And in the latter case she's been hurt by the church. The church has to deal with her as a person who is hurting. Tammen says congregations are better at handling abuse cases than they were in the past because sexual harassment and misconduct information is part of most companies' employee training and churchgoers are somewhat familiar with the problem. Not very long ago presbyteries and congregations could not imagine that a minister could go astray. In most presbyteries sexual misconduct policies are modeled on an Assembly-level paper approved by the 1993 General Assembly.
Confidentiality is stressed for both the accuser and the accused.
A session may not know that its pastor is under investigation unless the evidence leads to a disciplinary action. Typically only a few people on the pastoral team designed to care for those involved in the case, including the families of victims and pastors, know the name of the accuser, even if the pastor is publicly disciplined. So a victim may or may not identify herself in a congregation. If the word gets around in a small town, there may be social stigmatization as well. Carolyn had grown up and left her church.