The Makin Report, published this week, chronicles the appalling, sadistic and spiritualised abuse carried out by John Smyth and the abject failure of the Church of England to respond adequately to this.
John Smyth’s abuse represents pure evil. But just as evil is the vast number of professing Christians who knew about Smyth’s actions and failed to blow the whistle on them.
Among those who failed to respond properly is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. He must resign with immediate effect.
Now is not the time for the classic Anglican fudge, where he decides to retire in the coming weeks. He should resign specifically on the basis of his response to the John Smyth case and refuse the customary peerage given to ex-Archbishops. This symbolic act would be the best way to expose the culture which perpetuates safeguarding failures in our church.
Powerful public witness
I don’t propose this as someone who either dislikes Justin Welby or has wider theological disagreements with him.
When he was made Archbishop, I appeared on ITV’s news to welcome his appointment. When news broke that Welby’s father was someone different to whom he had always believed, The Sun newspaper published an article that I wrote praising his openness and Christian witness.
Justin Welby has been a powerful public witness because he speaks firstly as an earnest and thoughtful Christian, secondly as a clergyman and only thirdly as an Archbishop.
But it is these very gifts and attributes which make Justin Welby’s inaction in response to John Smyth’s abuse all the worse.
It is the depth and sincerity of his Christian faith which should have enabled him to challenge two deeply problematic subcultures in the C of E. These subcultures, often seen at opposites (particularly in recent years because of their responses to homosexuality), in reality contain far more that unites than divides them.
Arrogance
The first of these is the arrogance of the C of E’s conservative evangelical tribe. Welby was closely involved in this tribe when younger, he led on the Iwerne camps alongside Smyth. He shared a house with Mark Ruston, the vicar who knew all the details of Smyth’s sadistic behaviour and hushed it up. We know that as far back as 1981, Justin Welby was warned about John Smyth’s behaviour.
Like so many within that subculture over Smyth, and similar cases like Jonathan Fletcher, he failed to challenge what was so wrong. Welby was affected by the toxic combination of cultural elitism and theological arrogance within this particular subculture – because they are ‘right’ about the gospel, nothing should tarnish their tribe’s image.
Read it all in Grace + Truth
