Omertà (in reference to the Mafia) is known as the unwritten rule of the ‘code of silence’. This is also known within psychology and spiritual abuse areas as the ‘don’t talk rule’.

Where omertà is more known within the realm of an abuser / criminal never cooperating with government officials in reference to answering questions about a crime, it is also applied in situations where the person participating in omertà was the victim and has knowledge of the crime being committed due to retaliation for ’snitching’ or due to altercations involving the other party that turned into ‘vengeance’.

Omertà is also expected to be followed to the point of where if a person is arrested and convicted of a crime and he is truly innocent of a crime, abuse, exploitation, he is expected to serve the sentence without giving the police any information about the real criminal in order to ‘protect’ the ‘operations’ in order to keep the ‘organized crime family’ intact (aka ‘the fall guy’) in exchange for ‘future security’, ‘protection of family’, and ‘a large payout’.

Where have/are we seeing omertà in action in today’s church? The answer can be found in many places and also in many areas in reference to:

Child abuse / sexual abuse allegations among leadership.

Extramarital affairs / incest among leadership.

Denying, hiding, avoiding, and/or neglecting, specific problems of moral turpitude in an attempt to avoid accusations, congregational exodus, investigations by outside authorities, and/or liability in criminal and/or civil court matters.

Personal problems within leadership such as alcohol abuse, gambling, marital strife, secret homosexuality, etc.

Financial mismanagement of funds specifically earmarked for charitable purposes.

High profile criminals who are convicted are encouraged to say the generic term ‘God’ when talking about their life but never ever state the name of their church in fear of losing current and potential future members.

How is omertà being enforced within the church today? Scripture twisting using Scriptures and use of a ‘prophet’ to ‘propheTRY and propheLIE’ a ‘word’:

Threats of ‘Touch not mine anointed ones….” (Psalms 105:15)

Threats of the “Curse of Ham” (Genesis 9:20-27) for exposing the nakedness of the ’spiritual father’

Claiming that Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8) means you forgive but forgiveness is defined as forgetting what really happened.

Called a ‘hater of God and ‘cursed’ for four generations (Exodus 20:4-6, Exodus 34:6-7).

Called a ‘bastard son’ and ‘cursed’ for ten generations (Deuteronomy 23:2)

Pronounced as having a ’spirit of Ichabod’ (I Samuel 4:19-21).

Pronounced as being ‘rebellious’ as Absalom (2 Samuel 18: 1-18)

Deemed as rebellious and pronounced as a witch (1 Samuel 15:23)

Labeled as being the “accuser of the brethren” (Revelation 12:10)

Sue those speaking out for slander

The ‘prophet’ appears with a word of telling those who chose or even dare to ‘break omertà’ that Cancer will ravage their bodies, they will ‘miss the rapture’, they will die by mysterious deaths, are bitter, any blessings, healings, and gifts will be taken away and reversed, future generations will be born retarded, sickness and poverty will be on their life.

Keep up with people who left over disagreeing and/or exposing the corrupt sins (that later became suppressed) and when tragedy hits them, publicize it from the pulpit and use the ‘tragedy’ as being what happens to people who come against the church.

A worldwide tragedy has happened and a sermon will be drawn from it labeling people who disagree with the pastor or speak out against him as being a “spiritual (insert tragedy here)’ or a ‘(insert tragedy here) in the Spirit’.

Use the logic of “That liberal secular news media who hates God is coming after us. Because they hate God, they hate us and therefore are liars”

Use the logic of ‘people who leave over the allegations of the actions are ‘the purging of the remnant’

Use the logic of “That rival church down the street that is losing members right and left are coming after us calling us heretics and compromisers of the Word”.

Use the logic of “We are a large church, therefore we must be doing something right in God’s eyes (because small churches then become equated to ‘not doing right things in God’s eyes) and divert the attention to their missions endeavors and their local outreaches and impact on their cities in attempt to ‘right wrongs by doing more rights.

How do we break omertà in the church? By first making sure we do have the truthful, uncensored, and unbiased facts. Then we pray to God for guidance. Then we speak out about the abuse, exploitation, sins, etc. Then we further speak out by no longer attending and no longer supporting the abusive, exploiting, and in sin fellowship. Then we reach out to the victims and offer assistance and repent for any thing we may have done to cause the omertà in the church. Then we forgive (but do not forget) while telling the leadership that they must repent and turn away from both the sins, exploitation, etc. and also eliminate omertà from being at work within the church.

Those who choose to break the omertà in the church will be ostracized, scorned, ridiculed, and shamed. Some of the scorners have tried to use tactics as deeming the exposers as being ‘insane’. Some of the exposers will be ’spiritually blackballed’ from other congregations as the church participating in this type of activity will tell all their ‘buddy pastors’ about the one breaking omertà in the church and deeming him as the accuser of the brethren.

Even though it is costly to break omertà in the church, it is more costly not to break omertà in the church. Failure to, or outright refusing to break omertà in the church really does these things:

Continuing the harm, suffering, and pain on those who were the victims with the opportunity of adding more victims to the acions.

Enabling the denial, harm, neglect, suffering, and pain to be continued by the abusers, exploiters, and ‘wolves in sheeps clothing’ claiming to be preaching God’s word

Prohibiting reform to be implemented and therefore denying the opportunity of learning from the mistakes in order to never repeat them again.

Even if we are guilty of implementing, covering up, participating in, and/or denying immoral actions taking place and/or aiding and abetting the omertà in the church, we have to go to the cross and repent from our sins and turn away from them no matter what the cost is. Omertà in the church is also at work in the lives of those who saw the abuses, exploitations, fleecing, etc. firsthand and had a guilty conscience about it all.

Where the victim of omertà in the church feared retialiation for speaking out, the leadership person who saw or participated the atrocities and/or enforced omertà in the church with a guilty conscience feared a loss of income, feared going to jail, feared a loss of prestige and ‘entitlement’ and feared the ‘death’ of the ‘dream and paradise ministry job’. These people need our prayers, mercy, courage to speak out, and forgiveness as they try to break omertà in the church and receive correction.

The light is beginning to shine through the cracks in the walls that will one day come down in order for those imprisioned by a mentality of omertà in the church to one day be free.