On Bible scholars & child porn
By: Jonathan Poletti
Tags: Bible, Christianity, Child Pornography Charges, Life, Scholarship

Pervo was fired from his job, but after a year in a workhouse, resumed publishing in his field.

When he died in 2017, a book called a festschrift was published in his honor, a tribute for an important scholar. Shortly after the Joosten conviction, the listing for this book, Delightful Acts: New Essays on Canonical and Non-canonical Acts, has disappeared from Amazon.

Likewise, Pervo’s obituary at the Society of Biblical Literature has disappeared. I located a copy. Here we see Clare K. Rothschild of Lewis University editing out the conviction for child pornography, and focusing on qualities like his humor. “Ironically, I like to imagine him not ‘resting in peace,’ but cavorting with the saints in heaven until everyone’s sides ache.”

Ellen Muehlberger, a Bible scholar at the University of Michigan, is clearly alluding to Pervo’s case when writing on Twitter: “we make an effort to bolster those men—even festschrift them! We go to great lengths to rehabilitate their reputations, and we write long, dare I say haughty, emails to those who question it.”

If you thought Bible scholars would have a good record on child pornography—you might be disappointed.

In 2016, C.T.R. Hayward, a prominent British scholar of Hebrew at Durham University, at age 68 was convicted for possessing child pornography. He claimed he thought they were older, but police said “the boys featured were considered to be aged 12–17.”

The university took swift action, as a report notes. “His academic profile has been removed from the Durham Theology website, and his published books appear to have been removed from the library.”

But there seems to have been little discussion by colleages. He had been a past president for the Society for Old Testament Study and also of the British Association for Jewish Studies. Neither appear to have made a statement.

One might be thinking, as well, of John Howard Yoder, the Christian pacifist, reported in 1992 to be a sex predator on women. Or Helmut Koester, a Bible scholar long at Harvard, accused of sexual assaults by many students, including Elaine Pagels.

He received no reprisal prior to his death in 2016. As Pagels says: “This was part of the story about being a woman graduate student almost anywhere in that time.” His obituary and a tribute to him at Harvard Divinity School make no mention of it.

Jan Joosten may be the tipping point.

It’s shaping up to be #MeToo of Bible scholarship, the point they realize even those accustomed to privilege and protections have to change.

The news broke this last Monday. As the Guardian reported:

An Oxford University theology professor and former pastor who downloaded 28,000 child abuse images and videos has been sentenced to a year in prison and placed on the sex offender register in France. Jan Joosten, 61, who holds the prestigious regius professorship of Hebrew at Oxford, was suspended by the university’s Faculty of Oriental Studies and Christ Church college on Monday night. He is considered one of the most distinguished biblical scholars of his generation.

The French police clarified that Joosten’s enormous collection “included depictions of child rape.” Also: “The victims were all young boys.”

Joosten’s only comment was that he was relieved to be caught, and that his habit had been “a secret garden, in contradiction with myself.”

For a Bible scholar, the reference to a ‘secret garden’ in this context is rather shocking, for it evokes the Song of Songs 4:12 and sexual rapture in a love affair between equals.

Fellow scholars suddenly had to face a very dire situation. His crimes didn’t feel exactly shocking in their profession. As Esther Hamori says on Twitter, this is “what it looks like when systems prioritize the perspective and reputation of men.”

Michael F. Bird writes a deep critique:

But we need to ask if we have created an elite culture where knowing the right people, belonging to the right institutions, voicing the right politics and right religion, means one’s despicable deeds get conveniently overlooked in the society’s cursus honorum. Do we need to revisit how we remember and honor members of the society who have committed repugnant and rapacious acts?

A profession dedicated to remembering the past might not care, it realized, to remember its own past. Bird goes on to suggest he’d “like to see Pervo’s and Koester’s obituaries amended and Koester’s name stricken from the list of past presidents . . .”

Annette Yoshiko Reed, similarly, via Twitter sees the episode as a glimpse into a more pervasively abusive system.

Hopefully discussion of Joosten can serve as a wedge in the door of a broader — & much more difficult — conversation about how structure & scholarly culture of Biblical Studies enable & hide a much broader range of abuses of power — entangling many of us in complicity

Indeed, those ‘entangled’ are all Christian people who fund and rely on the work of Bible scholars in order to make sense of an ancient sacred text.

Joosten released a longer statement to his colleagues.

It was even more grating, in lacking, for example, much focus on his victims, and looking forward to re-establishing professional relationships.

Jan Joosten, 2019 (YouTube)

I sincerely apologize to all of you: teachers, colleagues, students and friends. My hope is that one day I will be able to earn your forgiveness. I’m getting psychiatric help and hope to break free from my addiction. I am so grateful that my family stands with me. The University of Oxford has suspended me and my email account has been closed down. What will happen next I don’t know. I’m hoping I can make things better, though I lack the ability to make them right.

Of particular note here is the absence of any Christian messaging. He gets psychiatric, not clerical help. Despite being a longtime cleric, all Christian concepts and remedies seem to have been abandoned.

Is he going to prison?

Scholars began monitoring his situation and asking pointed questions. Johanna Stiebert at the Shiloh Project writes:

His family “were aware of his offences” and argued Joosten should not be imprisoned, “because he was a first time offender” (hardly: he was caught for the first time — he is now known to have been offending thousands of times for six years), “presented little risk of reoffending” (how so?), and “had sought psychiatric help voluntarily” (albeit only following arrest).

The tragic possibility would be that Joosen might be treated leniently, for after all—isn’t he a Bible scholar?

The response of professional organizations he’d been a leader in seemed inadequate.

It never had before—they had ignored such matters without objection.

But it became clear that tradition wasn’t going go be a guide this time.

The Bible says one can “fathom all mysteries and all knowledge” but it means “nothing” if lacking love (1 Cor 13:2).

Though scholarship often assumes the movements of rational intellect supply all answers, the text they’re studying does place at the heart of its study regard for other humans.

And in the Bible, great theological protection is given children in particular. Jesus’ warnings against harming them are repeated and severe.

Many scholars are debating what the best course is for citing Joosten’s scholarship in the future.

Christian people might wonder, similarly, whether Bible study from people committed to caring about other people will be possible.

They could start with children?