Episode Details

An expert gives us his insight into this disturbing, embarrassing … and growing … problem in the 21st century church.

Spiritual/clergy abuse has been much in the news as of late. Some of the names that have filled religious and secular news feeds in the past few years include large organizations like the indigenous residential school system in Canada, the Roman Catholic Church, the recent Southern Baptist Convention and Hillsong Church in Australia, as well as individuals such as Jean Vanier, Mark Driscoll, Ravi Zaccharias and Bruxy Cavey.

In this episode, we talk to Dan Koch to get an expert’s insight into this problem. Dan has developed a diagnostic tool to help other counsellors screen their clients for past clergy/spiritual abuse, and used that to generate some powerful statistical data and identify some disturbing trends.

We also look at how most cases of spiritual abuse produce four parties that have been hurt, each requiring a different response from us.

The first two are obvious: the victim, and the abuser. Both need counselling, restoration and restitution, and there may also be legal considerations.

The third are often overlooked: the spouse and children of the abuser. Imagine the confusion, sense of betrayal, and embarrassment they feel. And to add insult to injury, they sometimes have to endure shunning from members of the church who should be supporting them.

And the fourth group includes the broader community who had previously derived benefit from the ministry of the abuser. They too will experience confusion and a sense of betrayal. But they may also be wrestling with deep questions about what to do with their earlier experiences — before the abuse occurred — with the person who later became the abuser. Do those experiences need to be rejected/forgotten? Are their baptisms, or weddings, salvation experiences, or counselling sessions now invalidated? Will they now need to throw out their copies of any books or music written by that person who later became the abuser? (If your answer to this last question is yes, will you also rip out the book of Psalms fr