Who Owns a Pastor’s Body?

The Roots of Inappropriate Comments and Congregational Entitlement

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Clergy have long been expected to be paragons of piety and purity. As public religious figures, we’re assumed to represent the moral ideal — an example for others to follow — and as a result, we become archetypes rather than human beings. We are measured up against an image of what a perfect Christian pastor should look like.

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An image of the November 2026 issue of Sojourners, titled "Face to Face." It features George Lakey on the cover
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