sexual contact [or sexual penetration] of another person, while purporting to be a member of the clergy, during a period of time in which the person was meeting [the defendant] on an ongoing basis to seek or receive religious or spiritual advice, aid, or comfort in private,”Wow. I did not know that clergy sexual misconduct had happened so often that they made up a special statute just to describe it.
Technorati Tags: Clergy Sexual Abuse, Rape
2 comments:
My husband says my former therapist should be in jail. If sharing email fantasies and phone sex counts as sexual contact, I guess he's right.
In TX, the law makes it a felony if a clergyman "causes the other person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person's emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman's professional character as a spiritual adviser."
Sadly, laws such as the one you cite from MN and this one from TX are unusual. In virtually every state, it's a crime for a psychologist, psychiatrist, physician, or licensed counselor to sexually exploit a client/patient. But in most states, if it's "Christian counseling" you're getting, or "pastoral counseling", then the law doesn't address it. And the church-goers and church leadership will usually call it an "affair" and will often blame the victim for having "seduced" their beloved "man of God." In effect, they stone the already-wounded woman. It's a very sick scenario, and it happens far too frequently.
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