God help us! God help the victims of abuse by so-called “Christian” leaders, God help their families and God help the Christian religion. The fact is that Christians are killing Christianity one horrible sin at a time.
The allegations against T.B. Joshua are the latest in a long line of scandals involving sexual misconduct, financial crimes or worse in Christ’s church. Here’s a breakdown:
- A number of American televangelists were accused of sexual abuse and financial crimes in widely publicized stories beginning in the 1980s.
- In the early 2000s, reports of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention came to light. By 2007, more than 700 women had filed criminal complaints accusing numerous SBC leaders of sexual abuse over a 20-year period, and the abuses were covered up.
- And an estimated 300+ Catholic priests sexually abused children for more than 7 decades, and senior church officials covered up the crimes, according to the church’s investigation.
Keep in mind that these numbers reflect incidents that were reported rather than the total number of incidents. Those numbers could be much higher.
T.B. Joshua & the Newest Scandal
And now we have T.B. Joshua, who was pastor of the Synagogue Church of All Nations Lagos, Nigeria until his death in 2021.
The Joshua story broke several days ago when BBC released its findings from a two-year investigation of Joshua. The news outlet reported:
- “Dozens of eyewitness accounts of physical violence or torture carried out by Joshua, including instances of child abuse and people being whipped and chained”
- Numerous women maintaining that they were sexually assaulted by Joshua, with some saying they were repeatedly raped for years inside the compound (a ‘maze-like concrete church compound in Lagos,’ Nigeria)
- “Multiple allegations of forced abortions inside the church following alleged rapes by Joshua….
- “Multiple first-hand accounts detailing how Joshua faked his ‘miracle healings,’ which were broadcast to millions of people around the world
- Stories that Joshua locked up his own daughter and “tortured her” for years before leaving her homeless on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria.” Read more here.
- Accounts of Joshua hiding dead bodies and intimidating families “to cover up his role in the collapse of a building which killed at least 116 people at his church in 2014.” Read more here.
BBC said that the Synagogue Church of All Nations has not responded to these new reports about Joshua, though the church previously said other allegations were unfounded.
The evidence against Joshua seems quite strong and will undoubtedly have a negative impact on Christianity, especially in Africa, regardless of the fallout of BBC’s stories. Unfortunately, Africa is one of the few places where Christianity is growing.
My thoughts are based on research past scandals. If you look at the long trail of Christian scandals, you will also see a steady decline in church membership and attendance. Click here to read “Why Are Americans Losing Confidence in Organized Religion?” on the Gallup website.
Christianity’s problems are complicated, and the losses occur for many reasons. But it’s hard to deny that sexual scandals damage the Christian church.
Christians Killing Christianity
Let’s take a closer look at abuses prior to the new stories about T.B. Joshua.
American televangelists: Several American televangelists were caught up in sex scandals and reports of financial misdeeds over the last few decades, and some lost their ministries and large incomes. One of them — Jim Bakker — went to prison for financial fraud.
In 1988, Bakker was indicted on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. One indictment claimed that he defrauded his followers of some $158 million by fraudulently promising them lifetime vacations, which he couldn’t provide. He was also accused of taking $3 million to support his lavish lifestyle with then-wife Tammy Faye.
According to Investigation Discovery, Jim Bakker was found guilty on all counts, fined $500,000 in 1989 and sentenced to 45 years in prison. He appealed, and an appellate court upheld his conviction in 1991.
However, the disgraced evangelist was granted a sentence-reduction hearing at the time and had his sentence reduced to eight years. Bakker was paroled in 1994 after serving about five years.
Southern Baptist Convention: A sex scandal involving the Southern Baptist Convention began to unfold at about the same time.
More recently, the Religion News Service reported in 2022 that a “scathing” independent report by Guidepost Solutions was “unsparing in its criticism of the actions, and inaction, displayed by the denomination’s leaders, members and critics” regarding allegations of sex abuse between Jan. 1, 2000 and June 14, 2021.
Additionally, an independent report contained a list of hundreds of sex offenders with ties to SBC churches or their affiliates. And “several of the denomination’s major entities are under investigation by the Department of Justice,” according to NPR.
The Southern Baptist Convention investigated some of its leaders and in 2022 reported on the mishandling of sex abuse allegations.
Some abusers and enablers have been caught, but many others remain in positions of authority. And many more are moving into leadership roles to replace the ones who have left.
Catholic Church: Scandals in the Catholic Church started breaking in the early 1990s, and stories continue to be released to the present.
The New York Times reported in June 2023 that some 20 state attorneys general are investigating or have investigated several decades of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests.
In the state of Pennsylvania, alone, a 900-page report stated that more than 300 priests abused at least 1,000 children over 7 decades. The Vatican expressed “shame and sorrow” over findings of abuse.
One cannot begin to imagine the damage sustained by victims and their families. The perpetrators bear the greatest guilt, of course, and they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. However, church leaders – many of whom continue to hold leadership roles in the SBC and Catholic Church – should be held legally and morally accountable as well.
The Court of Public Opinion
Christians are killing Christianity, and Christian denominations already are being held to account in the court of public opinion.
Catholicism: A Gallup Poll taken the year after the Pennsylvania’s findings were reported found that more than one-third of U.S. Catholics were “considering leaving the faith because of ‘recent news about sexual abuse of young people by priests.’”
Science Direct, a website that hosts more than “18 million pieces of content from more than 4,000 academic journals and 30,000 e-books,” recently posted “Losing My Religion: The Effects of Religious Scandals on Religious Participation and Charitable Giving.”
The post stated that “scandal causes a persistent decline in the local Catholic affiliation and church attendance. Some Catholics join other religious denominations during the first three years after a scandal. But these individuals later end up with no religious affiliation.”
Protestantism: On Jan. 2, 2024, the Journal of Qualitative Criminology (QC) posted recent findings of sexual abuse in Protestantism. The journal features “peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary research on making laws, breaking them, and societal and cultural reaction.”
In its post, “Child Sex Abusers in Protestant Christian Churches,” QC pointed to 7,095 insurance claims of sexual abuse committed by members of the Protestant clergy, church employees, church members and others between 1987 and 2007, per the Associated Press.
A 2018 study examined newspaper articles on arrests involving sexual abuse, according to QC. From 1999 to 2014, there were a total of 326 reports of sexual abuse.
The journal noted that the Houston Chronicle published a series of articles – “Abuse of Faith” – that uncovered sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention. “They identified 380 sexual abusers and 700 alleged victims over 20 years,” the newspaper reported.
QC also stated that “35 Southern Baptist ministers were hired at churches, despite being accused of sexual misconduct or abuse, demonstrating a pattern of institutional issues in responding to alleged sexual abuse.” Read more here.
Looking Ahead
It’s quite obvious that sexual abuse in the Christian church has been pervasive for several decades or longer. Perhaps it’s always been there.
John 11:35 recounts a time when Jesus wept. I think when the Lord looks at the state of his church today, he’s weeping for it and for us.
And now we have the T.B. Joshua scandal. Previous scandals have damaged the Christian religion in major ways. People who call themselves Christian may talk the talk about love and sin and salvation, but many of us don’t walk the walk. And the world watches us.
Earlier scandals coincided with declines in American Christianity. In the early 1990s, 90 percent of Americans said they were Christian. The percentage had dropped to 80 percent in 2000, 75 percent in 2015 and 65 by 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. (See my post on some of the reasons for the decline – “Selling Christ: Can ‘He Gets Us’ Get Results” here.
I fear that the ugliest impulses in the human soul have overtaken Christianity. We have experienced almost unimaginable abuses within the church, and we now battle the hatred of extreme right-wing theology. None of those behaviors are Christian as Christ intended it.
Christians are killing Christianity. Perhaps my religion cannot survive in its present form. Maybe it shouldn’t survive.
Christianity may have to hit bottom before the followers who are left rid themselves of the ugliness that overshadows Christ’s words. Only then can those faithful few step back 2,000 years to Christ’s original words and teachings and rebuild from the ground.
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