481-Church Scandals Aren’t Random: How Ignorance Paves the Way for More Harm

Church Scandals Aren’t Random: How Ignorance Paves the Way for More Harm

A Funny, Painful Story (That’s Actually Very Relevant)

Before we dive into heavy stuff, let me tell you a story. 4 weeks and 2 days ago...

Picture this: I’m flat on my back, in the middle of the street, 20 feet away from a car that thankfully didn’t roll over me.

I’m convinced something’s stabbing into my heart. Pain is shooting through my body in so many places. A kind lady rushes from her porch to help me hobble to safety while the ambulance is called.

As I wait there's constant pain, but when I move in certain ways it suddenly becomes utterly excruciating.

No idea what I hit. No idea what actually happened.

Things were going great for the two hours I was on my OneWheel before the accident. 

What the heck happened? And what is happening now?

Some neighbor kids stop and check in. I ask them to pray for me and I lead them in a prayer in Jesus name... that was a comfort from strangers.

The ambulance finally arrives -- after it seems like forever -- and load me onto a stretcher. They were sure I dislocated my shoulder and were insisting to pull me up. I knew that wasn't what was wrong.

I was embarrassingly vocal about not being helped up. I seemed to feel every single pothole on the way to hospital. 

Arriving in the hospital... the random excruciating shoots through my chest continued -- oh, and so did my resulting involuntary screams. (No recordings were taken, thank God :)

So, the morphine helped and the oxy-whatever they gave me next.

But what really changed everything was the x-rays.

They finally discover the truth:

My clavicle was snapped clean through.

Knowing what was actually wrong changed everything.

I finally had clarity.
I finally had a path toward healing — real healing — not just numbing the pain.

I finally could understand how to move in a way that avoided the excruciating pain and actually kept things in place to heal most effectively.

THIS is what’s happening in the Church right now.

We have an injury. It's bad. Really, really, really bad.

But instead of diagnosing it, we often just take some spiritual "morphine" — slap on platitudes, excuses, or cover-ups — and hope healing happens.

It doesn't.

Tragically, thousands of new cases are reported yearly... in the church of Jesus Christ around the world. This is horrifying.

And the Church's sexual scandals are not random.

They are not "one-off" tragedies.
They are the result of deep, hidden roots — an injury we have to address if we want healing.

Church Hurt: Ignoring the Pain Doesn’t Heal It