RICK WARREN AND CLERGY CONFIDENTIALITY

Imagine asking a pastor for advice and Bible verses on dealing with a specific problem. He isn't your pastor, but it's someone you respect, and you ask for advice. Within a short period of time, the pastor decides that the news is so juicy, it just has to be told publicly. That's what happened to Sarah Palin when she returned a September 6 phone call from Rick Warren and asked him for Bible verses on dealing with pressures she is facing. (He stated it as though she had called him out of the blue for advice.)  Rick Warren's apparently insatiable need to hang with the movers and shakers and to puff his ego was bigger than his respect for Mrs. Palin's privacy.

I wish this was a problem unique to Rick Warren. It isn't. I once had lunch with several pastors and their wives, and one Bible church pastor regaled us during the meal with how he was counselor to several players on our city's major league baseball team. He informed us cheerfully that he was providing marital counseling for one of the players-a man he named. The pastor was in total violation of state statutes regarding clergy/client confidentiality, and I later called him and told him so. Most secular professionals understand that if they blow confidentiality, they can lose their license. Unfortunately, some "pastors" have no such ethics or grasp on the seriousness of spouting off confidential information to look important. As for losing their licenses to engage in spiritual malpractice, well, that doesn't happen. Anyone who counsels with a pastor should check that he understands this confidentiality issue before a word is spoken. Failure to do so can be catastrophic.

UPDATE: Palin's camp has clarified that the Alaska Gov. was returning Warren's call. According to a Palin spokeswoman, Warren called her on Saturday, September 6, and she returned his call on Monday, September 8. The Monday phone call is when the above conversation described by Warren took place. My point absolutely stands. Warren, as a pastor, had no business discussing any private conversation publicly. "Dr." Phil did this when Britney Spears was in a psyche hospital and got slapped down by her family. There is no "need to know" factor here for the public. It was PR for Warren.