For more than a decade, The Religious Institute, founded by Rev. Debra Haffner, provided congregations with a reliable source for ensuring that their congregations were both sexually safer for members, and that the congregations retained our UU sex-positive messages. With The Religious Institutes' closure in 2020, there is no one place that brings together the messages and steps to make your congregation sexually healthy, and sexually safer.

Here’s some of the things that we learned in journeying with The Religious Institute.

Congregations are better if they:

• assess several aspects with regard to human sexuality.
• ensure that they have safety precautions in place for the most vulnerable in our congregations.
• ensure that their religious professionals understand the appropriate boundaries to use with members, friends, children in the congregation regarding sexuality. Those religious professionals need to understand their own sexual health, and to help members find resources to address their individual sexual health.
• promote lifespan sexuality curriculum being used, and specifically use Our Whole Lives (OWL) as a means of helping all in their congregations to be empowered in having the knowledge to make appropriate choices concerning sexual health.
• understand what it means to welcome those with differing modes of sexual expression and practice—those who are LGBTQ+, and how to form supportive community for people with non-exploitative sexual relationships.
• are willing and able to advocate for legislation that allows people the free expression of their own sexual well-being, and to advocate for justice for all concerning use of public facilities and rights to control over one’s own body.

Haffner’s 2012 book, A Time To Build, offers some guidance for those interested in addressing issues around sexually safer congregations; it is a bit dated, and so some of the material may need to be updated for today’s congregations.

Checklists for Sexually Health Congregations

Haffner also created checklists for congregations around various aspects of sexual health. These checklists are available for download in Word or PDF and include the topics:

• Congregational Policies and Environment
• Sexually Healthy Religious Professionals
• Worship and Preaching
• Pastoral Care
• Sexuality Education for Children and Youth
• Sexuality Education for Adults
• Welcome and Full Inclusion
• Sexually Safer Congregations
• Social Justice

Organization Referrals

There is a partial list of organizations that are helpful referrals around sexuality issues.