Two factors keep the clergy adultery situation from being addressed.
Number One - Public Relations
The organization does not like to admit its failures, so leaders are tempted to cover up. This is true of all denominations, but also true of schools, hospitals, counseling organizations, even political parties. The adulterery is confirmed in his sin and his lies, and the organization wins a willing defender, someone owned and operated by those covering for him. "Remember, you owe me!"
Number Two - Innocent Suffering
The innocent suffer most from these incidents: spouse, children, friends, clergy who have to follow the trust-breaker. One minister wrote about following an adulterous pastor who had an affair with the lay leader's wife. The lay leader could not bring himself to trust the new pastor. The suffering radiates far from the original act of betrayal.
I look around a see a vast array of pastors who looked the other way when church workers murdered their wives, when other church workers left their wives for a hot chick in the parish. Coverinig up is not a career-ending move - it is career enhancing, a chance to become a seminary president or even a sect president in the Little Sect on the Prairie. The same person who does nothing about Stolzenburg working with and identifying with an ELS mission will force a minister out for disagreeing with His Popeliness.
As Slick Brenner predicted, "There is a time of judgment coming for WELS."
