SEXUAL ABUSE: Blog 2—The Sexual Transformation of the Church
Confronting the sexual abuse among professionals is not an easy task. But as promised this second blog, “Sexual Abuse: Blog 2—The Sexual Transformation of the Church,” will offer a plan to address the sexual abuse within the human services industry. This is a discussion on the origins of sexual crimes and a proposed approach to bring sexual abuse within the human services market (specifically within the church and parachurch) to an end.
Sex inundates our life. We are told by television, songs, literature, bumper stickers, billboards, and more that sex is a necessary part of life. Some media portray sex as being the goal of life, without which we are considered worthless.
There seems to be no end to the list of sexual abuses. Religious leaders fall into the sin of sexual exploitation. We hear about the sexual accusations toward prominent celebrities. It grieves my heart every time I hear about a person of influence leveraging their status to have sex with a vulnerable person.
Much of my career focuses on offering counseling sessions to pastors in crisis. This includes ministers across Christendom, not only my denomination. I can’t count how many times a minister opens up about their secret sexual activities. Nor can I count the number of devastated victims. When a minister uses his/her influence to receive sexual favors, the whole congregation and their families are hurt. All the church, the whole body of Christ, is wounded from these vile sins.
The church has let herself become transformed into a hiding place for sexual predators. I say, No More! It is time for a purging. We must stand against the sexual revolt threatening our church. All denominations across Christendom are under the same sexual attack. Sex wants to control the church by distracting the members and infesting the leadership.
The church needs purifying. She is not as luminous as she once was. Instead, she is shrouded with the tarnished sins of the people. God requires holiness and blamelessness from her (see Eph. 5:27). Pastors we must commit to the gospel in the pulpit and outside of the pulpit. It is not enough to preach with accuracy, passion, and clarity. We must also obey the word—even when no one is watching.
Brothers and sisters we must love one another enough to expunge the things which creates confusion and division within the body of Christ.
Sin in church leadership digs a gorge between the church and God. The church must reject sin, refocus on the Great Commission—winning the multitudes around the world who don’t know Christ. We need a cleansing—a revival back into holiness.
The sex industry is holding our culture bound with the chains of addiction. Unfortunately, some church leaders are bound down too. This disaster needs a solution. We must return to the heart of God. Everyone from wounded families, victimized congregants, and church overseers must turn from this wickedness of sexual abuse. And turn back to God; stand in His word with integrity. I know this is easier said than done. It is increasingly more difficult with each dark hour.
The growth rate of sexual abuse in our culture is staggering. More frightening is the amount of sexual abuse within the church, and in the helping professions. We expect the church and helping professions to be places of safety and healing. How much longer will safety be tagged to the church or the helping profession if the sexual abuse continues to grow?
Historical Roots of Sexual Abuse
When you have a moment read the original code of medical ethics, the Hippocratic Corpus. It is an ancient code of medical ethics. They compiled this code five hundred years before Christ came to dwell among us the Hippocratic Corpus shows the intense belief that professionals have a deep responsibility to protect the patients. The Hippocratic Corpus believes the relationship between physician and patient is delicate. It forbids the professional from engaging in sexual activities with the patients.
We can look back farther than the creation of the Hippocratic Corpus. The code of the Nigerian Healing Arts, which was created prior to the Habeas Corpus. This strengthens the belief that sexual Abuse should never be used as a tool within the therapist office.
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychology, stands against the counselor engaging in sexual activities with the patient. He was afraid of jeopardizing the delicate balance of vulnerability.
When we look to Carl Jung, we find unethical practices. He took advantage of a client and had sexual relations with her for years. Sabina Speilrein, escaped his misdeeds, and became a caring professional herself. The psychoanalytic tradition has held to the guidelines for not having sexual relations with clients. This remained the majority standard until the 1960s. One instigator of perverse thought, Abraham Maslow pushed his clients to have group counseling section in the nude.
Some depraved professionals during the 1960s and 70s have cast long shadows that still slither through the counseling camera today. The 60s introduced a theory for the psychodynamic practice of sexual touch. Thankfully, this was short lived. But not before the reputation of the caring professionals took a big hit from the dark sin of some wicked minds. The majority thought among professionals was the psychodynamic sensation for sexual touch was wrong. But in 1966 an article was published which turned out the lights of ethics. McCartney confessed to having sexual contacts with his patients Also, with the book, The Love Treatment, the author triggered sexual tension debates throughout the country.
By the 1970s, an overabundance of techniques capitalizing on the sexual vulnerability of the clients had emerged. This added serious confusion to the already corrupt minds practicing within the caring professions. When we read about the growing counseling techniques of the 1970s, we learn of L.G. Schults’s sick mind. Schultz encouraged the caring professional to take part in sexual abuse against the client with advice for giving orgasmic transference, one-on-one sex guidance, showcasing masturbation, even clinical prostitution, and the list of darkness continues.
Although the APA did not formally forbid sexual abuse until 1973 the counseling profession had some honorable people. Thankfully, not all clinicians are corrupt. The 1970s gave birth to a choir singing a beautiful song establishing guidelines against the unethical sex in psychotherapy. A soloist sang a strong note which still sounds today. Phyllis Chessler published an eye-opening book describing the dangers of male care counselors taking sexual advantages of the vulnerable clients.
In 1995 a duo rose from the choir to sing for the American Psychiatric Association (APA), William Masters and Virginia Johnson sang a song (which seems to point out the obvious), explaining, when the caring professional engages in sexual activities with the client it is rape.
Another soloist who’s voice rises above the noise is Judd Marmor, from which we gain some practice guidelines how the professional can protect the integrity of the counseling practice. I follow some of these suggestions in my practice; however, Marmor is more lenient with the guidelines than I. For example, Marmor cautions being alone with a female “IF” with a list of conditions such as the physical appearance of the client. For my guidelines, it does not matter the topic the female wants to discuss, her physical appeal (or lack thereof), emotional health, or what have you, it is never wise to provide counseling to the opposite gender without a chaperone nearby. I have a window (with an open curtain) in my office door. I make sure at least one other trustworthy person is in the building (same floor) with permission to drop into my office at random. This provides accountability for me; it protects my career and ministry.
Other voices joined with these and continued to sing a beautiful song of sexual purity in therapist-patient ethics.
Cost For Sex is Too High
As mentioned above, within my practice I provide sessions with clerics who confess to sexual sins with congregants or members within the community. It is heartbreaking to think about the countless hours sitting with a string of ministers confessing to sexual sin. The reality is clear, if we do not turn to holiness, and purity in the church the sin will take over like a cancer.
A short time ago, I counseled with a woman (call her, Kerry) who has lost trust for persons in authority because she was trapped into a situation, and forced (through blackmail) to provide bizarre sexual benefits for the Christian counselor (call him, Dr. Coin). Kerry was a Sunday School teacher who attended treatment sessions with the church staff counselor. Because the church had a good reputation, Dr. Coin’s position came with a prominent stance within the community. He was unsatisfied with his sex life. His wife had a more traditional sexual interest that he did. He wanted to explore new sexual games, but his wife was uncomfortable with it. So he put the burden on his female client (s). Kerry was made to feel like she had to provide what Dr. Coin’s wife would not. Kerry said that she has provided sexual favors for Dr. Coin for two months before she finally stopped going to church. When she came to my office Kerry was consumed with guilt, addicted to meth, cigarettes, alcohol, and had committed an abortion—murdering the baby of the church counselor.
Kerry confessed that Dr. Coin has a solid reputation, favored within the church and community. He is a published author and sought after—dynamic speaker. He is viewed as a godly man, one of mildness, wisdom, and compassion. Kerry said that she could only step away from the church and counseling sessions because Dr. Coin has not been available for treatment sessions. He has been traveling a lot for speaking at large churches. The longer the gap between sessions, the weaker his ability to make her feel obligated to submit to his abuse.
Through years of guided counseling, Bible study, and prayer Kerry will learn to trust again. Unfortunately, she may never quite recover from the damage gained from this sexual abuse. Meanwhile, Dr. Coin (like so many other defilers) remains in his comfortable office able to take adventive of another wounded counselee. She is afraid of the backlash if she speaks out against Dr. Coin. But she is not the only victim of this fraud within the church.
The sexual abuse systemically reaches beyond the immediate victim, and issues damage throughout their lives. It will impact the victims relationships with family, friends, authority figures, and continues to spread its reach for years. When the predator is a Christian professional, the damage is much worse. Because it forces the victims to lose faith in the church, and in Christ.
Conclusion
Full recovery is possible, but only through the gift of restoration in Christ. Because of the multiple-level-mountain of damage it causes, sexual abuse is one of the most damaging sins a Christian professional can commit. It is time that the counseling profession specifically the counseling department of the church take action against the offenders and offers better, safer, counseling for the people. We must pursue the heart of God and prevent sexual abuse within the church. If we do not take control of this moral decay, it will erode the ministry from within. If we do not take control of the counseling ministry of the church, the government will take control of the counseling within the church. We do not want to see the damage to the church if the only counseling allowed is government regulated counseling. That could mean government (
References
“Hippocrates,” The Loeb Classical Library, Edited by E. Page; E. Capps; H. D. Rouse; L. A. Post; M.A. E. H. Warmington. <https://archive.org/stream/hippocrates01hippuoft/hippocrates01hippuoft_djvu.txt>.
Handbook of Professional Ethics for Psychologists: Issues, Questions, and Controversies, 2003.
Sigmund Freud, “Observations on Transference-Love: Further Recommendations on the Technique of Psychoanalysis” in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 12, ed. J. Strachey (1915; reprint London: Hogarth Press, 1958), 158-7).
Aldo Carotenuto, A Secret Symmetry: Sebina Spielrein Between Jung and Freud (New York: Pantheon Books, 1982).
Abraham Maslow, Eupsychian Management: A Journal (Homewood, Ill.: R. D. Irwin, 1965), 160).
B. R. Forer, “The Taboo Against Touching in Psychotherapy,” Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice 6 (1969): 229—31; but see R. Robertiello, “Introgenic Psychiatric Illness,” Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy 7 (1975):3—8.
J. L. McCartney, “Overt Transference,” Journal of Sex Research 2 (1966):227—37.
M. Shepard, The Love Treatment: Sexual Intimacy Between Patients and Psychotherapists (New York: Peter H. Wyden, 1971).
L. G. Schultz, “Survey of Social Workers’ Attitudes and Use of Body and Sexual Psychotherapies,” Clinical Social Work Journal 3 (September 1975): 90—99.
William Masters and Virginia Johnson, “Principles of the New Sex Therapy,” paper delivered at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, 6 May 1975; see also “Principles of the New Sex Therapy,” American Journal of Psychiatry 133 (1976):548-53.
“1973 ACA Code of Ethics: As Approved by the ACA Governing Council.” American Counseling Association, 1973.
Phyllis Chesler, Women and Madness (San Diego, Calif.: Harcourt Brace, 1989), 138.
Judd Marmor, “Some Psychodynamic Aspects of the Seduction of Patients in Psychotherapy,” The American Journal of Psychoanalysis 36 (1976):319—23.
