The church and the trial OR privacy and the media

Last night, I felt sort of down. So my church has been affected by a recent criminal trial. Two people who were recently tried and convicted of approximately 30 counts each. These two people are members of my church. I think the fact that several of the charges had to do with abuse of people affects the church more than if they were only charges of things like tax evasion or insurance fraud. Our church had a processing meeting last night. People could talk about their feelings, and we tried to come up with the answers to, "What do we do now?" All of that is not what got me down last night. Oddly, perhaps, what did make me feel sort of hopeless about humanity is an announcement our pastor gave at the beginning of the meeting. He said that an area tv station had received an anonymous tip from someone letting them know about the meeting. The camera crew and an anchor were outside the door right then. Obviously, I cannot know that it was a congregation person who called the tv station...but it's not like the meeting was advertised in the newspaper or something. It definitely could have a case where such-and-such church member told such-and-such non-church member and that's how it ended up getting to the media. If it came from a church member, that would make me sad.

This was an interesting situation to come up for me at this time. A couple of Sundays ago, I was on a panel of professionals from our church to talk to a Mennonite History class about how being Mennonite affects the work we do. [Side note: I was the communications professional from the church—whoa, weird...am I old enough to be that?] One thing I mentioned was that at the time I was looking for a job, it came down to a decision between my current job and a job as a newspaper reporter. The reason I was aware of at the time for not taking the reporter job was that it didn't fit my personality as well as what I do do. Ok, yes, I was somewhat afraid to step out and do those things that I'm not all that comfortable doing, but I love my job now, so that's worth quite a bit too. Anyway, I mentioned at the panel presentation that I didn't know exactly why being a newspaper reporter didn't fit in all that well for me with being Mennonite, but that I thought it related somehow. And I don't know that it doesn't fit in with the theology of Mennonitism—it's probably more of a cultural thing...not being intrusive or something. So it was interesting to me that my experience last night at my church reinforced my occupational decision.

Now for an admission: Just because I don't want to be the one being intrusive and finding out about those things that perhaps should be allowed to be private doesn't mean that I'm not one of the people reading those "juicy" stories. I'm just as curious as the next guy. Ah, hypocrisy.

In addition to the somber feelings, I also felt very proud of our church for having the meeting. I'm not a fan of things being swept under the rug or conveniently ignored. I'm proud that the response wasn't just "pray for them that God will show them their evil ways." I'm proud that some people want to confront them, want to talk to them about what is seen as guilt. I'm proud that people are struggling with this—what to feel, what to do. I'm proud that people admit they don't have the answers.