CHURCH SCANDALS SHOW FOLLY OF MISDIRECTED FAITH.

Byline: Sylvia Alloway Local View

TO begin with, I'm a Protestant, not a Catholic. But as I read about betrayed children and scarred adults and every day still another scandal, I feel an overwhelming concern for my brothers and sisters of that church.

The high church and the low church are all Christians, and in this crisis we should support each other, give each other reassurance that God has not left us alone.

The horrible sexual abuses by priests of young parishioners are not evidence of a failure by God. Sin (not a popular word, but if this isn't sin, what is?) is the result of humans misusing God's greatest gift: free will.

No reward or threat by any church can force a person to serve God. He must choose with his heart. If his goal is to flee from a sexual perversion or to still his conscience about his practice of it, then he has chosen wrongly. God wants loving volunteers, not conscripted soldiers.

I fear that these unconscionable acts by those supposedly devoted to God will drive people away from faith and toward renewed reliance on self (be honest, how reliable are you?), nebulous spirituality (whose object of faith is uncertain) and science (how much faith can you put in something that changes every day?).

All these things are laudable as part of life but not as its center.

And there, it seems to me, is where the problem lies.

What is the center of Christianity? The answer seems obvious. We are called Christians, therefore our center is Christ, Jesus Christ, who is, according the writer of the book of Hebrews, ``the author and finisher of our faith.''

In the various statements of pain, outrage and stoicism by clergy and church members, I have heard almost no mention of our founder.

It is faith in the church that must be restored, they tell us, faith in tradition, in hierarchy. But church institutions are useful only insofar as they lead people to Christ. Unless they do that, they are simply manmade conveniences, as corruptible as humanity itself.

Protestants have trouble with their objects of faith, too.

Remember the televangelist scandals? The sex and greed in the lives of these unworthy vessels could have devastated churchfuls of believers. But they didn't.

They didn't because we realized our mistake of putting faith in human beings instead of in Christ. Once we turned back to our Lord and the record of his teachings, the Bible, we found the power to continue in faith.

I encourage my Catholic brothers and sisters to renew their faith in the only worthy object for a Christian, Christ. Encourage your priests to do this. They are heartbroken - and need your support as much or more than you need theirs.

The hierarchy is in ruins. You cannot place your faith there.

The church can only be rebuilt if the people in the pews keep their heads and do not despair or desert.

It is now up to the people, not the clergy, to set the example of trusting only in ``the author and finisher of our faith.''