How should evangelicals respond to the abuse of power?
by Ed Shaw, Psephizo:
Like many groups in society, and other church traditions, we evangelicals have a problem when it comes to unhealthy cultures, misuses of power by those in leadership, and the resulting abuse of those meant to be enjoying their care. Names from the US like Mark Driscoll and Ravi Zacharias quickly illustrate this, as do UK leaders like John Smyth, Steve Timmis and Jonathan Fletcher. There have been independent reports that confirm it—as well as numerous painful experiences shared on social media and elsewhere. Some of these have hit the headlines, other names and situations have gone unreported, but all have been devastating for the individuals, churches and organisations involved. I have been forced to see another side to some leaders I admired from afar, and friends who I thought I knew better than I did.
What have people done in response? I have heard of survivors and bystanders walking away from evangelical churches. On social media, and elsewhere, there has been talk of cover-ups and the names of other alleged abusers and, incredibly, innocent victims have been made public. Numerous blogposts and podcasts have been produced and books written and read. Most of all, tears have been shed as hidden pain has, at last, been openly shared and people have responded with justifiable anger and grief about the evil that has gone unchecked.
There have, of course, also been plenty of conversations along the lines of “something must be done” with people repeatedly asking the obvious question “how can we stop these things from happening again?” The independent reports commissioned have provided some helpful answers, but there has been a growing sense that the problems go wider and deeper and are not limited to just one part of evangelicalism. There has also been a right recognition that no single report, no numbered recommendations, no prominent resignations, do justice to the scale of the problem.
So it was with considerable trepidation that, at the beginning of this year, a group of Anglican evangelicals were commissioned by the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) to form a workstream on culture, power and abuse. The CEEC seeks to unite Anglican evangelicals and the group was made up of women and men, young and old, lay and ordained, conservatives and charismatics, and, crucially, survivors of abuse. We were charged with providing resources that would help evangelicals start to respond effectively to what has often gone wrong in our midst.
Today we launch the results of countless meetings, of listening to the voices of survivors, of reading the reports, of sharing our own positive and negative experiences of evangelicalism, of extensive engagement with a range of other resources, of getting the generous input of many outside voices. But what we share is not the answer to evangelicalism’s significant problem, instead we are simply hoping to encourage and equip all of us to start to have better conversations—with God and each other—of our experiences of culture, power and abuse.
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