Unconscionable

Last week in Memphis, pastor Steven Haney pled guilty to sexual abuse of two teen boys.

For people with eyes that are open, this single case reveals so much about what is so wrong with how Southern Baptists deal with clergy sex abuse.

Heaping hate onto those who speak out

In a plea agreement intended to allow the victims to avoid the stress of trial, Haney was sentenced to just eight years of probation on the sexual abuse charges. (He still faces federal charges on child pornography.)

For those of us who have lived through the hell of clergy sex abuse, it’s not hard to understand why the young men who were Haney’s victims may have felt enormous stress. The charges against Haney had been pending for almost two years.

To make matters worse, the victims were receiving anonymous mail from supporters of pastor Haney. The prosecutor described the mail as “unconscionable.”

But why should anyone be surprised by such hatefulness?

After all, this is a faith group whose highest leader wrote a column in a widely-dispersed Baptist publication saying that clergy abuse survivors were “nothing more than opportunistic persons.” And another former Southern Baptist president said we were “evil-doers,” and “just as reprehensible as sex criminals.”

When high religious leaders indulge such hateful remarks, they encourage a climate of hatefulness. Their words effectively tell others that meanness toward clergy abuse survivors is okay.

Others follow the example of such leaders and often take the hatefulness a step further.

I’ve been told about vandalized houses and awful name-calling, not to mention grocery-store glares. Many clergy abuse survivors and their families simply move away from their communities because the ugliness of what surrounds them becomes too unbearable.

I suppose the name-callers and anonymous letter-senders think they’re serving God? That thought only makes such hatefulness seem all the more frightening.

Rather than helping to fuel such hate, why don’t church and denominational leaders speak out publicly and persistently against it? I suppose it’s because what they really want is for clergy abuse survivors to shut up and go away so that the truth of their stories won’t reflect poorly on the faith. The more hate they fling, the more likely it is that they’ll be able to make that happen.

But of course, it seems like a feeble faith if it can’t tolerate truth. Maybe that’s why they resort to such hatefulness to try to silence abuse survivors. Maybe they’re afraid the smallness of their own faith will be revealed to them, and maybe what they really fear is seeing that smallness inside themselves.

Putting it in the past fast

Haney’s prior church decided to put the past behind and start fresh. The church changed its name from Walnut Grove to Gracepoint.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if a simple name-change could put it in the past for clergy survivors? But of course, it’s not so easy for the survivors, particularly when they’ve not only been abused as kids by a pastor-perpetrator, but have also been further wounded by the hatefulness of so many others.

And let’s not forget that, according to news accounts, there’s good reason to believe that these aren’t the first of Haney’s victims. This is a church that tried too fast to put it in the past once before.

Ignoring prior accusations

In the mid-1990s, there were allegations that pastor Steven Haney abused another teen. Thirty families left the church at that time.

What else could they do? There wasn’t any sort of state or national denominational review board where they could have taken their concerns. There still isn’t.

So, despite dreadfully serious accusations, there was no one in Southern Baptist leadership who would even look into it. Haney wasn’t thrown in jail and so he was free to stay in a Baptist pulpit.

And what happened? More kids got hurt. Haney was allowed to pervert faith and pastoral authority into weapons for child molestation.

Perhaps Haney’s more recent victims could have been spared if only someone in denominational leadership had cared enough to responsibly assess the prior allegations against him. And perhaps Haney’ prior victim could have been spared the additional anguish and betrayal of seeing that no one in his faith community cared enough to actually do anything.

The message that Southern Baptists’ do-nothingness sent to Haney’s prior victim was “you don’t matter.”

The message that Southern Baptists’ do-nothingness sent to Haney was “carry-on.”

Those are messages every bit as unconscionable as hateful letters.