The Precarious Danger of Gifting Cheap Grace to Sex Offenders

As churches applaud and lionize the abusers, victims are left alone.

“Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks' wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God knows our hearts. Those who are made righteous through the work of the cross will be exclusively those who believe and trust in Jesus. There will be no way to deceive your way into heaven.

God’s grace to us in heaven does not mandate foolishness on earth. Lots of people say they are Christians but do not truly have faith: some don’t understand the gospel fully, others use it as a cultural designation, and others deliberately deceive to make their lives easier: maybe to appease a spouse or maybe to get an early release from jail and access to more victims. None of those groups will receive God’s grace in heaven. He knows our hearts and which of us truly has faith. But we don’t.

It is far too common for evangelical church leaders to allow people with dangerous records of sexual offenses, especially those against children, into the sanctuary, without safeguarding, and worse still, into their pulpits.

When I first began to question the leadership of our former church (Edgefield Church, Nashville) an elder I spoke with tried to make the issue about me not having grace, and being judgmental. In the moment, I was shocked at his nerve at attempting to make this a sin issue for me - given the crimes of the offender and the safeguarding failures of the elders. In time, I see that his accusation was also against the teachings of the Bible. Matthew (ironically also the name of the elder) warns us that the church is distinct from heaven, existing as it does amongst wolves who must be discerned with wisdom”

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Matthew 10:16

And Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians tells us not to judge non-Christians, but those inside the church, telling us to “purge the evil person from among you”:

“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”" 1 Corinthians 5:12-13

When a church allows a sex offender to attend without an appropriate investigation and adequate safeguarding, taking them at a few easy words and perhaps some tears, they give the offender dangerous validation and precarious access to children: the leaders have not been as wise as serpents, and the wolf is in the sheep pen. This is cheap grace.

When a church lionizes this offender to their membership, describing them as a “token of God’s grace, the kind of miracle that we long to see” they desecrate the truth and further endorse the offender, increasing the danger to their congregation. This is cheap grace.

When a church is given irrefutable evidence that they have been deceived and refuses to judge and cast out the offender, they allow his reputation to remain intact and grant him access to another church community without due warning. This is cheap grace.

When further evidence is presented indicating inappropriate and illegal historical behavior and the church refuses to act to uncover truth for fear of “defaming” the offender, or “dragging his name through the mud” they fail to let God’s disinfecting light of truth shine. This is cheap grace.

My former church did all of these things: they go directly against the Bible's teachings. They are dangerous, precarious, cheap grace that goes against the church’s responsibility to serve and protect the vulnerable.

In many other churches it involves restoring sexually immoral pastors, despite the clear biblical standard for elders to be beyond reproach. This is also, of course, cheap grace.

The irony is not lost on me that the same evangelical churches pride themselves on doctrinal purity yet refuse to fulfil it through their own actions.

Shouldn’t we have love and forgiveness for one another?

Today’s world is fractured, broken and deeply divided.

We must take great care when we exclude someone from a church sanctuary. Thankfully, again, we have God’s word to lead us. As a member of this Nashville church, we heard the term “ex-communication” more than once; it is now not a shock to me that a church that considers itself doctrinally pure would use a term frequently that doesn’t even appear in the Bible. It’s worth noting, too, that they refused to “ex-communicate” this offender, even after his deceit was shown to them, but would happily spend 3 consecutive member meetings on disciplining someone who (allegedly) affirmed gay marriage (but that’s for another future post).

There are scarce reasons Biblically to ask someone not to attend church, yet I openly advocate for one here. The list given in 1 Corinthians is “sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler”. Voting for a specific political candidate, for instance, isn’t close to this level. Affirming someone else’s sins that meet this criteria also fall short. When this level isn’t met, we should give each other all the empathy, grace and love we can muster.

But I am seriously concerned that our modern evangelical baptist churches don’t see just how abhorrent child sexual abuse is, when they choose to make a trophy of the offender’s life instead of rightly excluding them: no repentant sex offender who had their faith in Christ would deceive the leadership of their church or ever allow themselves to be around children. Period.

God has given us discernment and wisdom to protect against cheap grace. If a sex offender tells us molesting a child was a “one-time mistake” we can use our knowledge of how pedophilia works - that is, there is no known cure - to discern this person is likely lying and not being forthcoming. I struggle to fathom why Christian leaders cannot see this: if someone becomes grossly intoxicated from alcohol, it is obvious to everyone it was unlikely to be their first drink. Why is there a blind spot when it comes to sexual offenses?

If an offender is open that they are still attracted to children and struggle every day to not re-offend, that is honesty: that is what someone who trusts in Jesus would say to a church. But even that might just be a tactful lie to gain trust. We must continue to see repentance demonstrated in their life over a sustained period of time.

And even after that, we help them in their desire to not submit themselves to temptation again. That looks like the church and the offender both working to keep them away from children. 

So what are these churches thinking?

Here, we are left to guess, although I think these churches show their hand.

A haunting moment in the film For Our Daughters is when Andy Savage confesses (purely out of fear that his victim was soon to expose him) and the church’s response to this sexually abusive pastor is to applaud him. This also happened at the Village Church, Denton, after a members’ meeting concerning Steve Chandler, according to former members Chris and Anna.

“It’s very emotionally satisfying, to accept, quote unquote, “repentance”, to emotionally identify with the abuser. Because what it gives you is this very neat, tidy story of restoration, allegedly, right? It gives you this pretty little package with a bow on top where you can say, look how beautiful it is, God redeems. And it costs you nothing. It costs you something to side with the vulnerable and the weak and the oppressed.” Rachel Denhollander, in For Our Daughters (bold added)

In our former church, the offender was cited as a “trophy of God’s grace” and a “miracle.” Instead of seeing him as a danger and a threat, they see him as something to put in a trophy cabinet. What a wonderful, wholesome story. This tells us something about how they approach this issue.

When elders meet to discuss what to do about sex offenders, their focus is on avoiding shame for the offender and using him to glorify God (or perhaps even themselves, for how gracious they are). On creating a wonderful, beautiful story of redemption. There’s one problem: it’s rarely true, it’s usually a foul lie, and it’s always grossly offensive to victims. Congregations become complicit in this ignorance and deceit when they applaud along and praise the errors of their leaders.

Currently, from the perspective of church leaders, it’s preferable to make a trophy of the offender and endanger children, than risk being called judgmental for excluding them; yet that is exactly what the Bible tells us to do. We must change the balance of that equation - that’s exactly why I write this Substack. I hope it’s why you’re reading, and I pray that it’s why you’ll start conversations about this with other Christians you know and the leaders of your church, too.

“And they may pat themselves on the back and look at themselves and say, “Well, I never abused anyone”. They did. They did by perpetuating this system.” - Christa Brown in For Our Daughters

What’s the alternative to cheap grace?

For the offender, the answer is simple: minister to them outside the sanctuary. While we cannot be sure they are a Christian, we also cannot be sure they are not: where resources allow, we should meet with them away from children, in adult-only services or in a private residence.

For churches who refuse to do the right thing, we should consider the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer - a German Christian who refused to submit to the Nazis. He saw the same party attempt to weaponize the church in its evil mission, and he sadly saw the majority of Christians welcome it.

His words are more powerful than mine could ever be:

Cheap Grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace…

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Is the alternative to cheap grace an investigation that might lead to lawsuits against your church, costing elders their position? Then it is a costly price they should pay: in this case one that is largely paid in pride.

Is the alternative to cheap grace leaving a church which is someone’s center of their community for years? If so, it is a costly price they should pay.

Or in Bonhoeffer’s case: is the alternative to cheap grace being killed for refusing to affirm evil? His price was the same as Jesus’ - his life.