Secrets and Lies

In 1964, my church hired a very active young man as Youth Minister. He was a family man, had a nice young wife and several small children. He was very active with the young people of the church and organized a Youth Choir that was wildly popular with the kids. The Youth Ministry became quite active, quite popular with the children of the church and also with their parents. Suddenly, however, in 1970, he quit. The official reason was that he had decided to return to music school in a nearby state, however, my mother told me that the real reason was that he was caught molesting the youth in his ministry. Instead of prosecuting him for the crime of Sexual Abuse against their children, in their infinite wisdom, the church leaders decided to let him leave the church, save face for himself and his family, and take his problem someplace else. Keep it secret, don't tell anyone and send it on to someone else....the guiding principle of the BSE. A conspiracy of silence existed to protect this man, his crimes and the sick perversions that he exercised against the youth of our church.

My mother, like much of her generation, was firmly entrenched in the SECRET-KEEPER mentality. I hated it. It had caused me to lose my son ("what will the neighbors say?"..."your sisters will ask questions"), and now it seemed that it would permit this predator who used his position of trust to prey upon youngsters for his sexual gratification to get away unpunished, and much like the mothers of the BSE, leave the victims to learn to cope with their experiences....or not.

When my mother told me about this stunning lack of conscience and integrity of my church leaders, I was horrified, but not surprised. I told her that all they had done was bump it uphill, make it someone else's problem, and that any child who was molested after their lack of action was on their heads.   

I was reminded of this event in my church when the Pedophile Priest scandals broke. I was reminded again and more forcefully when the recent scandals broke out in the college sport programs. One cannot help but wonder if there would have been the same level of outrage if the abuse occurred in the Drama or Music Depts. But, these were very popular programs, winning coaches and brought money into the schools. The same could be said, on a much smaller scale, about the Youth Ministry at my church in the 1960's. So, the people in charge decided to look the other way, maintain a secret that damaged many people to avoid a scandal and to save face and keep the money rolling in. I called the church today to check the dates and make sure that my recollection of his name was correct, and found that the files indicate that he quit the church to return to school and resume his studies in music, so the lies and secrets continue.  It seems unwed pregnancy wasn't the only secrets that were being kept back then!

Anyone who hasn't heard about the mess at Penn State, involving Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno has to be living in a vacuum. Now there is another similar but more recent case at Syracuse, where Basketball Coach, Bernie Fine was fired after evidence surfaced of his abuse of at least three students.  His wife was recorded by one of the accusers, stating:

I know everything that went on with him. Bernie has issues, maybe that he's not aware of, but he has issues. And you trusted somebody you shouldn't have trusted.

Now, it seems that the police in Syracuse were aware of these allegations and actually had copies of those tapes for almost a decade.....but did nothing with them. The allegations of abuse had been made in Syracuse, as at Penn State, but a conspiracy of silence, a look-the-other-way attitude, allowed it to continue.

As recently as last Christmas, in his annual Christmas Address, the worst outrage the Pope could muster regarding the continuing scandal of abuse by parish priests, and others in the Catholic Church is that it was a "humiliation" for the church. Really? Humiliation? It was a much more life-altering event for the victims, I warrant!  However, the Pope seemed to brush off the heinous nature, saying that until the 1970's that was normal!

Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict's claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn't considered an "absolute evil" as recently as the 1970s.

In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered "normal" by society.

"In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children," the Pope said.

 

My husband spent some time doing mold remediation. In one of the texts about mold growth there was a quote that really struck me, "Corruption flourishes in dark and secret places". There are many more kinds of corruption than simply mold growth. Secrecy and untruth are also dark places where corruption flourish. Secrets and lies are the ideal breeding ground for corrupt practices.

The cure for corruption, both in clothing, homes and in people is very clear in the Bible.  In Leviticus, the book that lists the rules for the people of God, all the rules, including dietary, cleanliness and of homes and persons, it states very simply that all corruption be dealt with in this way...clean it, expose it to light and air, and don't let it be again returned to darkness. The same cure for mold exposure that is explained in Leviticus is true for the cancerous damage caused by keeping secrets and upholding lies.

Over Thanksgiving weekend another story hit the news.  It was about the tragic death of a young man, a Drum Major in their prestigious music department, at Florida A&M University.  It was a result, they allege, of Hazing. 

The family’s lawyer announced that they will be suing the University.  The lawyers said,

We are intending to file a lawsuit to get answers" about hazing at Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University, lawyer Chris Chestnut told reporters. "We are concerned about the culture of cover-up, that hazing has been covered up at the Band FAMU for generations. So, it's time now that we expose the truth, eradicate this culture and come up with creative remedies on how to continue the excellence of FAMU's band, but without hazing.

Seems that secrets and lies claimed another victim….but the light of truth will be shone on this one .  Maybe someday we will learn….