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Can pastors tell your secrets?
A pastor who says Stacy Peterson confided in him a few weeks before she went missing spilled details of their alleged conversation on national TV a few days ago. Was that ethical?
That pastor, Neil Schori of the Naperville Christian Church, isn’t talking now. But the president of the seminary that trained him says he can’t imagine “what would prompt that breach of confidentiality.”
Keith Roy, president of Lincoln Christian College and Seminary in Downstate Lincoln, said the school is now using Schori’s actions as a case study to train pastors on what not to do.
“The confidentiality clause for pastors is real clear,” he told the Sun-Times.
Schori is a former pastor at Westbrook Church in Bolingbrook, occasionally attended by Peterson, 23, and her ex-cop husband, Drew Peterson, 53, a suspect in his wife’s October disappearance. Peterson says his wife had a crush on Schori.
Schori said Stacy Peterson called him in August. He agreed to meet her at a coffee shop.
“That’s inappropriate,” said John Koessler of Moody Bible Institute. “It takes what should be a professional relationship and sets it in a social context.”
Plus, there’s a matter of privacy. People could see and possibly overhear, he said.
Schori said Peterson blurted out that her husband had killed his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Savio’s 2004 death was ruled an accidental bathtub drowning then, but is being reinvestigated.
Schori said he feared for Stacy Peterson, but didn’t contact authorities until she disappeared. At that point, he also talked to the media — a move that some Christian ethicists question.
“If a person is in imminent danger, that supersedes confidentiality,” said Vincent Bacote of the Center for Applied Ethics at Wheaton College. “Calling the police is a lot different than going on CNN.”
Schori said that he didn’t take action earlier because he didn’t want to put Peterson at risk.
“Ultimately, it was her call because it was her situation,” he told the Sun-Times recently.
Stephanie Love-Patterson of the Chicago Abused Women Coalition said that abused women often suffer in silence. By the time they tell someone, their situation is critical.
Schori feared Drew Peterson
“No one ever wants to believe the partner they love will kill them,” she said.
After the coffee shop meeting, Schori said a message from Drew Peterson was waiting on his voice mail.
Peterson said he knew Schori had just met with his wife. He wanted to see him, too.
Schori never reached out to him, fearing for his own safety.
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