Sexual Misconduct and the Future of Mega-Churches
Sexual Misconduct and the Future of Mega-Churches

Author: Glenn L. Starks

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2013-03-07

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13:

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Why have multiple mega-church leaders—Ted Haggard and Bishop Eddie Long, for example—committed acts of sexual misconduct? This book discusses the reasons in depth and examines how these acts are impacting the future of megachurches. Mega-churches—churches with congregations that number in the thousands of worshippers—are growing in popularity in America and around the world. Shockingly, a growing number of megachurch leaders have committed acts of sexual misconduct. While these scandalous crimes have received much attention through the media, literature that examines the topic in detail has been lacking. This book examines the various aspects of sexual misconduct by megachurch leaders, providing a comprehensive review of the topic that discusses the direct and indirect reasons for these crimes. The book provides unbiased, factual coverage of megachurch sexual abuse cases, covering issues surrounding the victims in specific cases, the role of the church, and notable ministers, such as Ted Haggard of New Life Church, Colorado Springs, CO; Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Lithonia, GA; and Joe Barron of Prestonwood Baptist Church, Dallas, TX. The author also discusses how these incidences have impacted societal perceptions of religion, and large churches, and religious organizations, and provides recommendations to curb future cases of sexual abuse within megachurches.

Vocation and Violence
Vocation and Violence

Author: Miryam Clough

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-01-17

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 100056648X

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As #MeToo and its sister movement #ChurchToo demonstrated, sexual violence is systemic in many and varied workplace settings, including Christian churches, and can destroy women’s careers and vocational aspirations. The study draws on empirical evidence – personal stories from survivors and the views of church leaders and educators – in dialogue with theoretical perspectives, to consider clergy sexual abuse of adult women and the conditions that support it. Institutional abuse only changes when survivors come forward. This study focusses on New Zealand Anglicanism, the locus of the author’s experience, and has resonance for a range of denominational settings. It aims to be a useful resource to clergy, ministry educators, and those training for ministry, and to academics and scholars with an interest in theology, gender, and professional ethics. Notably, it will be a potentially helpful text for women survivors of sexual misconduct by clergy, not least those who are considering a future in the church or grieving the loss of one. The volume concludes by suggesting that alternative theological models and relational ethics are essential if the church is to truly address the problem of clergy sexual abuse and give greater priority to the abused.

We Too
We Too

Author: Mary E. DeMuth

Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

Published: 2019-08-13

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0736979190

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"Timely and necessary...This book is not only a warning. It is an opportunity. An opportunity to live out the gospel we so passionately proclaim. And it starts with listening."—J.D. Greear, President of the Southern Baptist Convention Time’s Up: Addressing the Unspoken Crisis in the Church We like to think the church is a haven for the hurting. But what happens when it’s not? Author and advocate Mary DeMuth urges the church she loves to rise up and face the evil of sexual abuse and harassment with candor and empathy. Based on research and survivors’ stories, along with fierce fidelity to Scripture, DeMuth unpacks the church’s response to sexual violence and provides a healthy framework for the church to become a haven of healing instead of an institution of judgment. In the throes of the #MeToo movement, our response as Christians is vital. God beckons us to be good Samaritans to those facing trauma and brokenness in the aftermath of abuse and provide safe spaces to heal. DeMuth advocates for a culture of honesty and listening and calls on the church to enter the places where people are hurting. In the circle of that kind of empathetic #WeToo community, the church must become what it’s meant to be—a place of justice and healing for everyone.

The #MeToo Reckoning
The #MeToo Reckoning

Author: Ruth Everhart

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2020-01-14

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 0830849432

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The #MeToo movement has revealed sexual abuse in every sphere of society, including the church. But all too often, churches have been complicit in protecting abusers, reinforcing patriarchal power dynamics, and creating cultures of secrecy, shame, and silence. Disclosing candid stories of abuse, pastor and survivor Ruth Everhart offers God's hope to survivors while shining a light on the prevalence of sexual misconduct within faith communities.

Sexual Abuse Within the Church
Sexual Abuse Within the Church

Author: Chris Rush Burkey

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-11-11

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1000464156

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This book takes a holistic approach by providing insight into the behavior and nature of sex offenders within the church. The text covers various types of sex offenders as well as their criminal propensities and methods of acquiring victims. Warning signs associated with sex crimes within the church are explained as well as security measures and prevention strategies that church leaders and criminal justice professionals can utilize to minimize risk to congregants. Discussion questions and case study scenarios are provided to allow the reader to examine relevant issues and explore a range of potential solutions and interventions. This comprehensive book is intended for criminal justice academicians who teach courses on sex crimes and sex offenders, criminal justice agents (police and investigators), seminary professors and students, and clergy members. It can also assist security teams, church board members, leaders, and teachers in developing intervention and prevention strategies.

Can Fallen Pastors Be Restored?
Can Fallen Pastors Be Restored?

Author: John Armstrong

Publisher: Moody Pub

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780802414120

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This book provides compassionate yet uncompromising advice that can keep a ministry and its congregation from experiencing a tragic end. Armstrong tackles a tough issue with biblical principles, presenting and evaluating three common views: immediate restoration to pastoral office, future restoration, and personal restoration without restoring to office.

Dug Down Deep
Dug Down Deep

Author: Joshua Harris

Publisher: Multnomah Books

Published: 2011-05-17

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1601423713

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Offers wisdom and guidance for Christians to strengthen their faith, discussing how God speaks to individuals, how Jesus' death on the cross paid for sins, who the Holy Spirit is, and more.

Betrayed
Betrayed

Author: Richard Scorer

Publisher: Biteback Publishing

Published: 2014-03-27

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1849547262

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Since the mid-1980s, the Catholic Church has been embroiled in a profound crisis of clerical sexual abuse. In many Western countries, paedophile priests have been exposed and convicted, and the Church's moral and social standing has suffered deeply. Scandals in Ireland and America have been extensively documented and much debated. The English Catholic Church has also been shaken to its roots by allegations of abuse, but until now the situation in England has not been fully examined. This book, by one of the UK's leading lawyers in the field, is a shocking exposé of Catholic sex abuse cases in England over the past forty years. Exploring the many facets of the crisis, it analyses the ways in which the English Church has responded - and the ways in which it has failed. The author considers the causes of abuse, allegations of cover-ups, campaigns led by victims, battles within the Church, the legal dimensions and the debate around the laicisation ('defrocking') of individual priests. He attempts to answer the following questions: How serious has the problem been in the English Catholic Church? How effectively has the Church responded? Can it hope to recover from this scandal - and, crucially, can it deal credibly and effectively with future allegations of abuse?

Restoring the Soul of a Church
Restoring the Soul of a Church

Author: Nancy Myer Hopkins

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780814623336

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The Interfaith Sexual Trauma Institute has commissioned this pastoral work which focuses on the healing of congregations following clergy sexual misconduct. The book discusses the original problem of sexual misconduct and exploitation and then focuses on those neglected "secondary" victims of abuse: the congregation, the wider community, other clergy, the wider church, the offender's family, and the pastor who takes over.

Beyond Betrayal
Beyond Betrayal

Author: Patricia Ewick

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2019-08-21

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 022664443X

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In 2002, the national spotlight fell on Boston’s archdiocese, where decades of rampant sexual misconduct from priests—and the church’s systematic cover-ups—were exposed by reporters from the Boston Globe. The sordid and tragic stories of abuse and secrecy led many to leave the church outright and others to rekindle their faith and deny any suggestions of institutional wrongdoing. But a number of Catholics vowed to find a middle ground between these two extremes: keeping their faith while simultaneously working to change the church for the better. Beyond Betrayal charts a nationwide identity shift through the story of one chapter of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), an organization founded in the scandal’s aftermath. VOTF had three goals: helping survivors of abuse; supporting priests who were either innocent or took risky public stands against the wrongdoers; and pursuing a broad set of structural changes in the church. Patricia Ewick and Marc W. Steinberg follow two years in the life of one of the longest-lived and most active chapters of VOTF, whose thwarted early efforts at ecclesiastical reform led them to realize that before they could change the Catholic Church, they had to change themselves. The shaping of their collective identity is at the heart of Beyond Betrayal, an ethnographic portrait of how one group reimagined their place within an institutional order and forged new ideas of faith in the wake of widespread distrust.