Why Churches Resist Truth-Tellers

Understanding the psychology of resistance

As I work on material for my upcoming book, I’ve been thinking a lot about how and why people resist accounts of church abuse. Wouldn’t a follower of Jesus want to know if their pastor was behaving abusively? Wouldn’t they seek to hold leaders accountable and help those who were harmed?

Jesus tells his disciples a startling parable about God’s judgment:

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ (Matthew 25:41-45, NIV)

The stakes for getting the issue of church abuse right are extremely high. How we treat the least among us is equivalent to how we treat Jesus. When Christian communities impugn and cast out victims of abuse, they are kicking their own savior out the door.

Yet so many victims and whistleblowers in Christian organizations have been treated exactly this way—not only by their offenders, but also by well-meaning people in the community who are trying to do the right thing. In an institution dedicated to proclaiming The Truth, how can it be that so many people reject their own truth-tellers?