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 Questions and Answers About Preventing
Sex Abuse in Congregations
Would you please briefly describe your new book? Congregations have needlessly kept secrets and fostered sexual shame for centuries. My new book, Preventing Sexual Abuse in Congregations: A Resource for Leaders, puts a stop to the dynamics that lead to sexual violations in congregations. This is a guide to help people abuse-proof their organizations (Jewish & Christian congregations). Sections include harassment, sexuality, clergy dilemmas, education about touch boundaries, and a one of a kind ethics code for ministry professionals. What is the message you want to convey? No more cover-ups. If every lay person read and put in place the suggestions in this book clergy sexual abuse and harassment toward clergy (by some reports, as many as 80% of female clergy face sexual and gender harassment) would STOP. You can abuse-proof your organization. Reducing the risk is everyone's responsibility. This book is full of humorous examples of times that people blundered and nearly crossed the boundaries but didn't. The chapter on the biochemistry of sex is amusing. You have expertise in several areas, right? I have studied family secrets and secrets in organizations. My areas of expertise include clergy sex abuse and other sexual shame secrets, the victims and perpetrators of sex abuse, professional boundaries, ethics for clergy, and creating heath in individual and congregational systems. What makes you, your book or your product or service unique or different from others in the same field? I approach this subject systemically in other words, we can all stop abuse. It isn't just the problem of a few individuals and its definitely not just a problem of sexual orientation (most abusers are heterosexual males) it is a problem of families and organizations, of secrets and all that covers over sexual shame. We've gotten way off course about sexuality and learned Victorian messages that do not help. We've blamed women for seduction and allowed men to let their libidos think for them. We are all in this together and so we can all celebrate healthy sexuality and stop the dangerous and damaging distortions of it. I think God likes sex. I come at this with hope and humor. Why are people interested in what you have to say? We are bombarded every day with messages about sexuality, many of which are very damaging. The popular culture isn't speaking to the connection between spirituality and sexuality. Everyone is tired of cover-ups in their congregations. They want to talk about sex at church and synagogue and mosque, but they just don't know how. I'm clear, relevant, funny. What previous media experience do you have, such as TV, radio or print interviews? I talk to a lot of audiences, mostly at workshops, after all, I've been a preacher for twenty years. I've been on radio shows and interviewed by the L.A. times and other media sources. I believe that we can help people to normalize sexuality and therefore to heal it's abuses and honor it's blessings.
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