Fake?

I wonder if Justin Welby has been to the job centre yet. i doubt it! He is 68 and may well feel that his working life is over. Archbishops of Canterbury rarely resign, they retire gracefully. But there has been nothing graceful about this exit. Welby didn't jump, he was pushed - even by some of his own bishops and influential lay people, forced to step down in the wake of the independent Makin Report on the serial abuser, John Smyth.

His resignation last week came as a shock to us as to many who have found his vulnerability, particularly his honesty about his own struggles with mental health to be marked with authenticity. But administratively Welby and his colleagues are guilty, say his accusers, of dealing slowly and defensively with Smyth, himself a leading figure among evangelicals in the Church of England. From all accounts there are clearly more allegations of abuse, more horror stories on Welby’s watch, and more resignations to come. The victims, impressionable young men at the time, have been seriously emotionally damaged for life.

The episode is inflicting serious reputational damage on the Church. It appears that such abuses were repeatedly sidelined and covered up by the Church hierarchy and others in the know, to protect the fair name of the C of E and to protect other individuals who may be implicated in the scandal but were believed to be forces for good in other ways. The interests of abused individuals, over 100 of them - and others may well still come forward - were sacrificed in order to protect the institution. It was a cost-benefit calculation which seemed to ignore the very basics of the teaching of Jesus. ‘Let the little children come to me for of such is the kingdom of heaven…’

There is clearly a very long way to go before we know the truth about these dark goings on in the life of the Church. Among other things it is about muddled priorities and hierarchical attitudes. But one thing is quite clear. The Church will lose credibility, authority and support because of the perceived hypocrisy of it all. A system which teaches love for others, self-sacrifice, and the importance of telling the truth, is evidently guilty of the worst sort of inconsistency - and at worst, hypocrisy.

Christians have often been accused of hypocrisy. The word comes from Greek theatre. It is about mask-wearing and play acting – pretending to be what you are not. The Church is obviously very vulnerable because it aspires to such high standards and has looked askance at any, inside and outside the Church, who fall short.

The accusation against Welby seems basically well-founded and the processes under way must above all minister to the needs of the victims and hold the perpetrators to account. Some elements of the media will rub their hands in glee at such a good story – religion, sex and violence always sells, and this story will run and run. But then most institutions have their hypocrisies and scandals, all manner of illegal and/or immoral evasive, lying action is taken to protect reputation, brand, profit.

Many of us are or have been part of groups or organisations which fall short of their high ideals. The UN climate change conference COP29 which begins in early December in Poland will attract delegates from all over the world who will leave their own carbon footprint. It can happen too on a local level where green events often have at least a small environmental cost. There are cost-benefit calculations to be made all the time in life. Is this hypocrisy or merely the unavoidability of a complex and inevitably conflicted life? And, it must be said, in the world in which we live there are plenty of reasons to hide, to dissimulate, to protect ourselves. There is no shortage of fakery in the world. No shortage of people willing to exploit any transparency.

On a personal level, we might do a quick scan of what others might see as hypocrisy or at least some sort of mask wearing on our own part. it is tough to face up to this sort of personal stuff. We work hard to avoid it. We collude even in this evasion on a pro-rata basis. Often, like the C of E, we do it with good intention, to save people’s feelings and not least our own.

The church recognised all this 500 years ago as this fragment from the Genevan Psalter shows:

‘Make us to be what we pretend to be…And let our words be echoed in our ways’.

It is a worthy aspiration in this post-truth world.

Photo:BBC