We see the same impulse at work throughout American culture when it comes to sexual abuse and assault allegations against politicians. Often these acts are viewed through a partisan lens: either as confirmation of the end result of one’s politics, or a distraction to be waved away, depending on whether the politician was on one’s ideological “side” or not.

Either way, among some, the idea was often that while sexual abuse is awful, it happens everywhere, no more, and probably less, in the church than anywhere else. That mentality was always vicious and deceptive, but faced with the Chronicle’s accounting, it is utterly impossible to maintain.

When churches do cover up abuse, they often justify it by acting as if they are preventing the world from seeing “scandal.” If the public saw such a dark reality, they say, they might not want to hear the gospel, the reasoning goes.

Nonsense. Jesus does not need the church to protect his reputation. And Jesus was, and is, enraged by those who would seek to blame him for empowering atrocities. Those who would use religion to prey on those looking to hear a word from Jesus are more than just criminals who use their cunning to traumatize people, as if that weren’t awful enough. They commit spiritual rape of the most incestuous and violent kind.

The stakes for the church are high, and they are about far more than organizational survival. The church is to be the place that previews for the world a picture of what the kingdom of God is like — a place where sinners are reconciled to God and to one another, where the weakest among us are loved and respected. Jesus announced a reign in which children and the vulnerable are not just cared for but are the “first” in the kingdom of God. Predators are awful and should be held accountable wherever they are found. But nothing is worse than those who would abuse the vulnerable under the name of Jesus Christ.