I pointed a couple of weeks ago toward a GoFundMe account set-up by The Wartburg Watch to benefit a single-mother whose middle-school son was raped by a high-school boy at the church they both attended.
The documentation is now online, including copies of bills, the plea deal reached by the older boy, and a self-pitying request for prayer by the congregation on behalf of the church staff.
Be praying that our Pastor and Elders will be filled with grace and truth as they seek to shepherd God’s flock through the recent factious, malicious, and slanderous accusations sent by email about our Pastor and our church.
I know it is difficult to accept; I had a difficult time accepting it — but this is the almost unvarying pattern: Churches rally to defense of the guilty, punish the blameless, and feel sorry for themselves when people like me — and a steadily-growing number of others — publicly criticize them and wonder what character deformity has overtaken them.
And I say again: Religion does not make people moral, church is the wrong place to seek moral guidance, and church is not a safe place for children or insecure women.