Welby's resignation and the Smyth "cover up"

[Jamie123]

Just to give you the background:

1. John Smyth was a lay preacher in the Church of England who did a lot of work with young people in the 1980s and 90s.

2. John Smyth was sexually abusing many of those young people including thrashing them with sticks until they bled in a specially soundproofed garden shed.

3. Many people knew (or at least suspected) that this was going on but kept quiet about it for fear of damaging the Church's reputation.

4. One such person was Justin Welby who eventually became Archbishop of Canterbury. (He claims he didn't hear about Smyth's activities until 2013, but even then did very little about it.)

5. An investigation was eventually held on the matter, but Smyth died before its findings were released.

6. Now the report is public, Justin Welby has resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury.

It's worth noting that there are other reasons why Welby is unpopular in certain sections of the Church - particularly his support of homosexual marriage. This has been conflated with the Smyth affair and several other issues too.

This guy says some interesting things about it. There are some ideas for us all to reflect on, regardless of our denomination.

 

Edited November 14, 2024 by Jamie123

[LDSGator]

Both members of the Church of England are deeply upset by this. 

[Just_A_Guy]

I had only heard in general terms that Welby had resigned over the church’s handling of some sort of sex abuse issue.  The treatment I saw was sympathetic and suggested that Welby’s resignation was an acknowledgement that since something happened on his watch, he wasn’t the guy to fix it; and that his willingness to admit to a new leadership was needed is an example for other Christian sects.

But . . . if this was something he knew about for years and he accepted his last position knowing the situation, but still didn’t remedy until the public found out he had known about it . . . Yeesh.

Edited November 15, 2024 by Just_A_Guy

[Vort]

14 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

2. John Smyth was sexually abusing many of those young people including thrashing them with sticks until they bled in a specially soundproofed garden shed.

At first, this seemed a non sequitur. But I think it is not. Heaven help the country and the culture where "thrashing [people] with sticks until they ble[e]d" qualifies as sexual abuse.

[Jamie123]

8 hours ago, Vort said:

At first, this seemed a non sequitur. But I think it is not. Heaven help the country and the culture where "thrashing [people] with sticks until they ble[e]d" qualifies as sexual abuse.

I've also had this same question at the back of my mind. Many of the reports mention "sexual abuse", while concentrating on the "caning till they bled" aspect. A sadist might get sexual gratification from thrashing people till they bled - but you're right it doesn't necessarily follow.

In his autobiography, Roald Dahl said that when he was at Repton School the principal - Geoffrey Fisher - used to beat kids with a cane until they bled. (In fact he had to give them a towel afterwards to mop up the blood.) Fisher later went into the clergy and eventually became Archbishop of Canterbury, and was the same Archbishop who crowned the late Queen. Dahl cited this as one reason why he was not a Christian.

But I've never heard anyone suggest that Fisher was a sexual abuser. Perhaps he was, but severe caning was in those days par for the course. Some senior students (called prefects) were allowed to cane younger kids for pretty much any reason they wanted. Though it's clear there was sexual abuse too - as we read in C.S.Lewis' accounts of school (though he was a bit earlier than Dahl and at a different school).

Returning to Smyth though, I don't know whether the caning itself was the "sexual abuse" (and some people do get sexual gratification from such things) or whether it was in addition to it. It seems a rather morbid question to research. I would rather concentrate on the lessons the minister in the video pointed out, for example we shouldn't hide such things for the sake of protecting God's reputation. God is quite capable of looking after himself.

P.S. My morbid curiosity did get the better of me in the end. Brett Murphy in his YouTube video of this is saying there was "no sexual element" to what Smyth did. I don't know if this is true or not, but if it is there has clearly been some misreporting. (Which is hardly surprising - the media always does want to find sex at the bottom of everything.)

Edited November 15, 2024 by Jamie123

[Vort]

8 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

In his autobiography, Roald Dahl said that when he was at Repton School the principal - Geoffrey Fisher - used to beat kids with a cane until they bled. (In fact he had to give them a towel afterwards to mop up the blood.) Fisher later went into the clergy and eventually became Archbishop of Canterbury, and was the same Archbishop who crowned the late Queen. Dahl cited this as one reason why he was not a Christian.

That actually makes sense, and partially explains why Roald Dahl was so weird.

[Traveler]

Whenever a light is turned on all the cockroaches will scurry into the shadows to hide.

 

The Traveler

[LDSGator]

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

Whenever a light is turned on all the cockroaches will scurry into the shadows to hide.

 

The Traveler

I love this.