a study on overall clergy misconduct. Leadership magazine (Muck, 1988) provided a nonscientific survey of Protestant clergy around issues of sexuality. The 1991 Thoburn study was the first full quantitative study on clergy sexual misconduct, surveying ministers in twenty-three different denominations. Close to thirty scholarly articles have been published since 1991 on the subject of clergy sexual misconduct. The latest research work has been conducted at Baylor University under the direction of Diana Garland (2011). Books written on the subject include Before the Fall by Friberg and Laaser (1998) and Understanding Clergy Sexual Misconduct in Religious Systems by Benyei (1998).
The books and articles written on Protestant clergy sexual misconduct have tended to focus on very specific areas, such as rehabilitation to the pastorate; prevention needs; traumatic effects of sexual misconduct on the life of the pastor, his or her family, or the Church congregation; and denominational polity (Ferro, 2005; Friberg & Laaser, 1998; Gaede, 2006; Hopkins & Laaser, 1995). No book since 2001, however, has explored the systemic or recursive nature of these elements one to another and how each factor influences the others. Pulling these elements together into a cohesive model is the goal of this book. By doing so, we hope to shed new light on this sensitive topic and offer new hope to those who work with this stubborn and significant problem in the life of the Church.
A Systems Approach
Past research and writing on clergy sexual misconduct has focused on the minister’s behavior, attitudes, and personality. However, the most efficient way to understand and mitigate against clergy sexual misconduct is to recognize dynamics for ministers within their professional contexts (Benyei, 1998; Johnston, 1996; Thoburn, 1991). Keep in mind that ministers are individuals imbedded in nested systems that involve their immediate families, Church communities, and conferences or synods. Ministers, therefore, live and work within an ecology of relationships. The contextual world of a minister consists of these parts:
1.Intrapersonal, how a person is connected to self
2.Interpersonal, how a person is connected to others
3.Environmental, how a person is connected to his or her community and the world. Ecology of relationships refers to the social embedding that occurs within nested environmental systems from the micro-level individual to the meso-level family to the macro-level global community (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Stanton, 2009).
A systems paradigm further delineates the rules that govern systems. These systems embody a sense of reciprocity where each member of a system, as well as each system, influences one another. The intrapersonal world of the pastor is shaped by internal neurological wiring and connection with one’s personal core beliefs, attitudes, and feelings. These beliefs, attitudes, and feelings are shaped by the interpersonal world of his upbringing and reinforced by his spouse, family, church staff, and members of the congregation. The pastor’s intrapersonal and interpersonal life is also impacted by the environmental constraints and conventions of the denominational system in which he works and the greater culture in which he lives.
Figure 1.1: Design for Integrated Personal and Relational Health
A systems perspective is grounded in the idea that God is the God of relationship. The first name for God in Genesis is Elohim. He is the Strong One who is Many; He is in relationship with Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and He created us for the purpose of relationship with Himself and with each other. Human beings are conceived out of, born into, and develop from relationships. Ill health is related to damage or brokenness in the ecology of these relationships, resulting in a life that is unbalanced, unfocused, and disintegrated. An unbalanced life is one that is unrealistic, sheltering one’s self from real or perceived stressors through rigidity in cognitions, feelings, and behaviors (depressive or anxiety disorders), or falling into chaotic ways of relating to the world (addictive, personality, or psychotic disorders (Siegel, 2007). An unfocused life is one that is caught up in the life of the past with its regrets or wrapped up in the life of the future with wishful thinking or fears, rather than meaningfully attending to life in the here and now. Disintegration is defined by reactivity to real or perceived fears, an inability to appropriately recognize or differentiate between self and the environment (others), and concomitant attempts to control the environment (relationships with others) through manipulation and deception (the indiscriminate use of guilt, shame, and fear against self and others). Integrated health, that is balanced and focused, is born out of reconciliation with self, others, and God, forming the basis for our understanding of Christ’s work—that of reconciling the world to God, as stated in 2 Corinthians 5:19. Our understanding of Christ’s work of reconciliation is reflected in a culture of recovery that is based on the belief that redemption and restoration of relationship is possible for pastors, their families, current or former congregations served, and the denominations for whom they have worked.
Over the years, a singular focus of working with sexual misconduct has been on treatment; however, treatment is costly, labor and time intensive, and is akin to closing the barn door after the horses have escaped. A systems paradigm moves us far beyond focusing on treatment considerations alone, to include considerations of prevention, education, spiritual formation and direction, and relationally based supportive oversight structures. More on prevention, spiritual formation, and oversight will be discussed in the next chapter. A comprehensive systems model that integrates personal and relational health, balance, and focus dynamics, imbedded in a theology of a reconciliation, is vital for addressing this complex and stubborn issue. When this holistic approach is executed effectively, it gives rise to a formidable mitigation against clergy sexual misconduct.
Intrapersonal Context
The story of David and Bathsheba provides a useful context for understanding the systemic nature of clergy sexual misconduct, one which recognizes the interlocking subsystems of cultural zeitgeist, personal insecurities, unrequited relationships, career burnout, and lust. The story is the quintessential cautionary tale for the Church, as the story of King David powerfully illuminates the consequences of sexual misconduct by religious leaders. (The story of David is discussed further in chapter 4). While David inhabited the role of warrior, he was paradoxically experiencing a time of peace as king. He struggled with integrating the ego-burnishing conqueror’s life with the more mundane life as head of state. The loneliness of his shepherd’s childhood and a nagging sense that he was a country rube and not royal material resulted in his inability to balance the carefully constructed theocentric life he had created with the loneliness of being king. Thus, everything David held dear disintegrated from his deep-seated insecurities and self-absorbed ambitions. Many ministers have personality factors that contribute to feelings of inadequacy. Some ministers have narcissistic features, including intense and chronic feelings of shame and rejection that manifest in low self-confidence and the need for positive input from their congregations (Francis & Baldo, 1998; Thoburn & Balswick, 1998). Insecure attachment can occur in a child when he or she lacks a sense of safety, security, and soothing in his or her life; this can lead to deregulation in the mesolimbic-cortical-dopaminergic brain system. This imbalance in brain function can motivate people to seek pleasure or self-soothing activities that involve the midbrain and limbic areas of the brain where dopamine is produced and potentially inappropriate pleasure-based activities are cultivated and reinforced (Lustyk, 2010).
An insecure, anxious orientation to life can result in an increased need for pleasure-inducing stimulation for the release of dopamine, a feeling of misery when the dopamine-stimulating pleasurable activity is absent, and a disconnection from the prefrontal cortex and subsequent reduction in executive functions such as decision making and impulse control (Lustyk, 2010). Some ministers will go to great lengths for strokes and accolades that produce this temporal pleasure, and they may become unbalanced in their lives, devoting more time to performance-oriented ministry and less time to their marriage and
