Hard as they are to watch, the Epstein and Michael Jackson documentaries (Filthy Rich and Leaving Neverland respectively) provide an incisive account of how systems enable horrific abuse and corruption.

The bent of contemporary evangelicalism is to isolate an individual sinner, to put the blame and personal responsibility on him or her.

These heartbreaking stories devastate such simplistic theologies of sin, highlighting how others prop up, embolden, and enable this pattern of behavior and the destruction it inflicts.

Whether acting out of fear, desire for power or money, misplaced and twisted loyalty, or Pollyannaish thinking, countless others have played a culpable part in corruption that’s revealed on such a grand scale.

When such abuse is uncovered, the needful and moral response of anyone in its orbit must be lament, unflinching self and institutional examination, confession, and repentance. Anything less is a continuation of the abusive system in another form.

Only God can give the strength and grace necessary for what will be excruciating work. But the good news is that he does just that. Life can truly come out of this death, but only through the cross.

For any institution that finds itself at this inflection point, my prayer would be those involved embrace Christ’s dying and rising with their whole self.

I’ll end this thread with the final passage of Cornelius Plantinga’s wonderful, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be. Recovering a robust doctrine of sin really does help us better realize the promise of rhe resurrection.