LEFT WITH NOTHING
During this great persecution of the Christian Church in the United States, I think leaders need a biblical perspective.
They need it because they are missing so much in their search for a path out of the vast disdain that has enveloped them in recent weeks.
The Catholic bishops want the mess to go away. They claim a desire to do right, but then their love of money forces them to pull out at the last minute.
Our local Catholic archbishop, Harry Flynn, has been appointed to lead the bishops into a new policy concerning sexual abuse. Get ready for disappointment, because no big changes will come out of Flynn's committee.
In Boston, Bernard Law decided he would pay each of the 86 victims of sexual abuse about $400,000, a sum that adds up to millions of bucks just to make the current scandal go away. In addition, the number of abuse victims has increased so dramatically in recent days that Law apparently began to wonder if there was enough money in the church's coffers to buy the silence of every victim.
So it wasn't much of a surprise when Law's finance council would not approve the payoff; and the Cardinal, one of the highest priests in the land, had to reverse his decision and back out. On the playgrounds of my childhood, we had a name for a guy like that.
Of course, it was Law who had moved priests from parish to parish even after it was proven they were sexual predators. Ultimately it was Law's crime. He was the brains of the outfit, the guy who made all the abuse possible. But even after a hasty confession, he is unable to pay the final price for this horrible history, to pay off the victims and then resign his elevated office.
I'm thinking church leaders need to read again the Book of Acts where the church started with a small group of believers. Law is concerned about preserving the church's riches, "We would have nothing left", he said the other day when the reversal was announced.
The truth is, when the church began, there was no wealth. People sold what they owned and gave it to the church. And the people lived communally with every person having exactly the same amount of money. They did not disdain wealth but they certainly did not worship money. Their mission was the salvation of souls and the just treatment of human beings.
For instance, there was a magician named Simon who had amazed people with his tricks. But then Peter and John came to town and Simon watched them baptize believers with the Holy Spirit. He wanted the same power, so Simon offered Peter and John money if they would give him the same gifts.
They refused and Peter said, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money! You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness...." (Acts 8, NRSV)
That's the message the leaders of Christianity need to hear - how the love of money has corrupted the church. The question is, who will ever again trust the church unless it gives money away to victims and is left with nothing?
Clark D. Morphew
Posted For 5-8-02