CREEDE HINSHAW: The lightness and darkness of the church

Are you disgruntled with your church, synagogue, Sunday School class, choir group, small group, etc.?

While the year is still fresh, let’s acknowledge once again there’s no religious group without wart or blemish.

The Wall Street Journal carried two articles about the church (Saturday/Sunday Jan. 20-21), one above the other. I don’t know whether an enlightened editor placed them intentionally or whether it was s fortuitous, but the articles highlighted both the very good and very bad of the church.

The first article was headlined “Pope’s Defense of Bishop Criticized.” If you’ve followed Pope Francis’ recent trip, you know this pontiff made major missteps in Chile by defending a bishop widely accused of sexually predatory practices and coverups.

Francis, seemingly impatient with victims and accusers, peremptorily dismissed their concerns and devalued their pain. His comments were so harsh that he was dressed down by one of his own archbishops and later apologized for his remarks.

The second article was headlined, “Tensions Rise in Congo as President Keeps Grip on Power.” I’ve previously written about this long-running story. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s President Joseph Kabila refuses to relinquish power, even reneging on a plan negotiated by the Roman Catholic Church to surrender his office.

The Catholic Church is one of the few Congolese institutions with moral credibility. Because Kabila has been unyielding, the Catholic leadership called last week for protest marches to bring him to his senses. The government banned the protest, but the church courageously proceeded (as it does in Cuba), joined by Protestants and Muslims.

The Nairobi march began after Mass. Six people were killed by soldiers, including a 16-year-old girl standing by a church door. Ten priests were arrested and marchers bearing rosaries and Bibles were beaten. The church is not going to back down over injustice.

These stories — one from Africa, the other from South America — illustrate on a macro scale what every person in a religious organization knows. The church is a mixture of darkness and light.

The sexual exploitation of children or the coverup of such heinous, sinful activity, especially in a religious organization, is indefensible. It is a crime so horrific that many persons – with justification — have left the church forever.

On the other side of the ledger, the church – in many places – is the only credible authority to speak to power, to defend the powerless and to work for personal and social holiness.

I am not trying to draw equivalencies. When it comes to remaining in an organization, some sins can’t be cancelled out by other kinds of good. Those victimized by church sexual abuse and further wounded by coverups and denials of the church have good cause to walk away. The wonder is many have remained. And though I can’t speak for their motives for staying, perhaps their continued faithfulness is a desire to purify a soiled church and/or the recognition that the church, very imperfect, remains a vehicle for much good in the world.

In smaller, less significant dilemmas, most members of any religious community find themselves weighing the good against the bad and deciding how or whether to remain faithful.

Contact columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].