The Elephants in God's Living Room

513 Pages·2012·2.47 MB·English

The Elephants in God’s Living Room
Clergy Sexual Abuse and Institutional Clericalism

Volume One: Theoretical Issues

Ruth Elizabeth Krall, M.S.N., Ph.D.
Enduring Space
© www.ruthkrall.com
March, 2012

The Elephant in God’s Living Room
Clergy Sexual Abuse and Institutional Clericalism:
Volume One: Theoretical Issues

Ruth Elizabeth Krall

This manuscript may be downloaded and used for classroom use by
undergraduate or graduate students and their faculty. It may also be
downloaded and used by congregations, denominations, and other
religious institutions in continuing education activities. Finally, it may
be downloaded and used by individuals who wish to inform
themselves about matters of clergy and religious professional abuse.

In none of the above situations, should this manuscript be sold or
traded in any way for economic profit.

The author’s intention is to make this information widely available to
all individuals who are interested in its content. Therefore, while the
material has been copyright protected, it is offered to a wide variety of
religious communities for their use in studying clergy sexual abuse
and clericalism.

Includes bibliographic references

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1) Clergy Sexual Abuse – 20 Century, United States
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2) Religious Institution Clericalism – 20 Century, United States
3) Violence Typologies: Public Health, Social Sciences, and Religious
Studies
4) Individual, Collective and Transpersonal Consciousness
5) Betrayal Trauma
6) Sexual Victimization Trauma
7) Religious Authoritarianism and the Duty to Obey
8) Forgiveness Models and the Duty to Forgive

Webpage Cover Photograph, Stuart Bassil, South African Elephant Used With
Permission

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In Memory

Jeevan Paul, MD

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This book is dedicated to

Professor John C. Bennett
Professor Howard Clinebell
Professor Dan Rhoades

In the background of this manuscript is my graduate work in theology
and personality studies at The Southern California School of
Theology in Claremont, CA.

Now deceased, Professor Howard Clinebell’s unwavering insistence
that religion is called to ministries of healing has deeply informed my
personal understanding of a central task for all religious communities.
In order for any collective people of God to effectively provide healing
ministries, religious organizations and their leaders must manifest a
compassionate, trustworthy, holistic, mature spirituality. They need,
as well, to demonstrate psycho-social and political-economic
wholeness in their organizational structures, policies, and patterns of
administration.

In my Christian ethics courses with Professor John C. Bennett (also
now deceased) and Professor Dan Rhoades I gained an
understanding of God’s people as full participants (or co-creators with
God) in the liberation of those who are oppressed and disadvantaged
by the corrupted social, economic, and political systems which
surround them. A preferential option for the wounded, the weak, the
violated, and the vulnerable is, in such a theology, the hallmark of a
mature, trustworthy, and faithful spiritual community.

With the mentoring encouragement of these faculty mentors, in mid-
life I merged skills and interests from my previous clinical education
and practice with my interests and emerging skills as a pastoral
theologian. This dedication acknowledges my lasting gratitude to
each of them for their individual and collective presence in my life.

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Table of Contents

In Memory iii

Dedication v

Table of Contents vii

Preface ix

Introduction 3

Chapter One:
A World Public Health Perspective 11

Chapter Two:
Religious Typologies of Violence 27

Chapter Three:
Human Consciousness and Human Action 47

Chapter Four:
Subterranean Roots
Contributions of Depth Psychology to the Conversation 73

Chapter Five:
The Social Construction of Human Power 97

Chapter Six:
Authority Defined 127

Chapter Seven
Religious Authority and the Duty to Obey 147

Chapter Eight
The Perplexing Issue of Religious Authoritarianism 185

Chapter Nine:
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The Language of Abuse and Violation 205

Chapter Ten
Ordained Clergy and Religious Leader Abuse 237

Chapter Eleven:
Betrayal Trauma 263

Chapter Twelve
Institutional Clericalism 303

Chapter Thirteen
An Ancient Parable 335

Chapter Fourteen
The Duty to Forgive 347

Chapter Fifteen
Christian Models of Forgiveness 369

Chapter Sixteen
Summary and Conclusions 417

Appendices

A. Sexual Abuse Glossary 435

B. Forgiveness Word Web 443

Permissions 449

Acknowledgements 451

Resources Consulted 455

Preface
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The first flower of unholiness can grow only in the close
neighborhood of the Holy. No where do we tempt so
successfully as on the very steps of the altar.

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Screwtape

This is a book in two volumes. Together, both volumes form a unified
whole. The decision to break the book into two distinct volumes was
done to help readers (1) navigate complex interdisciplinary theoretical
issues from a mix of academic disciplines and (2) apply the materials
in a case study format. There is no unifying thesis statement.
Nevertheless, some chapters have concepts that might serve as
thesis statements.

Volume One deals with a wide variety of theoretical issues that
surround individual events of clergy and religious leader sexual abuse
of their subordinates. In addition to providing information related to
the relationship of sexual abuse predators and their victims,
information about current church and religious institution
management of abusers is examined.

This first volume functions, therefore, as an interdisciplinary literature
review. It attempts to heed the World Health Organization’s counsel
about the personal and social costs of violence when it reminded the
world community that talking about violence means looking upon
complex matters of morality, ideology, and culture (WHO, 2002b, 1).
The sequence of chapters provides readers with information from a
variety of academic disciplines and resources: public health, the
social sciences, religious studies, ethics, theology, biblical studies,
depth psychology, and contemporary studies about the nature of
human consciousness.

Because individual academic disciplines have developed their own
systems of language, naming and meaning and because these
various professional usages of technical language may diverge from
ordinary language, I provide definitions for various technical terms as
used within a particular theoretical discourse. I also seek to clarify
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conceptual distinctions between two cultural realities which may look
alike to the casual observer. For example, events of adultery
involving two consenting adults are differentiated from sexual abuse
between two adults. Since both sets of behavior are commonly
labeled sexual misconduct, it is necessary to fine tune our definitions
if we are to understand the problem of clergy and religious leader
sexual abuse of the laity. To further help the reader who is unfamiliar
with sexual violence vocabularies, a glossary is provided in the
appendices.

In this first volume I include a deliberate pattern of contrasting
Christendom’s war theologies and praxis with its sexual violence
theologies and praxis. This comparison will reappear in various
places. The interpenetrations of war’s systemic violence against
women and children in cultures which accept civilian acquaintance or
affinity violence against them seems clear to me. In addition, in the
development of the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosis the
post-war symptoms of veterans and the post—sexual violence
symptoms of survivors were both utilized by the American Psychiatric
Association in the development of its diagnostic manual for
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clinicians. ,

Five forms of clerical or religious leader violence appear in this book.
Three fit within the WHO category of personal violence. Two fit within
the category of social or structural violence as described by R.M.
Brown (1987). First there is the physical sexual assault from of
personal violence. Rape of a child or an adolescent is an example of
such violation and violence. Secondly, there is the violence and
violation of sexual harassment. This may include contact forms of
violence such as unwanted grabbing of another’s buttocks or genitals.
It may include non-contact violations such as sending an obscene
electronic message to a colleague or exposing one’s genitals to an
administrative assistant. Third, there is sexual violence which often
masquerades as consenting adult intercourse. In this form of violence
an individual with power and authority over another individual
engages the subordinate person in sexual activity. This may, for
example, include a seminary’s religious studies professor who
sexually propositions and later has intercourse with one or more of
his students. The fourth form is that of clericalism, an institutional
clergy structure and practice that protects the clergy and church
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