The Poison of Hypocrisy

John C. Rankin

[excerpted from First the Gospel. Then Politics …, 1999, Vol. 2, not published]

Quite some years ago, [and keeping location and time anonymous to protect the innocent], a number of evangelical leaders had come together to found a Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) in a strategic location. A board of directors was put in place, fund-raising was underway, and a timetable for opening the Center in view.

In the process, and coincidentally, the teen-age daughters of two of the men on the board became pregnant about the same time. Both their fathers furtively arranged abortions for them. The prostituted concern was for their own reputations in the church, and not to have their teen-age daughters be publicly pregnant.

As it happened, both these situations came to light a short time later, and the scandal forced the plans for the CPC to be aborted as well, causing a delay of some years, until others were able to successfully revive and establish the Center. Thus, in that time frame, many women who would have been availed of the services of the CPC, were not. Who knows how many additional children were aborted as a result? Judgment begins with the household of God. Unless we can confess our own sins, and flee the shame by the power to forgive, then we have nothing to give to a broken world.

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