| Over the past several years, stories of sexual harassment have come out of environments that surprised many: churches, missions organizations, Christian institutions. Some have responded to these accounts with shock, many with sadness, and others with unsurprised lament.
This week, Christianity Today reported that such behavior had taken place within our own offices. Female employees shared stories of male leaders initiating unwanted physical touch, making crass statements, and mocking the idea of reporting incidents. With the help of Guidepost, we launched a full investigation.
“What would undermine [CT’s] credibility,” writes CT president Timothy Dalrymple, “is if we showed that we were only committed to the truth selectively because we sought to protect ourselves through concealment of the sin in our own house.”
Sin, no matter where it lives, must be uprooted. The process is painful. Identifying the systems and faulty theology that were complicit in this harassment is a massive undertaking. But by living as those who believe in the inherent worth of all people, we must practice what we preach: that we worship a God of love, to whom all hearts are open and desires known. Nothing is hidden from him, and he invites us to join him in looking for the vulnerable, that we might lift them up. |
