A Further Discussion with Marie Fortune

Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune responds to further questions from Christian Feminism Today editor Letha Dawson Scanzoni

Editor’s Note: This article is part of the six-part discussion of childhood sexual abuse from the Fall, 2008 issue of Christian Feminism Today, which began with an article about Margaret Meier’s cantata on healing from childhood sexual abuse.

Scanzoni:  You have worked with sexual offenders, including clergy and others in positions of authority, as well as with victims of abuse.  What do we need to know about these offenders? 

Fortune:  They are complicated.  But the bottom line is that they are persons who either desire or do not hesitate to take advantage of those who are vulnerable in order to exercise control and meet their own needs.  They may be manipulative or violent, crude or subtle—but most often are persons known to the victim, having developed a trusting relationship of some kind that gives them access.  Then they take advantage of this trust and betray it.

Scanzoni:  Usually, we think of sexual offenders as being male. Have you dealt with any incest or other sexually abusive situations where the abusers were female?

Fortune: Yes, a few.  It is statistically less common, but nonetheless, there are female offenders.  With teachers or coaches, it seems to be a matter of using their power position to take advantage of teenage students.  With clergywomen, the situation usually arises with those who have poor boundaries and wander into inappropriate relationships they regard as “mutual,” again disregarding the power differential.

The issues are the same; the harm is the same.

Scanzoni:  In your May 31, 2007 blog post titled, “Don’t forgive us so quickly,” you told of a time when you were called to help with a court-ordered treatment program for 27 incest offenders, most of whom were Christians.  They told you, “Whenever you talk with church people, tell them not to forgive us so quickly.”  You warned Christian congregations to steer clear of cheap grace and also stressed the importance of being part of the “management” of sexual offenders who are released into the community.  Could you elaborate on the points you made in that post?

Fortune: “Forgiveness” is the immediate default response of most Christian congregations when it is disclosed that one among them has offended against someone.  And it is supposedly biblical.

In fact, Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness builds on his understanding of Judaism and ethics which expects repentance from an offender who has caused harm to another.  In Luke 17:1-4, Jesus is clear that repentance is a prerequisite for forgiveness.

Then forgiveness is never about “forgive and forget” for the victim/survivor.  In the midst of justice and healing (see below), the survivor is freed to forgive, to put her/his memories on the shelf for future reference, but then to move on with their lives.

Scanzoni: Much of your work involves training religious leaders and congregations on awareness of domestic and sexual violence and how to recognize and deal with it as persons of faith.  What are some specific religious aspects of the problem that need to be addressed?

Fortune:  The fundamental issue for faith leaders and congregations is to understand that religious texts and teachings will be either a roadblock or a resource that leads to healing for victims and accountability and repentance for perpetrators.

So our task is to preach and teach a message that brings to the fore the resources of our faith in naming the sin, supporting the victim/survivor, and confronting the perpetrator.

Scanzoni:   You have written much about clergy ethics and the importance of establishing and maintaining boundaries in relation to parishioners.  Could you tell us more about that?

Fortune:   Healthy boundaries are what free the pastor to be of help to the parishioner and to protect the vulnerability of the parishioner in the process.   This is based on an understanding that the parishioner by definition has less power than the faith leader because of the difference in role.  This acknowledgement of the difference in role is never license for the faith leader to dominate or exploit the parishioner but rather a recognition that they are not peers and that the pastoral relationship, in order to have integrity, requires healthy boundaries— especially in regard to sexuality and intimacy.

At FaithTrust Institute, we keep both justice and healing uppermost in mind. We teach that there are seven aspects of the process that most victim/survivors experience that can support their healing.  These are experiences of justice.

The process involves:

A victim’s chance to tell the story: to name the sin and share their experience.

Someone to “hear” the story:  to believe and acknowledge the harm done and the fact that the victim is not to blame.

A compassionate response to the victim:  i.e. to “suffer with,” to walk with the person rather than try to “problem solve” immediately.

An effort to protect the vulnerable from further harm:  not only the victim, but others as well who may be at risk from this perpetrator.  (This is often a high priority for survivors.)

Accountability for the perpetrator:  the community confronts and calls this person to repent.

Restitution:  some mechanism to insure that a survivor is compensated, if possible, for the material loss she/he may have experienced as a result of victimization.

Vindication:  just as the widow in Luke 18:1-8 receives vindication from the unjust judge, the survivor deserves to be vindicated which literally means “to be set free” from the burden of this experience.

This is what can happen when any of these experiences of justice are made possible for the community around the survivor.  This is our work.

So what I like about the cantata is that the author describes her experience of justice—including writing and performing the cantata so that she comes to a place at the end where she can affirm that “joy comes in the morning.”  But not without effort on her part and the part of the community she lives in. 

Editor’s note: In addition to her comments here, Rev. Dr. Fortune was one of the religious and mental health authorities who took part in a panel discussing the cantata on childhood sexual abuse. You can read those comments here.

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Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune is the founder and senior analyst at the FaithTrust Institute in Seattle, Washington (formerly known as The Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence), an international, multifaith training and educational organization. She is a graduate of Yale Divinity School, a minister in the United Church of Christ, an educator, ethicist, theologian, and author of many books on sexual ethics, sexual and domestic violence, and abuse by religious leaders. She has served on task forces on violence against women and domestic violence for the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of Defense. She is also editor of the Journal of Religion and Abuse.

© 2008 Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus