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The Elephants in God's Living Room PDF

513 Pages·2012·2.47 MB·English
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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 th 1) Clergy Sexual Abuse – 20 Century, United States th 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 ii In Memory Jeevan Paul, MD iii iv 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. v vi 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: vii 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 viii 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. 1 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 ix 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 2 3 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 x

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