EDITOR’S NOTE: From time to time we will publish letters and emails we get from readers, sometimes with a response, sometimes without comment. If you would like to share your thoughts about any of our stories or podcasts, please email us: info@ministrywatch.com
Evangelical colleges face challenging times
Thanks for your podcast with Ed Stetzer about evangelical schools. Having served on the board of two colleges (one now out of business 10 years after I left the board), I’ve observed close-in the challenge of viability in this season.
It’s interesting (and perhaps instructive) that Dr. Stetzer emphasized that their fidelity to the Scriptures was important to their success, which very much aligned with your interview of Dr. McNulty about Grove City.
I have observed the same about my alma mater, Cedarville University. Growth has been steady for years but accelerated after Dr. White came and the board solidly recommitted to their theologically conservative identity.
You also identified the value of some distinctive strengths. I note that Cedarville, like Biola University, has maintained a core Bible minor for all graduates, continues to have daily chapel, and has grown a strong medical training identity with a respected undergraduate nursing program and a unique pharmacy graduate degree program.
They just completed a campaign exceeding $200 million and are implementing a full online undergraduate degree. Thought you might find it interesting.
Blessings,
Don Davis
Can victims ‘confess’?
I know you’re reporting and not editorializing, but I wish I could weigh in on that Washington conversation.
The reality is that most of the time clergy (and others) are going to learn about abuse from victims, not perpetrators. That raises the question, “Can victims ‘confess’?”
Anyway, thanks for the article.
Pr. Edwin McGee
Clergy confidentiality needs clarity — and education
I was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1974 (and for 30 years have been Anglican instead) and have heard many sacramental confessions over the years.
For nine years I have been a state legislator in New Hampshire. Although I am not a lawyer, much of the legislative work I do involves law. I am working up a narrative for churches with suggested policy regarding dedicated/restricted gifts. I am in my third year leading the work on reforms in our state’s Family Court. At the behest of the Supreme Court chief justice, I am working (and am prime sponsor of a bill) to enhance Mental Health Court.
And I am devoting attention to what is, in New Hampshire and many states, Rule of Evidence 505. The 500 section is about privileged communication — doctor-patient, counselor-client, lawyer-client, and priest-penitent. I have been invited to make my suggestions for a possible rewording of NH.’s Rule 505 to the Rules of Evidence committee.
As always when crafting legislation or suggested rule changes, I do a side-by-side to see what other states do, either by statute or in common law (decisions from previous cases which may be seen as precedent setting or at least as guidance) Some states give absolute seal to confessions, some except when the penitent waives confidentiality, a few could use more work.
Some of the cases cited in various states DO refer to free church (not Roman Catholic, Anglican or Lutheran) equivalents. For example, someone sought out his pastor to confess his sins. The pastor was compelled to testify not because his church tradition didn’t have some semblance of confidential communication, but because the pastor’s wife was present. Since she was not seen as (nor did she present herself as) a co-pastor or even part of the regular counseling (sometimes a parallel to confession) team, her presence nullified confidential communication.
The current question I am working on with sacramental denominational leaders is, what happens when the priest hears a confession of child molestation in the past (a statement of the future like, “I am tempted to do this and likely to” is not a confession), BUT ALSO knows or later hears of this outside the confessional: a semi-public statement, or credible hearsay which is allowable hearsay communication to the police or the court, or a follow-up visit to the home in which there is credible reason to believe there is abuse or molestation occurring? The priest has credible reason OUTSIDE the confessional. Should he then report? Must he then report?
There is, I told our chief justice, sufficient ignorance of priest-penitent privileged communication on the part of the general public, Free Church and Sacramental Church, and on the part of many Free Church clergy. My suggestion to the chief is that, irrespective of whether the Rules of Evidence Committee accepts my rewrite, there needs to be major education done and not just to Free Church pastors and laity.
I am a big fan of Ministry Watch and read it daily. I suggest there needs to be an update or rewrite of the article on it just published, but thank you for bringing the subject to your reader’s attention.
The Rev. Canon Mark A. Pearson
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