Sparing the rod

Peering into the dark heart of the John Smyth abuse scandal, now laid bare in an overdue report

Hello! This week’s newsletter is all about the finally published Makin Review into the John Smyth abuse scandal. How did this charismatic yet sadistic lawyer gain privileged access to boys from Britain’s elite, and get away with viciously beating them in his garden shed? Who is to blame for Smyth not being stopped, especially after his record of abuse was exposed as long ago as 1982? And are fears that the hierarchy of the Church of England, potentially going up as high as the Archbishop of Canterbury, have been trying to bury their complicity in the scandal justified?

We work through the sordid details and the important lessons to be learned from yet another devastating failure by high profile evangelical leaders. There’s also at the end links to my latest podcast, which explores the dubious return of eugenics in the guise of embryo selection, and what a different vision of Christian parenthood might look like.

You can subscribe for free to The Critical Friend to receive my weekly an…