Two weeks ago, another round of sexual allegations emerged surrounding a prominent figure in the Christian music industry. It’s a gut-punch every time this happens. And it just keeps happening. My question today is, how do we ensure this never happens in our business or church community? How do we protect ourselves and build a healthy culture that is scandal-proof? Here’s my prevention plan index. Feel free to find what you need and skip ahead.

Quick Guide

1. You can’t!—not entirely
2. Events and Patterns
3. Policies and Cultures
4. Culture: #1 Value truth over deadlines, price points, or personalities
5. Culture: #2 Value propriety over approval
6. Culture: #3 A community that confronts
7. Culture: #4 A community of honesty
8. Culture: #5 Loving integrity is more powerful than resisting impropriety
9. A policy of affirmation: men and women leading together
10. Policies of protection: healthy gender boundaries
11. Policies of Protection: Healthy age boundaries  

HOW TO SCANDAL-PROOF YOUR COMMUNITY! 

1. You can’t!—not entirely.  

Your organization is made up of people, and we are all capable of waywardness. So the first step to prevention is to recognize that this can happen to anyone, anywhere. I know that sounds pessimistic, but it’s a practical and Biblical way to take seriously our human attraction to sin. Thinking this could never happen to us is a “pride that comes before a fall.”

2. Events and Patterns

There’s a difference between patterns of behavior and a singularly inappropriate comment, or suddenly finding yourself in a potentially compromising situation. We are attempting to reduce the opportunity for either. Many of us have let a joke or potentially insulting word slide here and there. Many of us have even found ourselves in a potentially uncomfortable or unethical situation we didn’t expect to be in. We have to be willing to speak up, learn from these exceptional moments, and create boundaries for the future. Individuals and communities are responsible for eliminating exposure to future risky behavior. A proactive approach helps us to “nip it in the bud” before something or someone becomes truly dangerous. 

3. Policies and Cultures

We need healthy policies and healthy collective habits (culture). Policies aren’t enough; rules on a wall won’t stop the heart set on doing evil. So our next five points involve establishing a healthy community culture. Yet, organizational policies go a long way in creating a safe environment in which people don’t stumble into the ambush of temptation. We’ll discuss those practical details under points 10 and 11. Both policies and collective habits create environments where we move towards our common mission and trust that we won’t take advantage of each other for personal benefit.

4. Culture: #1 Value truth over deadlines, price points, or personalities

The community must be willing to pay a price for transparency and truthfulness. The leadership and organizational systems must value integrity or slow down enough to practice safety. If we don’t, we’ve already sown the seeds for people’s protection to be trumped by money or power. Church’s can’t be so in love with their pastor or priest that the clergy is somehow exempted from appropriate behavior or protocol. Strong personalities and power positions can warp the fabric of perception and reality. Maybe we like this person too much to believe they are capable of inappropriate behavior. Or maybe we’re afraid this person could punish us if we express misgivings about their conduct. You have to build a culture that acts against these tendencies.

5. Culture: #2 Value propriety over approval 

Every individual can create temptation for others or fall into temptation themselves. As individuals, we have to repulse the “good feelings” we get from flirting with certain people, or feeling “noticed” by others. Flirtatious or nonprofessional behavior interferes with the integrity of our vocational mission. We can’t entertain thought patterns or social behaviors that betray marital fidelity, familial bonds, or societal trust. That starts in the heart of every individual. Individuals are responsible for setting personal boundaries for themselves so that they don’t add oxygen to someone’s fire or shift the boundaries of what’s acceptable for the office staff.  

6. Culture: #3 A community that confronts

As a community or organization, we have to be willing to speak up and challenge each other. Collective habits of transparency and honesty protect everyone. In our church community, we are helping people heal from sexual brokenness and inappropriate expressions of their sexuality. That requires accountability. The community holds them to standards for their development and maturity. In one of the recent scandals, a church leader had installed locks inside his already externally lockable door. Why didn’t anyone raise an alarm about that suspicious behavior? We’re not trying to be suspicious of everyone, but we have to be willing to ask point-blank questions of anyone. The goal is to foster collaboration and honesty so imposters can’t hide. We are preventing abuse by making predators feel like they can’t get away from prying eyes. As the saying goes, “sunlight is the best antiseptic.”

7. Culture: #4 A community of honesty

Within the church, we are attempting to build an environment where people can reveal their secrets to a trustworthy few who will not punish them but help them heal. For more on that, you can read our article Addicted to Porn. If we can learn to be honest with the small things and work through those, hopefully, we can help prevent the bigger things, like immoral behavior and abuse. Churches especially play a vital role in helping individuals work through their addictions, their arousal templates, or their emotional needs for comfort in inappropriately sexualized ways. Employees should also have permission to express concerns about working or traveling with members of the opposite sex in a way that promotes unhealthy emotional attachments. Honesty aims to safeguard our external behaviors by sharing our internal struggles with the appropriate people.

8. Culture: #5 Loving integrity is more powerful than resisting impropriety

Again, we must do more than hate the evil in each person’s spiritual journey. We must love the good. We have to be infatuated with what is good, noble, just, beautiful, and right, more than we are lured away by our shallow, selfish desires. Scandal is built on personal temptations when our own self-interest drags us away. The rewards of self-interest are always fleeting and illusory; the lie never lasts.  We have to love the feeling of living in integrity, serving others, honoring our spouses, and living for the good of the community. Scandals happen because individuals live for themselves at the expense of others. Sin always costs more than you could imagine, and the blessing of living in integrity and truth is more precious than you know.

POLICIES THAT REDUCE THE RISK:

Now that we’ve discussed the importance of our collective habits, we also need to discuss the importance of organizational policies for reducing the risk of scandal and impropriety.

9. A Policy of Affirmation: men and women leading together

Our staff and community have fairly high boundaries that maintain safe environments for the opposite gender to recreate and collaborate. While attempting to ward off the negative let’s not fail to celebrate the positive: God created men and women to enjoy one another’s company and collaborate together. Healthy boundaries enable us to live and work in diverse communities and teams. Public and communal environments are healthy spaces that keep us transparent and accountable to one another. Organizational policies also help us do the same. 

10. Policies of Protection: healthy gender boundaries

Larger group interaction isn’t always possible or ideal in church or business settings. As we interact in a one-on-one environment, we employ a few practical policies to reduce risks further. 

• Office doors have glass windows so that nothing can be hidden. 
• One-on-one meetings with coworkers or congregants of the opposite sex should occur in spaces with other people around—the café, for example—or with office doors open or slightly ajar, during the working week. 
• Men and women shouldn’t be meeting with members of the opposite gender publicly or privately. This can be difficult to maintain, but it is a healthy policy. Here are a few blurry scenarios

i.e., I was hosted by an out-of-town female pastor at a local coffee shop (that’s an exception), but I will not meet with a female congregant in a local coffee shop, as a rule.

i.e., I met with a younger female in our church café during the busy Sunday hours to answer some of her questions about faith, but I would not do so outside of business hours or in private (unless my wife was present). 

i.e., I have shared meals in public with a grandmother figure in our community, but no one my age or younger. 

i.e., if two people of the opposite gender work later into the evening and are alone in a room or office, efforts should be made to leave, avoid this as a pattern, or express the situation to a supervisor for further discussion.

i.e., Because of a female’s professional hours, we were obliged to meet before our church’s regular business hours (7 a.m. in my office with the door open). I communicated this to my wife, supervisor, and the facility’s director for reasons of transparency. 

• Women care pastors. If a female congregant needs support or is processing gender or sexually sensitive issues, we have female caregivers and pastors whom we will entrust her to. This prevents unintentional attachments to the opposite gender while trying to administer shepherding care.
• Appropriate touch. People are not robots; we need healthy, supportive touch and interaction. The key is appropriate levels of touch for the appropriate level of relationship. 

i.e., As pastors, we generally ask someone if we can give them a hug, and when we do, it’s a side or shoulder hug. 

i.e., Occasionally, a hand on the shoulder or a pat on the upper back conveys comfort to a person struggling or joy to a person celebrating. Anything more than that needs to come from a person’s loved ones, not caregivers.

• Security cameras. Up-to-date security cameras keep our campuses and office spaces safe and accountable at all hours.
• Calendar sharing. Our church leadership also holds pastors to higher levels of transparency. Most share their calendars in a ring of accountability so that people know where and who they claim to be with at all times. Some people share their calendars with a spouse or an accountability partner. Surrendering your privacy to one or two people is a healthy way of reducing your own tendency to deceive. 
• Malicious/Pornographic website blockers are active when using our network.
• Organizational communication is performed through traceable, accountable mediums (company email, computer, phones, etc.)

11. Policies of Protection: Healthy age boundaries

• Adults shouldn’t be alone with minors. This protects the child from abuse and the adult against unfounded allegations.
• Acolytes. Some faith traditions have acolytes and choir boys volunteering one-on-one to help the clergy during liturgies or preparations. 

i.e., for security reasons that would not be possible in our context. Unless it is a Student Ministries night when many adults and youth are together, or Sunday morning when your child has been entrusted to the care of our entire Sunday morning team, the parent always retains the right to be present with the child in the company of other adults. 

• Our children’s classrooms are designed with large transparent glass so anyone can see into the room anytime. 
• Hallway monitors. We have hallway security guards and strict bathroom policies to eliminate spaces where abuse could transpire.
• Clearances. Any adults interacting with minors must pass all Pennsylvania State child abuse clearances.

Conclusion

Scandals are incredibly demoralizing and create distrust in communities. It’s easy to grow cynical. Yet, we don’t need to live in fear of temptation or sexual allegation. If we develop and practice healthy faith and healthy social boundaries, these enable us to trust one another in teams and communities. This is an evolving conversation. Individually and collectively, we can take steps to reduce the risks in our social environments. Imagine a world where there is scandal and mistrust. We can still develop a network of trusting relationships with incredible people where we honor each other and value what is good for each other. That’s special, and it’s certainly worth protecting. 

Tags: truth, community, faith, trust, culture, habits, sex, porn, accountability, secrets, gender, protection, scandal, honest, abuse, boundaries, policy, prevention, impropriety, compromising