All of us in the church, but especially anyone in a role of leadership (teacher, parish council member, etc), should make ourselves familiar with the laws that govern the mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse. In the U.S. these laws are generally set at the state level. Someone who suspects (or even, as the laws […]

I was troubled by the meeting of the Catholic bishops last week, not because the new president and vice president are both Chicago priests. It was a perfect Chicago balanced ticket — one Cub fan and one White Sox fan, good men both despite the calumny spread about them. It seemed to me, however, that […]

The Methodist Church Provides a Rare Example of a Religious Institution that Takes Clergy Sexual Abuse Seriously: Its Recently-Announced Position Three cheers for the Methodist Church! A recent statement from the Rev. Darryl Stephens, who is the Church’s assistant general secretary for advocacy and sexual ethics for the General Commission on the Status & Role […]

Should UMC support NOW call? Should The United Methodist Church (UMC) support the National Organization for Women (NOW) call to make clergy sexual misconduct a crime? NOW urges state legislatures to make it illegal for a pastor to have sex with a congregant, just as a physician, psychiatrist or licensed counselor may be held criminally […]

We are all storytellers. Indeed, for most of our lives, we do just that when we recount our day, or some experience we’ve had in the past, or we talk about our children, or even about our dreams for the future. Indeed, I find that hearing other people’s stories is almost always fascinating and, in […]

Sexual misconduct by clergy is as old as religion itself, but what if the larger problem is not so much with the clergy as it is with believers who always seem to be surprised by such behavior, and even more disturbingly, slow to respond to it when they finally admit it has occurred? Without letting […]

Moscow, July 16, Interfax – Orthodox priest and publicist Alexander Shumsky urges to apply toughest punishment to those, who spread porno, especially wit children, in Internet. ”I don’t know about inquisition, but if those who post kid and other porn videos in Internet were caught and cruelly liquidated like infected rats with lists of eliminated […]

Psychiatric disorders are more prevalent among victims of sex abuse, with those with a history of being raped having the most occurrences of depression, eating disorders and post traumatic stress disorder. The study, conducted by the Mayo Clinic, determined that the age and gender of the victim did not impact the strong correlation between multiple […]

Moscow curators whose exhibit offended Russian Orthodox Church call their trial a show MOSCOW – Two prominent Moscow art curators facing the prospect of three years in prison for an exhibit that offended the Russian Orthodox Church said on Thursday their trial has been a political show. The 2007 exhibit ”Forbidden Art” set up by […]

MOSCOW (AP) — Two Russian curators who angered the Russian Orthodox Church with an exhibition that included images of Jesus Christ portrayed as Mickey Mouse and Vladimir Lenin were convicted Monday of inciting religious hatred and fined, but not sentenced to prison. The case of Yuri Samodurov, 58, and Andrei Yerofeyev, 54, has been closely […]