You probably haven’t heard, because they’ve pretty much kept it out of the news, but there was a little interview given by a couple of formal British Royals named Harry and Meghan that created a bit of a stir across the pond. I am not an expert in the royal family and cannot speak to the truthfulness of what Ms. Markle and her husband said about them. Last night, I was involved in the last-minute cancellation of a trip to Senegal and did not watch the interview, but today I saw a clip that struck me deeply.
Meghan shared how deeply depressed she was after the intense coverage by the British tabloids. She dealt with racism and hostility and according to her, outright lies. She reached the point of being so depressed that she was suicidal and asked for help.
She was told that it was not possible for her to seek such help because IT MIGHT REFLECT POORLY ON THE MONARCHY.
A young woman was at the point of killing herself and the “institution” – the term she used to describe the powers that drive the monarchy in Britain – cared more about the good of the monarchy than the health of a young lady.
Do I even need to drive this point home? (Let me do it anyway.)
- I have been confronted by people, when I have written an article criticizing a leader or one of our entities, that my criticisms are “damaging the SBC.” We often care more about protecting the denominational structure than fixing what is wrong.
- How many women have been abused and been told that “for the good of the church” they needed to shut up and not tell their story publicly. The institution mattered so much that it was worth covering up heinous sin and forever damaging the lives of women and children who were victims of evil men.
- We KNOW of stories of sinful things that have happened in SBC entities, but they are hushed up, quieted, and covered up because of the “cause of Christ.”
Institutions are comprised of fallen people and they reflect that fallenness. They are sinful. Governments are corrupted by sin. Businesses are corrupted by sin. Political parties (ALL of them) are corrupted by sin. Denominations are corrupted by sin. CHURCHES are corrupted by sin.
The idea that we should shut up about sin to protect institutions is evil; contrary to Christ. Sin needs to be exposed in our lives and cleansed in the blood of Christ. We ought never to put institutions ahead of the good of people. We are shepherds of the sheep and we never slaughter the sheep to feed the shepherds.
We feed the sheep. We don’t feed on them. Institutions can help us in our task, but we must never put them ahead of people. We don’t crush people to serve institutions.
Now, back to Harry and Meghan.
