Friday Night Theology

Child Abuse and the Church

22 May 2009

This isn't the FNT I was planning to write. In my mind, I had this idea about writing an FNT which linked our recent loss of faith in parliament due to the MP's expenses scandal with the loss of faith in God that occurs when Christians behave badly, such as that detailed in this week's Catholic child abuse enquiry. I was going to say that there is little logic in such loss of faith because God is not the same as the church. The church may at times do awful things, but that has little relevance to what God is actually like. The argument sounded good, and logically it is valid.

But then I read the child abuse enquiry…

And I changed my mind.

The report is simply shocking. Each one of the stories is atrocious in itself. You read a few, think that things can't get worse, and then they do. Each one would make you seethe with anger were it not for the pain that you're feeling on behalf of those abused. But then you realise the numbers involved. This was not just one or two children, and one or two perpetrators. It was hundreds and hundreds spread over years and years. And then as some kind of incredibly cruel irony, you appreciate that much of this abhorrence was metered out at the hands of those who called themselves servants of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday the newly appointed Archbishop of Westminster came in for some stick for appearing to downplay the abuse by drawing attention to the 'courage' of those who owned up to their sin. Initially, I thought that was unfair, that the media as ever were giving him an unduly hard time. But then I read the report and now understand the perspective of those accusing him. For there is literally nothing we can say in a situation like this other than weep with those who suffered. No words, no explanations can or even should be attempted in the context of such suffering.

Which brings me back to the start of this article. There are some of us - and I include myself in this - who in the face of Christian atrocities attempt some kind of apologetic. We want to explain and defend. And the thing is, often our logic in these circumstances is valid. It is indeed the case that God and the church are not the same, that just because the church behaves badly, it doesn't mean God is like that.

But at times such as this, what matters far more than 'logic' is simply our identification with those in distress. When God wanted to reveal himself to humanity, he didn't send us five proofs in a neatly bound volume, he sent us himself as a baby in a feeding trough. So, if you're talking to your friends this weekend about the Catholic abuse story, don't try and defend the church, don't even try and defend God right now. Just weep with those who weep, with those who this weekend will still feel the pain of those years. That may or may not be the most effective 'evangelistic' thing to do, but it is, I would suggest, the right thing, the human thing, indeed the Godly, Christlike thing for us to do.

Justin Thacker, Head of Theology