Holy 'malpractice'?
A New York man is seeking $5 million in damages (registration required) from his pastor, his church, and the denomination, saying that the pastor had a four-year affair with his wife.
The man says the pastor, who baptized his children and was his and his wife's marriage counselor, used information from counseling sessions to seduce his wife. The man also says the pastor failed to adhere to the "standard of care for a clergyman" and in doing so caused him emotional distress.
His lawsuit further states that the church knew accusations that the preacher "had exploited his position at (the church) to prey on women to whom he was providing spiritual and marital counseling."
I'm thinking he has a good malpractice case. I'm also wondering why, if the accusations are correct, that other church leaders, who credited the preacher with increasing membership, did nothing. Is it that we make spiritual leaders deities in their own right?
Comments (2)
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See, this is one of the reasons I think I might would enjoy being a lawyer. I don't know what sort of "standard of care" exists so far as the government would have anything to do with. Maybe there's a common-law way of dealing with this, but to have the courts come in and rule on pastoral care issues... that would start a fun row.
Now, if the pastor was acting as a state-licensed marriage counselor, I'm sure that's another kettle of fish completely.
Posted on November 1, 2005 12:05 PM
This is one of the massive, unspoken scandals of the Christian church-- far more common than we would like to admit.
In North Carolina, we have the Alienation of Affections statute. It seems this should be applicable for instances that occur here.
Posted on November 1, 2005 2:51 PM