Sins of the Body

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The pastoral struggle with sexual temptation is real—and undeniably powerful. Yet there is good news. Sexual temptation can be reduced by paying attention to three crucial areas.

Professional counseling ethics are designed to help control feelings of sexual attraction that can enter any therapeutic relationship. These counseling dangers—usually centered around the psychological phenomenon called transference—are compounded for the minister. Counselees see ministers as not only counselors, but as spiritual guides who can safely avoid the danger of friendship turning into passion. Such is not always the case.

In Chapter 5, "Transference: Loosening the Tie That Blinds," Archibald Hart warns ministers of the dangers of transference. As dean of Fuller Theological Seminary's School of Psychology in Pasadena, California, Hart has helped hundreds of divinity students and working pastors confront this knotty problem.

Understanding your personal psyche is absolutely crucial to controlling sexual temptations. Ministers are not cold theologians with all the answers. On the contrary, they are usually warm people who care deeply about the hurts of church members. That's not all. Church members usually exaggerate, in their own minds, the warmth of the pastor. Pastors are trained to say warm, caring things. The gospel message is a love story. Pastors good at telling this story are, well, sexy. They make inviting sexual targets.

Louis McBurney has a retreat center in the Colorado Rockies for pastoral couples with marriages in crisis. Many of these crises are sexually related. In Chapter 6, "Avoiding the Scarlet Letter," McBurney talks about the factors that make ministers susceptible—and what they can do to guard against it.

Finally, facts of ...

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