The Religion and Sexual Abuse Project (7/1/2019-6/30/2025) was a collaboration between scholars of religion with a range of geographic and tradition expertise for understanding the dynamics of sexual abuse and misconduct in religious communities. R&SAP was funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, and also received funding from the Center for Ideas and Society (CIS), the Health Humanities and Disability Justice (HHDJ) Lab, and the Committee on Research at the University of California, Riverside. We are grateful to all of the survivors, scholars, organizations, lawyers, and advocates who worked in collaboration with our team.

Even though the R&SAP has formally concluded, we look forward to continuing this important work in the future with new partnerships and initiatives. We are committed to maintaining this website as a nexus for event advertisement, resource sharing, and updated publications. Please feel reach out via the contact link below.

The Religion and Sexual Abuse Project was funded in part by the Henry Luce Foundation. These funds supported eleven distinct academic projects, a series of interdisciplinary public-facing conferences, scholarly workshops, collaborations with advocacy organizations, a set of pedagogical resources, and an online resource hub.  

R&SAP project leaders all had PhDs and held positions at colleges or universities. Some were members of faith communities, while others had no personal relationship to the communities they study. Their views were not unified. Participants in this project were committed to transparency regarding their own positionality. 

Many of our researchers continue to work in this field, and understand the deep harm caused by sexual abuse as well as the importance of situating sexual abuse in broader cultural, historical, and social contexts. Like the R&SAP, they continue to support fruitful conversations between different stakeholders in a range of domains including academia, faith-based community, media, and advocacy.