Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

  How Experienced Clergy Consider Offense and Age In Decisions About Restoring Clergy to Ministry Following Clergy-Congregant Sex In my previous post ( March 30 ), I looked at the background to the study of clergy sexual abuse along with some of the data available at the time. In this post, I summarise the results of an experiment that looked at factors clergy might consider in restoring a pastor following a sexual offense. My colleague and I chose to study a sexual offense because of the widespread damage it causes to the victims, their families, the congregation, the faith, and the pastor. How bad is the problem?      We found some relevant studies not included in the previous article. Pastors who were victims of childhood sexual abuse were more likely to violate a sexual boundary with a congregant (Hadman-Cromwell, 1991). We couldn’t find a lot about clergy-congregant sex and boundaries at the time. So, we turned to the helping professions. The ethical...

  Exploring the Problem of Sexual Self-Control and the Suffering of their Victims   I Googled Ravi Z and before I typed his surname, 2,930,000 results appeared. The first two dealt with his problems of sexual self-control. His organization made a public statement following an investigation. In paragraph four they wrote:   To be victimized by unwanted sexual contact, advances, and behavior is horrendous. It is diametrically opposed to everything we believe about the value and dignity of every single person. We believe not only the women who made their allegations public but also additional women who had not previously made public allegations against Ravi but whose identities and stories were uncovered during the investigation. Tragically, witnesses described encounters including sexting, unwanted touching, spiritual abuse, and rape. We are devastated by what the investigation has shown and are filled with sorrow for the women who were hurt by this terrible abuse....