Don’t blame Jesus for the horrific crimes in the Roman Catholic Church.
Since the movie Spotlight aired 3 years ago detailing the clerical abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in Boston, it seems the journalistic floodgates across our country have been opened wide. Just this week, the Pennsylvania grand jury report on child sex abuse lists hundreds of accused priests. What is going on?
The case of the systemic crimes against children in the RCC goes deeper than the mere moral failings of weak people. The repulsive behavior of a large portion of the clergy has been hundreds and hundreds of years in the making. People want to know why. They need to know why! If only for stopping one more child in the church from being sexually exploited.
There are many opinions on why there was such widespread abuse that went unchecked: The Church’s penchant for protecting the Roman Catholic leadership so the institution would not be dragged through the mud. The embracing of the homosexual lifestyle by many of the priests. The RCC’s love of money and their desire to settle all the lawsuits out of court. Some say it is because the Catholic Church has perpetuated a culture of secrecy.
Whatever the reason, it has led to some of the most appalling crimes ever committed on such a wide scale this country has ever seen against children. Some people want to downplay it, and make it a comparison of moral equivalence, “All churches have their skeletons in the closet.” Not quite like this.
I think at the core the problem is more fundamental than mere secrecy and homosexuality. It is the reason I left the church in the first place. The RCC has faulty and dangerous theology. When you leave the truth, all you have are lies that destroy. I will name three areas I believe have allowed for such unchecked behavior. And I will try to keep it short and simple…
Authority of Scripture
Martin Luther put it clearly and bluntly, “A simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above a pope or a council without it.” Scripture should dictate behavior and policy, not the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops or Priests. Authority comes from the mouth of God – – not some man in a white robe holding a golden crucifix. Scripture states in Psalm 119:99, “I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.”
Sounds so simple, but it has been largely ignored in the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, most Roman Catholics don’t even know the bible. Just a cursory reading of the New Testament should stop the veneration of priests dead in its tracks.
Matthew 23 is Jesus’ scorching indictment about the Pharisees and Priests during his day and it has been largely ignored by most Roman Catholics. Just listen to some of his warnings, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” “Do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.” “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
Jesus is saying, “Priests are people too.” Not some holy unblemished saint wearing a white robe, not a person you never question or fawn over because they can do the sign of the cross. The number one reason why clerical abuse happens is that no one in the Roman Catholic Church sees the priest simply as a fallen man. And the priests even buy into the lie about themselves. They have been playing a charade. Acting holy when in fact they are fallen like everyone else.
The worst play-actor of all is the Pope. I would hate to be the Pope when he finally sees Jesus. He is a flawed man, and he acts like some statue carved by Michael Angelo. I would love to sit in a room with the Pope alone, I would like to punch him in the nose and say, “Get over yourself!” Even Peter refused to have people bow to him. (Acts 10:25-26 — “As Peter was about to enter, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet to worship him. But Peter helped him up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”)
There are so many other scriptures that people in the Roman Catholic church ignore. It is appalling how they allow such nonsense to go on. 1 Timothy 4:1-4 says this, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.”
Demonic teaching forbids marriage. Just think if many of the horny priests got married how that would have stopped so many children from being exploited?
Priesthood of Believers
This leads naturally to one of the most important doctrines of all, The Priesthood of All Believers. If you are a Christian, you are a priest. You don’t need a mediator to go between you and God, you can go directly to him. (1 Peter 2:5, Hebrews 4:16) You don’t need some guy with a special title to address Jesus for you.
The Roman Church doesn’t believe this. Once again they put faulty men on a pedestal. Think about it: If scripture says we are all priests, and yet the Roman Catholic priest thinks they are the only true priests, then they don’t really know the bible. So you are allowing ignorant men to lead you.
Many pastors in the Protestant church fall prey to this as well. They love the title and special significance. This is one of my pet peeves as a pastor. Especially when someone is sick in the hospital. People in the church think only the pastor can go because he is the only one who can pray special prayers. And so people don’t go see other members in the church who are suffering because people they think it is the pastor’s job to do that. No, it is everyone’s job, because everyone is a priest!
Justification by Faith
My biggest problem with the Roman Catholic Church is that most of the priests themselves are not born again believers. They are religious, not righteous. They believe faith + sacraments + tradition + the writings of the Magistrate all save. When scriptures clearly says, “Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God.” (Romans 5:1) And so when you have a man who is a sexual being, trying to abstain from marriage and sex, thinking they are the arbiters of all truth concerning God, and they are just as lost as every other sinner because they are not connected to the life of God by faith, you have all kind of trouble on your hand. Listen to Paul in Colossians 2:16-23:
“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
Lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. See, clear as crystal. But remember, Roman Catholic’s don’t read their Bibles.
This is why I left the church, and why I hope more Roman Catholics leave because the destructive theology and fall-out from it will never change. Never.
