As a preacher’s kid married to a preacher’s kid, I’ve heard some horrific tales over the years about the treatment which some parishioners can dish out to their local clerics.
Forget all the schoolboy jokes that ‘yer da only works one day a week!’ And ‘Sure, you all live in a grand free house!’ Nothing could be further from the truth.
However, if that north east Ulster Bible Belt was taken as a benchmark, especially in the Seventies, many inbred Rednecks took the view that simply because they gave a few quid to the offering on Sundays, they owned the cleric and when they shouted ‘jump’, the cleric must respond with ‘how high?’
Just because becoming a cleric is seen as a calling or vocation from God, that must not mean the clergy should be denied a trade union to represent their interests, especially when faced with a deliberate intimidation campaign from parishioners.
Last month just before the Stormont Executive was reformed after a two-year gap, Northern Ireland witnessed probably the largest walk-out by public sector workers in the history of the state. It is estimated some 170,000 workers took part.
Among all the banners and flags, I could not see one bearing the title - National Clergy Union. Maybe the time has come for clerics to form an independent trade union to represent their rights.
I personally have been a trade unionist since my teenage days; firstly with the National Union of Students/Union of Students in Ireland (NUS/USI); then the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), and also with the University and College Union (UCU). Put bluntly, I know at first hand the benefits of being in a trade union.
Many Christian denominations are complaining that not enough folk are coming forward to train as clerics. This trend cannot always be blamed on the growth of the so-called secular society and a more pluralist attitude among folk where participation in church life has a lot more distractions to compete with.
Granted, there are numerous clerics today who will maintain they are experiencing a spiritually, personally, and professionally rewarding ministry. That’s all very well … until they face the blazing row in the flock.
Some clerics take the view - such persecution comes with the job! But even Jesus Christ in the New Testament physically hounded the money changers out of the temple. So if it was good enough for our Lord to organise against his critics, then it should be good enough for clerics to form their own trade union.
I have often written about my own upbringing in the north east Ulster Bible Belt where there would be occasions when I was made an example off verbally and physically simply for being the preacher’s kid.
But what about the assholes who deliberately target our mums and dads? My late parents did what they could to protect me from these arseholes, but who protects our parents who are clerics? This is a question that numerous preachers’ kids have asked.
While the north east Ulster Bible Belt contained some of the most Godly, Christian souls I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, it also contained some of the most judgemental, vicious, gossiping scumbags Our Lord ever puked onto this earth. The latter seemed to take a real delight in making the lives of clerics as difficult as possible.
Even if the cleric was a ‘tough old boot,’ some of these inbred Rednecks would then target the spouses and children of the clergy - simply to make their points.
Some of the horror stories included:
- Waiting until the cleric was away at a family function, then sneaking up to the home and pinning a notice containing foul language on the front door - basically telling the cleric to get out of the place of worship.
- A person in the leadership of the church organising a stipend strike (not giving to the cleric’s salary) so that ‘we can starve them out!’
- Threatening a cleric that if they went to work in another church, they would go there to disrupt the cleric’s services.
- Targeting a male cleric’s wife to try and force her into having a nervous breakdown.
- Trying to get the denomination to bring in a rule that when a cleric left a place of worship, the cleric should not be allowed to build or buy property within the parish boundaries.
- Constantly ringing the cleric in the wee small hours to disrupt the cleric and the family’s sleep patterns. Many clerics would keep their phones beside the bed in case a parishioner took ill during the night; how is the cleric to know what is a fake call from a real one.
- Cleric’s family members being put on anti-depressants and tranquillisers by the GP because of the harassment campaign against the cleric.
- Spreading defamatory and malicious rumours about the cleric’s children.
Such examples resemble an intimidation campaign that any paramilitary group would have been proud to own.
If the list of actions above was directed at, for example, a public sector employee, there is no doubt that trade unions, solicitors and police would be involved.
Such an intimidation campaign would result in either an industrial tribunal, court action, or both. If public sector workers can have these rights in their place of work, why can’t clerics have the same legal protection in their place of worship?
Perhaps one of the reasons no such National Clergy Union has ever emerged is because of the fallout from the various clerical sex abuse scandals which have rocked many Christian denominations.
Unfortunately, the actions of these clerical abusers (convicted by the courts or not) have tarred the institution of the clergy with the one brush - that to become a cleric calls into question either your sexual orientation or sexual fantasies.
Too many clerics will not take their challenges to the police or the media, not primarily because they are forgiving like Christ as Jesus told Peter in St Matthew Chapter 18, but because they have no organisation to represent them.
The bottom line is simple. If the Christian denominations want to see a significant increase in folk wanting to embark on a clerical vocation, they will have to put in place measures and organisations which guarantee the rights and protection of clerics.
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Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online. |
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