New Washington law targets seal of confessional

By Jeffrey Hemmer

In their ordination vows, Lutheran pastors promise “never to divulge the sins confessed” to them. And many thereafter exhort their parishioners to avail themselves of the comfort of individual Confession and Absolution, assuring them that “never means never.”

But a new law in the state of Washington pits these vows against the will of the state. Introduced by State Senator Noel Frame of Greenwood, Wash., Senate Bill 5375 was passed by both houses and signed into law by Governor Bob Ferguson on May 2. The law aims to protect children from abuse and neglect.

Previously in Washington, clergy were mandatory reporters for child abuse or neglect, but the seal of the confessional was exempt from this mandate. Exceptions from mandatory reporting previously extended to spouses, attorneys and medical professionals, along with clergy for “any confession or sacred confidence made to him or her in his or her professional character, in the course of discipline enjoined by the church to which he or she belongs.”

The new law specifically revokes this exemption for clergy. “Except for members of the clergy, no one shall be required to report under this section when he or she obtains the information solely as a result of a privileged communication.” The italicized phrase is the change to the existing law, exposing the law’s aim specifically at members of the clergy.

Pastors refusing to comply with the law could face a yearlong prison sentence and fines up to $5,000.

LCMS Northwest District President Rev. Mike Von Behren recognizes the tension between God’s two kingdoms: “While the God-given role of the state to uphold the Fifth Commandment by protecting the most vulnerable among us, such as children, from abuse and neglect ought to be commended, the confessional relationship between pastor and penitent in the rite of private confession is a place for the Gospel of Christ to be applied to contrite hearts through absolution [and] forgiveness, not a place for the state to intervene with the law.”

The refusal to break the confessional seal is not a matter of protecting child abusers, but of preserving the gift of forgiveness delivered in the word of absolution. Pastoral care is not limited to Confession and Absolution, of course, and Von Behren encourages his pastors to exhort penitents who have confessed such a sin to “live in the fruits of faith.”

“A person freed by the forgiveness of Christ in private confession and renewed by the Holy Spirit will also confess those sins to the people they have harmed, extend love to them, and seek to restore what was broken,” Von Behren said.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle has already threatened to excommunicate any priest who breaks the seal of the confessional by following the new law. For the Rev. Jeffrey Ries, pastor of Zion Lutheran in Tacoma, Wash., there is no question what to do when the government compels him to break his ordination vow:

“For my pastoral care, nothing actually changes [as a result of the new law]. I took a vow before Christ and His church that I would never divulge the sins confessed to me. We can find multiple instances in the Scriptures where the rule of man — or of this world — comes into conflict with the Word of God in the life of God’s people. … Perhaps the most famous instance of both admonishment and example is found in Acts 5, where the apostles refuse to obey the High Priest and Sanhedrin’s command that they not teach in the name of Jesus Christ, saying, ‘We must obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29).”

How are other LCMS pastors in Washington reacting? “It is certainly of concern, but the brothers with whom I have spoken are of the same heart and mind as I. We will obey God rather than men,” said Ries.

In a September 1999 report, The Pastor-Penitent Relationship: Privileged Communications, the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations warned of increasing pressure from civil governments to compel pastors to divulge crimes confessed to them in private confession. That report cited the first LCMS president, C.F.W. Walther, who cited Luther’s Table Talk:

“The preacher must not reveal what has been confessed to him. In Luther’s Table Talk it says: ‘Someone asked Dr. M. Luther and said: If a pastor and father confessor had absolved a woman who had killed her child, and it was later revealed and made known by other people, would the preacher also have to testify to the judge if he were asked about it? Then he [Luther] answered: Absolutely not! For one must distinguish between churchly and worldly government since she has confessed it not to me but to the Lord Christ, and if Christ keeps it secret, I should also keep it secret and say nothing more than: I have heard nothing; if Christ has heard something, let Him tell it’ (XXII, 879).”

In a May 5 press release, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) called the new Washington law “anti-Catholic” and announced its intention to open an investigation into the law. Because the law singles out members of the clergy as the only professionals no longer exempt from reporting, the DOJ reports the law “appears on face to violate the First Amendment”: “The Civil Rights Division will investigate the apparent conflict between Washington State’s new law with the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment, a cornerstone of the United States Constitution.”

The new Washington law is not the first attempt to do away with clergy exemptions to report crimes learned about within the privileged communication of the confessional, nor will it likely be the last. Recent attempts in California, Arizona, Utah, Vermont, Delaware and others have failed or stalled in committee. A measure strikingly similar to the new Washington law has been proposed in Montana for the 2025–2026 legislative session.

While opponents of the confessor-penitent privilege argue that getting rid of this exemption to mandatory reporting will help protect children, the church has long confessed that forgiveness — not civil penalties — is the only means to change hearts and protect victims from future sin. If perpetrators of violence against children cannot confess that sin to their pastor or priest for fear of mandatory reporting, they miss out on the life-changing forgiveness offered therein.

Absolution is not license to abuse or to continue to abuse. On the very evening He rose from the dead, Jesus instituted this means of delivering the forgiveness He won on the cross, the forgiveness that changes sinners into saints. And saints in the Lord’s church will seek the good of their neighbors, be they civil penalties for crimes committed or earnest efforts to repair broken relationships. The confessional seal is part of the Lord’s means for bringing restoration to those inside and outside His church. 

As Von Behren said, “If a person absolved in private confession lives in the fruits of faith, what is hidden will be made known, and made right, without demanding the pastor break the confidence of the confessional relationship.”

The Rev. Jeffrey Hemmer (jeff.hemmer@lcms.org) is pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Fairview Heights, Ill.

Posted May 14, 2025

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