Clergy Sexual Abuse

Clergy function as religious leaders in a wide variety of religious traditions. In order for them to be effective leaders and counselors, they must be trustworthy. Specifically this means they must not take advantage of the vulnerabilities of those they serve by crossing sexual and emotional boundaries. If they do betray this trust, they do damage to individuals, congregations, and their entire faith community. Although this is not a new phenomenon (the historical record is extensive), it has only begun to surface in public awareness since the mid-1980s. Sexual abuse by clergy is a major crisis for both individuals and institutions.

It is a violation of professional ethics for any person in a pastoral role of leadership or pastoral counseling (clergy or lay) to engage in sexual contact or sexualized behavior with a congregant, client, [Page 130]employee, student, or other person (adult, teen, or child) while within the professional (pastoral or supervisory) relationship. It is wrong because sexual activity in this context is exploitative and abusive.

In the mid-1980s in the United States, persons who had been victimized by their clergy began to disclose their experiences, which resulted in panic and disbelief at every level of religious institutions. Every tradition was and continues to be confronted with the fact of abusive leaders who take advantage of the vulnerability of their followers, whether these followers are children, teens, or adults. Often in response to civil litigation, slowly denominations, movements, and organizations with responsibility for oversight of clergy began to respond. Every religious institution continues to struggle to find effective means to prevent sexual abuse by its clergy and to screen, supervise, and if necessary, suspend abusive religious leaders.

Although ministerial violations of boundaries involving sexualization of a relationship can take place in the staff supervisory or mentor relationship, instances of pastoral misconduct are most likely to occur in the ministerial relationship or the counseling relationship. When an individual congregant seeks guidance, instruction, or counsel from a clergyperson or spiritual leader and the minister sexualizes this relationship, it is similar to the violation of the therapeutic relationship by a therapist or the violation of a teaching relationship by the teacher. When a child or teenager is the object of the sexual contact or sexualization, the situation is one of pedophilia or child sexual abuse, which is by definition not only unethical and abusive but criminal.

When clergy and pastoral counselors cross sexual boundaries with congregants or clients, the pastoral relationship and the trust necessary to that relationship are lost. Congregants and clients seek the help of a clergyperson assuming that they will be safe to address their concerns. Consequently, they make themselves vulnerable, but also they become an easy target for a clergyperson who has no respect for boundaries or the well-being of the congregant or client.

Sexual boundary crossings that constitute sexual contact or sexualization of a pastoral relationship include but are not limited to sexual comments or suggestions (jokes, innuendoes, invitations, etc.), touching, fondling, seduction, kissing, intercourse, molestation, and rape. There may be only one incident or a series of incidents or an ongoing intimate relationship over time. Neither the nature of the boundary crossing nor the duration necessarily determines the negative impact or damage to the congregant. What may appear to an outsider to be a “minor” incident may have major consequences for the recipient and should not be minimized.

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