“O God, do not remain silent;
Do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God.”
The Makin report details the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth in England from the mid 1970’s to 1982, and thereafter in Southern Africa, and subsequent failure to care for victims and to bring Smyth to justice. (See News page). The fallout has led to the unprecedented resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and calls for further resignations and more root and branch changes in the culture of the Church of England, particularly with regard to safeguarding. Recurring themes in the report include the way that a combination of embarrassment about Smyth’s crimes, fear of consequences of disloyalty and the desire to protect reputations and ministries seen as ‘successful’ led to a conspiracy of silence. Early attempts at whistleblowing, and calls for help from victims and survivors of the abuse were cruelly ignored. Later on, senior church figures became aware, but as Welby admitted, did not pursue prosecution of Smyth or compassionate engagement with victims.
In the coming weeks and months no doubt there will be ongoing reflection on the psychology of groups and institutions; how the most egregious abusers groom and manipulate not only their victims but also, indirectly, the key people in the networks who are supposed to provide protection and accountability. But in the short term, the Church of England is in shock and much of the wider Christian world is reeling. The awful abuse by Smyth has been well known in the public domain since February 2017’s Channel 4 report, but Makin confirms and solidifies with detailed evidence, albeit belatedly, the full story which is what victims always wanted. It is deeply shameful and a cause of lament that this kind of abuse could be allowed to happen in a Christian environment. The secular media which normally ignores the church has been focussed on this story of profound failure in Christian leadership. Among Anglicans there is confusion and bewilderment. There is sorrowful prayer arising from deep sympathy for the ongoing anguish of abuse survivors, and for the future of the church itself. But also there is anger at the leaders who failed to act down the decades, which has led to Justin Welby’s resignation.
Where is God in all this? Has the ‘camp’ work of evangelism and discipleship among C of E and other denomination’s evangelicals which many hundreds, perhaps thousands, believed they benefitted from as young people, been completely discredited along with the gospel it proclaims, as some are arguing? Or is it the very gospel effectiveness of the ministry (like those of RZIM, Soul Survivor, L’Arche et al) which made it a target for the evil one’s attack through one influential man, an evil which was beyond the power of the evangelical informal structures or the formal institutional Church to understand and properly resist? Will things now recover – as optimists on both the liberal and conservative sides are hoping that the next Archbishop will be more clearly on their side and end the political balancing of “good disagreement”? Or will the decline and marginalisation of the church as a whole accelerate?
Church of England minister, evangelist and podcaster Glen Scrivener reminds us: “This is about the heinous abuses of John Smyth, the failures in addressing them, the cover up, the conspiracy of silence, and trying to make a safer church” – not about whether Welby was too conservative, or too liberal, or too managerial, or not on top of things as a leader. He warns against using the emotion around Smyth and Welby being weaponised to “score points” against those of different church tribes. Speaking to members of his own “tribe”, the conservative evangelicals, Scrivener mentions some areas of weakness in the culture which have allowed the toleration and cover up of evil. We all need to look humbly and critically at our own culture, and recommit to openness, transparency and accountability.
But it’s worth looking wider than this. The Church of England is in disgrace at a time when the nation (and the nations of Europe) has become increasingly godless, with many unresolved problems and the prospect of increasing burdens of debt, conflict, climate change and unmanaged Islamic immigration, and a population psychologically and spiritually lost. An attitude of humble and prayerful discernment can conclude that the Smyth abuse and cover up, and the Welby resignation are symptoms of a deep cultural, spiritual crisis which will not be solved by more prominent church leaders' heads rolling, or the appointment of a new Archbishop who doesn’t understand the nature of the hostile powers the church and the nations are up against.
In the Psalms we see many examples of the prophet-poets crying out to God in the context of serious problem in the nation, usually as a result of oppression by foreign powers: “have you rejected us forever?” (eg 74:1; 77:7-8; 79:5). In Psalm 83 the writer begins:
“O God, do not remain silent;
Do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God.”
The plea is that God would not act like some Christian leaders have apparently done when told about injustice and evil, but would listen and act on behalf of justice and the flourishing of his people. The psalm goes on to describe what is going on behind the scenes, referring in the first instance to evil human agents (in the context, the armies of hostile foreign nations), but behind them are demonic powers:
“With cunning they conspire against your people;
They plot against those you cherish.
‘Come’, they say, ‘let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is mentioned no more’”.
Satan and his spiritual agents, working through human beings wittingly or unwittingly, are out to destroy the church, so that it cannot offer the gospel to a needy world. If we understand this, we can see what has happened for what it is, and rather than join a cycle of furious social media-driven recrimination, or hide in shame and fear, we can look to stand in love with other faithful believers in spiritual warfare under Jesus against the real enemy.