Abstract: This article presents quantitative data collected from 607 seminary students at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary from 2019 through 2022 on the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) they have suffered. ACEs include various forms of abuse and neglect as well as house-hold factors such as being raised with addiction, mental illness, divorce, and the like. Also included are environmental factors such as being raised in an unsafe or deprived neighborhood. Included in this article are ACE data collected from pastors at the 2022 Called Convention, a quinquennial meeting for all Seventh-day Adventist pastors in North America, and a small sample of conference and union leaders. (All of the participants in this study were members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Adventist Church is organized into local conferences covering states or several states; unions comprised of several conferences; divisions covering entire territories, such as North America; and the world General Conference.) The data reveals at or above average trauma in seminary students, pastors, and administrators in several areas of the participants’ lives as children. If left untreated, research shows that this trauma would likely result in higher rates of chronic illness, mental and emotional challenges, and self-destructive behavior. These results challenge leaders at all levels of the church to build educational experiences, counseling, and treatment opportunities, and to develop policies that take past trauma into account in both pastoral education and practice. Plans for future research and the vision of trauma-informed churches will be presented.
Introduction
Recent studies show that “approximately 61% of adults surveyed across 25 states reported they had experienced at least one type of [Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE)] before age of 18” (Center for Disease Control, n.d.). Christian leaders are not exempt from trauma. In fact, in addition to the trauma that they may have experienced in their childhood and normal life up to the present, many of them have experienced trauma even during the time of their pastoral ministry. The abuse may have been committed by members of the congregation they were shepherding or even by their conference leaders. This article will examine the results of a four-year study of ACEs in seminarians at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University. In addition to the results of the study so far, the plan for the upcoming years of this longitudinal study will be presented. Future research will include quantitative follow-up study of the seminarians who took this survey during their time at the seminary and then into several years of ministry. Also included will be qualitative focus groups that will drill down more deeply into the experiences of pastors who have experienced trauma. The author’s vision for creating trauma-informed churches will also be presented, beginning with education and counseling in the seminary years.
Background of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study
The original ACE study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997 with two waves of data collection. Over 17,000 Health Maintenance Organization members from Southern California receiving physical exams completed confidential surveys regarding their childhood experiences and current health status and behaviors. (Center for Disease Control, n.d.)
The backstory of this study as told by its architect, Dr. Vincent Felitti, is that he was the physician in charge of a very successful weight loss clinic in San Diego, California. Using techniques very similar to those of the lifestyle centers in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he took patients through a process of education, teaching them a new, healthy lifestyle. They lost weight, but he noticed an interesting phenomenon. Many of them regained the weight that they had lost within the next few months. He decided to interview some of these patients. In one interview, he mistakenly asked a woman the age of her first sexual encounter, and she replied, “Four years old.” This shocking revelation began Dr. Felitti’s journey of exploration of the impact of trauma on the lives of his patients. Could it be that food was being used as a medicator in many of his patients, just as alcohol, drugs, sex, controlling behavior, gambling, and a host of other addictive behaviors are used as medicators of pain?
The results of the ACE study confirmed Felitti’s suspicions, and he began a series of studies with multiple populations. Early research revealed that about one-half of the study participants had experienced at least one adverse event, while 25% had suffered two adverse events, and 12.5% had experienced four or more ACEs (Felitti, Anda, Nordenberg, Williamson, Spitz, Koss, & Marks, 1998).
Persons who had experienced four or more categories of childhood exposure, compared to those who had experienced none, had 4-to 12-fold increased health risks for alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, and suicide attempt; a 2- to 4-fold increase in smoking, poor self-rated health, ≥ 50 sexual intercourse partners, and sexually transmitted disease; and a 1.4- to 1.6-fold increase in physical inactivity and severe obesity. The number of categories of adverse childhood exposures showed a graded relationship to the presence of adult diseases including ischemic heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, skeletal fractures, and liver disease. The seven categories of adverse childhood experiences were strongly interrelated and persons with multiple categories of childhood exposure were likely to have multiple health risk factors later in life. (Felitti et al., 1998, 251–252)
It was important to note that the risk increased gradually when persons experienced between one and three ACEs. However, when the threshold of four ACEs was reached in a person’s life, the physical, emotional, and behavioral risks increased exponentially.
Since the original ACE study, the ACE questions were expanded from seven to ten. Other researchers have added other ACEs that describe risk factors in their population best. ACEs have been categorized as follows. Household ACEs include both abuse and neglect. Abuse might be physical, emotional, or sexual. Neglect can be emotional as well and might be exemplified by a parent who is emotionally unavailable. Physical neglect might include being provided with inadequate food, housing, or medical care. Other household ACEs include being exposed to domestic violence, divorce, an addicted parent, a parent in prison, or having a parent who is mentally ill.
An example of how the ACE study has been expanded includes community ACEs. Examples include, but are not limited to, being raised in a neighborhood that is unsafe, being exposed to discrimination due to race or other factors, decreased opportunity for adequate work or finances, and living in a food desert. Another broad category is environmental ACEs that include having lived through a tornado, fire, hurricane, flood, a pandemic, or any other potentially traumatic experience. More recent studies of genetics and epigenetics reveal that exposure to trauma in parents is passed along to their children. Epigenetics teaches us that genes can be turned on when children of traumatized parents are exposed to excessive life stressors (PsychCentral, 2022).
Similarly, types of trauma have been described in helpful ways by Terry Wardle (2003) as follows: Type A is not getting what a child needs in the early developmental stages of life (i.e., neglect or “wounds of withholding”). Type B trauma is getting what a child does not need in the early developmental stages of life (i.e., abuse of any type or “wounds of aggression”). Type C is event trauma (e.g., car accident, watching someone die). Type D trauma is betrayal trauma (e.g., abuse of power or being cheated on by a loved one). Finally, Type E trauma is sustained duress. An example might be living for years with an overly controlling or addicted parent or spouse. It is important to note that exposure to trauma can include adult experiences that are painful. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many persons lost loved ones to death, and they were unable to be with them during their final moments of life. Secondary trauma is also important to include in this conversation. Pastors, chaplains, and other first responders are regularly exposed to the traumatic stories or death of their patients and parishioners. Unless trauma is processed in healthy ways, it can lead to anxiety, depression, or burnout in spiritual care providers (Choosing Therapy, 2022).
One important factor that has often been neglected is that of spiritual abuse and the trauma that results. In Christian circles, it is very important to recognize the impact of this type of abuse and its potential for negatively shaping a person’s relationship with God. WebMD (2022) defines spiritual abuse as follows: “Any attempt to exert power and control over someone using religion, faith, or beliefs can be spiritual abuse” (n.p.). (The use of power and control is to be clearly differentiated from the loving discipling/teaching given by a parent to a child who may be in error.) Spiritual abuse can happen within a religious organization or a personal relationship. An example of religious abuse is a religious leader using Scripture or beliefs to coerce or control the behavior of members of the organization. You may be experiencing religious or spiritual abuse if a religious leader has:
- Used Scripture or beliefs to humiliate or embarrass you;
- Coerced you into giving money or other resources that you didn’t want to give;
- Forced you to be intimate or have sex that you didn’t want; or
- Made you feel pressured or obligated to do things against your will. (This type of pressure does not include an invitation given by a pastor for repentance and a change of heart or behavior.)
Unfortunately, spiritual abuse occurs not only in cults but also in large organized religious denominations. Some unhealthy pastors attempt to control every aspect of the lives of their congregants. This type of control can be normalized in the church model and accepted by many of the members. Parents can spiritually abuse their children by using the Bible or spiritual writings to manipulate their children into being perfect, compliant children with no ability to choose spiritually for themselves. Such children learn how to please their parents in order to earn love and approval. They often develop a pseudo-self, a projection of how they believe others want them to be rather than who they really are. Often, they don’t even know who they really are and, therefore, don’t have a solid, well-differentiated sense of self.
Design of the Current ACE Study
With this background, a longitudinal mixed-method study of seminarians at Andrews University was designed by this author to explore several research questions. First, how do the ACEs of seminary students compare with those of the general population? Second, do ACE scores predict a pastor’s future in ministry in the areas of longevity in ministry and conflict at home, with the congregation, and with conference leaders? Do high ACE scores correlate with anxiety and depression in ministry? Does trauma education and counseling in the seminary and afterward increase the likelihood of success in ministry?
With these research questions in mind, seminary students were invited to take the Expanded ACE questionnaire each fall semester from 2019 through 2022. The Expanded ACE questionnaire included the 10 ACEs used in the most current research studies along with 10 additional ACEs identified by this researcher. A total of 607 students took the ACE questionnaire. In addition, the ACE questionnaire was taken by 94 pastors at the 2022 CALLED Convention. At a recent leadership event, this researcher also gave the ACE questionnaire to conference and union leaders, and the results will be discussed below.
Quantitative follow-up data collection with seminary students and pastors in the field has begun and will continue for the next several years in addition to qualitative interviews in focus groups. As this data becomes available, it will be reported on in future articles.
ACEs in Pastors/Seminarians in Training
Table 1 below gives the data for the Expanded ACE questionnaire for the years 2019-2022 with the data from the pastors at the Called Convention compared with the national averages for the general population in North America. Some of the data for national averages in the Expanded ACEs has not been found yet. For some ACE categories, there is a range of data in the literature, depending on the population being studied.
Table 1
Seminary and Pastors Data Compared with National Averages
| Adverse Childhood Experiences | Frequency 2019-21 (n=49) | Frequency 2020-21 (n=96) | Frequency 2021-22 (n=194) | Frequency 2022-23 (n=268) | CALLED2022 (n=94) | National Studies |
| 1. Did a parent or other adult in the household often swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you? or act in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt? | No: 73% Yes: 27% | No: 59.4% Yes: 40.6% | No: 71.1% Yes: 28.9% | No: 69.4% Yes: 30.6% | Yes: 37.84% | Yes: 33.46% |
| 2. Did a parent or other adult in the household often push, grab, slap, or throw something at you? or ever hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured? | No: 82% Yes: 18% | No: 71.6% Yes: 28.4% | No: 79.8% Yes: 20.2% | No: 74.9% Yes: 25.1% | Yes: 21.62% | Yes: 17.5% |
| 3. Did an adult or person at least 5 years older than you ever touch or fondle you? or have you touch their body in a sexual way? or try to or actually have oral, anal, or vaginal sex with you? | No: 73% Yes: 27% | No: 73.7% Yes: 26.3% | No: 87.0% Yes: 13.0% | No: 85.7% Yes: 14.3% | Yes: 18.92% | Yes: 11.31% |
| 4. Did you often feel that no one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special? or your family didn’t look out for each other, feel close to each other, or support each other? | No: 76% Yes: 24% | No: 75.8% Yes: 24.2% | No: 84.5% Yes: 15.5% | No: 82.8% Yes: 17.2% | Yes: 16.22% | Yes: 14.8% |
| 5. Did you often feel that you didn’t have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, and had no one to protect you? or your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it? | No: 98% Yes: 2% | No: 88.5% Yes: 11.5% | No: 92.3% Yes: 7.7% | No: 91.1% Yes: 8.9% | Yes: 5.41% | Yes: 9.9% |
| 6. Were your parents ever separated or divorced? | No: 71% Yes: 29% | No: 60.4% Yes: 39.6% | No: 69.2% Yes: 30.8% | No: 66.5% Yes: 33.5% | Yes: 29.73% | Yes: 28.24% |
| 7. Was your mother or stepmother: often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her? or sometime or often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard? or ever repeatedly hit over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun? | No: 92% Yes: 8% | No: 75.8% Yes: 24.2% | No: 89.2% Yes: 10.8% | No: 88.5% Yes: 11.5% | Yes: 13.51% | Yes: 17.76% |
| 8. Did you live with anyone who was a problem drinker or alcoholic or who used street drugs? | No: 86% Yes: 14% | No: 78.9% Yes: 21.1% | No: 85.1% Yes: 14.9% | No: 82.5% Yes: 17.5% | Yes: 21.62% | Yes: 26.83% |
| 9. Was a household member depressed or mentally ill or did a household member attempt suicide? | No: 86% Yes: 14% | No: 70.5%Yes: 29.5% | No: 76.9%Yes: 23.1% | No: 76.6%Yes: 23.4% | Yes: 16.22% | Yes: 16.16% |
| 10. Did a household member go to prison? | No: 100% Yes: 0% | No: 89.6% Yes: 10.4% | No: 92.3% Yes: 7.7% | No: 90.7% Yes: 9.3% | Yes: 0.0% | Yes: 8.08% |
| 11. Did anyone in your family exercise dominance or control over other family members to the point where others felt that they had no voice? | No: 96% Yes: 4% | No: 71.6% Yes: 28.4% | No: 73.3% Yes: 26.7% | No: 70.5% Yes: 29.5% | ||
| 12. Were spiritual writings such as the bible used by parents or other significant leaders to make you see things their way or to control your behavior? or was a parent or primary caregiver committed to ministry to others to the point that your needs were neglected? | No: 80% Yes: 20% | No: 65.6% Yes: 34.4% | No: 76.9% Yes: 23.1% | No: 75.4% Yes: 24.6% | Yes: 24–62% | |
| 13. Were you bullied at school over time physically, verbally, or through cyber technology without effective intervention from parents or teachers? | No: 67% Yes: 33% | No: 65.3%Yes: 34.7% | No: 74.2%Yes: 25.8% | No: 69.8%Yes: 30.2% | Yes: 19–46% | |
| 14. As a child, did you experience the death of a parent or sibling? or did either or your parents abandon the family? | No: 82% Yes: 18% | No: 83.2% Yes: 16.8% | No: 83.1% Yes: 6.9% | No: 80.7% Yes: 19.3% | Yes: 3–7% | |
| 15. Were you exposed over time to war or famine or have you been diagnosed with post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? | No: 100% Yes: 0% | No: 96.9% Yes: 3.1% | No: 97.9% Yes: 2.1% | No: 96.3% Yes: 3.7% | Yes: 6.1–9.2% | |
| 16. Were you raised in a neighborhood where there was frequent gang activity, violence, or other activity that resulted in your feeling unsafe? | No: 86% Yes: 14% | No: 86.5% Yes: 3.5% | No: 83.6% Yes: 16.4% | No: 80.3% Yes: 19.7% | Yes: 38% | |
| 17. Did you feel pressured to perform in school or in other ways in order to earn your parents’ love or approval or to prove your own value/ worth? | No: 80% Yes: 20% | No: 64.2% Yes: 35.8% | No: 67.7% Yes: 32.3% | No: 67.3% Yes: 32.7% | Yes: 22% | |
| 18. In your ministry prior to coming to the seminary, were you demeaned, controlled, or otherwise significantly hurt by conference leadership, another pastor, or a congregation? | No: 66.7% Yes: 33.3% | No: 76.8% Yes: 23.2% | No: 72.8% Yes: 27.2% | |||
| 19. Did you experience traumatic or regular mistreatment or abuse due to your race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or culture? | No: 98% Yes: 2% | No: 79.2% Yes: 20.8% | No: 87.7% Yes: 12.3% | No: 83.3% Yes: 16.7% | White: 29.63%Minorities: 63.10%Gender: 58.7% | |
| 20. Were you raised in a country where there was government control of religion and other aspects of life or where dissent was met with force or imprisonment? | No: 98% Yes: 2% | No: 94.8% Yes: 5.2% | No: 93.3% Yes: 6.7% | No: 93.7% Yes: 6.3% |
Examining the frequencies of this data, seminarians and pastors appear to on average mirror the national average in emotional abuse. However, the experience of physical abuse was consistently higher than the national average. Sexual abuse was nearly three to more than five times the national average depending on the year. Research by David Finklehor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center, shows that one in five girls and one in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse (National Center for Victims of Crime, n.d.). Since the majority of our pastors and seminarians are male, this finding is particularly troublesome. Emotional neglect was consistently at or slightly above national averages, while physical neglect was generally below national averages. The findings for having parents who were separated or divorced was slightly above national averages. Our seminarians and pastors reported, in general, experiencing less domestic violence than the national average as well as fewer homes with a problem drinker or drug user. The latter finding could reflect our church’s stand on abstinence from alcohol and drugs. Household members were at or higher than the national average in mental illness or suicide attempts. Our sample was generally at or below the national average of having a household member in prison.
ACEs 11–20 are the Expanded ACE items and may not have comparison data with the national averages. Also, these items were not given to pastors at the Called Convention. Nearly 30% of most seminary cohorts reported experiencing a high level of dominance or control in their families. Between 20–34.4% reported some form of spiritual abuse. Between one-fourth and one-third of our sample experienced some form of bullying, comparable to national studies. The percentage of those who experienced the death of a parent or abandonment by a parent ranged from 6.9–19.3%. The numbers who experienced war or famine or were diagnosed with PTSD were below national averages. Likewise, those raised in neighborhoods that were unsafe ranged from 3.5–19.7%, well below the national average. Those experiencing the pressure to perform to earn love and approval ranged from 20% to nearly 36%, generally above the data in national studies. Between 23.2– 33.3% of our sample experienced trauma from conference leadership, another pastor, or their congregation. The number who experienced traumatic or regular mistreatment or abuse due to their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or culture was well below national data. Finally, a small percentage experienced governmental control related to religion or the freedom to dissent.
The percentages of ACEs experienced were also examined. The findings are recorded below in Table 2.
Table 2
Percentages of ACEs Experienced
| Number of ACEs | Original ACE % | Expanded ACE % | Total ACE % |
| 0 ACEs | 35.6 | 26.8 | 13.4 |
| 1-3 ACEs | 44.8 | 54.6 | 49.5 |
| 4 or more ACEs | 19.6 | 18.6 | 37.1 |
As discussed above, the larger the number of ACEs, the higher the probability that chronic physical, mental/emotional, and self-destructive behaviors will be a part of a person’s life. In the general population studies, 39% had experienced zero ACEs, 44.33% had experienced one to three ACESs, and 16.67% had experienced four or more ACEs, using the original 10 ACEs (CDC). Our data indicates that slightly fewer of our seminary students had zero ACEs than the general population, and the percentage with four or more ACEs was three percent higher than the general population. While the impact of the Expanded ACEs remains to be researched, if we assume that they are equally as harmful as the original 10 ACEs, 37.1% of our seminary students are at higher risk.
ACEs in Conference and Union Leaders
At a retreat for Seventh-day Adventist conference/union leaders (the conference/union will not be identified), this researcher and his wife were asked to present on trauma and its potential effects on pastoral ministry. As a part of the presentations, the leaders who were present agreed to take the Expanded ACE questionnaire. The data was presented at the final presentation of the retreat. Table 3 below displays the results of this sample.
Table 3
Expanded ACE Questionnaire: Answers of Adventist Leaders
Conference/Union Leaders ACE Data
| ACEs | Leader Data | National Averages |
| 21. Emotional abuse | 37.5% | 33.46% |
| 22. Physical abuse | 12.5% | 17.5% |
| 23. Sexual abuse | 31.25% | 11.31% |
| 24. Emotional neglect | 31.25% | 14.8% |
| 25. Physical neglect | 12.5% | 9.9% |
| 26. Parents ever separated or divorced | 6.25% | 28.24% |
| 27. Domestic violence | 12.5% | 17.76% |
| 28. Family member alcohol or drug user | 6.25% | 26.83% |
| 29. Household member mentally ill or attempted suicide | 31.25% | 16.16% |
| 30. Household member go to prison | 6.25% | 8.08% |
| 31. Family exercised dominance or control over others | 31.25% | |
| 32. Spiritual abuse | 50.0% | 24–62% |
| 33. Bullied without effective intervention from parents or teachers | 31.25% | 19–46% |
| 34. Death of a parent or sibling or parental abandonment | 12.25% | 3–7% |
| 35. Exposed to war or famine or been diagnosed with PTSD | 6.25% | 6.1–9.2% |
| 36. Raised in an unsafe neighborhood | 12.25% | 38% |
| 37. Felt pressured to perform | 50.0% | 22% |
| 38. Hurt by conference leadership, another pastor, or a congregation | 75.0% | |
| 39. Abuse due to your race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or culture | 12.5% | White: 29.63% Minorities: 63.10%Gender: 58.7% |
| 40. Government control | 0.0% |
To help understand the data above, the ages of the 16 participants ranged between 51 and 74, an older sample of conference and union leaders. Selected findings include that nearly one-third experienced sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and a family member with a mental illness—statistics even higher than those reported by seminary students and much higher than the national average. In the findings from the Expanded ACEs, nearly one-third experienced dominance and control in their families as well as bullying, 50% experienced spiritual abuse and pressure to perform, and 75% experienced hurt in their job as pastors. Table 4 below presents the percentage of ACEs experienced in this sample.
Table 4
Percentage of ACEs Experienced: Adventist Leaders
| Number of ACEs | Original ACE % | Expanded ACE % | Total ACE % |
| 0 ACEs | 31.25 | 12.5 | 12.5 |
| 1–3 ACEs | 50.0 | 56.25 | 31.25 |
| 4 or more ACEs | 18.75 | 31.25 | 56.25 |
Comparing the original ACE scores of seminary students with those of conference and union leaders, we see that original ACE percentages are comparable, but there is a much higher level of both Expanded ACE percentages and total ACE percentages.
Conclusions and Recommendations
First, we must be cautious about the data presented, understanding that it may not accurately represent all seminary students and pastors. Further analysis is needed to examine differences in ACEs and their effects based upon gender, race, or cultural differences in the 607 seminarians in our sample. The sample of 16 conference/union leaders is not representative of all conference and union leaders. Therefore, we cannot generalize from this preliminary data to all leaders.
However, there are worrisome indicators in this data that can guide our educational, treatment, and policy development at the seminary and the North American Division. The higher levels of trauma would indicate that administrators should continue to build trauma education into the resources for seminary students and pastors. This can be done in the form of colloquium presentations, integrating the content intentionally into classes and continuing education, and requiring Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) of all graduating students. These findings reinforce the need to provide adequate counseling services, including individual, family, and group counseling, in addition to healing retreats for pastors and their families who have fallen because of trauma. The North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists (NAD) and local conference policies need to be revisited so that pastors can be helped to address their trauma in a way that includes accountability and safety for their families and congregations—and in a way that includes grace by attempting to maintain future ministry opportunities, providing that pastors have received adequate counseling to reduce the risk to the church institution, the local church, their families, and themselves resulting from relapse into destructive behavior.
Of particular concern is the high percentage of sexual abuse that our seminary students and leaders have experienced. This might place them at higher risk of sexually acting out in various ways, including the use of pornography, becoming sexual predators, or becoming sexually unfaithful. High levels of spiritual abuse, pressure to perform, and being raised in a controlling environment need to be further researched in order to explore their impact on pastoral ministry. The fact that 75% of the conference and union leaders surveyed experience trauma related to their pastoral ministry needs additional study. If this statistic is descriptive of the future of long-term pastoral ministry, they need to be equipped with skills and resilience tools to thrive even under these circumstances.
Future research will include quantitative follow-up study of the seminarians who took this survey and include variables such as the frequency of attending counseling and attendance at seminars and colloquia related to trauma. Follow-up with pastors in ministry will also include qualitative focus groups that will drill down more deeply into the experiences of pastors who have experienced trauma. Follow-up quantitative and qualitative research will explore whether trauma predicts variables such as a shortened ministry, family or congregational conflict, or an increase in depression or anxiety. This researcher hopes that the training and treatment of pastors using trauma-informed therapies will result in the creation of trauma-informed churches that will be lights of healing to the communities surrounding them.
David Sedlacek, PhD, is a professor of family ministry and discipleship at the Seventh-day Adventist Theology Seminary at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI.
References
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