"Nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest."

The folks angry with me for condemning The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for how they're handling the sexual abuse case in Arizona feel that way because they don't know me. They don't realize that even though we're members of the same church, we haven't had the same life experiences. They clearly weren't raised in an east coast Catholic family when the Globe Spotlight story on clergy sexual abuse within the Catholic Church came out, and it shows.

First of all, y'all would know that the Associated Press piece was written by Michael Rezendes, one of the reports who worked that story in Boston.

They'd also have a much healthier self-awareness of what not to be saying and doing right now. They'd know that the only right place to be is on the side of abuse victims, especially when those victims are children.

My family didn't avoid the conversation because it was uncomfortable.

They didn't pretend like nothing was happening, that it wasn't affecting them.

They never attacked anyone for bringing it up in conversation because it might make the Pope or the Catholic Church "look bad."

They talked to each other openly and honestly about the situation.

They checked in on each other, trying to unravel if anyone they knew or cared about was connected to any of the accusations.

And I cannot stress this enough: they were NOT nice, measured, or flowery in the language they used. They put every ounce of east coast piss and vinegar they had into those conversations. They didn't hold back.

So if you think I'm being unreasonable in my criticism of how the Church and their attorneys handle themselves when these situations come to light, I hate to tell you this. But I'm what the tactful, diplomatic version of this response looks like.

If you can't handle me, you'd vaporize in front of them.

Y'all want to be missionaries in cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, but you can't keep it together in a conversation on sexual abuse? 

Those people would eat you alive.

You can tell me the church is doing everything it can for victims when it publishes an accessible list of known abusers like the Archdiocese of Baltimore does.

So do better. Be better. Be strong enough to go into the valley of the shadow of death for your own when they're suffering. Stop being more concerned about your feelings, your reputation, or the Church's appearance than you are about real pain. 

If you're going to be a person of faith in a situation like this, you need to know and have internalized what it means to "not have feared man more than God," to have a functional idea of what that looks like.