Church needs healing

By Mia Pohlman

The cases of abuse and efforts to hide this abuse within the Church have left its members hurting, left many of its members wondering what to do.

This is a Church I love. I love it because it encompasses everyone, because it is a Church of deep mystery, a Church of love. It is a Church that catches glimpses of God in all religions, that invites all types of cultural expression into worship, that works for lasting and transformative social justice around the world. It is a Church that welcomes questioners and doubters, provides a place for them, calls them mystics. It is a Church in which members become part of Jesus' body through taking bread he comes to us in within ourselves. It is a visceral Church, a physical Church, an intellectual Church. A Church that unites body, soul and mind.

It is also a Church that has done terrible things. A Church that has caused suffering and death through wars and colonialism and sexual abuses. How do we reconcile this?

These abuses of power are sin; they are not the beauty and freedom and love the Church teaches. They are in stark contrast to the inherent dignity of the human being that is at the heart of the Church; they are a result of being in a world that is not yet perfect.

A temptation of power is to abuse it; look at our own country during the past century for proof of this. And yet, we continue being American because we believe in the ideals that created this country; we believe in what we can be. And we work towards that.

We do not worship leaders. They are given to us by the One we worship, to be guides to us. They are human and have free will and are therefore fallible, capable of sin. They are not the ones we ultimately believe in. The God we worship does not harm us; God gives us commandments to keep us safe, gives us a spirit not of fear but of love and courage. We worship a God who raises up the powerless, who gave us a Church to last until the end, who asks us to be co-creators with him in making our lives, our Church, our world.

This is not a time for leaving. This is a time for staying.

This is a time for honesty and pruning, a time for hope and growth and change. A time of refinement in which we need all voices to hold those in power accountable for the responsibility with which we have entrusted them. It is a time of healing, a time of reconciliation, a time of grace.

It is a time during which all religions and denominations can come together to pray with each other, as we all work towards the same goal.

The Church is bigger than us and anything any member could do to sully it.

What do we do? We stay and we create and we love. Because when it comes down to it, we do not follow men. We follow Jesus. And Jesus gave us the Church.