Jim Wright is a church sower, public but unassuming, thinker, mentor, teacher, local church elder, motivated by redemption, foe of tyrants, friend of the dispossessed, retired international attorney, entrepreneur, former private pilot, and so-so bass fisherman.
Marianne is a retired public school teacher, private but strong, heart, skilled counselor, knows deep intimacy with God, a comfort to others in the Lord, wise, motivated by mercy but has strong resolve, gardener, and a bridge to healing for many.
Together, we have been part of a community of simple, participatory fellowships for many years in our own home county - some of which we helped start.
Our blogs and devotionals spring from firm roots in those local fellowships.
Crossroad Junction 
Amen!
The abuser no matter who he is should be turned over to the proper authorities. We have no business protecting the abuser. We become an accomplice to the crime if we choose to cover it up also.
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I agree. However, sometimes civil authorities are unable to intervene because of issues like the statute of limitations. For example, in Virginia you can’t file suit in civil court over the sexual abuse of a teen who has turned 18 if the assault happened more than two years ago. Many states are the same.
Likewise, not all states make it illegal for a “pastor” to sexually exploit a woman who is seeing him for counseling – even though it would be illegal for an attorney, doctor, secular counselor, teacher or any other helping professional to do so.
Thus, the issue of cover up is not so much over whether to report such abuse to civil authorities, but whether to openly deal with it within the church.
But when we can report and seek outside intervention by civil authorities, in addition to dealing with it within the church and warning others after appropriate Biblical procedures are followed, we certainly should!
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Wow, your following statement blew me away. “…not all states make it illegal for a “pastor” to sexually exploit a woman who is seeing him for counseling – even though it would be illegal for an attorney, doctor, secular counselor, teacher or any other helping professional to do so.”
The state might not think a “Pastor” is guilty but in the eyes of God is another story. There is no good reason to cover up abuse!
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I have often heard it said, in cases I’ve been involved with, that a church leader must be innocent because he was never arrested. What they refuse to acknowledge, however, is that under the circumstances, civil authorities may have been precluded from arresting him because of legal technicalities – like the victim being so traumatized that she waited too long to actually reveal the abuse or that particular state’s laws not criminalizing sexual predation against women in the context of counseling or other “ministry” in the church. This DOES NOT excuse us, however, from needing to then separately deal with it under proper Biblical procedures, like 1 Tim. 5:19-21.
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Also, not all kinds of abuse are illegal, such as verbal abuse, i.e. slander and reviling. And spiritual abuse that misuses pastoral “authority.”
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Yup.
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Amen and I believe that American Christians should repent of complicity in the sin´s of “We the People´s” violent arms in the states and around the globe. It is a peculiarly stubborn trait that American Christians will defend even to the point of accusing Jesus of backing the vile nonsense.
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Amen. Martin Luther King said, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts without protesting against it really is cooperating with it.”
The very truth you speak of here has propelled me to use my voice to speak up for the victims, beginning in my own situation. Your simple message of three sentences says everything.
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