Christianity Today recently wrote an article about Pastor John MacArthur, highlighting a history of dismissing accusations and requests to investigate potential abuse.
Rather than to investigate and to take these accusations as potentially of substance, the requests were denied on the grounds that it was a distraction from doing Gospel work and as an attempt to smear the work of the church.
The tragic thing is that the accusations were true…
Which means there is a particular violence of turning a blind eye to issues in church cultures.
When what matters most is the “work being done” then there is often a line of people hurt, abused and overlooked in the back alley.
Recently, I read something from Peter Levine, a writer on trauma and healing.
Trauma is what happens when there is the absence of empathic witness and validation of someone else’s experience.
Peter Levine
The response of MacArthur and his church leadership was lacking empathic witness; it was cold dismissal under the guise of sounding holy. What was really happening was a systemic level of defense mechanisms, that were desperately trying to avoid facing the dark shadows of that church culture.
All this reminds me of an overlooked passage from the letter of Ephesians, a passage I have NEVER heard preached or taught on…
“But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.”
Ephesians 5:13
Everything exposed to the light becomes a light.
Turning a blind eye to issues is no virtue, it is cowardice. However, to shine a light on issues and to bring them out into full view has the ability to take a dark situation and make it a light, a learning experience and an occasion for healing rather than deepening trauma.
God is not honored by the violence of turning a blind eye to things.
God is honored by the courage of confronting abuse, oppression and systemic hurt.
May we honor God.
