“Almost 40% polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.”

-Bill Mills & Craig Parro. Finishing Well In Life & Ministry. Leadership Resources International, 2008, pp 14.

This statistic about pastors or ministry leaders is from 2002 and was put out by Bill Bright, Campus Crusade’s founder. So, the data is a little dated, but it is still very shocking.

Roughly, two out of five pastors are Cheaters!

To me, this helps explain the push back over the message of this ministry–namely, “Taking adultery seriously.” If you are a pastor, you either are a Cheater, or you likely know a Cheater who is a colleague.

Now, some pastors will push back on such sinful behavior while others will push back on anyone insisting such sin is taken seriously!

It is human nature. Some people do not want to have to deal with the disruption that cheating causes. So, they put it upon the victim to remain silent and not “rock the boat.”

Affairs or Clergy Sexual Abuse?

Another thing that this statistic makes we wonder is how many of these alleged “affairs” are really instances of clergy sexual abuse where pastors exploited their spiritual authority to sleep with a congregant or staff member under their authority. Clergy Sexual Abuse wasn’t really something on the forefront of people’s minds in 2002 as it is today.

I never would have guessed this percentage was so high–regardless of what illicit sexual activity it denotes. It is a sad commentary on how sick our church is. Plus, it makes it all that much more important that we take adultery seriously in our faith communities!