Transparency is a construct of democratic open government. Evangelical church secrecy is a construct of “kingdom” culture and politics. Many American churches today believe the Christian church is superior to civil society, so they prefer a system of church investigation and discipline over societal discovery and criminal process.  

Many religious leaders today simply don’t accept that civil society is a legitimate society in the eyes of God. Civil society is the realm of “mammon,” worldliness, sin, and crime. Civil government offices and processes are “of the devil.” Only the church can be trusted to handle things the way God wants, especially if the problem relates to church members.  

This is exactly why the LDS church ignored the laws of the United States against polygamy for 25 years before finally saying “uncle” in the 1880s. God wanted plural marriage and civil society could not comprehend or support that.  

But civil society has contributed to the misunderstanding as well. Many in civil society have championed an absolute separation of church and state. Let the state handle the state’s business, and the church handle the church’s business.   

Until and unless Christian church leaders recognize civil society as part of God’s plan, and unless and until secular political leaders recognize the organic interrelatedness of all institutions in a democracy and hold all of them accountable, this kind of misunderstanding will continue.  

Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross