Discussing “black collar crime” a while back, I drew a distinction between myself and some of the other bloggers who devote attention to the sexual abuse of children and fragile women in church.
On one important point, I depart from Bruce [Gerencser], the Wartburg ladies, Jeri Massi, and all the others who have done so much to drag this problem out to the light of day. I don’t believe that exposing the problem is going to lead to reforms that will end the problem, la-la-la. I believe, rather, that the problem inheres in the ontology of Christianity, that the problem is part and parcel of what Christianity is — a social machine that degrades people and then exploits them.
What do you know? It turns out that Gerencser and I are actually more closely aligned on this than I thought.
There’s this naïve notion floating around the Internet that if Evangelicals would just honestly deal with the current sex abuse scandal and make changes that protect children, all would be well within the Evangelical bubble. However, even if Evangelicals demonstrated through actions, and not words, that they really, really, really do care about sexual abuse and other sex crimes within their churches, the fact remains that their beliefs are still psychologically harmful and can, at times, lead to physical harm. [ … ] As long as Evangelicals believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, they will remain joined at the hip with all sorts of abhorrent anti-human, Bronze-age beliefs.
I regret that I misrepresented Gerencser’s thinking on this — and welcome the company.