“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

Matthew 7:5

The culture war has become an integral facet of American life, and evangelical Christians lead the charge on most fronts. Recently a focus on protecting children from “groomers” has emerged. This is a classic propaganda trick meant to cause reactions based on fear. They say teachers are groomers for teaching sex ed. LGBTQ+ are groomers for living their lives and holding events, and the list can go on. However, as part of this supposedly important front of the war, the Christian church has forgotten to address its own issues first. Why do we see protests at gay pride events and abortion clinics, but not churches? Why aren’t people handing out fliers to churchgoers educating them on their church practices as they walk into the church just like they do to vulnerable young women? In this post, I’m only going to cover two of the largest religious groups to have a documented history of child sexual abuse. However, this is an issue that affects many churches and is covered up and normalized by church culture.

Catholic Child Sexual Abuse

“Pedophiles the world over. If you want to do that insufferable thing you do without care, concern, and/or worry; become a Catholic priest. Birds of a feather.”

A.K. Kuykendall, The Confessional

The Catholic Church is infamous the world over for the numerous abuse scandals, coverups, and broken lives left in its wake. The numbers are staggering. One independent French commission estimated the number of children abused in France between 1950 and 2020 to sit at 330,000…that is just France. Across the world, the Catholic church has been involved in coverups, payoffs, and court cases. However, there appear to have been few systemic changes made to address the problem. The Vatican especially seems keen, at least on the surface, to punish sexual predators. However, this trickles down to local dioceses, which are at best inconsistent in punishing offenders. Christians would do well to protest at their local catholic churches.

Southern Baptist Child Abuse

“We shouldn’t enjoy this Catholic mess too much. We’re waiting on the other shoe to drop, and when it does, don’t be surprised if there is more and more within our ranks.”

Bobby Welch, prior president of Southern Baptist Convention, 2002

The Southern Baptist Convention has been a huge driving force in American culture and politics. It has supported many conservative policies and agendas and has been consistently opposed to gay marriage rights, women’s rights, and even civil rights. Recently a formerly secret list compiled by the SBC was released, and it detailed over 700 cases of abuse by pastors, Sunday school teachers, counselors, musicians, drivers, and missionaries. Most of these perpetrators were caught, and served jail time, meaning it is just the tip of the iceberg. Many cases are never reported, or reported too late to be acted on.

Conservative religious environments often lead to a culture of abuse. They attract abusers who look for a target-rich and low-risk environment. You can further see how these situations are handled. The first question asked about a situation should NOT be “What was the victim wearing,” this just shows how the blame is shifted from the perpetrator to the victim. Victims are often not believed, ridiculed, paid off, or blamed for what happened. Plus, why should the abusers change when they are wiped clean by the blood of the lamb? Christians who spend much of their time protesting “evil” should pick the beam out of their own eye.