Why we never hear of scandals in evangelical/Protestant churches?

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anneramones

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From the sex scandal to every other type of scandal. Why it’s always about the Catholic Church ? I’m so annoyed by the fact that every time there is a religious scandal being talked about on tv or newspaper or in town it’s about us. Are protestant churches without stain? I strongly doubt scandals don’t happen also in their communities, so why we don’t hear of it too?
 
No, they happen. The media finds it more lucrative to attack the Catholic Church because it [the Church] stands against what they’re propagating. Just a few months ago there was a sex abuse scandal at a Baptist church in my hometown, and it was only briefly covered by the local news. Not to mention the scandals surrounding Protestant televangelists such as Tony Alamo and Jimmy Swaggart. Anybody who claims that their church is purer and without sin is either misguided or a liar. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
 
I agree with @giuseppe96 - the Catholic Church is bigger news and even more lucrative to sue because she can afford giving monetary compensations.
I do not mean to be disrespectful to any of the victims of abuse by what I said. But it is true that most of this cases end up in “how much does it cost” to compensate for the suffering.
I hope I am wrong on this one though. Again, no disrespect to the victims from where I stand.
 
anneramones said:
From the sex scandal to every other type of scandal. Why it’s always about the Catholic Church ? I’m so annoyed by the fact that every time there is a religious scandal being talked about on tv or newspaper or in town it’s about us. Are protestant churches without stain? I strongly doubt scandals don’t happen also in their communities, so why we don’t hear of it too?
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I see them in the news, I don’t know why you don’t.
 
There have been plenty of scandals among the tele- evangelist leaders. There have also been scandals among the mega church leaders. There are probably many scandals among smaller protestant churches that don’t make the 24/7 cable news, but you might find them.on the internet if you look hard enough.
 
Protestants have just as many abuse cases as Catholics, but the media doesn’t find them quite so interesting for some reason. And it’s much more difficult to lump together the thousands of Protestant faiths and sects than the ONE (hated) Catholic Church. The same applies to other fields such as education, sports, youth clubs, etc.
 
The Catholic church is monolithic and unified - one whole. The other side of the Tiber has no such unity. It’s easier to fire at one huge target instead of 20000 constantly moving ones. Plus I think we are supposed to lead especially in being examples of sexual purity (priests and nuns). So it is all the more shocking when scandal happens here, I guess. It’s so sad, but ultimately this will make us stronger and more pure and holy.
 
I wonder if the Catholic Church being so large and well-organized might actually count against it in this case. Many Protestant denominations don’t have nearly as strict requirements for their clergy as Catholics do; in many cases, a person can simply pick up a Bible, rent a small space, and he’s got his own church. Yes, there are some Protestant churches that are more organized, but a lot of them aren’t.

So, let’s say, hypothetically, a Protestant pastor at his “hole-in-the-wall” church in a small rural town does something scandalous. The local newspaper might cover it, but it’s unlikely to get any broader recognition. And because his church is a small, independent operation, there’s no one “higher up the food chain” to try to suppress this scandal, and it’s unlikely to spill over into neighboring churches.

Now, let’s contrast that with a global church like the Catholic Church. It’s entirely possible the next person up the chain - such as the local bishop - may try to bury the scandal before it becomes widely known. But this could have the unfortunate effect of encouraging the offender to do the same scandalous thing all over again. After all, he got away with it the first time, and his superior covered for him. And if his superior transfers him to another parish, then the odds of the scandal “spilling over” into a neighboring congregation become very likely.

I’ve noticed that most of the media coverage regarding Catholic scandals isn’t focused so much on the offending priests as it is on the bishops and cardinals who tried to cover it up and helped the offenders escape justice. This is something which, unfortunately, the Catholic Church with its global network and resources can achieve a lot more easily than a small-town Protestant congregation. As uncomfortable as this thought is, I suspect there might be even more cases of scandal that we never notice because the local bishops move to punish the offenders immediately; and no cover-up means no story.

As an example, when I was in high school, there was a scandal in my small town where a Catholic priest committed sexual assault. As soon as the bishop learned of it, he turned the offending priest over to the police. The local newspaper reported it, but it gained no wider recognition. Again, no large-scale cover-up = no news story.

If anything, hopefully this situation - as uncomfortable as it is - will encourage the Catholic Church to hold itself to an even higher standard.
 
VeryBlessed said:
The Catholic church is monolithic and unified - one whole. The other side of the Tiber has no such unity. It’s easier to fire at one huge target instead of 20000 constantly moving ones
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This basically sums it up. It’s like how people look at Hollywood during the whole MeToo era instead of looking at smaller companies.
 
As a recovering Protestant, I can assure you that there is NO SHORTAGE of abuse in Protestant churches. These abuses also get covered up and swept under the rug. Problem people also moved around.

Most Protestant churches don’t have the kind of centralized structure the Catholic Church has. The stories remain local and that’s only if the papers find out to begin with.
 
The problem is they report through their syndicate, the associated press.

They report allegations, arrests, but don’t follow up with the end result b/c the end result is rarely a criminal conviction.

Could they follow up and say so and so was not convicted b/c the prosecution lacked the evidence to go to trial. Nah… That would be too hard for them b/c their syndicate isn’t giving them that information.
 
Agree with @amt1985. The cover-up by the Catholic Bishops and Cardinals has been so much of the story
 
I remember years ago when it seemed like the news was Jim/Tammy Baker coverage all the time. And then, some other Tele-evangelist right after that. (Jimmy Swaggart?) It went on for quite some time in the news.

Anyone else remember Tammy’s mascara use? 😝
 
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There was also mega church pastor Bishop Eddie Long who was sending suggestive pictures teen boys at his church. That was in the National news for some time.

Then, what was the Mormon story? Jeffs?
 
I think the real issue is that, with the Catholic Church, it actually is worse than in the stereotypical Protestant stand-alone churches. Because, when a stand-alone church finds out that the pastor has been committing this horrendous crime and fires him — whether or not they report him to the authorities as they should — they’re done. But we have a supervising authority who retains control over the abusive priest; if we transfer him to another parish where he can do it again, we have helped make that crime possible. So it is, in fact, worse.
 
It happens- but since protestant churches aren’t very united (even within the same denomination), it’s not as “big” news.
 
At the protestant church my spouse attended for over 5 years, there was an assistant pastor who has “visions” and false prophecies that didn’t come true. That scandalized many people.

Also, the same assistant pastor was fired when it was revealed that he had been carrying on an adulterous affair with the church’s receptionist. Very cliche, but another scandal nonetheless. He left his wife for her and they moved to another state.

And that’s just one church, so it does go on, just doesn’t often make the news unless it is a megachurch or a crime. But they do have scandals.
 
Among Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Bob Coy, Mark Driscoll, and Ted Haggard, there’s already five pretty big names among Protestants. That’s before getting into the unpublicised ones. My family has been part of at least one church that had that problem. Even major ones may go without publicity, like what happened at John MacArthur’s Masters University in what may not be an isolated incident.

The problem with going after Protestantism, though, is that there’s only so far you can go. Once you hit the pastor, you’ve probably gone has high as you can. Sure, there are denominations that have more defined structures, but many are either non-denominational or run on a very loosely-connected system like congregationalism.

Catholicism has two things against it:
  1. There is a definite hierarchy to go after.
  2. A lot of the abuse was enabled by that hierarchy.
That first point makes it more interesting to the media than anything Protestants can offer. That second point means that there was some tremendous evil going on that most Protestant groups are incapable of due to their structure, and it magnified the problem to be far worse than it ever should have gotten. The end result is that you basically have the ideal story for media to pick up and keep running with for a while, even before getting down to the agendas that started getting pushed.

That said, Protestants have their own version. It makes for a pretty good story when any of the many loudly homophobic preachers turn out to have same-sex relations. Still, it’s never going to be carried on as far as the Church scandal, because frankly, we held ourselves to a high standard, and those most expected to hold to it failed.
 
Adding a second post because there wasn’t room to expand on this.
ZMystiCat said:
even before getting down to the agendas that started getting pushed
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Of course, this also is part of what makes the Church scandal get so popular. The ink had barely dried on the Pennsylvania report and already people who looking to capitalize on the scandal to push for their personal desires.

For instance, how many people instantly started calling for female priests or to remove the celibacy requirement? These are two things that the Church gets criticized for a lot, and the scandal gave the critics a chance to capitalize on the outrage. It doesn’t matter that some of the arguments were laughably bad (e.g. “women don’t have sex with minors”) or unsubstantiated (e.g. “the celibacy requirement makes this problem worse”). There was outrage, and people latched onto it in the hope to draw more people to their side.

On the other end, how many people came out hard against those with same-sex attraction? And let’s not forget how the Vigano letter was an early Christmas gift to those who’ve been critical of Pope Francis for years. Even more conservative and traditionally-minded Catholics who stay out of this stuff started talking about it.

Really, this latest scandal had plenty of stuff for both sides to latch onto and seek to capitalize on. That’s likely made the noise surrounding it considerably worse.
 
Years ago I attended an American Baptist Church for about a year. The pastor was well respected in the community and even gave the invocation at a NASCAR race. Shortly after that he was arrested for child pornography and sent to prison. He had a wife and two kids. It made big headlines in that small state. As for me, it was the beginning of a hiatus from any church. I eventually realized humans are not the focus of our faith, and that Christ Jesus is. I eventually married a Catholic girl and finally decided to become Catholic myself. Focusing on Christ has helped me not to let myself lose faith again with the recent scandals.
 
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