New York, USA - Episcopal Bishop Chilton Knudsen can sympathize with her church's first openly gay bishop, who is being treated for alcoholism. Knudsen herself needed alcohol treatment 21 years ago after becoming the first woman to lead an Episcopal congregation in Illinois.
"There is a particular kind of stress people are under when they are the first," she said. "Being a clergy person is a stressful job and any disease process latent in our bodies is going to be exacerbated" when an extra level of scrutiny is added.
Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire announced Monday that he had sought treatment.
While Knudsen, who now lives in Maine, believes other high-pressure vocations doctors, for instance face similar problems, the Rev. Dale Wolery of the Clergy Recovery Network says religious denominations that accept social drinking wind up with more alcoholism among clerics.
"But where the church culture is not open to (drinking), the resistance to getting help is more profound," so seeking treatment and managing recovery is more difficult, he added.
Religious professionals often have high expectations of themselves and are viewed with high expectations by others, said Wolery, an independent Baptist minister based in Joplin, Mont. When they can't live up to those ideals, that can lead alcohol abuse, he said.
"The core of the addictive process is shame," said Wolery, who has aided between 200 and 300 clerics with alcohol problems.
Gail Gleason Milgram, education director at Rutgers University's Center of Alcohol Studies, says that all executives, including bishops, have a special problem because "the higher up one becomes in an organization, the more difficult to confront the behavior" and tell the boss that help is needed.
Local clergy have another temptation. "They might come and go at their own schedules. They don't punch a clock," she said. So it's easier for them to cover up the problem, say avoiding appointments before 10 a.m. because they're hung over, or after 4 p.m. so they can resume drinking.
The Rev. Nancy Platt of Augusta, Maine, an alcoholic who became sober before joining the Episcopal priesthood, is active in the Recovering Alcoholic Clergy Association an Episcopal group with 350 active members including one or two bishops.
Platt says the clergy have three special challenges: parishioners' demands of them and their families; low pay relative to other professionals with graduate training; and, the requirement of dealing continually with peoples' problems.
With bishops, "it's harder, and it's a lot harder than it used to be." For one thing, they need a certain reserve with clergy to avoid favoritism so "they have few friends for support unless they have fellow bishops. … It really is the same with many CEOs, and yet you must be a pastor and mentor. That's not an easy tension."
Robinson's sexual orientation has meant he's dealt with the most intense sort of scrutiny: Becoming a sign of hope for some in the gay community and a flash point for debate in both the Episcopal Church and the international Anglican Communion of which it's a part.
Still, Platt said, Robinson has two advantages full support from the region's bishops and the church's excellent medical coverage. In the wake of Robinson's announcement, she says, "I would hope the entire church would take a look at its alcohol use, and abuse."
Platt said that after Knudsen became bishop in 1998, alcohol was no longer served at clergy gatherings. "It just sort of happened" without any policy proclamation, she says, and New Hampshire priests should now consider doing the same.
Knudsen, who participated in Robinson's consecration in 2003 and knew privately for the last few months about his struggle with alcohol, said she didn't want to get into details about his problem.
"In the tradition of Alcoholics Anonymous, the anonymous part reminds us we never tell any story but our own, so it's his story to tell," Knudsen said. It's "important for people like Gene in the public spotlight not to become the poster child on this issue, too. He needs some privacy."
In her own case, she said, "some people who loved me spoke to me very directly about their concerns and I listened and took the action they asked," beginning with two weeks in a rehabilitation center and intensive outpatient treatment. Likewise, she said, Robinson "listened well to those of us who spoke with him."
She said he must now make aftercare a priority. Is Knudsen still attending 12-step support meetings? "You bet I am. It's lifelong for most of us."