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theantijoss) wrote2009-07-07 01:37 pm
theantijoss) wrote2009-07-07 01:37 pm
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Attention Ministers and UU folks on my List/Circle...
I know there are a few of you. I'm hoping you can help my friend dragonfly. She poses the following dilemma:
We have run up against an ethics question we don't know the answer to. We've asked our own minister, but she doesn't seem to have the fiction-writing mindset that these kinds of scenarios are fun to kick around, so she seemed kind of shocked and brusque about it, making us reluctant to use her as our source of information.
Our minister character is called by the police about a murder, because the victim was holding a printed copy of one of her sermons. She couldn't help -- didn't recognize the victim. Shortly thereafter, a congregant comes into her office because she's had a psychic vision and believes the minister to be in danger. Her vision is disjointed but seems to be a pretty good description of the crime scene the minister has just come from. The minister doesn't believe in psychic stuff, and now believes her congregant must have some information about the murder. Can she ethically tell the police they ought to talk to that congregant? Mother and I thought she could, for the following reasons: 1) the psychic hasn't "confessed" to anything, she just rambled about a scene that sounded a lot like the murder scene 2)the psychic didn't ask that what she said be kept confidential -- she barged into the office with her warning, without even an appointment, and 3) the police asked the minister to let them know if she thought of anything that could help their investigation, and she does have an obligation to the safety of the community at large, and to the law.
However, I'm perfectly willing to be told that under no circumstances would a minister suggest that the police question a congregant, if that's the general understanding. In my writers' group, a woman who is a mental health professional was appalled that we'd had our minister do this, causing Mom and I to go off on a second search for answers to this question.
If you can help her out, feel free to comment here and I'll pass it on, or comment on the original post: http://dragonfly.dreamwidth.org/200636.html
Thanks in advance, oh wise FList/Circle!
dragonfly. She poses the following dilemma:We have run up against an ethics question we don't know the answer to. We've asked our own minister, but she doesn't seem to have the fiction-writing mindset that these kinds of scenarios are fun to kick around, so she seemed kind of shocked and brusque about it, making us reluctant to use her as our source of information.
Our minister character is called by the police about a murder, because the victim was holding a printed copy of one of her sermons. She couldn't help -- didn't recognize the victim. Shortly thereafter, a congregant comes into her office because she's had a psychic vision and believes the minister to be in danger. Her vision is disjointed but seems to be a pretty good description of the crime scene the minister has just come from. The minister doesn't believe in psychic stuff, and now believes her congregant must have some information about the murder. Can she ethically tell the police they ought to talk to that congregant? Mother and I thought she could, for the following reasons: 1) the psychic hasn't "confessed" to anything, she just rambled about a scene that sounded a lot like the murder scene 2)the psychic didn't ask that what she said be kept confidential -- she barged into the office with her warning, without even an appointment, and 3) the police asked the minister to let them know if she thought of anything that could help their investigation, and she does have an obligation to the safety of the community at large, and to the law.
However, I'm perfectly willing to be told that under no circumstances would a minister suggest that the police question a congregant, if that's the general understanding. In my writers' group, a woman who is a mental health professional was appalled that we'd had our minister do this, causing Mom and I to go off on a second search for answers to this question.
If you can help her out, feel free to comment here and I'll pass it on, or comment on the original post: http://dragonfly.dreamwidth.org/200636.html
Thanks in advance, oh wise FList/Circle!