oh hell Michael that bes not requiring any dual relationship restrictions to manifest. you have studied some Christian thought so it poses this question, have you never heard the phrase “He came unto His own, but His own received Him not”?

The correlation between this dual relationships debate and abortion is perhaps weak and more a correlation between the emotions aroused and the behavior I’m observing than a logical correlation. It also may be hard to know what the heck I’m talking about given that I pulled that out of context from an ongoing therapist debate on another listserv. The correlation I see is that about half the therapists in the debate believe in a rigid, absolute right and wrong approach to dual relationships in which there are rules that apply 100% of the time no matter the circumstances. The other half believe in strong personal ethics and that some allowance for circumstances and the needs of the client play a role. The result is a war in which the rigid crowd try to codify professional ethics codes in ways that straightjacket therapists into having no room for professional judgement. Then everyone gets mad, stops listening to each other, and the battle lines are drawn (sort of like the abortion debate).

Thanks,
Michael