Money, Sex, and Governance

Some of you may be wondering what the events described so far in the Modern Epic have to do with the primary subject of this blog. At first blush scandals of sexual infidelity and missing money might seem like throwing personal dirt rather than issues of governance, but these scandals do pertain to governance and the point of this post is to explain that connection.

We will consider first the money issues. Our longtime readers will recall that over the course of the Epic we detailed a number of incidents where then-pastor DeSilva created new committees, changed to whom committees reported, or asked for decisions from committees that had no authority in the matter he brought before them. These changes would occur without notice, explanation, or consistency. The net result of all this is that there is no longer any clear procedure for conducting business, whether routine or non-routine. In this environment where nobody knows how anything is done anymore it is all too easy for the unscrupulous to get away with financial mischief. The problem is exacerbated by the Accountability Council, which gives the illusion of accountability without the reality thereof.

There is, in fact, more financial mischief than we have told about, but for the moment we feel there are compelling reasons to leave the details of the other financial issues out of the story. We mention them here only to make clear that between them and the issues we have detailed there emerges a pattern made possible only through the organizational chaos created by DeSilva. Put another way, DeSilva’s habit of making arbitrary alterations to the congregation’s governance broke down the checks and balances that had existed to protect against financial mischief. With the protections gone it was only a matter of time before irregularities would begin, as indeed they did. The current financial situation is, then, a natural and predictable outcome of altering the governance in this way.

DeSilva’s affair pertains to church governance for two reasons. First, after DeSilva got done messing with the congregation’s governance the only certain thing about it was that whatever he said went. His departure, then, leaves a significant power void and how it will be filled—with rules and procedures everyone can know and consistently follow or with another person with absolute control to call the shots—will have a lasting impact on the governance of the congregation. Second, since the Church (and here we mean the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church, not the local congregation) has specific standards of conduct, the violation of which demands disciplinary action by the congregation, the matter of DeSilva’s affair will serve as a litmus test of the congregation’s willingness to obey the denomination’s rules. 

As harsh as it may sound to be calling for disciplinary action, it is no more than DeSilva would do were he still in power and some other pastor was the guilty party. This we know for a fact because that very scenario played out in August and September of 2008. (See The Epic, parts 31 and 35. The member described in those posts as having been put up for discipline was an associate pastor at Takoma Park until he was found to have had an affair.)

“The problem with any unwritten law is that you don't know where to go to erase it” (Glaser and Way). Since the change in governance Takoma Park has had nothing but unwritten laws and so far the Group’s efforts at erasing them have been futile. The financial mischief and DeSilva’s departure constitute a crossroads where Takoma Park may either repudiate government by dictator or further entrench it. Unfortunately this is not as clear a decision as it ought to be as many members seem unable to separate the people from the issues they caused and therefore hesitate on the issues for fear of hurting those people.