UNITED KINGDOM
Christian Today
Ruth Gledhill CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR 14 July 2015
The sufferings inflicted on children by clergy in the child sex abuse scandals that have come to light in recent decades are beyond belief, and that has been one of the problems. For too long, none believed the children who told the tales. The actions of those involved were intrinsically evil.
Justice is still working its way out on those responsible, in the Church and in the wider world. It will take a long time. Justice Goddard’s public inquiry alone in the UK is expected to take at least five years. And of course it is not just the churches. These crimes infected all society. There is a massive public reckoning to come.
In a world where individuals must be made to take responsibility for crimes if they refuse to do so voluntarily, a world that in the West at least believes little in the devil and possession, theologians and psychologists of the future must explore how and why these crimes ever took place.
To differentiate between the sin and the sinner, and thereby somehow seem to excuse the latter, can appear to be unacceptable casuistry, but we still need to ask whether individuals who perform these actions are themselves intrinsically evil.
In the church as well as in the wider world, there have been too few sackings, too few public reckonings against those responsible. So many abusers have simply been allowed to pass into old age and die without ever being called to account for the crimes. Such terrible damage has been done, such awful mistakes made. Defrocking is only now being restored to the penalties available to the Church of England, for example. It is no wonder that victims’ groups say that what is being done is too little, too late, no wonder that there is such great anger.
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