Forgiveness, Power, Identity Child sexual abuse by Church leaders Dr Jodi Death Queensland University of Technology

Background Literature Increase in media reports about mismanagement of child sexual abuse (csa) by Churches since 1980’s and 1990’s Largely about Catholic Church Hollingworth affair in Australia (Anglican) Increase in academic literature Theological sources – feminist theologians, Pastoral Psychology Australian sources (Porter 2003 and Parkinson 1997/2003) Focus is often on the Catholic and/or Anglican Church and ‘Clericalism’ Forgiveness literature Psychological Counselling ‘Politics of forgiveness’ – Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Peacemaking Criminology and Restorative Justice Some literature specifically addresses role of forgiveness in Churches addressing csa by church leaders

Sources of Data 15 semi structured interviews Denominational Child Protection Policy Media representations of “the Hollingworth affair”

Definitions Church - Refers to religious institutions of Australia which self identify as a Christian Church and/or denomination Church Leader - The term Church leaders will be used to refer to Christian leaders both ordained and lay.

Research Participants All research participants, but 2, were actively involved in “ministry” at the time of the interview 1 participant had recently taken a break from ministry due to personal illness 1 participant was an active theologian who no longer had specific leadership responsibility in any congregation or denomination, but had previously had significant engagement in addressing csa by church leaders All participants had personal and/or professional experience in the management of csa by church leaders

Traditional - Traditional denominations are characterised by strong institutional structures which are distinctly hierarchical. Non-traditional - Non-traditional is the broadest category. It is utilised to describe all protestant denominations in this study that are neither traditional nor Pentecostal. Pentecostal - Pentecostal churches usually self identify and are characterised by a strong emphasis on spiritual experience and the Holy Spirit

Theoretical frameworks Foucault – power/knowledge, discourses of resistance Butler – construction and presentation of self dependent on language “I begin a story about myself, and I begin somewhere, marking a time, trying to begin a sequence, offering perhaps, causal links or perhaps narrative structure. I narrate and I bind myself as I narrate, give an account of myself to an other in the form of a story that might well work to summarise how and why I am.” (Butler 2005:66)

Defining forgiveness Definitions of forgiveness by participants have 3 common elements Relational Involving human agency Emotional/spiritual well being Forgiveness as a process not an event Abusive potential of forgiveness in praxis Research participants most commonly used metaphors and narratives when asked to define forgiveness

Narrative “…It’s like a, I heard a guy the other day tell a story about a man in the second world [war] was hurt, he and his, the captain and his troops were marching from one city to another, marching past a hill and in a little ditch halfway up the hill were the enemy and they were sniping on this guy’s men and so and there was nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide, so he ah, ran up the hill towards the snipers and got his grenade and pulled the pin out and jumped into the pit where the snipers where and blew himself up along with the enemy in order to save the men. So the men don’t then say ‘O what did he do that for, that’s a bit stupid, he shouldn’t have done that, got a cigarette?’ Um, if you understand what he’s done it has an impact on how you view him, what you know, and the, the gratitude that you have towards him. Um, why am I telling you that? Ah, um, yeah, ah yeah, so a recognition of what Jesus has done for us um, a real recognition will bring about ah, a desire to, to elect God, a desire to thank him for what he’s done for us, a desire to understand that we can live in rebellion against him and so forgive us for that. God then asks us to forgive others in the same way.” (Dinah – traditional)

Freedom “To forgive um, is to allow a situation or a person to move on and it’s to acknowledge that something happened, which has left a real impression or mark on a life, and by that career, family, but, but you are not held captive by it any more. …Forgiveness is liberation, it’s freedom um, and being able to let go and move on.” (James traditional)

Freedom from negative emotions “Until… I can forgive that person they still have power over me. … I really see hatred of someone um, as a negative thing, that I’m using my energy in a negative way and so until I can just accept that this has happened and forgive them, I might not like them, I might not want to have any contact with them or anything but…it means that you can move on….” (Rebekah non-traditional)

Freedom from perpetrators “I think it [forgiveness] is really vital because how can you have freedom? Um, I often say to clients, it’s a bit like the puppet on the string, you know, and if the perpetrator walked in this room he would play you, he would have your emotions in chaos because, you know, you haven’t cut those strings and I think cutting those strings is like forgiveness… and if they can forgive they can experience life for themselves” (Holly non-traditional)

Volition “…someone who’s understood the concept of forgiveness will understand that they are willing to forgive; all he has to do is come and ask um, and I would be willing to forgive. Whether I felt like I’ve forgiven him or not, that’s got nothing to do with it. Um, the feeling world really is not going to change instantly because he’s asking for forgiveness and you’ve given it to him.” (Dinah)

Identity “[forgiveness is] a reaching for hope that ah, the act or acts doesn’t have to be the thing that defines them for all eternity and the struggle with forgiving is more a struggle with hope.” (John non-traditional) (Emphasis mine)

Forgiveness is a process “I’ll say at the end of the process [of forgiveness] and the process means restoring equality between the victim and the perpetrator, which generally means that the perpetrator has to be punished or undergo some form of contrition to, ah, restore the balance, because by the initial assault, the initial crime, the initial act, um, the perpetrator has basically said that ‘you are less than me’. Um, so that balance has to be restored um, to the victim to that, that um, there is justice” (Sophia traditional)

Forgiveness as abusive “So if they’re, if they’re hearing that from the very body, from the very group that has abused them, that they are to forgive, it puts the onus back on them, that the victim has to fix the problem by forgiving the other person.” (Dinah traditional)

“…I struggle with the whole forgiveness thing because I think the Church and abusers are so quick to jump onto the forgiveness…and um, without an understanding of how long this person’s suffered for. And, you know, it’s their, if it’s good for them, in their healing then great, but you can’t push it or force it. It, it almost needs to come from the [survivor] and not be requested.” (Ester non-traditional)

“I think the lack of understanding of forgiveness is, comes from a couple of different sources, ah, I think it mainly comes from ministers who they [survivors] go to and say “this is what happened to me” and the ministers say “well you need to forgive him”… Which is just an outrage and I would probably punch any minister in the nose that I heard saying that, because that’s a complete lack of understanding of forgiveness.” (Dinah traditional)

“…I said to him, you know, ‘what you did to me when I was little was wrong, you know, that, that was sexual abuse, you know, and you shouldn’t have done that to me’ and he said ‘oh, it’s all under the blood’. You know, I mean what the heck does that mean?” (Holly non-traditional)

Conclusion Power Identity Empowerment and liberation of victim/survivors