It’s not getting better, even with the departure of the current Occupant at Canterbury:
The long knives are out. John Smyth’s sadistic behavior which has claimed the Archbishop of Canterbury, could claim as much as 30 percent of the Church of England’s evangelicals, a confidential source told VOL.
There has been a conspiracy of silence — Omerta — to protect those accused of abuse, VOL was told. “Up to 30% of the CofE is tainted.”
Evangelicals have grown rapidly in number and influence these past thirty years on the assumption that they “put bums on pews.” It has similarities with the prosperity gospel preachers who, one by one, have fallen from their prominent perches.
My reaction–and one David Virtue reproduced–a while back was this:
Pilavachi isnāt unique in his being drawn to kinky sex practices; the Anglican Evangelicals have had their woes withĀ John Smyth, Jonathan Fletcher and the Iwerne Camp fiasco. What is wrong with these people?
I think that is the question that British Evangelicals should be asking themselves. I’m not sure I have a good answer for that, but one thing is obvious: the reputation that Evangelicals have to “put bums in pews” is being tarnished by putting bums somewhere else they’re not supposed to be. But perhaps a conversation starter is in order.
In addition to the usual prurient reasons, I think some of this comes from the idea that “suffering builds character.” While it can do that (James 1:2-4,) and corporal punishment is certainly a fast way to induce suffering, it seems to me that if you, almost an adult, got that from someone who was supposed to be your spiritual mentor, what ends up getting built is pain and resentment. A regimen to build maturity needs to be built more constructively, which is one reason why people on this side of the Atlantic join the military and go to places such as Parris Island. (Fun fact: I had a student who was in the Marines and one of her last duty posts was being a DI at Parris Island. She was definitely up to it.)
A more Christian approach for this problem–and one Anglicans on both sides of the Atlantic should seriously consider–is to spend time with people who really have suffered in life from poverty and learn from their experience. That’s been my life in the Church of God these last two score, and it’s been an education. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed, it’s that, after a lot of deprivation, people tend to err on the side of creature comfort, even in relief operations.
One thing is for sure: Evangelicals in the UK need to take their lumps on this and get back to doing what their name implies: evangelising the island, because they’ve got a competitor who does a lot worse than spanking.
Positive Infinity 