04/03/16 Arguments from Atheism: The Clergy are Corrupt Page 1 of 7. Ezekiel 34:1-16. First-Plymouth Church

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1 04/03/16 Arguments from Atheism: The Clergy are Corrupt Page 1 of 7 In 2011, scientists from the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon came out with a shocking study that they published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology entitled, Do you Believe in Atheists? Distrust is Central to Anti-Atheist Prejudice, that found that atheists are among the least trusted sub-group in the world. The researchers told interviewees a story of a gentleman who had gotten in a car accident and had given the other party false insurance information and they were asked how likely it was that the deceptive party was a Christian, a Muslim, a Rapist, or an Atheist. Respondents replied that it was very unlikely that the deceptive character in the story was either Christian or Muslim, but thought that it was equally likely that he was either a rapist or an atheist. There was no statistical difference between rapists and atheists. A similar study was conducted asking people how likely they were to vote for different candidates for the presidency based on the candidate s religious-affiliation, race, gender, sexual-orientation, etc., and once again, sex offenders and atheists polled at the bottom of the list. An older 2003 survey, found that 48 percent of people in the United States would disapprove of their children marrying an atheist, the highest disapproval rating of any group. Perhaps you ve seen a viral YouTube video that came out a few years ago entitled, Pissed Catholic Mother, in which a teenager tells his mother that he is an atheist, and not knowing that she is being filmed, she flips out, dropping the f-bomb, and shouting at the top of her lungs, All of a sudden there is no God. You want to know there is no God? Then you re going to get absolutely nothing, nothing, for Christmas because that s what Christmas is all about. Jesus Christ. Wow! The reason for the season, folks! It is frightening that in our world one s beliefs about metaphysical claims regarding the existence of an unseen God determine whether they will be accepted and trusted. The original

2 04/03/16 Arguments from Atheism: The Clergy are Corrupt Page 2 of 7 study I referenced from the University of Oregon suggested that people were skeptical of atheists because they thought that if atheists didn t believe in a God that was policing their actions, then it made them more susceptible to deviancy. First of all, what a horrible understanding of the role of God, and secondly, sadly, the reverse is true and several studies have found that self-described Christians actually demonstrate less compassion and tolerance in our society than anyone else. While I do believe that there is a God, I recognize that one s personal decisions on God have absolutely nothing to do with one s character, and I m sure we can all think of someone we know who doesn t believe in God and yet is one of the nicest, smartest, most generous people we know. It s ironic that religious people malign those who disagree with them while at the same time demanding their own religious freedom. It s tragic. And you know what, when we come together in church and seek to grow in our own faith, often one of the best ways to learn what we can do better, or to discover where we err, is to listen to someone who has taken a step back from Christianity and can evaluate our faith and our practices with so-called outside eyes that aren t blinded by doctrines or traditions that may in fact be destructive. Oftentimes people are afraid to read the words of atheist writers for fear of losing their faith, but I believe that the observations of atheists can actually help us to correct our flaws and develop a healthier and more robust Christianity. Consequently, I want to start a new sermon series with you entitled Arguments from Atheism: Good Observations About Where Our Faith Goes Wrong, and explore some common critiques that atheists tend to make, and rather than try to refute them, I want to listen to them and discover what we can learn. We have all seen the surveys that indicate one of the primary objections people have to Christianity is the rampant hypocrisy of churches proclaiming to believe in the Gospel of Jesus

3 04/03/16 Arguments from Atheism: The Clergy are Corrupt Page 3 of 7 Christ, one that personifies love, yet exhibiting hatred and judgment. The problem is that quite often, that hypocrisy starts at the very top of the religious infrastructure with clergy that preach destructive messages or who condemn certain behaviors while secretly engaging in those same behaviors themselves. Many a renowned pastor or priest has been arrested for embezzling church funds, or purchasing sex, or possessing child pornography, resulting in the charge from atheists that organized religious institutions are just full of corrupt clergy. Such an accusation is perfectly captured in the Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal, a portion of which was highlighted in this year s Best Picture Film Spotlight. The John Jay School of Criminal Justice published a report that over 4,000 priests in the United States alone, and this was an international crises remember, were charged with sexual abuse of a minor. That number was just those who were charged. Thousands upon thousands of children were victims of abusive clergy, and as all of the horror was brought to light, what made matters even worse was that the church hierarchy knew the abuse was taking place, even Cardinal Ratzinger who later became Pope Benedict knew that it was happening, and rather than prosecuting the offenders under penalty of law for their atrocious crimes, they simply hid them away for a few years and then placed them in a new diocese where they began abusing other children. If you saw the movie Spotlight, the very first scene involves a priest being taken down to a jailhouse after being accused, and the police officers are baffled about what to do because there is no way they can arrest a priest and so they let him go. That was the prevailing belief among Catholic communities at the time: that the priest speaks for and represents God, and therefore, must be above reproach. Not only were the abusive priests protected by the church, but the victims, lawyers, and police officers didn t want to accuse them of a crime either and hurt the reputation of the church. It just wasn t culturally acceptable, and so corrupt clergy were being

4 04/03/16 Arguments from Atheism: The Clergy are Corrupt Page 4 of 7 propped up by a corrupt institution. Such misdeeds are not at all only committed within the Catholic Church. Liked I said, protestant pastors and clergy of all religions have been convicted of a myriad of serious crimes. For people with a diagnosis of clinical narcissism, do you know what their two most likely professions are? Being a police officer or being a clergy person. Because those are two professions where you both have power, and where people think that you are incorruptible. People have an expectation that police officers and clergy are people who do good and would never commit a crime or be spiritually bankrupt. And police officers are able to control people with the force of the law, and clergy are able to control people through spiritual manipulation. Some people assume that clergy truly do speak for God, or that they understand the Bible better, or that they know what God wants for their lives, or that they know what is right, and therefore are willing to listen to whatever they say or do whatever they ask. However, that power can be corrupted. Both God in the Old Testament through the words of the prophets and Jesus in the New Testament reserve their strongest critiques for the civil and religious leadership who become corrupt and lead the people of Israel astray. The Latin word for a pastor comes from the word for shepherd, and the image of a shepherd guiding and caring for the sheep of the flock has always been a central metaphor for both God, The Lord is our Shepherd in Psalm 23, and Christ, the Good Shepherd in John 10, as well as a metaphor for religious leadership. In our Scripture passage for today, the prophet Ezekiel is told to prophesy against the leaders of Israel and to tell them that they are false shepherds who have been more concerned with feeding themselves than with feeding the sheep. So much so, that rather than protecting the sheep, they have been

5 04/03/16 Arguments from Atheism: The Clergy are Corrupt Page 5 of 7 slaughtering them in order to use their wool and their fat to their own advantage. The work of a true shepherd is clear in this passage in verse four, they are to strengthen the weak, and heal the sick, and bind up the injured, but instead the leadership in Israel are driving the sheep away. Verses seven through sixteen remind the people of Israel that even though they are under the leadership of human shepherds in their communities, the true shepherd, the one that will always care for them, the one that will feed them with justice, is God. So many churches today have become cults of personalities centered on the charisma of the pastor, but such churches are bound to fail. There are only so many options when everything revolves around the pastor. One, the pastor could eventually turn out to be corrupt. It s an accurate complaint from those who criticize religion. There are corrupt clergy. So for those who are more invested in the pastor than in God, when the clergy falls, so does their faith. They think the pastor represents everything that is good and holy about Christianity, and so they have nothing left when that proves false. And on some level, that critique is true about every clergy. We are all human and far from perfect with our own flaws and hypocrisies. You shouldn t deify any clergy person. Another option is that the pastor could do a fine job, but then eventually retire, or pass away, or simply move to a new church, and all of a sudden the church community shrinks substantially, because people don t have an understanding of what the purpose of church is other than supporting the work of this person that they love and respect. But the work of any pastor, of any shepherd, is to always point people to the true shepherd. My job is to remind you that God loves you, that you have a purpose and value, and that God wants you to be part of bringing the Kingdom of God to earth by demonstrating love and a desire for justice for all people. My work is to create a community that allows you to explore, and think, and ask

6 04/03/16 Arguments from Atheism: The Clergy are Corrupt Page 6 of 7 questions. I should always be pointing to God such that you leave here thinking to yourself that the ways of God, which bring peace and love to this world, are amazing and worth pursuing. And you can pursue God and do the work of God in the world, with or without me. That s the purpose of church, you come here because you know that God s work is meaningful, and you ll keep doing it no matter what, because you are following the true shepherd. Stanley Hauerwas, who is considered by some to be the world s most influential living theologian and was voted by TIME magazine to be the The United States Best Theologian was in town here in Lincoln a few weeks ago and I went to hear him speak. He teaches at Duke Divinity School and he mentioned that often future pastors who are getting their Masters of Divinity degree, the degree that pastors need in order to get ordained in many denominations, will say that they don t really like theology or that they don t really like pastoral care and so they won t take any classes in that field. Hauerwas compared such behavior to a medical student saying that they didn t really like anatomy and so they weren t going to take it. That wouldn t be acceptable! Our doctors have to know anatomy! And even then, all of our anatomy-trained, certified doctors are still under scrutiny. Whenever we have a big procedure, we ask our doctors questions to make sure that they know what they are doing and aren t going to hurt us in anyway, because we know that even an anatomy-trained doctor can damage our health. But, Hauerwas, asked, Why don t we take the same approach with our pastors? Sometimes, we just assume that what the clergy says is right. We don t think that a theology-trained pastor can do anything to damage our spiritual health, but they can! We don t ask questions to make sure they know what they re talking about. Why don t we have the same expectations of pastors that we do of doctors?

7 04/03/16 Arguments from Atheism: The Clergy are Corrupt Page 7 of 7 Choose your pastors like you choose your doctors. Make sure they actually care about your spiritual health. And I m telling you that you should always put me and Pastor Jim and every other pastor under the same scrutiny. You all hired me to be your shepherd. You help pay my salary out of your hard-earned money. We have to keep our pastors accountable. No one is above reproach. Protect yourselves. What is your pastor telling you? Is it good for you? Does it point to the true shepherd? Does your pastor preach hate or love? Does you pastor care about the inclusion of all God s people regardless of race, gender, or sexual-orientation? These questions matter because there are pastors who preach fear and anger and apathy and a message of salvation while thinking they decide who is and is not saved and we listen to them rather than speaking out against them. And remember, you all are the church. Not the pastor. This year First- Plymouth celebrates its 150 year anniversary and I hope that the church continues for 150 years into the future, but even First-Plymouth does not constitute what it means to be the church. The people of God pursuing justice for this world constitutes the church and I pray that there will always be people in Lincoln, Nebraska who care enough to stand up for others regardless of what happens to First-Plymouth. As your shepherd, the Bible reminds me here in our Ezekiel passage and in numerous verses throughout Scripture that before God I am held to a higher standard not to lead anyone astray. And the apostle Paul reminds me that it is only by the grace of God, not through any merit or special achievement, that anyone is even called to be a minister. And so it is my responsibility to always point the way to God, not to point to myself. My friends, we worship an awesome God who knows we can transform the world and touch the lives of people in profound ways by declaring God s unconditional love and never-ending justice. No matter what, never give up hope in that message. Amen!