Difference between revisions of "The Clergy are not Moral Exemplars"

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Clergy serve in the holy office of the ministry; and are expected to serve as exemplars for the community whose spiritual and moral development they oversee.  Yet, too often, these guides and teachers are responsible for the most heinous of crimes, often their own parishioners and community members, enabled by exploiting the special trust and confidence which their communities have placed in them.
 
Clergy serve in the holy office of the ministry; and are expected to serve as exemplars for the community whose spiritual and moral development they oversee.  Yet, too often, these guides and teachers are responsible for the most heinous of crimes, often their own parishioners and community members, enabled by exploiting the special trust and confidence which their communities have placed in them.
  
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Jesus' main focus was not against stealing, sexual sins, or even violence -- but against hypocrisy, the identification with a false persona which prevents one from being genuine or real<ref name="Ministry Burnout">J. A. Sanford, Ministry Burnout (Westminster John Knox Press, 1992). </ref> How can the clergy and the church save others, when they cannot save themselves?
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Jesus' main focus was not against stealing, sexual sins, or even violence -- but against hypocrisy, the identification with a false persona which prevents one from being genuine or real<ref name="Ministry Burnout">J. A. Sanford, ''Ministry Burnout'' (Westminster John Knox Press, 1992). </ref> How can the clergy and the church save others, when they cannot save themselves?
  
 
Those who claim that holiness leads to goodness must answer for all of the crimes listed below. Please note that this is just the material we have accrued and ''not a complete list''; this list will be updated as more information becomes available.  A more thorough, independent listing is available at [http://clergygonewild.com/home Clergy Gone Wild].
 
Those who claim that holiness leads to goodness must answer for all of the crimes listed below. Please note that this is just the material we have accrued and ''not a complete list''; this list will be updated as more information becomes available.  A more thorough, independent listing is available at [http://clergygonewild.com/home Clergy Gone Wild].

Revision as of 22:11, 15 August 2017

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Clergy serve in the holy office of the ministry; and are expected to serve as exemplars for the community whose spiritual and moral development they oversee. Yet, too often, these guides and teachers are responsible for the most heinous of crimes, often their own parishioners and community members, enabled by exploiting the special trust and confidence which their communities have placed in them.

Jesus' main focus was not against stealing, sexual sins, or even violence -- but against hypocrisy, the identification with a false persona which prevents one from being genuine or real[1] How can the clergy and the church save others, when they cannot save themselves?

Those who claim that holiness leads to goodness must answer for all of the crimes listed below. Please note that this is just the material we have accrued and not a complete list; this list will be updated as more information becomes available. A more thorough, independent listing is available at Clergy Gone Wild.

Fascism

Fraud

See ten thousand ministries
See the holy righteous dogs,
They claim to heal, but all they do is steal,
Abuse your faith, cheat, and rob,
If God is wise, why is he still,
When these false profits, call him friend,
Why is he silent, is he blind!?
Are we abandoned in the end?
—Motörhead, "God Was Never on Your Side"

Homicide

One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.
—Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not a Christian"

LBGTQ+ Discrimination

Physical Abuse

Sexual Abuse

Unclassified and/or Weird

References

  1. ↑ J. A. Sanford, Ministry Burnout (Westminster John Knox Press, 1992).
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