Clergy Sexual Misconduct and Competitive Sensegiving Frames: Loyalist, Rebel, Rationalist and Processor

ABSTRACT

Generally, writings about clergy sexual misconduct of adults tend to focus on a victim-abuser model, theorizing the causes and/or consequences or solutions to such abuse. With the exception of some analysis about the growth of Voice of the Faithful inside the Catholic Church (see), few researchers have focused theoretically on how members of religious groups make sense of and respond to accusations of clergy sexual misconduct against adults. In this paper, we apply the sensegiving paradigm to understand how, during crisis when leaders are absent, members compete to assert cognitive frames that attribute meaning to accusations of clergy sexual misconduct of adults. Our study analyzes a Facebook conversation with over 600 posts from over 100 participants that took place after the foremost leader of an international, Buddhist organization wrote an ambiguous letter of apology regarding clergy sexual misconduct against women members. Treating the conversation as a social discourse, we find that participants generated four conflicting frames. We refer to these frames as Loyalist, Rebel, Rationalist and Processor and distinguish among them by their respective claims regarding how the organization should respond to allegations of sexual misconduct. We find that these frames are conditioned upon the view of the validity of the allegations and the perception of the preexisting power inequalities in the organization. Further, we find that expressions of the different frames in the discourse relate to the gender identity of the participant and vary in their emotional tones.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Linda Markowitz

Linda Markowitz is a professor of sociology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her research focuses on social justice issues with an emphasis on gender and race. Recent publications include work in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education and the Journal of Gender Studies.

Mark Hedley

Mark Hedley received a PhD in sociology from the University of Arizona and currently serves as an associate professor of sociology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. His current research interests include gender, sexualities, and discursive power in postmodern contexts.

Laurel Puchner

Laurel Puchner is a professor of educational psychology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her research focuses on gender and education, race, and teacher education for social justice. Recent publications include works in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education and the Journal of Media Literacy Education.