Insurance Companies Doing God's Work

A mega-church in Toronto has suspended all services after their insurance company terminated their sexual abuse coverage.

I'm not Christian, so I do not know the subtleties of Christian theology, but it seems to me that the solution to the problem here is to ……… You know ……… Stop raping people?

You know your church is having problems when you tell your congregation that upcoming services have to be canceled because no insurance providers will work with you because of all the sexual abuse, and that means all in-person interactions have to be put on pause.

That’s the actual I-sh%$-you-not situation going down at The Meeting House, one of the largest and most influential churches in Ontario, which billed itself as “a church for people who aren’t into church” (the theological equivalent of girls saying they’re not like other girls). It appealed to a lot of people tired of traditional churches, including lots of young people, and rapidly became one of the largest vessels in the province for spreading Christianity.

(%$ mine)

The church was led by Bruxy Cavey, who took over The Meeting House in 1997 as lead teaching pastor and soon became known as Ontario’s “most influential pastor.”

………

I covered the details here back in January, but in short, Cavey was accused of sexual abuse, leading to his resignation. He was soon thereafter charged with sexual assault by local law enforcement. Police added that “there may be multiple victims.”

Well, that's not a good look.

………

Now things have hit rock bottom.

On Sunday, all of the church’s campuses were closed down. No weekend services. No Sunday school. No home church gatherings. All because no insurers are willing to provide the church with Abuse Liability or Employment Practices Liability coverage.

That’s like a car insurance company saying they can’t work with you because you’re responsible for too many traffic accidents. At some point, even a higher premium won’t offset the charges the company believes it’ll have to pay out on your behalf. 

………

You have to step back and admire just how incredible this kind of statement is.

The Meeting House had to cancel church because there was too much abuse. But it’s not them saying that. Their insurance providers are saying that. There are still companies in Florida that will offer homeowners insurance at a premium despite the threat of climate change but there are no church insurers willing to take on the risk that is Bruxy Cavey’s old haunt.

I believe that xkcd had a strip about this:

Yeah, Mr. Munroe kind of DID have a cartoon about this.

………

What a fall from grace for a church that went from drawing in about 5,700 people a weekend in 2018 to about 1,500 now.

All of this is also a clear sign that the problem at The Meeting House was never limited to its leader or a few of its pastors. The entire church was—and remains—the problem. The current leaders are not up to the task of doing the job and the people in the pews aren’t putting enough pressure on them. That also means the people who still attend that church, and who grant it legitimacy, and who give it money are making it clear that they don’t give a damn about abuse victims either.

Indeed.