I want to start of by saying that I refer to myself as “Jane” on this blog and on my twitter account. To be clear, I am not a “Jane” in this first story that I am sharing. However, I am a “Jane” in another Christian setting that I plan to share following this story due to my relationship to a minor child within the story.
Unlike many of the other stories that have been shared regarding misconduct in Christian environments, this is not related to a sexual offense or physical abuse. Similarities include that some of the misconduct was criminal in nature. Rather than reporting it to the local authorities, the financial misconduct or “indiscretion” as it was described was handled internally and with very little transparency. The lack of transparency from the church leadership caused a lot of confusion and created a sense of distrust among the congregation. While the church leadership was successful in protecting the offender from criminal consequences, I believe the congregation instead suffered the consequences. When an offender is protected from consequences, it doesn’t erase the debt that is created from the sin/crime. Someone will pay. If the misconduct is covered up through deception and obfuscation, an additional sin has been committed, compounding the wrong and thereby compounding the burden of the sin.
While abuses against the human body are far more damaging to the victims, misusing the funds that God has entrusted to the church is unethical, sinful, and may be a crime in some instances. Not only are churches and Christian leaders entrusted and tasked with caring for the souls of their congregation, the church is accountable to God for the proper stewardship of His funds.
While keeping up with the SBC annual meeting last week, I read statements from multiple leaders that it is Biblical to report criminal misconduct in the church setting. I don’t know if they feel the same way about reporting financial misconduct or not.
We know that Scripture says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” A pastor or church leadership does not all of the sudden turn a switch and minimize and obfuscate sinful and potentially criminal conduct within the church. Scripture makes it clear that the practice of deception increases sequentially. When “big” deceptions have been found that includes the covering up of physical and sexual abuse, likely there have been other relatively “smaller” or less series deceptions in the past. Likewise, when deceptions of a lower consequence are not dealt with properly, it should not be surprising to find greater deceptions down the road.
Prior to bring this story online, I have brought this information to the attention to the local law enforcement. The first set of attempts were within the Statute of Limitations as far as I know. I was brushed off in my first attempts. Thinking that my interactions with the first officers were very odd, I made a second set of attempts to contact the local law enforcement. I did receive a call back from the department after I sent some emails describing my observations and concerns in greater detail. Though, when I went into the department to follow up, I was told it was past the statute of limitations.
In addition, I have communicated with current staff at the church and communicated all that I believed could be potentially improper conduct, whether it be illegal or simply unethical. The senior level staff from this church have all resigned and moved onto other churches or employment.
While it is difficult to share this story, my hope is that it will ultimately be redemptive. I wonder if the various people involved could go back in time, would they want to change how they responded following the discovery of the misconduct? Would they advise another congregation or set of leaders to respond differently? Maybe some are satisfied with the way events transpired and feel like the situation was handled appropriately.
There are several things I would like to highlight before I share the sequence of events. I am not sharing this story to shame the individuals involved. Instead, I think there is a lot to learn from the situation in terms of leadership practices both before and after the discovery of the misconduct. I believe it would be helpful for other churches to learn from this situation so that churches can find a better way forward both on the prevention and response side. Secondly, these events transpired in Middle Tennessee, which many endearingly refer to as the “buckle of the Bible belt”. When I made my first attempts in contacting the local law enforcement department, I was questioned and brushed off. The church is highly revered in my area and any scrutiny directed at a church or anyone associated with a church is looked upon with suspicion by many, and it appears that some in law enforcement have a lasseiz-faire attitude toward criminal misconduct in the church, particularly with respect to financial crimes. I would like to share how these factors along with various leadership practices within the church make it difficult to confront criminal misconduct in the church.
In my next blog post, I will be sharing the specific course of effects starting with the church’s first disclosure up until the present time.