3 minute read
A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is a legally enforceable contract. It creates a confidential relationship to protect the interests of one or more parties by suppressing the disclosure of sensitive information. Such documents make sense to protect doctor-patient confidentiality, attorney-client privilege, trade secrets, or even national security, but the use of such contracts in religious settings should set off your Spidey-sense.1 There are times for discretion and privacy, but literally nothing that transpires in a faith community setting should ever require a NDA.
How common are NDAs in religious settings? Nobody quite knows, which cuts to the heart of the problem. I’m aware of their usage by the Roman Catholic Church, Episcopal Church, Southern Baptist Convention, Assemblies of God, and non-denominational mega churches, so that covers a lot of ground. Plus a 2021 Christianity Today piece said evangelical leaders like Ravi Zacharias, Dave Ramsey, Steve Timmis, Bill Hybels, and Mark Driscoll used NDAs to conceal “spiritual, sexual, and others kinds of abuse.” It stands to reason they’re not too uncommon across the board.
There exists a chasm between the expectations of rank and file Christians and their leaders. The everyday folks are aghast to discover NDAs are ever used by their spiritual authority. Meanwhile, those in the know see these manipulative contracts as standard operating procedure to protect themselves and institutional reputation. These shadowy efforts are toxic as fuck. Down deep in their souls the powers that be must know these tactics are unethical, but the blood-sucking lawyers and evil insurance companies have convinced them of their unfortunate necessity.2
Thankfully, not all Christian leaders use NDAs. To such persons I simply say, “Keep up the good work.” Congratulations on having your conscience remain intact.3 To those who do use NDAs, however, my deliberate intention is to make you feel extremely uncomfortable. You bastards should squirm for your self-justifying abandonment of The Way of Jesus. To any such scumbags I echo the unflinchingly harsh rebuke of our Lord in Matthew 16, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
The original beatniks valued both privacy and transparency. These two virtues present us with a perfectly reasonable and healthy tension to uphold. People operating in good faith can prioritize those values differently, so there’s room for flexibility in accommodating freedom of conscience. At the same time, it’s my firmly held conviction that Jesus followers should 100% oppose anyone using or signing such contractual silence in a Christian setting.4 There’s no way NDAs align with The Way of Jesus, so they should be banned outright. I support the #NDAfree movement.
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This includes churches, parachurch ministries, parochial schools, faith-based nonprofits, etc.↩
I can’t think of a single situation in which a NDA is appropriate or necessary in a religious setting, but I can think of countless scenarios in which they’re vile. The fact that they’re as common as they are is yet another reason why I don’t trust Christian culture.↩
It feels a lot like the situation with Mike Pence doing what each and every one of his Vice President predecessors did by procedurally confirming the election results and not overthrowing our democratic system of government. Do we praise him as “courageous” for doing the absolute bare minimum required to not be complicit with tyranny? I feel the exact same way about Christian leaders who don’t use NDAs. Are we really supposed to applaud their character simply for not being douchebags?↩
There’s a normal expectation of privacy with, say, a person’s financial giving to a church or the subjects covered in their pastoral counseling, but none of that requires a legally binding NDA.↩
