If you’re like me, as the deluge of stories of betrayed trust in churches rose ever higher and higher, you had a list in your mind of people who, were they found to be abusive, would be particularly devastating to you. It’s a coping technique, I suppose. It’s the desire to buffer yourself against cynicism and despair by always identifying that one person who is good.
“Would you spare the western church for the sake of fifty good men, Lord?” we wonder. Then we, like Abraham before us, think a bit more and revise our number downward accordingly. Jean Vanier was one of the men on my list. Likely he was on many others as well. And then the news came:
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Jake Meador
Jake Meador is the editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Commonweal, First Things, Books & Culture, National Review, Comment, Books & Culture, and Christianity Today. He is a contributing editor with Plough and a contributing writer at the Dispatch. He lives in his hometown of Lincoln, NE with his wife and four children.
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