Abuse in the Church: Does It Disprove Christianity? Where Is God for Survivors?

Some readers come to this page with an argument. Others come with a memory. If you are here because someone in a church hurt you, or hurt a person you love, we want to speak to you first. What was done to you was evil. It was not your fault, whatever you were told at the time and whatever you have told yourself since. It does not matter that the person wore a cassock or a collar, led the youth group or was loved by the parish. God was not the one who did it, and God is not on the side of the one who did.

If you are in danger now, call your local emergency number. Abuse of a child or of a vulnerable adult is a crime. Report it to the police or to child protection services, not only to a priest, a pastor or a bishop; telling a church leader is never a substitute for telling the civil authorities. In the United States, these services were checked on their own websites on November 1, 2026:

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988, any hour of any day.¹
• RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline: call 800-656-HOPE (4673), or text HOPE to 64673.²
• Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline: call 800-422-4453, or text "GO" to the same number. Childhelp says plainly that it is a counseling line, "not a reporting line," so a report still goes to the police or your state's child protection agency.³

Outside the United States, start with the police and ask which local services can help. Take this article slowly, and stop if you need to.

Other readers ask a different question. If Christians, even clergy, have abused children and the vulnerable, and church leaders covered it up, does that not show that Christianity is false, or that the Church is evil? That question deserves a straight answer too, and the two questions turn out to have the same answer.

In brief

Clergy sexual abuse, and its concealment by church leaders, is a documented fact, not a rumor spread by enemies of the faith. A study commissioned by the U.S. Catholic bishops counted allegations against 4,392 priests for 1950 to 2002; a Pennsylvania grand jury in 2018 described concealment in six dioceses; a 2022 report found that some leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee met survivors with "resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility." The Orthodox Church is not exempt. None of this disproves Christ. Every one of these crimes is condemned by Christ's own words and by the canons of the Church, and our outrage assumes a moral law that atheism cannot account for. Covering up abuse is a grave sin, not loyalty. For survivors: God was not the abuser and is not on the abuser's side; lament is biblical; and forgiveness never means silence, renewed trust or giving an abuser access to anyone.

Thesis: Abuse in Christ's name is judged by Christ and cannot refute Him; the Church is holy because Christ is holy, not because every cleric is, and those who were harmed in His house are the first people He seeks.

The record, stated plainly

The Roman Catholic Church

In 2002 the U.S. Catholic bishops adopted a Charter that set up a National Review Board, and the Board engaged John Jay College of Criminal Justice to study the problem. Its 2004 report counted "allegations of sexual abuse against a total of 4,392 priests that were not withdrawn or known to be false for the period 1950-2002," which is "4.0% of all priests" reported active in those years. The researchers counted 10,667 people who made allegations, and they warned that "it is impossible to determine from our surveys what percent of all actual cases of abuse" had ever been reported to the Church.⁴ These are allegations, not convictions, and not the whole story.

In August 2018 a Pennsylvania grand jury reported on six Catholic dioceses, every diocese in the state except the two that earlier grand juries had examined. From the dioceses' own documents, the jurors found "credible allegations against over three hundred predator priests" and wrote that "over one thousand child victims were identifiable, from the church's own records," while the real number "is in the thousands." Their summary of how complaints were handled is the hardest line in the report: "The main thing was not to help children, but to avoid 'scandal.'"⁵ A grand jury report is not a criminal verdict, and it was published with responses from the dioceses and from clergy it named. But its findings rest on the Church's own files.

Days later Pope Francis wrote: "With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner."⁶ We quote it not to score points against our Catholic brethren but because every church owes such a confession.

Protestant churches

In May 2022 the firm Guidepost Solutions delivered an independent report to the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest Protestant body. According to the Associated Press, it found that survivors and concerned Southern Baptists repeatedly brought allegations to the Executive Committee, "only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC." A few senior leaders and outside lawyers, the report said, "were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC."⁷ {{very-strong: Official and independent investigations have documented clergy abuse and its concealment in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, and grave failures in the Southern Baptist Convention's handling of abuse reports.}}

The Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church is not exempt, and it would be a lie to suggest she is. Abuse has happened in Orthodox communities too. We found no comprehensive public study of abuse in the Orthodox churches comparable to the John Jay report, and that absence is not a clean bill of health. The Orthodox Church in America says that it "laments the sin of sexual misconduct, and will not tolerate sexual misconduct by its clergy or any layperson," and its policy requires that any cleric "who admits or is found to have committed child sexual abuse shall be suspended by the applicable Ruling Bishop, shall be deposed by the Holy Synod of Bishops, and shall be permanently prohibited from exercising any functions or responsibilities of parish ministry."⁸

There is also abuse of spiritual power, which can wound without any physical contact. In 1998 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church warned that some priests treat their right to guide souls as "undivided power over the souls of people" (our translation), and told the faithful to go to their bishop whenever a confessor oversteps the authority God gave him.⁹ In the nineteenth century St Ignatius (Brianchaninov) wrote that men who take on "the role of the ancient holy elders" without their spiritual gifts should know that "their very way of thinking, their reason, their knowledge are self-deception and demonic delusion."¹⁰ On healthy guidance, see What Is a Spiritual Father?

What Christ and His Church say about it

Christ and the prophets

No one has spoken more severely about harm to the vulnerable than Jesus Christ: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6; compare Luke 17:1-2).¹¹ He warned of wolves "in sheep's clothing" (Matthew 7:15), and said, "There is nothing covered that will not be revealed" (Luke 12:2).

The prophets said the same about bad shepherds. "Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! ... with force and cruelty you have ruled them," says the Lord through Ezekiel; "Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand" (Ezekiel 34:2-4, 10). Through Jeremiah: "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!" (Jeremiah 23:1). St James warns that teachers "shall receive a stricter judgment" (James 3:1). St Paul tells Timothy not to receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses, and then: "Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear," doing "nothing with partiality" (1 Timothy 5:19-21). He teaches that the civil ruler "does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil" (Romans 13:4), and he says that "every soul" is to be subject to such authority (Romans 13:1), clergy included.

Christ Himself was betrayed by His own

The Lord was betrayed from inside. "One of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests" (Matthew 26:14), and it was "the chief priests and elders of the people" who "plotted against Jesus to put Him to death" (Matthew 27:1). Christ does not stand with the betrayers. He stands with the betrayed.

The canons and the Fathers

The ancient canons, which the Orthodox Church still keeps, do not protect clergy who sin gravely. The Apostolic Canons order: "If a bishop, presbyter, or deacon be found guilty of fornication, perjury, or theft, let him be deposed" (Canon 25). They even depose a cleric who strikes the faithful "with the intention of frightening them," because "our Lord has by no means taught us to do so" (Canon 27).¹² If the canons remove a priest for theft or for striking someone, there is no canonical road by which a man who abuses a child keeps his ministry.

St John Chrysostom, himself a bishop, preached that clergy face the heavier judgment: "I do not think there are many among Bishops that will be saved, but many more that perish." To men seeking the office he said, "if you have sinned as bishop, you are lost."¹³

Cover-up is a sin, not loyalty

Protecting a predator is never "avoiding scandal." The scandal, in the biblical sense of a stumbling block, is the abuse itself and every decision that let it continue. Moving an abuser to another parish, silencing a victim, buying secrecy, or treating a report as a public-relations problem is a grave sin, and those who did it will answer to God. It is not loyalty to the Church but betrayal of her, because the Church is not her administrators' reputation. She is the Body of Christ, and the abused child is a member of that Body. A faithful parish takes every report seriously, protects the vulnerable first, keeps the accused away from ministry and children while the matter is examined, and reports to the civil authorities as the law requires. The OCA's policy, for example, commits the Church to "report allegations in accordance with the civil laws" of the place where abuse is alleged.⁸ Laws differ from place to place, but no church rule may require a crime to be hidden.

The Church is holy, as the Creed confesses, because Christ is holy and gave Himself for her "that He might sanctify and cleanse her" (Ephesians 5:25-26). Her holiness is His, not the private property of any bishop or priest. At every Divine Liturgy the priest says, "The holy gifts for the holy ones," and the people answer: "One is Holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father."¹⁴ The Church has never claimed that her clergy are sinless. She confesses that Christ is (see also Why Are There So Many Hypocrites in the Church?).

Does abuse disprove Christianity?

No, and the reasons matter for survivors too.

First, abuse in Christ's name is condemned by Christ's own standard. The millstone saying and the woes on false shepherds are not modern additions forced on the Church by outsiders. They are the Gospel. A priest who abuses a child is not revealing what Christianity really is; he is doing exactly what Christianity says will bring the strictest judgment. A teaching is not refuted by people who violate it.

Second, the outrage is itself a witness. Everyone who reads these reports knows that what happened was objectively evil. That judgment is right, but it requires a moral law that is real and binding on everyone, including powerful men who would rather not be bound. Without God it is hard to say why the strong ought not to use the weak. The atheist who is rightly furious at abusive clergy stands on ground only God supplies (see Can Objective Morality Exist Without God?).

Third, abuse is a sin of power, and it appears wherever adults hold unchecked power over the vulnerable. The U.S. Justice Department's Inspector General found that after USA Gymnastics reported allegations against Larry Nassar, a physician who treated its gymnasts, to the FBI in July 2015, "approximately 70 or more young athletes were allegedly sexually abused by Nassar under the guise of medical treatment" between that report and September 2016, according to civil court documents.¹⁵ {{strong: Failure by institutions to stop known abuse is documented outside churches as well as inside them.}}

But "other groups do it too" is not a defense, and it is not the point. The point is narrower: abuse shows what fallen human beings do with unchecked power, which is what the Christian teaching on sin predicts. It does not show that Christ did not rise. And abuse committed in God's name is uniquely evil, because it uses the holiest things to wound and teaches a child to fear the God who loves him. That is why Christ's words about it are among the most frightening He spoke.

"If the Church were true, God would have stopped it"

This is the problem of evil in its sharpest form, and a slogan will not answer it. God did not prevent Judas from betraying Christ, and He does not prevent every human crime. Christianity does not promise a Church on earth free of wicked men. It promises that God sees, that He will judge, and that evil does not have the last word (see Why Does a Good God Allow Evil and Suffering?). "You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief, to repay it by Your hand ... You are the helper of the fatherless" (Psalm 10:14). Where leaders hid crimes, they must be named, removed and, where the law allows, prosecuted; it is the Gospel's own standard that condemns them.

If you were harmed: where is God?

For many survivors the deepest wound came afterward: not being believed, being told to keep quiet for the sake of the parish, being treated as the problem. Southern Baptist survivors told the Guidepost investigators of "trauma from the initial abuse, but also ... the debilitating effects that come from the response of the churches and institutions ... that did not believe them, ignored them, mistreated them, and failed to help them."⁷ If that happened to you, it was a second wrong, and it was not God's voice.

God was not the abuser

The person who hurt you may have used God's name, quoted Scripture or claimed spiritual authority. None of that makes his voice God's voice; Christ called such people wolves. "The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart" (Psalm 34:18). If you cannot feel that now, it is not a failure of faith. It is what a wound feels like.

Anger and lament belong in prayer

Scripture gives words for this. "How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?" (Psalm 13:1). One psalm reads as if written for those betrayed inside the household of faith: "For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; then I could bear it ... But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in the throng" (Psalm 55:12-14). You may pray like that.

What forgiveness is, and what it is not

Christians are called to forgive, and some have used that calling as a weapon against survivors. So let us be exact. Forgiveness is not saying it did not matter. It is not silence, and it does not cancel a police report or a trial. It is not trust, and it is not reconciliation with someone who has not repented. It never means returning anyone to ministry or giving him access to children. At its heart it means handing to God the vengeance that belongs to Him: "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves ... for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord" (Romans 12:19). A few verses later St Paul says the civil ruler bears the sword as "an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil" (Romans 13:4). Forgiving and seeking justice are not opposites. Forgiveness may take a long time, and no one may demand it of you on a schedule (see How Do I Forgive Someone Who Hurt Me Deeply?).

Distance is not apostasy

You may need to leave the parish where you were harmed, or stay away from a particular priest or community, perhaps for good. That is not abandoning Christ. St Ignatius (Brianchaninov) recalls that St Poemen the Great commanded that one leave at once an elder whose company proves harmful to the soul.¹⁰ When you are ready, a trustworthy priest elsewhere, one who answers to a bishop willing to act, can help you return to the Mysteries without returning to danger.

Get real help

Seek out a pastor you can trust and a licensed counselor experienced with trauma. Prayer and therapy are not rivals; the Church has always honored physicians. And you are not alone. The Orthodox Church in America's life of St Olga of Alaska, a Yup'ik matushka (priest's wife), records that in the decades after her death "survivors of abuse spoke of being comforted in their sleep" (see Who Was St. Olga of Alaska?).¹⁶ Those are reported experiences, not proofs, but the Church prays for people like you and counts them as her own.

What we can say confidently

• Clergy sexual abuse of minors and its concealment are documented by official investigations in the U.S. Catholic Church, and an independent investigation found grave failures in the Southern Baptist Convention's handling of reports.
• The Orthodox Church is not exempt; Orthodox bishops have issued rules against sexual misconduct and abuse of spiritual authority.
• Scripture, the Apostolic Canons and the Fathers condemn abusive shepherds and require that clergy guilty of fornication, perjury, theft or striking the faithful be deposed.
• Abuse committed in Christ's name is judged by Christ's own teaching and does not refute Him.

What remains disputed

• The true number of victims in any church or institution. The John Jay researchers said their data could not show how many cases were never reported.
• How abuse rates compare between churches and other institutions. Studies count different things in different ways, and this article relies on no comparison.
• How much abuse in Orthodox jurisdictions has been documented. We found no comprehensive public study; that is a gap, not a reassurance.

Conclusion

Abuse in the Church is real, it was often hidden by people who should have stopped it, and the Orthodox Church has no grounds to boast. But the Church's failures do not refute Christ, because every one of them stands condemned by His words. The skeptic's outrage is right, and it points toward the God who gives that outrage its meaning. For the one who was harmed, the last word belongs neither to the abuser nor to the cover-up. It belongs to the Lord who was Himself betrayed by a friend and condemned by religious leaders, who rose from the dead, and who says of every false shepherd, "I will require My flock at their hand." He is not the one who hurt you. He is the Shepherd who comes looking for the sheep that were scattered.

Notes

1. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, home page ("Call," "Text," "Chat"; "available 24/7/365"), https://988lifeline.org/, checked November 1, 2026.
2. RAINN, National Sexual Assault Hotline ("Call 800.656.HOPE"; "Text HOPE to 64673"; "Free. Confidential. 24/7."), https://hotline.rainn.org/online, checked November 1, 2026. The digits 4673 spell HOPE on a telephone keypad.
3. Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline, home page ("CALL (800) 422-4453"; "TEXT 'GO' TO 800.422.4453"; "It is not a reporting line and is not connected to 911 or emergency services"), https://www.childhelphotline.org/, checked November 1, 2026.
4. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States, 1950-2002 (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2004), executive summary, pp. 3-6, https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/upload/The-Nature-and-Scope-of-Sexual-Abuse-of-Minors-by-Catholic-Priests-and-Deacons-in-the-United-States-1950-2002.pdf.
5. Pennsylvania, Fortieth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury, Report 1 (interim, redacted; released August 2018), Introduction, pp. 1-2, as published by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania with responses, http://media-downloads.pacourts.us/InterimRedactedReportandResponses.pdf.
6. Pope Francis, Letter to the People of God (August 20, 2018), https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2018/documents/papa-francesco_20180820_lettera-popolo-didio.html.
7. Associated Press, "Top Southern Baptists stonewalled and denigrated sex abuse victims, report says," via NPR (May 22, 2022), quoting the Guidepost Solutions report, https://www.npr.org/2022/05/22/1100616952/southern-baptists-sex-abuse.
8. Orthodox Church in America, "Prevention of Sexual Misconduct," https://www.oca.org/about/sexual-misconduct; and Policies, Standards, and Procedures of the Orthodox Church in America on Sexual Misconduct (approved by the Holy Synod of Bishops, March 2014), sections 3.02 and 10.05(B), https://www.oca.org/PDF/sexual-misconduct/2014-04-PSP-Sexual-Misconduct.pdf.
9. Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, decision on cases of abuse by some pastors of the power to bind and loose (Matt. 18:18), session of December 28-29, 1998, Russian text at https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/dokumenty/opredelenie-svjashhennogo-sinoda-ob-uchastivshihsja-v-poslednee-vremja-sluchajah-zloupotreblenija-nekotorymi-pastyrjami-vverennoj-im-ot-boga-vlastyu-vjazat-i-reshit-mf-18-18/ (preamble and point 12). Quotations are our translation.
10. St Ignatius (Brianchaninov), Prinoshenie sovremennomu monashestvu (An Offering to Contemporary Monasticism), part 2, chapter 12, "On Living in Obedience to an Elder," Russian text at https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ignatij_Brjanchaninov/prinoshenie-sovremennomu-monashestvu/2_12. Quotations are our translation. An English translation exists as The Arena, trans. Archimandrite Lazarus (Moore); it was not consulted.
11. Scripture is quoted from the New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), checked at https://www.biblegateway.com/. Psalms are numbered as in the NKJV.
12. The Apostolic Canons, Canons 25 and 27 (numbered 25-26 and 28 in some editions), trans. Henry Percival, NPNF2 vol. 14, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3820.htm.
13. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts, Homily 3, trans. J. Walker, J. Sheppard and H. Browne, rev. George B. Stevens, NPNF1 vol. 11, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210103.htm.
14. The Divine Liturgy of Our Father Among the Saints John Chrysostom (Sydney: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia / St Andrew's Orthodox Press, 2005), the elevation of the Holy Gifts, https://www.cjoc.ca/pdf/CJOC_16_3_1GOAA-Divine-Liturgy-Combined.pdf.
15. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Handling of Allegations of Sexual Abuse by Former USA Gymnastics Physician Lawrence Gerard Nassar, report 21-093 (July 2021), executive summary, https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/21-093.pdf.
16. Orthodox Church in America, "Righteous Mother Olga of Kwethluk, Wonderworker, Matushka of All Alaska," Lives of the Saints, October 27, https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2026/10/27/100561-righteous-mother-olga-of-kwethluktanqilria-arrsamquqwonderworker.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
• John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States, 1950-2002. Washington, DC: USCCB, 2004.
• Pennsylvania, Fortieth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury. Report 1 (interim, redacted), with responses. 2018.
• U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General. Report 21-093 on the FBI's handling of the Nassar allegations. July 2021.
• Associated Press. "Top Southern Baptists stonewalled and denigrated sex abuse victims, report says." May 22, 2022.

Orthodox and patristic sources

• The Apostolic Canons. Trans. Henry Percival. NPNF2 vol. 14.
• John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles. NPNF1 vol. 11.
• Ignatius (Brianchaninov). Prinoshenie sovremennomu monashestvu. Russian text, azbyka.ru.
• Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Decision of December 28-29, 1998. Russian text, azbyka.ru.
• Orthodox Church in America. Policies, Standards, and Procedures on Sexual Misconduct. 2014.
• Orthodox Church in America. Life of Righteous Mother Olga of Kwethluk.
• The Divine Liturgy of Our Father Among the Saints John Chrysostom. Sydney: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, 2005.

Sources from the churches discussed

• Pope Francis. Letter to the People of God. August 20, 2018.

Support services

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/.
• RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline. https://hotline.rainn.org/online.
• Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline. https://www.childhelphotline.org/.