The journalism nightmare begins with an email, a text or, in the old days, a telephone call or a photocopy of a document in the mail.

Sources may or may not demand to remain anonymous. They want your newsroom to dive into a controversy that — in most cases — involves money, sex, power and what violations of religious law, criminal laws or both.

The source has tons of information on one side of a conflict that has two sides, or more. There is no way to write the story without multiple voices speaking — but only one side will talk. Nine times out of 10, there are legitimate issues of confidentiality, often legalities linked to counseling or medical care.

The reporter describes all of this to an editor. It’s clear this story will require untold hours of research (money, in newsroom terms) and, if the story ever pans out, the result will be long and complicated. The editor’s eyes glaze over. The question: Why is this story worth the time, money and effort?

I got one of those calls, long ago, about the sex life and financial times of PTL’s Jim Bakker. Eventually Charlotte Observer editors passed, pulling me off that lead. I left and, years later, a great reporter (see the essential Charles E. Shepard book) pulled the evolving threads together for a Pulitzer.

I cannot imagine how many emails and calls Robert Downen and Houston Chronicle reporters fielded before being allowed to dig into years of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. I’m waiting for the book.

All of this is a long introduction to the challenges that, I suspect, loom over this double-decker Religion News Service headline:

Why the largest US Lutheran denomination apologized to a Latino congregation

It’s been a ‘perfect storm’ of charismatic personalities and a heightened awareness of racism, all brewing in one of the country’s whitest denominations

But the story doesn’t open with issues linked to race.

What we see in this unbelievably complicated story is a head-on collision between key elements of postmodern theories about “intersectionality.” Think race, sex, gender, economics and the demographic realities facing the declining world of oldline liberal Protestantism.

When the Rev. Megan Rohrer was elected bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Sierra Pacific Synod in May 2021, the election was celebrated as a revolution in and outside of the United States’ largest Lutheran denomination. Rohrer became the first transgender bishop of any of the Christian churches known as the Protestant mainline.

Barely a year later, the top bishop of the ELCA asked for Rohrer’s resignation after Rohrer’s removal of the pastor of a Latino congregation on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

What happened in the intervening 12 months can only be understood as a “perfect storm” of charismatic personalities clashing amid a heightened awareness of racism in one of the country’s whitest denominations, said Shruti Kulkarni, who maintains a website called “What Happened in the Sierra Pacific Synod?”

“Regardless of the intents of the people involved or whether it was justified or not, just the optics alone are terrible: You’ve got this white bishop from a predominantly white denomination that ruined this Latiné celebration of faith that was deeply cherished in their cultural tradition,” said Kulkarni, a recent graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary.

That website — “What Happened in the Sierra Pacific Synod?” — is the digital-era equivalent of the furious activist showing up at the newsroom with a stack of file folders packed with photocopies of documents. It’s hard to ignore that many URLs. Hold that thought.

Meanwhile, big questions hover in the background. Does a queer superstar trump a mere male Latino hero, even one on the progressive side of things? What if the trans bishop has — jumping ahead in the possible plot — White money on their side and this denomination is bleeding red ink and membership numbers? Then again, does any church have a future without embracing Latinos and other growing ethnic minorities, while White liberal demographics crater?

The economic issues are one of the only things missing from this long RNS report, which is so, so, so complicated and that’s a compliment. Reporters need to be complimented for doing this kind of hard work, even if the story leaves some questions unanswered. That’s reality, on stories like this.

All of this is, quite literally, a question for the activists of intersectionality that walk the halls of many oldline church headquarters, especially in the deep blue zip codes out West. So what is intersectionality? Read this definition from the Center for Intersectional Justice and see if you don’t see connections to this ELCA battle.

The concept of intersectionality describes the ways in which systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class and other forms of discrimination “intersect” to create unique dynamics and effects. …

All forms of inequality are mutually reinforcing and must therefore be analysed and addressed simultaneously to prevent one form of inequality from reinforcing another. For example, tackling the gender pay gap alone — without including other dimensions such as race, socio-economic status and immigration status — will likely reinforce inequalities among women.

Intersectionality brings our understanding of systemic injustice and social inequality to the next level by attempting to untangle the lines that create the complex web of inequalities.

Oh, and by the way, note this relevant footnote:

* We recognize a limitless range of gender identities and expressions, and embrace those of us who live beyond, against, and outside of the binary. What we mean by “women and men” is neither fixed nor determined.

Before I mention one other part of this long RNS story, let’s go back to that activist website. It’s only one side of the story, but it’s where people are writing and speaking on the record. Once again, that’s “What happened in the Sierra Pacific Synod?”

Click a few links and you will probably end up at the ecoPreacher blog of Pastor Leah D. Schade, who is clearly a partisan in this fight — but maybe not on the side journalists might suspect. Let’s head back to February and a post entitled “6 Reasons Why Rev. Nelson Rabell-González was Denied Due Process.”

Like I said: claims that ecclesiastical laws have been violated almost always show up early and often. Schade writes:

Today marks two months since Rev. Nelson Rabell-González was removed from his position as pastor of Misión Latina Luterana on Dec. 12, 2021. And it marks one week since the Sierra Pacific Synod Council voted on Feb. 7, 2022, to remove him from the rostered ministry of the ELCA. This is a travesty of justice. Rev. Nelson has asked repeatedly for the synod to conduct a disciplinary procedure that would allow him to present evidence. But they have denied him due process.

In May 2021, an individual reported to Bishop Mark Holmerud of the Sierra Pacific Synod of the ELCA that she had allegations of misconduct against Rev. Rabell-González. To be clear — these were NOT accusations of sexual or physical abuse or misconduct. What were the allegations? We don’t know, since there have been no formal charges made against Rev. Nelson. To this day, it is unclear what, exactly, Rev. Nelson is said to have done.

OK, the links keep coming.

Let’s back up into December of 2021 and more truth claims from Schade — who is open in her support of Rabell-González. See this:

Full disclosure: I am an ordained minister in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), and Rev. Nelson Rabell-González is my friend and colleague. I am writing this piece to help tell his story, because the polity of our churchwide system has shut him down at every turn. There are details about this case that I am not free to share. But I am calling for a full and independent investigation of Rev. Nelson Rabell-González so that the truth can be told and the secret-keeping stopped.

It’s crucial that Schade claims that she has seen some of the hidden information in this case, but is not at liberty to discuss it. There are pages and pages of digital information and factual claims here, once again on one side.

Here is a paragraph that sketches out the basics. Here is a summary of two from a post entitled, “ELCA Fires Whistleblower, Rev. Nelson Rabell-González.”

The saga of Rev. Nelson Rabell-González begins with a series of secrets.

As reported in my first post on this story, Rev. Nelson Rabell-González (pronouns: he/him) was fired by Bishop Megan Rohrer (pronouns: they/them) as pastor of Misión Latina Luterana in Stockton, California, on December 12, 2021. The white power structure of the ELCA wants to protect the secrets that have poisoned the relationship between the Hispanic community and the Lutheran church.  In fact, it’s done everything it can to silence Rev. Rabell-González who has, in good faith, tried to blow the whistle on these secrets.

“Whistleblower”? What if Rabell-González had clashed with ELCA players with money and power? Rather than get into the claims, which go on and on, I’ll simply note this Schade subheadline: “How interesting.  The very issue that Rev. Nelson had tried to report — harassment of Latinx woman — was now being used against him.”

But what was the drama that — no matter when the activists began contacting RNS — made this a must-write story?

It’s hard to imagine a scene more dramatic than this one, even if reporters had to deal with this second hand. I’d like to know if the following confrontation is on video somewhere (since I cannot find it).

Rohrer had only officially been in office three months when they appeared at another celebration on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a sacred and culturally significant day for many Latino Christians. Misión Latina Luterana, a Latino congregation in Stockton, California, had planned a service featuring Aztec dance and prayers and liturgical music by a mariachi band.

But, according to a listening team report on the day’s events, Misión Latina Luterana’s pastor, the Rev. Nelson Rabell-González, was not in attendance. The service was led instead by the Rev. Hazel Salazar-Davidson, the synod’s assistant to the bishop for authentic diversity, inclusive community and service. When the congregation began to shout questions about Rabell-González’s whereabouts, Rohrer, who was sitting in the pews, went to the front of the sanctuary and informed the congregation that they had removed Rabell-González from his position that morning.

In a statement on the Sierra Pacific Synod’s blog, the synod council said it had unanimously decided to vacate Rabell-González’s call at Misión Latina Luterana after receiving “continual communications of verbal harassment and retaliatory actions” by the pastor “from more than a dozen victims from 2019 to the present,” it said.

“The severity of the situation required immediate action to safeguard the Latinx community,” according to the statement.

This is, trust me, just the beginning of all the complications.

What if there are conflicts of interest involved in the mysterious accusations against Rabell-González? What if some of those conflicts reach the lay leadership of the Sierra Pacific Synod? It’s clear that ELCA leaders know how complex this fight is — since Bishop Rohrer stepped down.

So I will end with a journalism question. You know that RNS editors have been briefed on some of the one-sided claims at the heart of this fight (from the viewpoint of the cooperative activists). Yet you know that RNS needs to encourage ELCA leaders to speak. But remember all of those confidentiality issues and, in this case, even an attempt to force a strategic non-disclosure agreement.

How large is the potential audience for this story? How much time and money can RNS invest in the coverage? Will coverage anger Latinos, LGBTQ activists or both? What if the story isn’t covered, no matter how complicated the legalities?

Well come to a religion-beat nightmare. I think this story was a strong attempt to open the door to further coverage. I hope that happens. And, as always, follow the money.

FIRST IMAGE: Social-media portrait of Pastor Nelson Rabell-González.