When accusations are made, we need to take them seriously. And we need to respond in a way that affirms the value of women in our personal and organizational lives. There is a middle ground between unchecked acceptance of an accusation and unchecked dismissal. It’s called investigation.

The explosive controversy surrounding Bill O’Reilly has captured the attention of global news networks, and his sudden departure has sparked conversation about harassment, bullying, and organizational response. Wednesday night, I watched Fox News briefly mention O’Reilly at the beginning of his former time slot, and then quickly move to other topics. This was in sharp contrast to almost every other major news network, which ran the story as a main focus of conversation on TV and online outlets.

The attempt to subdue the conversation actually just displayed a palpable disconnect.

There are many lessons Fox News needs to learn from this situation, and certainly O’Reilly has a lot to learn as well.

But I’m wondering something different.

I want to know, what can the Church learn from this debacle?

Here are some thoughts.

First, the way we respond to an accusation teaches people how we value others.

Many leaders have publicly dismissed these accusations against Bill O’Reilly as a smear campaign without knowing the facts. Dismissal like this has almost become a default in some organizations, especially in the case of sexual misconduct.

Yes, I know (and am glad) we live in a society where legally people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. But when leaders respond to allegations of sexual harassment and bullying with automatic defensiveness, doubt, and dismissal, that teaches people who have been hurt how much you value them. To put it bluntly, it teaches them they won’t be believed.

The reality is that all legitimate allegations need to be investigated. Our heart response should be a genuine pursuit and desire for the truth. I’m not here to weigh in on the validity of the accusations, but I do affirm that your response is the message you teach others about how you value them.

When accusations are made, we need to take them seriously. And we need to respond in a way that affirms the value of women in our personal and organizational lives. There is a middle ground between unchecked acceptance of an accusation and unchecked dismissal. It’s called investigation. And in the case of a public situation like this one, when we aren’t the one in the position to investigate, we do have another option. We can simply wait and listen while others do the hard work. We don’t have to join the chorus.

Some are concerned for Bill O’Reilly, and there is no question that we should be. He’s made in the image of God. But, so are those who say they’ve been harassed and threatened. And we should remember that they are not the powerful, and they need our concern.

For those simply dismissing these allegations as a smear campaign, the women in your churches or organizations are getting the message loud and clear—and so are the men, boys, and people outside the church.

Second, large organizations will naturally exhibit tendencies of self-preservation, and we need to fight against that when that preservation victimizes others.

Large organizations that have ’key performers‘ will almost always seek to cover up sexual harassment and bullying. Whether the accusations were valid or not, here is what we do know for a fact: Fox News paid people to keep silent.

I get that this is how it works sometimes—lawsuits are settled without agreeing to guilt, and that’s how business is often done. But paid silence, without honest investigation, is not the kind of things that we should be supporting in the Christian life. If these things happened, we should want it to be clear and we should want appropriate action to be taken.

But, we’ve learned over the last few years that religious organizations are not immune or ignorant of these pernicious cover-ups. Unfortunately, it is the way religious organizations have long functioned.

Like Bill O’Reily, some people identified as “key performers” in popular Evangelical circles are also often protected from accusations and, in doing so, organizations that claim to be committed to the truth hide rather than investigate. Many times, the excuse is, “We can’t take this, it would bring down the church,” while failing to recognize that unconfronted harassers will damage the church in far greater and broader-reaching ways.

Although no childhood abuse has been mentioned in the Bill O’Reilly case, the impulse to cover up exists in both cases. We certainly know that the Catholic Church has long sought to hide major sex scandals, which were uncovered by the good work of reporters and others. But they aren’t the only ones.

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