“‘How do you say no to God?'”- Victim
Yesterday, I went to a local theater to watch the movie “Spotlight.” This movie is about the Catholic Child Sexual Abuse Scandal as broken by the Spotlight group out of the Boston Globe. It is based on that true story from 2001-2003.
The movie is truly heartbreaking.
I found myself in tears at several places during the movie. These tears were for the shame brought upon the Name of Christ by priests who were predators and the bishops/leaders who enabled them. They were tears for the victims who were not protected and who had experienced alienation from God after such spiritual abuse on top of the sexual.
And is is sad because I know this is not just a Catholic Church problem. Evangelical churches need to stop pointing fingers at the “celibate” Catholic priests and deal with evil in their own ranks (see one of several pertinent articles at The Wartburg Watch, here).
One thing that struck me from the movie was how the tactics of the Evil One are so similar to situations with infidelity.
A scene in the movie between a journalist and a retired priest has the retired priest admitting to molestation of children yet trying to down play it by saying that he did not “rape” them. It reminds me of cheater’s using private definitions (e.g. it wasn’t really adultery because we were not under the same room at the time, etc.).
Satan is not very creative. Nor does he have to be in order to ensnare and hurt many, sadly.
Then the quote I shared at the start of this post is striking. A driving force behind starting this blog was to defeat this demonic tool to destroy. I wanted other faithful spouses know that, at least, one evangelical pastor does not think they are to blame for the infidelity and/or the divorce following it.
It is am important work because the spiritual abuse problem is significant when dealing with adultery and infidelity in the Church. While a pastor might not be raping a faithful spouse like the Catholic priests did in the story, they may be giving destructive advice enabling their adulterous spouse to continue raping their souls–i.e. remain in adultery.
It is hard to say no to a pastor–or other Christian leader–who claims God insists they stay in a marriage ravaged by adultery.
“Spotlight” is a good movie. However, I would warn you that the subject matter is tough hitting, and you may need some tissues if you watch it.
