There is only one passage in the New Testament that deals with what is now known as \u201cchurch discipline,\u201d although that passage is in the gospels before there even was a \u201cchurch.\u201d Here it is:<\/p>\n
Matthew 18: 15-17<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your brother or sister\u00a0sins,\u00a0go and point out their fault,\u00a0just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.\u00a0But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that \u2018every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.\u2019If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church;\u00a0and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Notice that it nowhere says to report it to the authorities. Instead, you just deal with the matter internally. Take, for example, the case of Tina Anderson. Raped by a leader in her church when she was a young teen, Tina became pregnant. When the pastor was notified, he personally dealt with Tina\u2019s rapist and then allowed him to continue serving as a leader in the church, and in the youth ministry, after he repented of \u201ca sexual transgression\u201d before the congregation. Tina meanwhile was privately sent to a family in a sister congregation out of church to carry her pregnancy to term and then give the child up for adoption. Throughout this whole process, the authorities were never notified.<\/p>\n
Even among Christians who do see the need to notify the authorities, there is often an insistence on following the internal process first. I have heard of this being invoked in the case of spousal abuse, for example. Your husband beats you? First confront him with his wrongdoing, then go the the pastor or another religious authority, and then to the church. Only if all else fails should you go to the civil authorities. That kind of thing.<\/p>\n
This is, to my understanding at least, what happened with the Catholic Church. It\u2019s not that Catholic authorities didn\u2019t know some priests were sexually abusing children. It\u2019s just that when they knew they moved the priest to another parish or another area of work rather than reporting them to the authorities for the sexual molestation of children. For the church, it was a matter to be dealt with internally, not a matter for the civil authorities.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd so, here is the newly expanded list of excuses:<\/p>\n