's wrongful acts--who ultimately are the ones who are deserving of both judgment and forgiveness. I think that is a helpful distinction to keep in mind."
Yes, I know that. It is just that I have seen clergy and other professionals in the church do some horrendous things, and I know that the "appropriate" leaders know, and they just shuffle them around to a new place, and pretend like nothing happened. I, too, belong to a main-line denomination, and outwardly they are dealing with the problem. But it still goes on. and on. and on.
I really feel guilty posting this here, because I feel like I should be protecting the church rather than airing her dirty laundry... but it hurts so much and makes me very angry.
any yes, my denomination, goes through the motions of doing the right, politically correct, investigations, etc. But the minister who raped my best friend had his hands slapped, and he was moved to another church. Yes, she could have made a lot of noise about it, gone to the newspapers, yelled publicly until he was destroyed, but what would that have done to the church? and to her? the leaders of the church in this liberal, main-line, protestant denomination have done nothing of any substance. I'm just sure this is not an isolated incident, or happening only in my denomination. Where is God in this?
(if you think this is inappropriate to be on this forum, please feel free to delete it. I'm sorry.)