Читать книгу Clergy Sexual Misconduct - John Thoburn Thoburn - Страница 8

There are two factors that contribute to sexual temptation in the ministerial role:

1.Attachment or lust. Nearly 15 percent of ministers have admitted to experiencing sexual attraction on a daily basis toward those to whom they minister and 21 percent admit to a weekly attraction (Steinke, 2006). This means that approximately 120,000 ministers deal with lust on a weekly basis—not simply lustful feelings toward strangers on the street. Rather, these ministers feel sexual attraction toward counselees and parishioners who generally have their guard down and may have affectionate feelings for their pastor. A pastor, being in a lustful frame of mind, may misinterpret spiritual affection for sexual passion, and that passion can lead to the second factor in sexual temptation.

2.Sexual arousal or romantic infatuation. Arousal is a psychological and physiological response to feelings of desire for another. Arousal is often accompanied by obsessive thinking and compulsive behavior that may include irrational elements. This form of arousal is differentiated from attraction by its emotional focus on the object of desire. If a minister’s sexual temptation in the ministerial role has progressed from attraction to emotional desire and arousal, it may culminate in sexualization of the relationship (Fisher, 2004). A sexual affair is generally preceded by an emotional affair; often there is a relative unawareness on the part of the two people of the growing attachment with the relationship eventually becoming sexualized (Steinke, 1989; Thoburn & Whitman, 2004).

The Protestant Church was faced with a major problem in the 1980s when a procession of high-profile Christian leaders fell from grace over various sexual peccadilloes. The cases of Jim Bakker, Gordon MacDonald, and Jimmy Swaggart set off a firestorm of research and writing in the area of clergy sexual misconduct. R. A. Blackmon (1984) conducted the first scientific research on sexual misconduct as part of 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.