When the Church Claps: Navigating Sin, Crime, and Justice in Evangelical Culture (Exile Series)

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2018

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when the church applauds repentance—but overlooks justice? Mike Erre and Andy Lara dive into a nationally reported scandal involving a Memphis teaching pastor who confessed to a past “sexual incident” with a minor amid Me Too scrutiny. They explore how the Church often mishandles abuse under the guise of grace, blurring the line between sin and crime, and what true redemptive justice should look like in faith communities.

Using biblical examples and real-life experiences, the conversation wrestles with Christian restoration, institutional protectionism, and the long-term impact of silencing victims. This powerful and nuanced discussion raises urgent questions about power, gender, leadership, moral authority, and what it means to model Jesus in addressing harm—not just sin.

Key Takeaways:
• Sin vs. Crime – Understanding the critical distinction between personal moral failure and legal wrongdoing, and why churches must treat crimes as such.
• Restoration and Justice – Biblical pathways to restoration require confession, repentance, and accountability—but do not replace law or justice.
• Power Disparities and Victim Silencing – Exploring how structural imbalances and male-centric leadership frameworks often marginalize victims and enable dueling narratives to poison process.
• Christian Witness and Public Integrity – Why the Church’s moral authority suffers when reputation protection trumps empathy, transparency, and truth-telling.
• The Importance of Women in Leadership – Considering how inclusion of women in church governance could drastically reshape how abuse cases are handled.

Resources Mentioned:
• Washington Post article on the Memphis pastor allegations
• 1 Corinthians 5 & biblical models for church discipline
• Timothy references to Paul labeling himself “chief of sinners”
• Lee Camp – Scandalous Witness
• David Brooks – Insights on tribalism and siege mentality
• Scripture on grace and restoration: 2 Corinthians 7; 1 Peter 5

Join the conversation on how we can create church communities that are sacred spaces for repentance and also fiercely protective of justice and the vulnerable. Subscribe and support the Voxology mission of spiritual honesty and healing.

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

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Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

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Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

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Follow Mike on Twitter: @mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford
Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello,
0:11.0	Hello, internet, Mike and Andy here.
0:15.0	And let me give you a weather update.
0:18.0	I know you're absolutely dying to hear about the weather in Ohio,
0:22.6	but it makes me question my salvation. It makes me question pretty much everything, this weather.
0:31.4	So it's today, I know, today it's mid-50s, we got some rain.
0:36.8	Hey. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually saw it's about to gets. We got some rain. Hey.
0:38.0	All right.
0:38.3	Yeah.
0:39.0	Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually saw it's about to get a lot worse.
0:41.0	I supposedly the storm that left us is supposed to annihilate you guys.
0:44.4	Here we go.
0:45.1	Here we go.
0:46.5	All right.
0:47.0	So tomorrow, so we'll open the day at 49 and then quickly drift down to 15.
0:55.5	Okay?
0:55.9	And then the lows for the next four days are like 7772.
1:02.2	Oh.
1:03.2	Okay.
1:03.9	So it's 50 and it's warm.
1:06.6	I mean, Han and I went to our gym.
1:08.4	We had short sleeves and shorts on because 50s out here is like balmy.
	...

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