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If you experience or witness discrimination, harassment or abuse in your church or another United Methodist agency or workplace, please confront it.
- If you are a member or visitor at United Methodist congregation, tell your pastor or the Staff-Parish Relations chairperson*;
- If you’re a pastor or candidate for ministry, tell your district superintendent or bishop*;
- OR, for confidential support, contact us.
*For more information, please refer to Definitions in this website.
Examples of Gender / Sexual Discrimination
- If you are asked in a job interview if being the mother of small children will interfere with your work (as if you haven’t already thought it through).
- Hyper-focusing on an employee/leader’s dress and appearance based on gender (i.e., a church that insists that a woman pastor wears dresses in the pulpit, so that she appears more “feminine”).
- Assuming that all women (or men) are not to be trusted ("We had a woman finance chair and she messed up the books, so we can’t have a woman in that position.”) Would we ever hear, "We had a bad pastor who was a man so we do not want another male pastor!"?
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Examples of Sexual Harassment
- A boss tells an employee, “Date me, or I’ll fire you,” or “Sleep with me and I promise you a promotion."
- Grabbing a person’s breast or buttocks against his/her will, or sending them unwanted pornography via office email, even as a “joke".
- A pastor favors parishioners and volunteers who flirt with her or whom she dates, while ignoring or showing hostility to those who refuse her advances.
- A group of seminary students circulate photos of a seminary student in a sexually suggestive position, via campus email.
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Examples of Sexual Abuse
- Seminary dean has a sexual relationship with a student in the school over which he presides.
- District superintendent tried to kiss and fondle a pastor he supervises.
- Twenty-five-year-old pastor meets a 17-year-old church member for counseling and soon is petting and kissing him.
- Sunday school teacher sexually fondles children in his class.
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