L57 RelPol 395

Topics in Religion and Politics: The Abuse Crisis in Modern Christianity

Fall 2022, M/W 11:30–12:50PM

This course explores the sexual abuse crisis in North American Christianity, both as it has emerged in the media and as church leaders and laypeople have responded to it. We’ll pay particular attention to the power dynamics of abuse, the impact upon the Christian body writ large, and the relation between the crisis and U.S. politics.

WUCRSL

For over a quarter-century, journalists have broken story after story about sexually abusive clergy in the U.S., many of them serial abusers of children and adolescents. While most accounts have focused on Catholic priests, many have also emerged of abusive evangelical and other Protestant ministers. The stories have illuminated how church bureaucrats have consistently protected abusers and subverted the efforts of victims and their families to seek recompense, accountability, and justice. These protections have often succeeded because of churches’ political connections to law enforcement and legislators who have helped hide perpetrators and stymie survivors. Together we will analyze this cautionary tale about religion and politics by contextualizing it within the broader history of Christianity in the United States and beyond. Is this a case simply of a few bad apples or of institutional corruption? How has the church’s response been shaped by fear of scandal, antipathy toward secularism, and theological teachings on gender and homosexuality? How does sexual abuse fit into the history of the church as a hierarchical institution? What challenges has the crisis posed to people of faith who are committed to the church, and can trust be repaired? Readings include legal case studies, internal church criminal justice reports, documentary films and memoirs, and both correspondence, victims’ statements and journalistic and scholarly analysis of the clergy sex abuse crisis in the U.S. church.

Fall 2015: (Topics) Islam and Muslims in the United States taught by Dr. Maryam Kashani
Fall 2017: (Topics) Religious Celebrity taught by Dr. Dana Logan

  • The course gave me a deeper understanding of various religions, histories, and how they developed their respective followings overtime.

    — Fall 2017

  • The heavy discussion-based classes were amazing. I loved talking with other classmates instead of being lectured at.

    — Fall 2017