Let Us Prey: American Pastors Target Women, Not Just Kids

It's not just children who are preyed upon by religious leaders in churches: women, too, have been victimized by their own religious leaders. Priests, ministers, and pastors of every denomination have violated their position of power, authority, and trust by making sexual advances on women in their congregations -- sometimes even coercing women into sexual relationships.

According to a study by Baylor University, one in thirty-three women who regularly attend church have been victimized; more than two-thirds of the offenders were already married at the time.

"It certainly is prevalent, and clearly the problem is more than simply a few charismatic leaders preying on vulnerable followers," said Diana Garland, dean of Baylor's School of Social Work, who co-authored the study.

For its study, Baylor used the 2008 General Social Survey, a nationally representative sample of 3,559 respondents, to estimate the prevalence of clergy sexual misconduct. Women older than 18 who attended worship services at least once a month were asked in the survey whether they had received "sexual advances or propositions" from a religious leader.

The study found that close to one in 10 respondents -- male and female -- reported having known about clergy sexual misconduct occurring in a congregation they had attended.

Source: Washington Post

To be fair, one out of ever 33 women doesn't sound like a huge number -- I'm not trying to minimize or dismiss the experiences of those women, but how does it compare to women who are members of other organizations, or even women in various employment fields? If it's the same or lower, then it might be argued that churches simply reflect the rest of American society.

On the other hand, it's hardly a compliment or even a defense to say that Christian church merely reflect the rest of American society. Aren't priests, ministers, and pastors supposed to be moral leaders? Aren't churches supposed to be moral organizations? What's more, a priest or minister who seduces a woman in the congregation is violating a particular sort of relationship which doesn't exist in most other circumstances -- it's far more like being seduced by one's psychologist or counselor than by one's employer or group leader.

Lawmakers are also taking note. Clergy sexual misconduct is illegal in Minnesota and Texas. Texas law, for example, defines clergy sexual behavior as sexual assault if the religious leader "causes the other person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person's emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman's professional character as spiritual adviser."

Why isn't "clergy sexual misconduct" illegal in more places? It may be that many lawmakers are concerned about church/state separation conflicts. That's certainly a legitimate concern and I'm glad to see lawmakers taking those concerns into consideration, but there is something fundamentally wrong if lawmakers are more concerned with possible state interference with churches than they are when churches try to interfere with the government. Lawmakers who don't give equal concern to both sides of the wall of separation aren't genuinely concerned about separation -- their motives lie elsewhere.