Sex, Power, Control: Responding to Abuse in the Institutional Church

Fiona Gardner

Feb 2021 · Lutterworth Press

About this eBook

Given their rhetoric on safeguarding, the response of religious organisations to abuse by the clergy - sexual, physical and spiritual - has been inept, thoughtless, mean, and without any sense of urgency. Sex, Power, Control explores the underlying reasons for the mishandling of recent abuse cases. Using psychoanalytical and sociological insights, and including her own experiences as shown in the BBC documentary Exposed: The Church's Darkest Secret, Gardner asks why the Churches find themselves in such a crisis, and how issues of power and control have contributed to secrecy, deception and heartache. Drawing on survivor accounts and delving into the psychology of clergy abusers, she reveals a culture of avoidance and denial, while an examination of power dynamics highlights institutional narcissism and a hierarchical structure based on deference, with defensive assumptions linked to sex, gender and class. Sex, Power, Control is an invaluable resource for all those in the church or similar institutions, and for anyone concerned about child abuse.

About the author

Fiona Gardner was a social worker and psychoanalytic psychotherapist who from 2004-2010 worked as safeguarding advisor for the Church of England. She is currently a spiritual director and writer. She is the author of Taking Heart (2020) The Only Mind Worth Having (2015), Precious Thoughts (2011), The Four Steps of Love (2007) and Journeying Home (2004) as well as psychoanalytic books and articles.