Ezekiel 13-15

THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 30, 2019

“WHITEWASHING TRUTH”

The word “whitewash” means, “to gloss over or cover up vices, crimes or scandals or to exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data.” The term is used four times in Ezekiel 13 and once in chapter 22, to refer to the false prophets who were whitewashing the coming disaster by predicting peace.

Jesus used the word in Matthew 23:27-28: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Although I have done no scientific studies on this, it is my opinion that there is more lawlessness in Washington, than laws and more hypocrisy than truth. I’m not the first to suggest something like that. Will Rogers said, “About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.” We’ve come to expect that of Washington. “But that,” some would say, “is just politics.” Point made.

Turning from politics to religion, I keyed in “Catholic Church whitewashes truth about priests” and got 655,000 hits in just over half a minute. National Public Radio (6/12/19)), reporting on a similar situation in Southern Baptist churches said, “However, the Southern Baptists have long sought to dismiss similar allegations in their midst. The change in the Convention’s constitution follows reports in recent months of widespread abuse by Southern Baptist clergy and staff published in The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News.” Late last year an article in the Nashville Tennessean (12/8/18), stated: “Pastors in independent fundamental Baptist churches have for the first time admitted they shuffled suspected abusers among churches and universities rather than call law enforcement.”

I have not picked the Catholic Church or the Southern Baptist Church out in order to portray them as more being evil than all others. As the two largest denominations in America, they are under more scrutiny than other groups. The Christian Chronicle, a paper circulated primarily among the churches of Christ, reported the following in March of this year: “Brothers served for many years as the volunteer youth minister for the 100-member Uniontown Church of Christ, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh. Since at least the 1980s, he also interacted with hundreds of children as a founding board member for Camp Concern — a Bible camp directed and sponsored by members of Churches of Christ.” He had been convicted of abuse, but the statute of limitations had run out, so on appeal, his conviction was overturned.

I’m confident that one could key in the name of any group and find that none are exempt from this evil. Whether there were systematic whitewashes may be another question. However, when abuse takes place over and over, it indicates either that the body turned a blind eye to it or that they were ill-equipped to read the signs—and there are always signs.

From false prophets 600 years before Christ to sexual abuse in churches is a long journey in such a few words. Sometimes part of the problem is that church leaders become so focused on doctrinal error that they cannot see the putrid sins of church leaders or, in the name of protecting the church from scandal, whitewash sin.

1. In a cluster of exhortations in Romans 12, Paul says, “Provide things honest in the sight of all men” (v. 17). How should we who work with vulnerable “others,” apply this? How should those around it apply it to us?

2. As I think back over my years of ministry, I cannot recall a single church with which I worked that someone did not confide in me that they had been sexually abused in the past. Frequently the abuser was a family member or friend of the family. What does this tell us about the need for education of church leaders in this area?