At the end of the previous chapter, we compared the motives, opportunities, and methods of sexually predatory Catholic clergy and their Church of England and Church of Scotland counterparts. This chapter presents examples of transgressors from the more independent wing of reformed Christianity. Many are drawn from the US, where the popularity of religion offers greater opportunity for individual preachers to be rich and famous than can be found in most European countries and where the politicisation of value conflicts makes blatant hypocrisy more likely. In the US, mega-church pastors and televangelists figure frequently on the list of delinquents. The US also adds a new element to the backcloth to sexual abuse. Since the late 1970s, conservative Republicans have used socio-moral issues such as homosexuality and abortion to mobilise the money and votes of conservative Christians. As we will see, the ‘culture wars’ have brought prominence to conservative preachers, many of whom turned out to be enthusiastic practitioners of the sins they weekly and strongly denounce from their pulpits. The chapter compares and contrasts multiple cases which range from the early evangelists, such as Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, through the Hillsong, the Australian evangelical megachurch, to individual Protestant leaders who sexually abused adults and children in their congregations.

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Protestant Pastors

  • Marta Trzebiatowska,
  • Steve Bruce

摘要

At the end of the previous chapter, we compared the motives, opportunities, and methods of sexually predatory Catholic clergy and their Church of England and Church of Scotland counterparts. This chapter presents examples of transgressors from the more independent wing of reformed Christianity. Many are drawn from the US, where the popularity of religion offers greater opportunity for individual preachers to be rich and famous than can be found in most European countries and where the politicisation of value conflicts makes blatant hypocrisy more likely. In the US, mega-church pastors and televangelists figure frequently on the list of delinquents. The US also adds a new element to the backcloth to sexual abuse. Since the late 1970s, conservative Republicans have used socio-moral issues such as homosexuality and abortion to mobilise the money and votes of conservative Christians. As we will see, the ‘culture wars’ have brought prominence to conservative preachers, many of whom turned out to be enthusiastic practitioners of the sins they weekly and strongly denounce from their pulpits. The chapter compares and contrasts multiple cases which range from the early evangelists, such as Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, through the Hillsong, the Australian evangelical megachurch, to individual Protestant leaders who sexually abused adults and children in their congregations.