We studied the restoration beliefs of conservative protestant pastors using an experimental design. We varied pastor offense (romance, affair) and offender age (young, middle age) in narratives presented in an online study and at a ministerial retreat. Both groups rated restoration potential highest for the younger pastor in the affair condition but there was no difference in the romance condition. In addition, the participants believed a younger pastor would fare better in his marriage. We discussed our findings in terms of research on forgiveness and reconciliation.The sexual abuse by pastors of congregants is a serious problem. Although the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests recently gained national attention, sexual activity between pastors and congregants has harmed the members of many faith communities. According to Hadman-Cromwell (1991) between 6% and 10% of clergy sexually violated congregants. Thoburn and Balswick (1998) analyzed data from 186 male seminarians representing 23 denominations. They found that 15.6% engaged in extramarital sexual activity. Most sexual activity was between a pastor and a church member, but sexual intercourse was primarily between a pastor and a counselee. More recently, researchers from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research (2000) found that 23% of 532 Christian congregations experienced a pastor-congregation disruption due to a pastor's sexual activity. Although we could have studied the relationship between restoration and several variables (e.g., deceit, embezzlement, substance abuse), we elected to study restoration responses

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