{"id":527,"date":"2010-03-16T14:08:19","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T14:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/corruption-in-religious-organizations.html"},"modified":"2010-03-16T14:08:19","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T14:08:19","slug":"corruption-in-religious-organizations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/corruption-in-religious-organizations.html","title":{"rendered":"Corruption in Religious Organizations"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

A major theme in my understanding of religion and
\nspirituality is that religious organizations are not so much a means to grow in
\ngenuine spirituality, as they enable many people to come together and engage in
\nspiritual practice as a community. 
\n<\/span>The growth remains an individual responsibility, sometimes aided but
\nsometimes hindered by the organizations we join as a part of our practice.  <\/span>Organizations are necessary because
\nbeing part of a community helps remind us of our priorities, but they exact a
\nvery high price.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

The organizations with which we
\nidentify are the last refuge of tribalism for many of us.  <\/span>As a rule the ‘us vs. them’ mentality
\nflourishes any time the organization, or rather its leadership, is caught in an
\nembarrassing or corrupt situation. 
\n<\/span>We have a strong tendency to huddle around the embattled person and defend
\nhim or her against the outside world – even if we personally do not approve of
\nwhat they did.  <\/span>I explored this
\nissue in many kinds of organizations in my paper “Why Organizations Lie.”<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>In the case of religious
\norganizations, this means confusing the interests of its leadership with its
\nspiritual mission, a particularly egregious organizational pathology. <\/span><\/p>\n

As the oldest, largest and most
\npowerful religious organization, the Catholic Church has long been a victim of
\nthis tribalistic syndrome.  <\/span>The
\ncurrent multiple scandals unfolding in Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland, <\/a>  <\/span>where high ranking clergy either
\nengaged in or covered up child abuse by other clergy constitute yet more pages
\nin this sordid record of “shepherds” putting the interest of their “sheep”
\nlast.   <\/span>Within the Church,
\nsmaller internal organizations exhibited the exact same behavior in looking the
\nother way and selective blindness when their top leadership lived a double life.   <\/span>The Legion of Chris<\/a>t,  <\/span>a powerful world wide organization
\nnoted for defending “Catholic values.” It’s members are often influential
\nfigures in the US<\/a>.  The Legion is currently in deep crisis as a result of hard to believe
\ndepravity<\/a>. This kind of thing has been an ongoing issue in the Church for years, reduces
\nits power and influence, and yet the institution seems incapable of dealing
\nwith it<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The organization’s defenders, in
\nthis case defenders of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy, will argue three
\nthings, if I may be permitted a prediction.  <\/span><\/p>\n

First, everybody does it.  <\/span>But the issue is the cover-up, not the
\noriginal crimes – and only big organizations can cover this kind of thing up on
\nthe scale we are seeing. It is a disease of big organizations.<\/p>\n

Second, the top leaders did not
\nknow.  <\/span>In these most recent cases
\nthis is hard to believe, assuming they are otherwise competent at their
\njobs.  <\/span>The leaders were not
\nnecessarily child molesters 
\n<\/span>(although in the case of the Legion of Christ, he was) that is not the
\nissue.  <\/span>The leaders put the
\norganization’s interests in not being embarrassed ahead of its spiritual responsibilities.  <\/span>And this almost always happens.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Third, in this case I must be
\nanti-Catholic, thereby equating being anti-child abuse with anti
\nCatholicism.  <\/span>Regardless of what I
\nthink of the Catholic Church – and I have a very complex attitude towards it,
\nfar more complex than its attitude towards Pagans, that claim is utterly
\nirrelevant.  <\/span>Unless, that is, you
\nreact as a member of a tribe, where any criticism from outside is evidence of
\ndeep seated hostility that must be combated.  <\/span>And that, of course, is what is happening.<\/p>\n

But the tendency of big
\norganizations to become tribalistic, defending themselves from any claims of
\nwrong-doing from the outside and sacrificing anyone and anything to do so, is
\nnot a uniquely Catholic problem. 
\n<\/span>It would appear in a Pagan organization, if ever it got big and powerful
\nenough.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Nor is this a problem unique to
\nreligious organizatios.  <\/span>It is
\nubiquitous whenever we see organizations where people within them become
\nemotionally identified with them. 
\n<\/span>The weirdest recent example  (I know about) is Lehman Brothers<\/a>, the recently bankrupted financiers who,
\nupon closer examination, appear to have been run as a cult.  <\/span>The problem is with the organizational
\nform, no matter where it appears: religion, business, politics, wherever.<\/p>\n

There is no cure.  <\/span>I believe the only palliative is to
\nkeep organizations as small as possible – the exact opposite of what is
\nhappening today in American society. 
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Small organizations have the same
\ntendencies, but outside cults cannot dominate the lives of their members nearly
\nso much.  <\/span>Small size limits the
\nscope of the harm they can cover up and makes leaving them or blowing the
\nwhistle easier.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I suspect it is also the case
\nthat the larger the organization, the more relative advantages corrupt people have
\nin rising to the top, because internal political skills and manipulation will
\nbecome ever more important in enabling their rise.  <\/span>Sociopaths have advantages similarly talented non-sociopaths
\ndo not have.  <\/span>This does NOT mean
\ngood people cannot rise to the top, but they will have more going against them.\n<\/p>\n

When I visit a massive Pagan
\ngathering like Pantheacon, I am sometimes a little put off by the weirder folks
\nwho show up – but compared to the harm powerful organizations have done and
\ncontinue to do within the religious traditions they are supposed to safeguard,
\nthese are small potatoes indeed.  As problems, t<\/span>hey are tater tots among boulders, if even that.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A major theme in my understanding of religion and spirituality is that religious organizations are not so much a means to grow in genuine spirituality, as they enable many people to come together and engage in spiritual practice as a community.  The growth remains an individual responsibility, sometimes aided but sometimes hindered by the organizations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-social-and-political-theory","category-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nCorruption in Religious Organizations - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/03\/corruption-in-religious-organizations.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Corruption in Religious Organizations - 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