DALLAS (ABP) — When it comes to hiring church staff, some Baptists consider sexual misconduct to be an unpardonable sin, and many survivors of abuse agree. But others say it depends on which scarlet letter the minister wears: “W” for “wanderer” or “P” for “predator.”
Ethicist Joe Trull accepts the distinction between wanderers and predators. He explained the difference in a ministerial-ethics book he wrote with James Carter, former director of church-minister relations with the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
Building on categories first proposed by Marie Fortune — a pioneer in research on sexual exploitation by clergy — Trull said predators are people who actively seek opportunities to sexually abuse their prey. The predator is often a charismatic person who may play the part of a loving pastor but who abuses his position to manipulate vulnerable people.
In contrast, wanderers tend to be vulnerable, needy people drawn to others with similar needs. Wanderers are often less successful personally and professionally than their peers, and they gravitate to people who will enhance their self-esteem. After crossing boundaries into inappropriate behavior, wanderers generally feel shame, remorse and regret, Trull said.
“The wanderer may be a candidate for restoration. Predators don’t think they’ve done anything wrong,” Trull said. “Most predators are the type of people who think they are above the law and the rules don’t apply to them. …They should never be in the ministry or in any vocation where they are with vulnerable people whom they can take advantage of.”
Christa Brown, a spokesperson for SNAP, an organization for clergy sex-abuse survivors, rejects the notion that any abuser should ever be restored to ministry.
“In the event a minister has committed sexual abuse, he should not be restored to service in ministry in any position in which others look up to him as a spiritual leader,” Brown said. “The weapons used by clergy sex-abusers are the faith and trust of others and the mantle of authority that the church and denomination puts on their shoulders. These weapons must be taken away and cannot safely be put into their hands again.”
Brown acknowledged a distinction between misconduct and abuse. She also criticized Baptists for the tendency “to lump all sexually related matters under the same umbrella and call it ‘sexual misconduct.’”
“For example, I would characterize the much-publicized Ted Haggard scenario as ‘misconduct,’ but from the news accounts I saw, it does not appear to have been abusive,” she explained.
Haggard resigned as head of the National Association of Evangelicals after a Colorado man alleged Haggard paid him for drugs and sex. Haggard was fired as pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., after he admitted to unspecified acts of “sexual immorality.”
Most victims Brown knows were abused as children or teenagers, but age alone does not determine whether a person is a victim of abuse or simply a participant in sexual misconduct, she insisted.
“Ministers can also sexually abuse adult congregants,” she said. “In Texas, it is a felony for a clergyman to use his position of spiritual trust to sexually exploit another — even another adult.”
But despite her recognition of the difference between misconduct and abuse, Brown rejects the distinction between wanderers and predators. She believes it creates a climate for continued abuse.
“From the many accounts I hear, it appears that Southern Baptists often wind up protecting the predator on the theory that he may be merely a wanderer. In doing so, they leave countless unsuspecting sheep at risk. No good shepherd would take such risks,” she said. “Even if there is some percentage who can legitimately be characterized as mere wanderers, are church and denominational leaders so very certain that they can tell the difference that they are willing to risk allowing serial predators to move on to other prey for the sake of giving wanderers another chance in another position of trust with another unsuspecting flock of congregants?”
In the 1990s, the Baptist General Convention of Texas ministers counseling service launched a restoration program to help ministers put their lives back together after sexual misconduct. The program no longer exists.
Emily Row Prevost, who works for the BGCT congregational leadership development area, said her organization is concerned with protecting everyone.
“Whether you distinguish between predators and wanderers or not, it is important for us to recognize that in any act of clergy sexual misconduct, people get hurt,” she said. “The victim, the family of the perpetrator, the church and the community must all deal, in differing degrees, with pain, betrayal and issues of trust.”
In Baptist life, decisions about whether an offender should be restored to vocational ministry rest with individual congregations, she emphasized.
“Because Baptist churches are autonomous, this is a decision each church must decide for itself after diligent prayer, study and thorough investigation,” she said. “Also, circumstances vary greatly. …the decisions are up to the congregations.”
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— This story is part of a six-part series on clergy sex-abuse.