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Criminal Conduct in the Pulpits of America

What Does God Want Done?

The staff of Titus 2 is saddened by the number of people who have sent us mail through the web site: people wounded and bleeding from the sexual misconduct and abusive actions of people on church staffs.  For over a year we have been searching for an article which Biblically addresses what God wants people to do when there is criminal conduct consisting of complacency, complicity and conspiracy.  When this article was presented to us we knew God had answered both our prayers and our searching.  We want to thank Pastor Jerald Manley for his permission to publish this to our web site.

Before you read this text I would suggest you ask God to open your mind to His truth.  Many people who read this may reject that any of this happens…while many others feel  with great agony its validity…for they live with the lasting affects from these kinds of crime.  ~~Sharon

Betrayal

Preface

No believer rejoices when another believer stumbles and falls. Apostates and devils celebrate; believers mourn. No preacher is sinless. The chambers of the imagery of every believer, even of preachers, require periodic cleansing. Except for grace and for fear, none would endure the temptations of life. Even so, preachers must be held to the biblical standard of accountability. To do less, is to diminish the holiness of the call to preach. To do less, is to remove the deterrent of fear and turns grace into license. To do less, is to insult the Chief Shepherd. Sadly, to do less is the present pattern.           —Pastor Manley

THE CHARGE:

Criminal Conduct Consisting Of Complacency, Complicity, and Conspiracy

THE INDICTMENT:

The religious organization known as the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) has received a well-deserved public pillorying for immorality—particularly homosexuality in the form of pedophilia—among its ordained priests. The contamination has subjected the RCC to multiple lawsuits that have required unknown millions in reparations or ‘buy-off’ dollars and have caused a dramatic decline in receipts from membership. The vast majority of the clerics are not accused; however, all RCC clergy are suspected because of the transferred taint of the degenerate priests.

The rest of the story is that the unimaginable human destruction is the production of less than ten percent (estimates range from 4% to 8%) of that priesthood. Those most affected are the very individuals that should have been protected from that very wickedness by these same priests.

But, that is not the worst of the story. The greater wrath of the RCC communicants and of the nation is reserved for the leadership of the RCC that has consistently, through an organized and sanctioned manner, covered over the reprehensible conduct of these relative few. While the hierarchy obviously knew the dangers of the predilections of the reprobate priests, no congregations were ever warned and the children of the RCC families were left unprotected—even worse, those children were knowingly delivered into the ‘care’ of known defilers. Priests were systematically transferred to avoid exposure—sometimes ‘promoted’ to larger dioceses. The continuing exposure of fresh new innocents to the seductive abilities of proven perverts and the resultant corruption and carnage are rightly deemed unacceptable by both the laity of the RCC, the public at large, and the legal system of this land.

The despicable lives of these depraved priests have become the topic of news broadcasts and have prompted lengthy articles in major and minor national publications in addition to the numerous lawsuits. Indignant Baptist pulpits and publications have devoted time and space to pontificate upon the vileness of the confessional priesthood. The old book about the priest and the confessional has gained a new popularity. However, this Baptist righteous indignation is mote-pulling and beam-avoiding. Baptists are unworthy to cast any stones; Baptists are as guilty of the same conspiracy of silence and concealment as is any RCC bishop.

The author of Ministerial Ethics, Joe Trull, asserts that thirty to thirty-five percent of those in the ministry admit to having “sexual relationships” with “other than a marriage partner.” He reports that over half of these “encounters” were connected to “pastoral counseling.” His research suggests that, in a directory of preachers with twenty-four names on a page an average of eight of those preachers should have a scarlet letter on their collar. A hundred such pages would contain more than eight hundred pastors who have violated their office. A listing of 4000 would include 1200 to 1500 pastors who had “sexual relationships” with “other than a marriage partner.” The mind is stunned into numbness by such horribleness and struggles to refuse to accept the possibility of such proportions.

I have no way to verify Trull’s research and it is not restricted to Baptist pulpits but includes a wide range of ministers; however, I am not prone to challenge it, based upon observation. Whether the quantity is correct or not, the plentiful presence of adulterers, pedophiles, and homosexuals in the Baptist ministry cannot be denied. But, even that is not the worst of the story.

The worst of the story is that Baptist preachers, Baptist pulpits, Baptist publications, and Baptist conventions, associations, conferences, and fellowships have a propensity to cover the immorality of their own fellow-preachers and, with the sanction of the silence and/or the active participation of the leadership, to organize their own programs knowingly to relocate the perpetrators of depravity into unsuspecting congregations filled with potential fresh victims. Baptists are no less guilty on all counts than is the RCC. This is not a suspicion on my part: I have witnessed it and I have been victimized by it.

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