A Lutheran minister from Minneapolis, USA, the Rev. Tom Brock, who regularly appears on a local cable TV show to publicise his conservative views on homosexuality has been placed on leave by his church after a gay magazine reported on his attendance of a support group for people struggling with same-sex attractions.
Lavender Magazine got wind of his attendance of the group and placed a reporter under cover who falsely posed as a member of the group. According to the article Brock never actually confessed to actual homosexual activity but regularly spoke about struggling with temptation.
A colleague of Brock’s, the Rev. Tom Parrish said when questioned about the article that Brock had told him that he had been attending this group so that he could be honest about his temptations and also be held accountable to them. Parrish said that Brock had been very open with him and other staff members about his temptations for years.
"What they've done is unconscionable," Parrish said of Lavender's covert infiltration of Brock’s support group.
The Lavender reporter who infiltrated the group had to first undergo an interview with its administrator, the Rev James Livingston. Livingston said that the reporter attended the group for over two months before writing his article and expressed shock at his deceit.
"I think anybody who appreciates confidential support groups would just be aghast at what they did," Livingston said. "It's one thing to be opposed politically to someone; it's another thing to worm your way into a group like that and expose the secrets of the group."
Livingston went on to say that “He (the reporter) looked me in the eye, we had a conversation about the importance of confidentiality, and we shook on it.”
Kelly McBride, an expert in journalism ethics at St. Petersburg, Florida's Poynter Institute, said she found Lavender Magazine's approach "troubling."
"It's kind of like being a spy," McBride said. "For most groups that deal with something where members of the group find it shameful, there's a strong presumption of confidentiality."
Karl Reichert, a publicist and former journalist, fears a far more widespread chilling effect on fellow gays who go to 12-step programs for chemical and other dependencies.
“In Minneapolis-St. Paul, we’re the land of 10,000 treatment programs; people go to these programs and trust they are truly anonymous,” Reichert says. “As someone who’s participated in a support group, it’s not fair to anyone in the group.”
The article graced Lavender's cover, with a large picture of Brock in his vestments over the title, "Antigay Lutheran Pastor Protests Too Much."
Church officials said that Brock’s leave from active duty was in all likelihood a temporary measure until they have concluded an internal investigation.
(To read the article in full, please go to http://washingtonpost.com/onfaith).