Many honorable, sincere, and humble clergypersons have contributed to their congregations’ vital spiritual growth. These clergy, in whatever denomination, have observed a common core of spiritual, moral, and ethical values shared by the major world religions. If followed by clergy and congregants alike, these values would ensure much more harmony on Earth.

Unfortunately, the revelations of abuse, both sexual and financial, in many denominations during the last few decades, have shattered the implicit trust that many congregants have in their leaders. While these deviant clergy may be a minority, the damage inflicted is, nevertheless, considerable. As a consequence churches become subject to dissension and division.

Some groups, including the Catholics’ Voice of the Faithful and the United Methodists’ safe sanctuary advocates, have raised serious concerns about the alarming frequency of such behavior. These endeavors are helpful but may tend to obscure the larger issue.

The larger issue derives from Lord Acton’s famous dictum that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Few people know, however, that Lord Acton was specifically criticizing the 19th century Catholic Church hierarchy, as noted by Catholic historian Garry Wills. Anson Shupe, a professor of sociology at Indiana University and Purdue University, cites this fact in his book “Spoils of the Kingdom.” Shupe also describes the work of Robert Michels, who using Acton’s statement, enunciated “the iron law of oligarchy.” Oligarchy literally means rule by a few. Michels realized that organizations very quickly became oligarchic with power concentrated in an elite group. Shupe finds that oligarchies develop routinely in religious institutions.

Almost all of the world’s major religions began as a revelation to a single person. Within a short period of time after the revelation came the seemingly inevitable process of institutionalization – the creation of positions and associated behaviors. Institutions have both benefits and burdens: They are stable, endure over time, and attempt to meet basic human needs. However, they are also hard to change since those people in charge tend to protect their accumulated power.

Building on Acton and Michels, Shupe develops a relevant corollary to Michels’ law. Shupe names it “the iron law of clergy elitism.” Clergy elitism develops both from the attitudes of clergy and parishioners. The adjectives egocentric and narcissistic can apply to those clergy members who put their personal gain and ego needs ahead of anyone else’s. Parishioners who need to be validated by a clergy person contribute to clergy elitism by abandoning their personal responsibility for spiritual growth and by investing psychologically in everything that the clergy person says to do or to believe even when such actions plainly violate core spiritual values. Thus the undiscerning person has a hard time detecting authenticity from aggrandizement.

In applying this iron law, Shupe describes how pastors from many different denominations have financially or sexually exploited congregants. Unfortunately, a common reaction is disbelief that the clergyperson would behave in such an immoral or unethical way. In fact, many congregants rush to excuse the clergyperson. They call for forgiveness, but as several writers note, true repentance needs to come from the perpetrator. In addition, congregants often blame the victim for “outing” the clergyperson.

Recently, Dr. Diana Garland, dean of the Baylor University School of Social Work, received a $200,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to study clergy sexual abuse of adults. In a press release Garland states, “This project intends to shed light on the problem of spiritual leaders who abuse their power with adults and how that abuse can be prevented. The goal is to strengthen congregations with protective policies and structures that take human vulnerabilities seriously …”

And in the same press release: “Because of the spiritual power of the clergy role, this form of abuse has the potential for even greater devastation of victims and communities than abuse of power in employment or educational settings,” writes Marie Fortune of Faith Trust Institute and an expert in the field of clergy sexual abuse. Clinical reports indicate high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, other anxiety disorders, depression, physical illness and suicide.” The spiritual power of the clergy is a potent indicator that seminaries bear responsibility for graduating honorable and mentally stable students.

There are indeed many resources to aid our developing consciousnesses as we seek to become more spiritually discerning. Sacred texts and other writings in all religions exist to strengthen personal efficacy. To paraphrase Abd-ru-shin, author of “In the Light of Truth,” we should not be “believers out of habit.” Our habits must be informed by conscious awareness, as Macrina Wiederkehr writes in “Seven Sacred Pauses.”

Can we then, as individuals, develop a new religious consciousness to help us deal with abusive situations? If we humans reflect (see, for example, Ken Wilber’s “Up from Eden”) on the long growth of human awareness – from the magically infused matriarchies of prehistory through the tribal stages of group membership to the power issues of patriarchies – we might see that we stand at the threshold of an era where we have the ability and freedom to discern core spiritual values and by so doing also discern when a person is trying to gain sexual or financial control over us.

Susan F. Greenwood of Orono is a retired adjunct lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Maine.