In a blog several months ago I spoke of clergy paying attention to boundaries. In that blog, I suggested that one guide line that they might follow was what I called the public option. Don’t do anything in private that you would be embarrassed to do in the public square.
To use a politically popular phrase, the church is going to need to operate with more transparency. You generate trust when people know what you are doing and why you are doing it. It would be a good exercise for a governing board to have a discussion about distrust and name the various behaviors of the internal working of the church that could be misinterpreted by the larger society if done in secret. Those are the very actions that need to be interpreted, almost as a form of witness. Apparently the early church was accused of immorality because they referred to everyone as brother and sister and then passed the kiss of peace during their services. The society interpreted what was going on as sexual orgy within a family. There was a need to interpret that the kiss of peace was a form of hospitality and that all members were considered brothers and sisters as part of the family of God.
Luke has an important reminder in 8:17. “For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light.” That can be seen as threatening but it is also possible to make it a positive. What we do must be such that if it were public, it would make a good testimony for our faith.
