A few things that are sobering and comforting when thinking about the church and scandals:

1. Looking at history, God has loved and preserved it through far worse than what we've seen of late.

2. The distinction between the visible and the invisible church reminds me that God is at work in time and space in ways that escape human notice far beyond that scandal draws our attention.

3. The local church is not the universal church, nor the churches of one nation the whole of the global churches. Heck the abstraction of the "churches/church" of one nation are often only a limited view of even that nation's churches.

4. Before I set myself off too comfortably/smugly/hopelessly, I am a member of a church/the church. In which case, I probably need to take my own sin as seriously as I'm taking that of "the church", or I need to show it as much patience as I do myself. Possibly both!