I observed the #ChurchToo Summit shenanigans this week from a distance. I am a watcher you see, none to scrappy, and more than just a bit skittish. Seems to me that well-intentioned folks can lack wisdom. Those wizened by years in Christendom cannot listen to those wounded by years in Christendom. So many P’s slip through the cracks of my weary mind and linger with ‘the hesitation of the harmed’ at my fingertips: patriarchy, pomposity, perversion, platform, production, pervasiveness, power, and pastoral predation.
I submit this as the “Post Summit Keynote.”
We stand before you today as representatives of The Church.
We have promoted patriarchy.
We have triumphed toxic theology that has dehumanized you.
We have wielded The Word in ways that have wounded.
We have heralded harm and called it hope.
We, who proclaim Christendom, have been nothing like our Christ.
We have categorically failed you.
We have catastrophically run you through.
We have harbored pastors who have built their platform to hide their predation.
We have not protected you from the wolves…
We have been the wolves.
We, who proclaim Christendom, have been nothing like our Christ.
We have watched you be led to slaughter.
We have turned a blind eye.
We have been dangerous and destructive.
We have been despairing and disparaging.
We have not restored you…
We have attempted to ruin you.
We, who proclaim Christendom, have been nothing like our Christ.
We have muted the moaning of the mourning.
We have the maliciously maligned the marginalized.
We have been tone deaf to the song of the sorrowful.
We have been significantly out of step.
We have lost communication with our Head.
We have a rhythm that matches not the ruin we see – nor the ruin we created.
We, who proclaim Christendom, have been nothing like our Christ.
We have kept the ninety-nine and lost the one.
We have broken the bruised reed.
We have blown away the smoldering wick.
We have not bound up the brokenhearted…
We have brutalized them.
We have not comforted those who mourn…
We have caused you to mourn.
We, who proclaim Christendom, have been nothing like our Christ.
We have not set the captives free…
We have created them.
We have not opened the mouth of the mute…
We have murdered them.
We have not looked upon you with compassion and cried…
We have looked upon you with condemnation and cold callousness.
We, who proclaim Christendom, have been nothing like our Christ.
It is Us.
It is I.
It is Me.
It is We.
We, who proclaim Christendom, have been nothing like our Christ.
We are sorry.
We will be silent, in sorrow, and in solidarity.