Former Archbishop of Canterbury Admits Failure in Decades-Long Church Abuse Crisis

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): Personal SubStack

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/03/29

The Former Archbishop of Canterbury acknowledged in a BBC interview the failure to adequately manage the Church of England’s sexual abuse crisis. He considers te scale of the problem “absolutely overwhelming.” Welby resigned in November of 2024.

The resignation followed an independent review criticizing insufficiency of responsiveness of allegations John Smyth. Smyth, a British church volunteer and lawyer, was accused of abusing more than 100 young men and boys over the course of 40+ years.

There was awareness of the abuse by Smyth since 2013. Welby was promoted to Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013. No known appropriate actions were taken between 2013 and November, 2024 to suffice as dealing with this case. Averaging 2-3 cases per year, Smyth likely abused another 22-33 boys and young men in that period of inaction under the knowledgeable leadership of Welby.

Welby said, “The reality is I got it wrong. As Archbishop, there are no excuses”–indeed. Freethought communities use this as an excuse at times to broad brush the churches; laity and denialist clergy claim one cannot blame the Church on this: They’re both wrong. A minority of clergy are at fault.

We should support survivors, embolden clergy to institute reforms, and re-orient secular critique to the clergy who are at fault and work with those want reform while having their freedom of religious belief and practice. This is only hard insofar as we conceive of it as hard.

Independent review showed Smyth continued to abuse in Africa, until his death in 2018. Conservative Christian theology is right here: Evil rarely, if ever, stops itself.

With files from The Times, Reuters, and AP News.

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#abuse #Christianity #johnSmyth #justinWelby #news

A terrible story but compelling.

‘The Makin review detailed Smyth's horrific abuse of those he met at public schools and Christian summer camps. What is less well known, is how Smyth senior controlled and abused his own family, who are only now facing up to the devastating toll on their lives.’

#AnglicanChurch #ChurchOfEngland #Archbishop #ArchBishopOfCanterbury #UKPol #JustinWelby #JohnSmyth
#SouthAfrica #Zimbabwe #IwerneTrust

https://youtu.be/9_Jn1of6GHI?si=Ou44ePwzoq8iLniK

Also see Geoffrey Robertson discuss his experience of John Smyth.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/he-s-the-vile-qc-who-disgraced-the-church-at-least-i-derailed-his-australian-mission-20241115-p5kqu1.html

I hear this Smyth predator was Mary Whitehouse's lawyer, and of course she never saw a thing, like White Women Conservatives never do....

https://news.sky.com/story/john-smyth-victim-says-abuse-left-him-with-ptsd-and-mental-health-problems-13253125

#JohnSmyth #MaryWhitehouse #Abuse

“A significant number of those that were aware of the abuse at this time were very senior figures within the Church of England, or went on to very senior positions”, including lay people “holding influential and powerful positions within the Conservative Evangelical network”.

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/8-november/news/uk/prolific-brutal-and-horrific-makin-report-calls-out-the-smyth-abuse-and-the-cover-up

#JohnSmyth #ChurchOfEngland #ConservativeEvangelicals

Anybody following UK news at the moment will know that the Church of England's Archbishop of Canterbury is under pressure to resign following a report describing church inaction over John Smyth's years of sadistic child abuse.

This scandal, however, should not be considered as
solely of concern to the Church of England. As this article makes clear, Smyth was a major figure in the 1970s crusade by British social conservatives against "the permissive society", a crusade which helped prepare the way for the triumph of Margaret Thatcher and her melding of "Victorian values" with militant neoliberalism.

Smyth's story is more than the history of one depraved individual. It calls for further investigation into his shielding and consideration of the ideological roots of rightwingers' readiness to close their eyes to such horrors.

John Smyth: the go-to barrister for Mary Whitehouse | Christianity | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/02/the-go-to-barrister-for-morality-campaigner-mary-whitehouse

#JohnSmyth #UKHistory #UKPolitics #MaryWhitehouse #Thatcherism #SocialConservatism