What church crimes deserve an adaptation?
the true crime that's worth your time
“Pope praises journalists for giving voice to church sexual abuse victims” read a headline from last year, with a quote from Catholic Church head Pope Francis that “I also thank for what you tell us about what goes wrong in the Church, for helping us not to sweep it under the carpet, and for the voice you have given to the victims of abuse: thank you for this.”
It was a radical thing to hear, as for decades reporters and other true-crime chroniclers have shied away from reporting on longstanding religious groups like the Catholic Church. There are a lot of reasons folks have been slow to tackle issues within so-called “established” faiths*: fears of promoting bigotry, worries about litigation or loss of audience from congregations, and even a personal struggle from reporters who themselves practice the faith they’d be investigating.
Instead, we see lower-hanging religious fruit like endless Jonestown retellings, or explorations of Scientology, or the countless other splashy cult docs and podcasts we’ve all enjoyed. In coming months, though, we’re going to see some properties that ease closer to long-established organizations, like Under The Banner of Heaven (about an LDS sect) and Breaking Hillsong (about a “contemporary Christian church” founded in 1983).
It seems like it’s a short step from properties about misconduct (and worse) on the edges of mainstream religion to investigations of institutions that are fully woven into contemporary society. The Methodist abuse scandal in the UK. The Temple M’kor Shalom slaying. The allegations against Nouman Ali Khan. And hey, the top guy basically said the Catholic Church is fair game, so…
That’s our question today. What faith-based crimes or scandals would you like to see adapted into a true-crime property? You don’t have to say how you’d like to see it adapted or by whom (though we don’t mind if you do) but we would like to hear what about the case makes it a story worthy of a bigger true-crime take. — EB