What to Know about Adult Clergy Sexual Abuse

Takeaways from a recent GRACE Seminar

“Give yourself grace. God loves you and is for you. Healing can take a long time.”

Photo by Rafael Rex Felisilda / Unsplash / Creative Commons

This is some of the advice shared by panelists during a July 16 seminar hosted by Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) titled “It Isn’t an Affair: Understanding the Power Differential in Adult Clergy Sexual Abuse.”

Panelists included Robert Peters, director of institutional response at GRACE; Amy Stier, an attorney who has worked in the sexual abuse investigation realm for several years; and Emily Petrie, GRACE’s assistant director of institutional response.

Adult clergy sexual abuse is often less familiar and less understood than child sexual abuse—the primary issue is often consent, the panelists agreed.

According to Stier, 20 states criminalize adult clergy sexual abuse in some way. One example is Texas Penal Code §22.011 that states sexual assault is considered nonconsensual if “the actor is a clergyman who causes the other person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person’s emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman’s professional character as spiritual adviser.”

“The reality is that our culture is terrible at recognizing when consent is not given,” Stier said.

In order to understand the issue of consent, one must understand the power imbalance in place. “Any sexual contact where power differentials are in play compromises the ability to consent,” Petrie said.

She listed several types of power a clergy member may wield over congregants:

1. Legitimate power vested in them because of their role as a member of the clergy.
2. Referent power that arises because of the regard others have for them.
3. Power based on their level of knowledge and expertise.
4. Reward power and control over resources. For example, having control over whether someone can participate in ministry within the church.
5. Coercive power
6. Spiritual power
7. Relational power that may result is ostracizing or shunning a congregant who speaks out.

In applying scripture, Stier said pastors are called to shepherd their flocks and are held to a higher standard. She referred to Matthew 18:6 about a millstone around the neck of anyone who causes a little one to stumble.

A little one, Stier said, need not only refer to children, but those who are vulnerable or young in the faith.

“It is not really an issue of who initiated the relationship, but who is vulnerable,” she added.

Before any actual abuse takes place, clergy who engage in abuse have often previously engaged in grooming — manipulative tactics that deceive a victim.

Some of the most common grooming tactics investigators have seen include:

1. Selective targeting of those who are facing some kind of vulnerability, like marital problems.
2. Isolation — both physical and social.
3. Desensitization or eroding boundaries. Often this starts verbally.
4. Maintaining control by saying things like, “You don’t want to hurt my career.”

Less recognized are grooming tactics that start in the pulpit, such as claiming that verses saying “Touch not the Lord’s anointed” mean no one should speak ill of the pastor or reveal abuse.

Grooming can also take place through technology, but those avenues can be more difficult to control and supervise. However, victims who are receiving inappropriate messages should speak to someone about it, panelists said.

When abuse survivors choose to speak up, Petrie said the church’s reaction is often negative. The victim may get blamed and called a “temptress.”

A church’s negative reaction often causes more long-lasting harm than the abuse itself, she noted.

Citing Diana Garland, Peters pointed out key ways people can raise awareness about adult clergy sexual abuse:

1. Educate the public about clergy misconduct.
2. Get the theology correct about how to treat the vulnerable.
3. Seek the adoption of a code of ethics and proper boundaries for church leaders.
4. Advocate for change to state laws about adult clergy sexual abuse.

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