Spiritual Dynamics in the Abuse Scandals

American evangelicals have often looked to UK leaders such as John Stott for inspiration. But while there have been many wonderful examples of faith in the British evangelical church, that same constituency is having to reckon with the chronic abuse perpetrated by a handful of leaders and enabled by a much broader network. In particular, this week saw the publication of a review of the physical, psychological, and sexual abuse committed by a prominent London-based pastor named Jonathan Fletcher. He was enabled to continue his behavior over decades, and he even continued in ministry after his right to minister had been formally removed. It is important that such reports are engaged with, lamented, and reflected on from a number of different perspectives.

But there seems to be a lot of confusion about how to understand these scandals from the most important perspective of all: the spiritual. If we don’t see what’s happening spiritually, then all the other perspectives are lacking, because the spiritual aspect pervades and profoundly influences all the others.

How should we understand the spiritual dynamics? Are the abuse scandals just “the Devil having a field day” (a phrase I’ve heard a number of times), or is something more going on? How should we understand abusers? Are they sinners whom we should pray for, longing for their repentance and forgiveness? Is it right to say things like “There but for the grace of God there go I”?

The dictionary definition of lament is ‘to express passionate grief about something’ but biblical lament is not simply crying out into the ether, but specifically crying out to God and expressing to him the pain we, or others, are experiencing. It has been said that to cry is human, but to lament is Christian.

Think, for a moment, of:

• The book of Job (which is one long lament)
• The prophets Jeremiah & Ezekiel lamenting over the sins of God’s people.
• Daniel & David lamenting over the suffering they were enduring.
• Jesus himself lamenting over Jerusalem.
• The fact that over a third of the Psalms are Psalms of Lament.
• And we have a whole book of the Bible called Lamentations.

The Bible is full of lament. The Bible expects us to lament. It is one of the main ways the Bible encourages us to respond to the pain and suffering we face in a fallen world and certainly one of the main ways that we can respond to the abuse scandals that have come to light recently in the evangelical Church.

The Apostle Paul, whilst not indulging in hyperbole, says he is the ‘foremost’ or ‘worst’ of sinners’ (1 Timothy 1:15). Does this therefore mean that anyone could become an abuser? As evangelicals, we can be good at not ‘cartoon-ising’ people. We know the world does not divide up into ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23 ESV).

However, we need to avoid the contrasting danger of normalising sin and particularly normalising egregious sin like abuse. Abuse is not ‘just sin’, but as Dr. Diane Langberg points out, because abuse means literally to ‘misuse power’, ‘Any study of power misused is also always a study of deception, first of the self and then of others.’

This self-deception requires a persistent hardening of heart to the conscience. Well does Scripture warn of ‘the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared’ (1 Timothy 4:2 ESV). It requires a deep distortion of how someone views others, no longer image bearers but mere pawns in a game of satisfying their lusts (sexual, power, or other). To abuse someone, and then even worse to abuse repeatedly and cover it up, requires a long and concerted journey down a very dark road. So whilst, yes because sin is so evil, every human being has the capacity for such egregious sin, no there is nothing ‘normal’ about abuse at all.

Similarly this means we need to be starkly realistic about the prospects of repentance. We should note that whilst Jesus urges us to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44), he pronounces woe on spiritual leaders who abuse their position (Matthew 23:13-39). There is something fundamentally different between the spiritual state of a non-Christian who sins, even to the extent of persecuting Christ’s people (like Paul for example), and a ‘Christian’ leader who has tasted the heavenly gift, and has shared in the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 6:4) but has chosen such a path of self-deceit. God’s grace in Christ is so remarkable and shocking that it may be sufficient for their forgiveness, but the layers of calluses on their hearts, and their seared conscience means that Scripture more normally sees them as having ‘taken the way of Cain… they have been destroyed by Korah’s rebellion’ (Jude 11).