A Winona, MN pastor has been placed on leave after being charged with 10 counts of 3rd & 4th degree sexual misconduct. The pastor denies the charges and says the accuser is a troubled woman. Star Tribune story.
The pastor must be guilty. Anytime a clergy is accused on such a crime, it's automatically assumed.
Now, whether or not he really is, I don't know. But I am concerned that in cases of clergy misconduct, a person is guilty until proven innocent. The fact is that pastors deal with troubled people all the time. That's why it's especially important that pastors protect themselves against such accusations.
Assuming he is innocent, it still seems pretty obvious that this pastor knew this woman had problems, thus extra caution should have been taken. If it had, he might not find himself in the position that he's in.
On the other hand, if he is in fact guilty, he should be permanently removed from his position and have is ordination papers taken from him. We had a case here in Iowa about 10 years ago that was similar in nature. The pastor had sexual relations with a parishioner he was counseling and was put on involuntary leave and after a couple of years, the Bd. of Ordained Ministry recommended that his ordination be forfeited. However, being a good liberal, his friends came to his aid and had him reinstated at the clergy meeting at Annual Conference. The percussions of that action are still reverberating throughout the Iowa AC.
If the accusations against this MN pastor are true, the local church, the Minnesota Conference and all United Methodists will suffer. We talk regularly about connectionalism. Our connection impacts us in both positive and unfortunately, sometimes negative ways.
HT: John the Methodist on Methoblog
Speaking about our connection, I see us as more unconnected these days than ever with the exception of three areas. We are connected through apportionments, iteneracy and how we are seen in negative lights by the the public.
This is one of the things that gets people's attentions. And it's just another way of seeing our Denomination as bad. This is because when people read about this incident, many will automatically get a bad taste for us Methodists. I mean, ain't all Episcopalians liberal and believe in homosexuality? NO. But I wonder how many people believe this?
As for the allegations, I was told in a meeting that we had to have on ethics because of the rampant run of unethical behavior a couple years back that about half of the accusations against clergy are true.
Of course that means that half are not, which means that half of these pastor's ministry's have been altered for no reason at all. For as long as a pastor has been accused, there will always be doubt about him/her...even when they are supposedly proved innocent.
It scares me to death what one mad and unbalanced person can do to my ministry.
I think I've gone on long enough. I'll shut up now. Thanks for the post.
In the love of Christ,
greg
Posted by: Greg Hazelrig | February 03, 2007 at 09:18 AM