I have lived long enough to see something that never ends well. It is when individuals, cultural institutions, or church movements attempt to cover up sin and wrongdoing to protect their interests. It is the last two words of the previous sentence, “their interests”, that is the problem.

The interests of God’s Kingdom are not first and foremost the protection of our finances, our reputation, or our image. The interests of God’s Kingdom are revealed through transparency, openness, and the redemption of what is severely broken. Only when we are willing to stand in the light of truth and disclosure can we be healed. No arrangement worked out in secret to hide sin and protect corporate or personal interests will end well or bear good and lasting fruit. We can dress up the attempt to hide things with words that sound like protection or “covering” someone or something, but in the end, it’s still a cover-up.

When leader after leader of a church movement is repeatedly involved in financial issues that are either foolish or selfish, something remains to be healed at the core of the movement. When we have been asked to trust large pharmaceutical corporations with our health and then discover they are immune from prosecution for any damage their product creates, something is being hidden. When the media mouthpieces of social influencers continue to tell us “There’s nothing to see here, keep moving” or when they use labels and similar choreographic phraseology to mock and discredit those who ask the uncomfortable “Why?” questions, those efforts tell us something else is afoot.

Whenever we suspect a cover-up is taking place, a logical person would ask, “What are they trying to hide?” Trying to hide the truth from the bright light of day is an indicator that a potential cover-up is taking place.

While the pursuit of truth and the demand for full disclosure is right and should apply to religious groups, large corporations, and our government overseers, the most important examination for the evidence of integrity is what takes place in us individually. It seems like a worthy pursuit to hold the feet of large controlling groups to the fire of truth, but it’s a wasted pursuit if we are guilty of personal cover-ups. 

I remember as a 29-year-old returning to the Lord after years of running away from Him, I was carrying an unbearable load of guilt and shame. In that return, I pulled the cover off my hidden life and told Jan everything. I wanted to be free no matter what the cost. To this day, 44 years later, that decision to pull the covers off my hidden sin and brokenness has released miracles in our marriage and our life together with Jesus that would never have been experienced had I continued to live a hidden life. 

If we as the Church are willing to start the uncovering on a personal level, the outcome of that choice will begin to affect the wider culture because we are embedded within its structure. That effect will create the most significant outcomes because it will have been empowered by humility and mercy that only comes when we allow vulnerability to lead us, not fear or the protection of our misguided self-interests.