Clergy misconduct is not a new problem. It is, however, something that we have started to discuss more openly.

Val Hiebert is a program coordinator for abuse response and prevention with Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba. She is also a professor at the University of Manitoba.

She says one way we can help prevent clergy sexual misconduct before it even starts is to discuss healthy sexuality within the church.

"Two things are going on at the same time. I call it culture math," Val explains. " We have a purity culture, which is very focused on, don't have sex, and in the process, teaches you nothing about healthy sexual development or what healthy sexuality is versus unhealthy sexuality. And then we have the porn culture, which is much broader than the church, but the rates we're seeing are quite high inside the Christian population."

Valerie says there is virtually no difference between the rates of porn consumption in society and people inside the church.  

"About 50 percent of pastors talk about struggling with porn, and a number of them are addicted," said Val." That leads to complete silence inside the church about discussing healthy sexuality."

Val says this can eventually lead to clergy sexual misconduct. 

"We have our leaders steeped in purity culture and struggling with porn. And all of our non-partnered folk, who are not inside marriages, but also inside marriages, rates are showing that about 55 percent of married Christian men watch porn monthly and some weekly and many of them report doing it at work."

To move forward, Val says one of the most important things we need to do is to start the discussion and to be comfortable talking about these things. 

"We need to raise a much healthier generation with better tools and the capacity to talk."

Today on Connections, Valerie talks about the importance of healthy sexuality in the church and how a simple discussion can prevent trauma later on down the road.