The Duty Of Public Reproach (October 1, 2006)

A seminary professor of mine was involved in a church discipline case and was disturbed that the elder board had determined to keep the matter quiet, handling it themselves. In relating the story to us he quoted 1 Timothy 4:20: "Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that the others may take warning."

The professor had a point. The Bible says that sinners are to be rebuked publicly. When was the last time you heard of a church member being publicly rebuked for grotesque sin? Maybe never. We're literally afraid to obey this command. Maybe the disciplined member will sue us! Maybe he will retaliate by splitting the church, gathering to himself sympathizers who hate church leaders for being so mean and puritanical. To rebuke a sinner is to open a can of worms - it is so much easier to leave the can sealed and move it off to the side.

That is what dozens of Roman Catholic bishops did when they learned about sexually abusive priests under their jurisdiction. They just quietly moved them to other parishes. What they needed to do was rush to the chancel at first opportunity and announce, "I'm sorry to say that Father So-And-So is a sick evil pedophile. We rebuke him in the name of the Lord. He is being defrocked."

How many thousands of boys would have been saved from subsequent abuse if the Catholic Church had done this, if it had just been willing to rake its creepy perverts over public coals of shame? St. Paul was right - others take warning from such examples. Some then will refrain from abuse not because they fear God or love holiness but because they are terrified of public condemnation. This is a good thing.

I don't mean to pick on Catholics; Protestants can be just as bad. I just finished a truly awful book, Broken On The Back Row by adulteress Sandi Patty. Multi Dove- and Grammy-Award winning Patty cheated on her husband with a married man, divorced him, lied to everybody about the affair for years, then married the man she had the affair with! Her church "dealt with" the issue privately (though it never, and still has not, excommunicated her for the adulterous remarriage. See Mark 10:12: "And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.").

The leaders of Patty's church finally brought the matter to the congregation only when Christianity Today published the story of Patty's infidelity and lies. Then the pastor had the gall to rebuke CT for "gossiping"! If I were I to speak to him, I would say, "Friend, the problem here is not CT's faithful publication of the truth. The problem is adultery, lies, church-complicit cover-up, and your ongoing defiance of Mark 10:12."

Public reproach is as much a church's duty as is public forgiveness and restoration.