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Anonymous Pastoral Care for Problems Pertaining to Sexuality

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Abstract

Anonymous pastoral care is one of the options for help in problems pertaining to sexuality. This paper explores the topics they seek help for, the religious aspects involved, and the relation between the normativity of their church tradition on the one hand and sexual and spiritual health criteria on the other. We analyzed helpseeking questions of two protestant Christian organizations in the Netherlands providing anonymous pastoral care: Refoweb and EO-Nazorg. Sexual themes were addressed in 19 and 2.3 % of the submitted questions, respectively. Of the helpseekers, 56 % is female, 15 % male, and 29 % unknown. Questions and problems for which people seek anonymous pastoral care focus primarily on premarital abstinence, gender roles, contraception, sexual orientation and masturbation. The authority of the Bible seems to be important for questioners, especially when dealing with ethical questions. Different relations between the normativity of the church tradition and sexual and spiritual health are discussed.

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Notes

  1. The Executive Board of the WHO reviewed in 1998, among others, the amended text proposed for the Preamble section of the Constitution. The Executive Board adopted a resolution EB101.R2, which included the amendment of the first paragraph of the Preamble, with the text—‘Health is a dynamic state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity’. The underlined words denote the proposed amended text. During the World Health Assembly, in 1999, Committee B agreed not to consider the proposed amended text part of the Preamble, and decided to keep the matter under constant review (Sein 2002).

  2. This number refers to a question and answer from Refoweb. All questions from Refoweb have a unique number. Questions and answers may be consulted by adding this number in the following URL: http://refoweb.nl/vragenrubriek/vraagnummer/. For question number 15279 this will be: http://refoweb.nl/vragenrubriek/15279. These unique numbers wil be used for quotations from questions and answers from Refoweb.

  3. In the EO-Nazorg registration system, male is the standard gender, which may lead to overrepresentation of males. We don’t expect this to affect the outcomes.

  4. Also in the categories like sexuality of the elderly and offenders of sexual violence are relatively many questioners male. Given the small number of questions, respectively four and one, they are not explicitly mentioned in the text.

  5. The questioner quotes 1 Corinthians 7: 8–9. The apostle Paul writes in those verses: ‘Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.’ (Bible, New International Version, 1984).

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank EO-Nazorg and Refoweb for their participation in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Theology, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    A. van Drie & R. R. Ganzevoort

  2. University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    R. R. Ganzevoort

  3. Department of Clinical Psychology/Sexology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    M. Spiering

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  1. A. van Drie
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  2. R. R. Ganzevoort
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  3. M. Spiering
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Correspondence to R. R. Ganzevoort.

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van Drie, A., Ganzevoort, R.R. & Spiering, M. Anonymous Pastoral Care for Problems Pertaining to Sexuality. J Relig Health 53, 1634–1652 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9746-6

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