What do the following scenarios have in common?
The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention saying that dealing with the accusations of clergy sexual abuse among SBC ministers would be a "distraction" that would take time and financial resources away from the mission of world evangelization.
Former Mars Hill Church founding pastor Mark Driscoll, when facing allegations from the elders of Mars Hill concerning attitudes and behavior that would be disqualifying from the ministry (and being offered a plan of counseling and restoration), claiming that God showed him in a vision that an attack was coming from people that would try to take his ministry away from him (and then resigning rather than answer the charges).
Ravi Zacharias, when accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by Brad and Lori Anne Thompson, denying the allegations and claiming that the couple was trying to extort money from RZIM, only for it to be revealed after Zacharias' death the the sordid truth went far beyond just what the Thompsons had stated.
Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, when he learned that revelations were about to be made concerning his past misconduct with female ministry workers, claimed in a sermon in October 2023 that believers needed to prepare to make a "preemptive strike" against those who would try to destroy the church. And then Charisma magazine publisher Steven Strang calling the revelations about Bickle's activities a "spiritual attack"—rather than calling out the failure of Bickle to resist the spiritual attack of the original temptations two decades prior.
People calling Christian Nationalism a "term made up by leftists" to attack Christians who love their country and want to see godly values prevail.
These are all classic examples of refusing to deal with the rot within one's own house, diverting attention from one's own failures by attacking those who have raised valid concerns.
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