Unsafe In Any Denomination

What the Experts Say

Experts from many denominations report on the dramatic extent and harmful impact of sexual boundary violation of adults and adolescents by ministers, pastors, priests, rabbis and other clergy. In contrast, news accounts of allegations of sexual violations of women and men by clergy often show confusion among the general public about the nature of sexual exploitation of adults by clergy.

Heather Hahn. "Sexual misconduct tests denomination." United Methodist News Service (January 27, 2011).
A survey of 6,000 United Methodists found: Half of all laywomen and one-third of laymen witness or are victims of some degree of sexual harassment or misconduct in their congregations, from inappropriate comments by the pastor or laity in leadership to physical assault and stalking.

A national study of clergy sexual misconduct with adults was published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion in 2009. The Baylor University School of Social Work research was funded by the Ford Foundation. Click here for background information on the goals of this study.
Dean of Baylor University School of Social Work Professor Diana Garland said she was surprised by the magnitude of the problem and "had never imagined the extent."

"We knew anecdotally that clergy sexual misconduct with adults is a huge problem, but we were surprised it is so prevalent across all denominations, all religions, all faith groups, all across the country," she said.

In comments made during the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting held in Charlotte, June 2010, Dean Diana Garland elaborated further on the findings of the Baylor research study mentioned above. An article by Norman Jameson in the online Biblical Recorder (July 12, 2010), "Garland labels clergy misconduct abuse of power", reports:
Those who reported suffering abuse at the hands of clergy self-identified as being members of 17 Christian and Jewish denominational bodies. …The one anomaly that surfaced, which [Professor Diana Garland] had never published until speaking at this meeting, was that the incidence of clergy abuse appeared to be three times as frequent in black congregations.

Michel Martin, host of NPR's Tell Me More interviewed Dr. Diana Garland, dean of the Baylor School of Social Work and Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, former head of St. Luke's Institute, a treatment center for clergy. During the interview, which aired October 1, 2010, Garland and Rossetti discussed sexual misconduct of clergy. Rossetti noted that:
the abuse of minors, of course, is especially abhorrent and awful, but there are more cases of sexual exploitation of adults in all the churches, and that gets less air time …

Michel Martin, host of NPR's Tell Me More also noted in the October 1, 2010 interview with Dean Diana Garland that the Baylor University research team found that among those interviewed for the study:
… there were people from a very wide array of religious organizations and faith groups: Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Seventh Day Adventist, Disciples of Christ, Mormon, Apostolic, Calvary Chapel, Christian Science, Church of Christ, Episcopal Friends, Mennonite, evangelical, non-denomination and Reformed Judaism.

Laurie Goodstein, national religion correspondent for the New York Times, responded to criticism of the newspaper from Timothy Dolan, archbishop of the New York diocese, in a letter posted on his blog on November 4, 2009. Dolan's op-ed submission to the New York Times, "Foul Ball" (posted October 29, 2009), is still available on the blog, but Goodstein's letter has been removed.
"I wrote the story [on Henry Willenborg] because church officials have said privately to me over the years that priests who violate their vows with adult women are far more common than priests who sexually abuse minors."

See Timothy Dolan's blog at:

www.archny.org/news-events/columns-and-blogs/blog---the-gospel-in-the-digital-age/index.cfm?i=14042

Patrick Wall, co-author with Richard Sipe and Thomas Doyle of Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes: The Catholic Church's 2,000 Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse (2006), was quoted in an article by Mary Ormsby, "Church scandal's next wave: Abused girls," published in The Star, Canada (April 24, 2010). Wall states his belief that: "teenaged girls are the silent majority of priest-related sexual abuse."

Barbara Bradley's National Public Radio segment on "Protestant Scandals" that aired on April 22, 2002, discussed the case of Greg Tucker, Church of the Nazarene. Bradley reported that about one-third of clergy have had inappropriate sexual contact with congregants. The NPR story includes an interview with Joyce Seelen, a lawyer who has sued clergy in many denominations, including Episcopalian, Methodist, Church of Christ and Church of the Nazarene clergy. Bradley also interviews Joe Trull, Professor of Christian Ethics at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, who discusses how Protestant congregations often react when their minister is accused of abuse: circle the wagons to defend the accused minister, blame the victim, or even blame the minister's wife.
Listen to the 9-minute audio of NPR's national religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty's report on: "Protestant Scandals." National Public Radio (April 22, 2002). [Note: the audio recording file takes a few moments to upload.]

According to the Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune, Executive Director of the Faith Trust Institute in Seattle, adult victims of sexual exploitation by clergy "will be the next wave of the tsunami to hit the church" relative to the child victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Rev. Pamela Cooper-White, former director of the Center for Women and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and currently Ben G. and Nancye Clapp Gautier Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, estimates that the vast majority of victims of sexual exploitation by clergy, more than 95 percent, are women.

In her 1995 book The Cry of Tamar, the Rev. Pamela Cooper-White suggests that "somewhere from one out of eight to one out of three clergy have crossed sexual boundaries with their parishioners."

Angela Bonavoglia in her 2005 book Good Catholic Girls: How Women are Leading the Fight to Change the Church states:
"While the current crisis has spotlighted the abuse of minors by Catholic priests, the reality is that the abuse of children is just the tip of the iceberg . . . children are not, nor have they ever been, Catholic clergy's only victims. In fact, the sexual involvement of Catholic priests with adults far exceeds their involvement with minors, and women caught in those relationships are arguably in the greater danger of exploitation." (Bonavoglia, Chapter 5, "Women, Priests, and the Myth of Celibacy," p. 85)

A 1993 study published in the Journal of Pastoral Care found that 14% of Southern Baptist pastors responding to a survey admitted to inappropriate sexual contact with a congregant; in the same survey 70% of respondents said they had knowledge of another minister who had sexual contact with a congregant.

Stephanie Hixon, member of the United Methodist General Secretariat of the Commission on the Status and Role of Women, remarked at a 2001 UM-sponsored workshop that "the largest population of victim/survivors of clergy sexual misconduct [in the Methodist church] is women."

Julie Sevig, section editor of The Lutheran, stated in a 2002 special issue of this denominational newsmagazine that "the typical pattern of clergy sexual abuse in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America involves a male pastor and adult female."

Alexa Smith, in a 2000 cover article for Presbyterians Today, reported that the Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA estimates there are about 50 clergy sexual misconduct cases every year. Cases in the PCUSA, according to Smith, "tend to involve adult women and male pastors."

Dr. Gary Schoener, Executive Director of the Walk-In Counseling Center in Minneapolis which serves both offenders and victims of clergy sexual abuse, has consulted on over 2,000 cases of clergy sexual abuse and is one of the most outspoken experts on this issue. In a 2006 interview aired on the PBS newsweekly Religion and Ethics he stated that "far more clergy have sexual contact with adult women or late adolescent girls than they do with kids of either gender" adding that "it's a widespread problem."

Schoener told the St. Petersburg Times in a 2002 article that "17 states see even adult relationships with priests as a type of statutory rape. The victim can't possibly consent because the power relationship so clouds the issue."

Similar estimates are put forth by A. W. Richard Sipe, therapist and former Benedictine monk, in his 1995 book Sex, Priests, and Power. Based on his research, Sipe concludes that "at any one time 20% of priests are involved in a sexual relationship with a woman."

Sipe told the St. Petersburg Times in a 2002 article that "about four times as many priests get involved with adult women as with minors."

Several reports cited by Kathryn Flynn in her comprehensive study of The Sexual Abuse of Women by Members of the Clergy published in 2003 substantiate the claim that "clergy are exploiting their parishioners at twice the rate of secular therapists."

A United Church of Canada sexual abuse panel reported that "women are more likely to experience sexual harassment in the church than in the workplace."

Dr. Rene Drumm, chair of the Department of Social Work and Family Studies at Southern Adventist University, in Collegedale, Tennessee states in her article "Why Pastoral Affair Is An Oxymoron: Thoughts On Clergy Sexual Misconduct" published in Adventist Today (May 1, 2005):
Because of their moral and spiritual authority, pastors are not allowed the luxury of having "affairs." Affairs can happen only between equally powerful, consenting adults. When a pastor becomes romantically involved with a parishioner, it is not properly considered an affair. Instead it is a blatant breach of ethical standards. This violation of ethical standards then becomes a legal liability.

Anglican Church in Australia Sex Offender Registry and Church of England Archbishop's List.
Bernard Lagan. "Names of cheating clergy will be put on register of sex offenders." Times Online (October 24, 2007).

Andrew Norfolk. "Church of England lists sinner priests." Times Online (October 24, 2007).

Emma Humphreys Prize 2004 awarded to Margaret Kennedy "primarily for the way she has taken on Christian, and especially the Catholic, church in the UK, not just in relation to the sexual abuse of children but sexual exploitation of adult women by Christian clergy." In a December 2004 article in the Journal of Adult Protection Kennedy discusses her work:
The 250 women I have supported over the last eight years who were sexually molested, coerced, exploited and manipulated into having sex with the clergymen from whom they sought help and refuge were vulnerable and looking for help. They were not looking for their pastor to engage them in sex. This must be seen within the continuum of sexual violation against women.

Sacha Pfeiffer. "Women face stigma of clergy abuse: Many are reluctant to come forward." The Boston Globe (December 27, 2002).
There is other, anecdotal evidence that woman victims have been undercounted: For example, nearly half the victims who become members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, an organization that is the best-known advocacy group for victims, are women.

Jane Lampman. "A Wider Circle of Clergy Abuse: As US Bishops Meet, Attention is Drawn to Female Victims of Priests." Christian Science Monitor (June 14, 2002).
"Priests who victimize women are far more common than those who victimize boys," says Gary Schoener, a Minnesota psychotherapist who has worked with 2,500 sex-abuse cases involving clergy of many denominations. … A. W. Richard Sipe a psychotherapist and former priest who writes books on celibacy and the priesthood says that at any one time, an estimated 20 percent of priests is involved in relationships with women. This compares with his estimate of 4 percent to 6 percent who abuse minors.

In a 2002 article by Michael Paulson, "All faiths question handling of abuse: Debate over celibacy as factor is rancorous," Boston Globe (March 13, 2002), the executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts, Rev. Linda C. Spoolstra stated that:
Child abuse among clergy has not been a major issue for us … We have been much more concerned about sexual abuse of clergy with adults because there have been more violations of ethical behavior in this area.

This site is established to share informational resources for victims and advocates of adult victims of clergy sexual abuse.