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September 3, 2008

Sexual Misconduct at Church

by by Marian V. Liautaud

Excerpted from Sexual Misconduct in the Church.

A new study of self-described "active Christian women" shows more than a quarter personally experienced sexually inappropriate behavior, and one fourth of those that experienced it said it happened in a church or ministry setting. The survey, based on answers given last fall by 779 American women to NationalChristianPoll.com, was designed to capture the range and extent to which women encounter unwelcome, gender-based behaviors by their male counterparts, either in the workplace or within a church or ministry setting. Commonly reported inappropriate behaviors include sexual advances, touching or sexual contact, suggestive jokes, glances with sexual overtones, and demeaning comments.

While some may take suggestive jokes or demeaning comments to a coworker or ministry colleague lightly, this kind of behavior can create a stressful environment. Joy Thornburg Melton, an ordained minister and attorney who currently serves in the United Methodist Church as chief resource officer for PACT (United Methodist Property and Casualty Trust), says these survey results are "interesting, but not surprising." Based on the anecdotal reports she receives from individual women in a wide variety of ministry settings, she says, "There is a lot of inappropriate ?conversation' being tolerated by women so as not to antagonize men in their workplaces."

To find out if your church is prepared for a sexual misconduct allegation, click here.

SexualMisconduct.jpg
Excerpted from Sexual Misconduct in the Church, a new downloadable resource from Gifted for Leadership.

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Posted by Bonnie McMaken on September 3, 2008 4:01 PM

Comments

This is probably more common than most of us realize. Personally, I have been subject to this problem three times in my years in ministry (three separate men under separate circumstances).

What grieves me most—beside the fact that these men are/were spiritual leaders—is to hear the constant rhetoric that men have to look out for predatory women. I didn't "ask" for any of this—the "invitation" came from the men.

Posted By: Lynda Schultz | September 5, 2008 9:47 AM

I try very hard to be professioal yet friendly as I work in a church. After 12 years I have learned to set my boundaries
where the guys are concerned. Some of the men volunteers don't quite understand me and label me as 'hard' but that's the way it has to be out of respect for my husband and my family. Many times I have been uncomfortable around some of the men in my church. Why can't a female be friendly without being taken advantage of?

Posted By: brenda | September 6, 2008 8:51 PM

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