Institutional Child abuse.

Our church recently received an email from someone asking if I would send a message of encouragement to those people who are currently giving evidence to the Royal Commission into "Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse".

This does not directly involve our church, for we are an independent church, and not affiliated with any of the large groups - we have a loose association with other likeminded independent Baptist Churches, no direct link.

However, as a result of the generalisations I have already written about, Christians in general are often caught up in these accusations. I know people who blame all of Christianity for such crimes.

I must say that the people who perpetrated these crimes are of the lowest sort of person in this world, and certainly are not Christians in the Bible sense of the word.

These people are (wrongly) put in a position of almost unquestioned trust and authority, and so to then use that position to satisfy their own sinful lusts, and especially on those who are not old enough to know better, is quite simply an abomination.

And for the institution to then protect and hide what was done is to heap abomination upon abomination.
Anyone who perpetrates crimes like this should have no protection from any group - they should face the full weight of the law, and if anything, their punishment when found guilty should be increased because of the trust involved.
The Institutions involved should be the first to bring in the police and open up fully to investigation, and ensure that the crime is paid for appropriately - and I am talking about justice here, not finance, although if it is deemed necessary there should be no balking at that either - but money will not fix it.

But, and this is the point I want to make, these people are not Biblical Christians.

It is clear from their false worship practices - I won't go into it here, but if you compare what the "High churches" in particular do, you will see that not much of it comes from the Bible.

No man should be put on a such a pedestal that this kind of thing would be possible.

There are so many ways that these people, and the institutions they are involved in, are not qualified to call themselves Christian - but unfortunately people look particularly at the Catholic Church and what they do, and they blame every Christian for it.

Oh yes, there have been Christians who have done bad things, but not everyone who calls themselves a Christian actually is a Christian.

One thing is certain though - whether a "church" institution, or a community institution, or a government institution, or in fact any sort of institution - if there are people in there who are committing crimes of any sort, they should not be protected from the Law.
And this is especially true for the kind of crimes that are being testified of in this Royal Commission.

These people testifying have every right to be angry, both for the crimes, and also for the treatment from the institutions.

I have prayed for the Royal Commission and will do so again.

But to these people - do not blame Christ for the crimes of men who do not know Him, but carry His name.
They are impostors.

You have every right to not trust people who talk about God.
But if you would read the Bible, you will find the truth about God, and it is very different to what these people taught, and to what you might think of God after your experiences.

Don't listen to what men say about God, but simply read the Word of God.