Anonymous Pastoral Care for Problems Pertaining to Sexuality
- A. van Drie,
- R. R. Ganzevoort,
- M. Spiering
- … show all 3 hide
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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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- Title
- Anonymous Pastoral Care for Problems Pertaining to Sexuality
- Journal
-
Journal of Religion and Health
Volume 53, Issue 6 , pp 1634-1652
- Cover Date
- 2014-12-01
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10943-013-9746-6
- Print ISSN
- 0022-4197
- Online ISSN
- 1573-6571
- Publisher
- Springer US
- Additional Links
- Topics
- Keywords
-
- Pastoral care
- Religion
- Sexuality
- Sexual health
- Spiritual health
- Authors
-
- A. van Drie (1)
-
R. R. Ganzevoort
(1)
(2)
- M. Spiering (3)
- Author Affiliations
-
- 1. Faculty of Theology, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2. University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
- 3. Department of Clinical Psychology/Sexology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands