Richard Land talks on Spitzer but quiet on clergy

Richard Land went to the trouble of writing a column about New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s use of prostitutes. Land is president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

Since Land is supposedly the SBC’s top-dog on ethics-related issues, you might have thought he would have leaped into the fray to urge Southern Baptist leaders onward in addressing the clergy sex abuse problem and in ministering to the victims. But so far, he’s been remarkably quiet.

He didn’t waste any time, however, in talking about the victims of Eliot Spitzer.

Land talks about how the prostitution business “systematically and ruthlessly exploits” the women. Now, mind you, I’m not taking issue with Land on the exploitation of prostitutes. But what I can’t understand is why he’s not at least equally concerned about how so many Southern Baptist clergy “systematically and ruthlessly exploit” kids and vulnerable congregants in their churches.

And make no mistake about it. Despite some of the Baptist brochures I’ve seen, clergy abuse isn’t something that happens inadvertently when ministers “fall into sexual sin.” It happens because they “systematically and ruthlessly” exploit someone who trusts them completely, and it’s often a child.

For far too many of us, the rapist was a trusted Baptist minister, the house of horror was a Baptist church, and the instrument of torture was the “inerrant word of God.” We were degraded into nothing but sex-toys to serve perverse biblical con-men. But you don’t hear Land talking about that, do you?

Instead, Land tells us about how prostitutes often get started in order to support a drug habit. Why doesn’t he talk instead about how it gets started for kids who are abused by clergy? I’ll tell you why. Because it’s even uglier than drug addiction.

For kids abused in Southern Baptist churches, it gets started because they make the terrible mistake of trusting a minister and submitting to his view of biblical authority and divine revelation. Of course, it’s really not fair to call it a “mistake,” when in reality, trusting their ministers is the only thing they’ve ever known. Trusting their ministers is so much a part of their world-view that it would simply never occur to them to do otherwise. It would be like choosing whether or not to breathe. You don’t choose. You simply breathe.

Land takes time to talk about the “devastating psychological and physical harm” inflicted on prostitutes. But you don’t hear him talking about the devastating harm inflicted on clergy abuse victims, do you? You don’t hear him talking about their post-traumatic stress disorders, their shattered faith, or their inability to trust. You don’t hear him talking about how many clergy victims never set foot in a church again or never pray again because the dark shame of the abuse is neurologically networked with their faith. All of this seems to simply bypass Land’s attention.

Instead, he wants to talk about prostitution’s “sad and tragic parade” of additional victims – the spouse and children of Spitzer. Do you think he’s ever pondered the parade of additional victims that clergy abuse leaves in its wake?

Parents wonder why their child becomes estranged, but it’s common in the clergy abuse context. Relationships are torn asunder as victims, feeling inexplicably betrayed by all, pull away from everything connected to the past. Years later, the fall-out continues as spouses wind up on the front-line of trying to deal with their mate’s psychological and sexual trauma and of trying to save them from suicide. The next generation suffers also as children often wind up with an emotionally numb parent or one too depressed to be there for them.

But Land doesn’t talk about these victims, does he? These sorts of victims get shoved in the shadows. Why? Because the perpetrators are so-called men of God who carry the same “Southern Baptist” brand as Land.

So rather than hit too close to home, Land stays on a safe subject and talks about Eliot Spitzer.

But here’s the thing about the Spitzer case that caught my own attention. Look how quickly Spitzer was pushed to resign when his use of prostitutes came to light. Why aren’t Southern Baptist clergy forced to resign when child molestation comes to light?

Spitzer hasn’t been convicted of anything, but he’s already resigned. Typically, Southern Baptist clergy aren’t even suspended pending investigation. But of course, typically, there isn’t any investigation. No one seems to care. Allegations are ignored and victims are silenced.

So many times we’ve seen Southern Baptist men who continue as ministers even after they’ve admitted to abuse, even after there is “substantial evidence” of abuse, and even after criminal convictions.

Why isn’t Land using the Baptist Press to publish those mens’ deeds? Why isn’t he writing columns saying “get those men out of the pulpit and do it now!”?

Why isn’t Land using his top-dog ethics position to call to task all the other Southern Baptist leaders who have allowed the clergy abuse scourge to persist by turning a blind-eye?

Perhaps it’s because Land himself is right there among them. With Southern Baptists and clergy sex abuse, it’s the blind leading the blind.