Trust

When I was a teenager, I worked for a veterinarian in my hometown. One day, as we were performing a routine procedure on a dog, he asked me what my dad did for a living. I said, “he’s a pastor.” Without looking up, the vet said, “I won’t hold that against you.” I was a little taken aback because I thought everybody trusted pastors. This was in 1983 when about 67% of people said they trusted clergy. In 2002, however, in the wake of all of the child abuse scandals of the Catholic Church, the rate of trust plummeted to 52%. But the decline of trust wasn’t done yet. After two more decades of pastors, priests and ministry leaders having affairs, abusing finances, demeaning staff and sexually abusing women and children, in 2018 the percentage of trust plummeted to a mere 37%, slightly above used car salesman and politicians. As I write this in 2020, I suspect that by now, it’s even lower. It’s frustrating. I’m a pastor. 

As such, I know a lot of other pastors, ministry leaders and a few priests. Most of these men and women are hardworking, loving people who care deeply for those whom God has entrusted to them. We work longs hours and don’t get paid very much. We are available 24 hours a day and are only a phone call away to provide prayer, spiritual guidance, love, and perhaps most of all, grace. We listen to, weep with, and care for the people of our congregations. But we also have had to recognize that our institutions protected bad behavior. Our boards, denominations and dioceses covered up abusive behavior, dismissed the testimony of the abused and protected the abuser so that the institution’s reputation would be preserved. Abuse was “handled” internally, which means it wasn’t handled at all. 

But then people had enough. They began to speak up. They brought charges. They forced their leaders to hear them and to take action, and to some extent, leaders did. Pastors, priests and ministry leaders were fired, defrocked and prosecuted for abusive or illegal behavior. Boards and denominations put in place systems of accountability and greater financial controls. Diocese began to investigate with greater urgency the claims of those abused. It’s far from perfect and there is still a whole lot of work to be done, but it’s a beginning. The layers of protection for abusive behavior are being pulled back little by little and I’m glad for it because I haven’t had affairs, stolen money, abused staff or volunteers. I certainly haven’t sexually abused women or children. 

I also recognize that this isn’t really about good clergy or bad clergy. It’s about a system that protects bad behavior. And when bad behavior is protected, it proliferates whether there are good clergy or not. The system needs to change. I want it to change. I’m ready for people to trust again.

For many of us, law enforcement reform is not about good cops or bad cops. We recognize that most cops are hard-working, honest and brave men and women who regularly place their lives in dangerous situations to serve and protect our communities. Everyone I know is grateful and supportive. 

But this is about a system that too often protects poor behavior. A system conditioned to silence and secrecy, where leaders are not held accountable to expose and to punish bad behavior. 

 That’s all. 

It needs to be changed. Let’s change if for the people who are being harmed. Let’s change it for the good cops we love. Let’s change it so we can trust again.