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	An Evolution of Clergy Sexual Abuse Responses Healing and Spirituality December 14, 2009 http://jjromo.wordpress.com/ At the Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference in Anaheim last week, I listened to experts discuss the interrelatedness between traditional western psychotherapeutic approaches and spirituality and more holistic approaches to healing. There were valuable presentations to help therapists improve their healing practices, including examinations of archetypes and myths, experiential sessions to promote mindfulness and discussions about the relationship between the internal or spiritual dialogue becoming more focused on the eternal or what is beyond our physical experience or past in order to actually change the way the brain works, which may have been damaged by trauma. One thing that I was surprised to witness was a poll among a crowd of more than a thousand mental health professionals to determine how many had taken a course or formally studied the meaning of 'mind.' Approximately 90- 95% raised their hands that they had never studied 'the mind'. In this established field of healing, there is a growing recognition that past ways of learning and working are no longer adequate. What's needed is a way to change the ways the brain works. Real change, not just how we talk about a problem. Earlier that same week, I listened to a discussion on the History Channel about a point in our planetary evolution millions of years ago. That was a time where there was, arguably, no oxygen in the atmosphere, and consequently life as we know it could not exist. A geologist showed how small bacteria in a pond were generating oxygen, just as they had begun to do millions of years ago. But when this particular process began to generate oxygen from under the water and release it into the atmosphere, then everything began to change. This was a turning point in the evolution of our planet. This was something that could not be reversed, once it was introduced into the environment. (Just yesterday, I read in a book by Dr. Andrew Weil that he recommends "Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World," by Nick Lane.) I see a parallel with the many class action or individual law suits and efforts to expose clergy sexual abuse and subsequent institutional cover ups. I believe the general denial surrounding religious authority sexual abuse is the toxic atmosphere that creates victims and perpetuates abuse. On the other hand, I see victims and others exposing clergy sexual abuse as breaking down what is toxic to humanity. Denial is a low level intellectual response to things that go against a person's beliefs. For example, there are those who deny global warming in the face of substantial and dramatic evidence formal research, by dismissing it as a "theory." In church circles, some responses to clergy abuse may sound like, "She has always been sexy.' She seduced him." Or "We were fine till attorneys came into the picture, SNAP got involved, the psychologist gave bad advice, etc.." As Abuse Tracker and others report ongoing religious authority sexual abuse and cover up, the hope may be in people beginning to let go of old beliefs and ways of working. Some people like the past two interviewees have believed what they have seen and not seen what they believed. For me, it is clear that there is no going back to a time of "not knowing" that abuse has happened and has been covered up to protect abusers or the institutional church. I recently received a note about the return of the Latin mass. The article by Kenneth Wolfe reads, "40 years of the new Mass have brought chaos and banality into the most visible and outward sign of the church. Benedict XVI wants a return to order and meaning. So, it seems, does the next generation of Catholics." I imagine that there is some meaning and richness about that particular tradition. I also imagine that there is a fantasy for some that if we go back to what was familiar, even if we did not understand it, that somehow things will go back to normal, even if what was normal concealed abuse. Abuse and forms of its denial also apply to Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims. Call it change, transformation, deep learning, growing up or evolution. When we understand the letters, words and contexts around the words, we do not unlearn our ability to read. Likewise, when a person experiences metanoia, a change of heart, it is as though she is now able to respond in solidarity, albeit a critical solidarity, with the victim and victimizer. We cannot retreat, with integrity, to our simple and perhaps more comfortable state of denial or either-or thinking. I imagine that survivors and allies who speak up and make abuse known and demand accountability from church leaders and their cheerleaders are like those revolutionary, evolutionary agents bringing oxygen to the religious world. When allies say, 'She would not lie about something like this,' and express anger and other negative feelings toward perpetrator and not the victims, we will all be able to breathe more freely and practice with more integrity and wholeness.
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