Shupe, Anson, In the Name of All That's Holy: A Theory of Clergy Malfeasance, Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1995, 192 pp, $52.95.
This very readable book is a scholarly work by a fair-minded sociologist who has a masterful command of theories relevant to deviant behavior. The author defines clergy malfeasance as "the exploitation and abuse of a religious group's believers by the elites of that religion in whom the former trust" (p 15). This includes financial and psychic exploitation as well as sexual abuse. He seeks to explain the social structural conditions under which this takes place. His focus is not on why some members of the clergy abuse their power but on what organizational patterns enable them to do so and to do so repeatedly.
In the 1980s the exploitation by televangelists and in the early 1990s sexual abuse by the clergy received much attention from the media, which tended to emphasize the sensational aspects. Now, social scientists are more dispassionately studying the predatory, corrupt and exploitative segment of the clergy. One conclusion is that "all existing evidence shows that no religious tradition, denomination, or sect has a monopoly on the victimization of earnest believers by religious leaders" (p 6). Clergy malfeasance occurs in small-group congregations as well as in hierarchical long-established Churches, and in Asiatic charismatic groups as well as in Western sects and cults.
Professor Shupe gives many brief examples to illustrate the applicability of various models for conceptualizing deviant behavior. He wants to move beyond the descriptive, journalistic treatment. Clergy malfeasance has not been included in sociological textbooks and articles on elite deviance, such as white-collar crime, but it can usefully be viewed within that framework. The author's "goal in this study is to treat incidences of clergy malfeasance as embedded in a knowable web of interrelated events that are not as individualist as they must seem to the victims who first experienced them" (p 23). He studies the structure of the relationships which systematically provide opportunities and rationales for exploitation and make it likely to occur. Shupe writes as a sociologist, not a psychologist, and so pays little attention to the personality of an abusive clergyperson.
The author devotes about 80 pages to the structural contexts and organizational responses regarding perpetration. The various types and sub-types of organizations have differing effects. "Probably the most important indirect facilitating condition is an ecclesiastical tradition that not only makes clear distinctions between clergy and laity but also encourages the laity to view clerics as set aside from rank-and-file followers with special virtues, powers, and wisdom" (pp 49-50). This makes the flock more vulnerable to exploitation and inhibits public accusations. The richness of these pages cannot be summarized in brief form here. They are filled with examples as well as generalizations that illuminate the organizational processes at work facilitating malfeasance and the neutralizing of complaints.
In a seventeen-page chapter the author examines the transformation of victimization into empowerment of victims, the process of becoming proactive rather than simply reactive and self-pitying. The mobilization of victims, difficult in all cases, is especially difficult in regard to clergy malfeasance because of the aura surrounding clergy and the neutralization tactics used by church officials. In the early 1990s some grass-roots groups were formed "by victims or advocates who were discontented with a lack of meaningful hierarchical response but who were untutored in organizing social movements.... Their road to mobilizing has not been easy" (p 127). He pays great tribute to Jeanne Miller and The Linkup. Differences in mobilization efforts and consequences among types of church organizations are pointed out by the author. Throughout the book he formulates hypotheses about the functioning of Churches in regard to deviant behavior and examines carefully their merits and validity.
This valuable book is a solid and informed sociological contribution to the literature for understanding how structures intended to strengthen religious institutions, in fact, make them vulnerable. Unfortunately, the outrageous price puts this careful work out of the convenient reach of many who are or should be interested in learning from it!
The book is slim. The last 30 pages consist of references and index. The text of the book ends on page 146 with some thoughtful comments worth quoting here:
"Ideally, other hypotheses will be formulated explaining why churches and other religious groups adopt internal reforms; how victims and organizations deal with elite scandals; and how we can turn clergy malfeasance into a constructive process of lay education, improved professional socialization, and organizational growth. Hopefully, it will occur in more proactive, less defensive organizations. But churches and denominations are unequal hierarchies of power that provide the context for all the malfeasance. That's our given. Thus, are we not going to need some internal realignments of power?"
That final question deserves serious reflection by all who are active in church organizations in whatever capacity of leadership in the formation of safe communities of faith. This is particularly challenging to those traditions that see the hierarchical structure as an essential expression of their beliefs.
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