Faith Works 2-29-20

Faith Works 2-29-20

Jeff Gill

 

Pain from the past, healing for the future

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Yes, I had an "extra" column last week about the recent announcement that the Boy Scouts of America is declaring bankruptcy due to past claims against the organization around child abuse, and changes in many states to open up the statue of limitations to the 1970s and earlier. I won't rehash my sad acceptance of the necessity of that act, or why I'm still committed to the Scouting program as it is today.

 

The stories of former cases woke a number of memories for me. I have never been molested, but dealing with multiple cases of that horrible circumstance, and the denial so many in authority were in back in the 1980s & 90s, and still in some quarters today, is not a pleasant recollection.

 

And then at the end of the week, a person I've never met but whose work and writings have long inspired me, Jean Vanier of L'Arche (a global ministry with people having disabilities and cognitive impairments) was revealed after an investigation to have had inappropriate relationships with a number of people, while in his position of authority and responsibility. He died last year at the age of 90, but it was still hard to read those stories today. I was surprised and shocked and in sorrow over it. Again. But I shouldn't have been, I guess.

 

The Catholic priest who first talked to me, at Scout camp, about my having a call to ministry -- in my own tradition, not his! -- and encouraged me in developing those gifts was slated to do a scripture reading at my ordination. At the last minute, he was transferred to Arizona. I learned later he was suspected of molesting young men at his parish, and is now in prison for life after being convicted of molesting young men in Arizona.

 

So another friend, a Methodist pastor who had served as waterfront director at the Scout camp I ran one last year after getting married, stepped in and did the scripture reading. He was later convicted of molesting boys in his care, released after serving his time, and re-offended. He was married with a child, a Vietnam veteran and former police officer. He almost certainly committed acts at camp but was never charged with any. He died a few years ago, his family insisting he never did anything wrong despite multiple witnesses and convictions to the contrary. His obituary broke my heart.

 

I've been lied to and lied about by regional ministers in my own tradition. Plural. And I've had to help clean up the damage in pastoral mopping and sweeping, up to and including suicide, left by fellow clergy who have had affairs while in service with congregations that trusted them. I've lost count of the conversations I've had with people whose faith is rattled but not shaken in God's grace, but their trust in the church is demolished down to the foundations and a wobbling remnant cornerstone.

 

Thomas Merton's relationships with women, outside of the monastery where he did so much good work that's blessed many for so long, were inappropriate at best, exploitative at worst; Vanier's were not with the core members of L'Arche but still with volunteers and peers and so were still unhealthy and abusive, as he would have well known. Painful though it might be, I think we have to talk about these things and admit them and try to learn from them, to be cautious if not suspicious, to exempt no one from following the rules no matter how respected or loved. Guidelines exist to keep you on the road and out of the ditch; anyone who says they have a special right to wander all over the road and on and off the right-of-way at will should be mistrusted immediately.

 

You cannot tell at a glance, or even necessarily on long acquaintance, who is going to transgress, and some need up to protect them from themselves, let alone to be on guard on behalf of those who can't protect themselves.

 

Because you really can't tell other than: do they follow the rules and honor restrictions, or do they think the rules are for other people? The only way to know is to insist everyone follow them, and enforce accordingly.

 

I should know by now, but I keep getting surprised anyhow.

 

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

~ Psalm 118:8

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he knows to trust in the Lord but keeps hoping a few more people could be trustworthy. Tell him how you hold onto your faith at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.