Elders

           The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor,  especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.  For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.” Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses.  But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning. I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism. (I Timothy 5:17-21)

           Once again, our passage dovetails nicely with issues that are going on in our society. Elders who lead well are to be treated with double honor, which means that they’re to be treated as the eldest son of the family. They are also the equivalent of either national or state legislatures. It's our job to treat them well, and with great respect. So, if you go to a church, you probably know the name of at least one pastor. Do you know the names of all the pastors? Of all the elders? Would you recognize them if you met them in the hall?

          Do you pray for them, or are they more like garbage men, who wake you as they rumble through in their big trucks in the middle of the night, and who toss your empty garbage cans back into your yard as if they hope to do them damage? Or, if they are a better sort, you never notice until or unless they stop doing their jobs? Does that hit too close to home for you, too?

         The passage goes on to discuss the issue of accusations against the elders. First, let’s deal with the procedure. As I’ve noted over the past few days, the principles established in Scripture are excellent for use outside the Church, too. So, leaders, in general, should be treated with double honor (I need to work on that.) And we should not entertain accusations against a leader – in or out of the Church – unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. That doesn’t mean that if two or three people accuse the leader. That means that those who accuse the leader must be able to provide evidence or specific details about the crime. “It happened ten years ago, and I don’t remember where or who else was there,” doesn’t count. Neither does “Aunt Suzy’s brother-in-law’s grandfather saw…” Two or three people coming forward and recounting the same incident or repetitions of incidents are to be investigated. And, I’m sorry to say that those making the accusations also need to be investigated. The goal is to get to the truth of the matter, not to protect either the perp or the victim.

          All that may sound heartless, but a story from the Bible comes to mind. Ahab wanted some land and when the owner refused to give it to him, Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, arranged to have the man accused of crimes for which he was innocent, but for which he was punished.

           All of that leads to a painful question within the Church. There are people in authority within the Church who have done heinous things. More than 300 charges of sexual misconduct have been filed against Catholic priests. If you listen to society, that means that 99% of Catholic priests are sexual predators, and “no doubt” so are 99% of all pastors and elders.

          One case of sexual predation is one case too many, but let’s look at reality. Some 300 Roman Catholic priests have been accused. There are 46,000 Catholic priests in the United States, meaning that less than one percent of Catholic priests have been charged. I find no statistics, but I have no reason to assume that the percentage is greater for Protestant pastors. An even smaller percentage of teachers in public and private schools have been charged.

          To put this in some perspective, studies of shown that children are forty to fifty times more likely to be abused by significant others of their single parents than they are by their birth parents Boyfriends or “new” husbands are the worst culprits. So if we’re going to make a blanket accusation of abusive men, we should probably be looking somewhere other than the Church or schools. Yes, no matter who is guilty of predation, it should be addressed. However, it is a fallacy of composition to proclaim all are guilty (or likely to be guilty) because a few are guilty.

          Because of this, as Paul said, when a pastor, an elder, a politician, a school teacher, or anyone else is accused, the accusation is not enough. We need multiple witnesses with consistent stories. We need evidence. And, we need to remember that the accused is considered innocent until proven guilty.