Evaluating Attitudes toward Clergy Restoration: The Psychometric Properties of Two Scales Geoffrey W. Sutton & Kayla Jordan # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract Restoring clergy to leadership following a transgression is a pastoral psychology topic of international concern. Few empirical studies have examined factors weighed by offended congregants challenged with considerations of forgiveness and restoration. The purpose of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of two attitudinal measures of restoration used in previous research (Sutton, McLeland, Weaks, Cogswell and Miphouvieng. Pastoral Psychology , 55, 643–663, 2007; Sutton and Thomas 2004; Sutton and Thomas. Pastoral Psychology , 53, 583–599, 2005a). Analysis (sample n =210) of the Clergy Situational Restoration Inventory (CSRI) suggested two levels of offense severity account for most of the variance. Reliability and concurrent validity values for the CSRI and the two Leadership Restoration Scales (LRS) were adequate. We included the scales for future research and reference. Keywords Clergy transgression . Clergy restoration . Forgiveness . Intrinsic spirituality . Extrinsic spirituality “Church Sex Scandal,”“Bishop Reveals Church Secrets,”“Woman Accuses Pastor of . . .” Headlines such as these suggest a fairly constant stream of stories depicting the failures of religious and spiritual leaders. Unfortunately, stories about the vast majority of leaders who live lives of integrity and minister to the needs of billions of adherents worldwide are largely unreported. History is replete with stories of leaders who violate the trust of their followers. Leaders of religious and spiritual groups violate the faithful. Can fallen leaders change? Will congregants forgive or restore derailed pastors or other spiritual leaders to their calling? In this article, we report the psychometric properties of the Clergy Situational Restoration Inventory (CSRI) and the two Leadership Restoration Scales (LRS) developed to help assess attitudes of congregants toward clergy offenders. Given the press coverage of church scandals in recent years, it seems reasonable to wonder about the actual scope of the problem. Thomas et al. (2008) summarized findings reporting that Pastoral Psychol DOI 10.1007/s11089-013-0527-7 G. W. Sutton (*) : K. Jordan Evangel University, 1111 N. Glenstone Ave., Springfield, MO 65802, USA e-mail: Suttong@evangel.edu G. W. Sutton e-mail: SuttonGPhD@gmail.com