Our Story
Our former church hid a sex offender from the congregation. When eventually they disclosed him, they did so by eulogizing him in vaulted terms.
We then discovered they’d failed to follow their own policy, neglecting to uncover his full criminal history, including multiple rapes of children - not just one as they claimed.
We found a history of entirely inappropriate contact with children in the church, but the elders didn’t care: they did nothing and refused to start a third party investigation.
Why a Substack?
The first step for us was fully exhausting all options to encourage the church to act appropriately, from our position as members. We did so with much patience, love and hope that they would do the right thing, over a period of 4 months.
But when the church refused to investigate and remained open to the possibility of believing the deceitful offender, over a deputy sheriff who provided two sworn witnesses, we could bear it no longer.
Now, we see this pattern plays out over and over throughout the SBC church and beyond. The Bible tells us to publicly rebuke these elders for their own good, and so others might be afraid should they go down the same road of protecting offenders and institutions over victims and the vulnerable.
Let’s make our churches safer by talking about this issue and not tolerating weak and foolish leadership.
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