“If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Matthew 18:6 NRSVue
I honestly don't care if there is a position called the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primate of the Anglican communion around the world. Still, I have held positive regard for Justin Welby who has been in the role for more than a decade. He has attempted to be pastoral in a church fractured by LGBTQ2S issues along with other big challenges including a nosedive in weekly worship attendance in Great Britain. Welby has been a "green" primate, encouraging Anglicans to care for Creation, and he has been a "speaking truth to power" voice in the House of Lords regarding refugees. He has acknowledged historic racism and its persistence into the present day.
Yet he has now resigned because of an egregious cover-up of horrible sexual abuse of children in Britain and Africa for decades by a man who was a volunteer at Christian camps. While Welby claimed initially that he wouldn't resign because he wasn't aware of the extent of the abuse the fact that the church didn't report the perpetrator to police meant that his position was no longer tenable. There was a written report about this abuse as early as 1982.
These cover-ups of sexual abuse by people in religious authority have been widespread in the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention and now this situation in the Anglican Church. It really is awful and nearly always it is men in authority who want to avoid scandal caused by other men. The web of deceit has often been widespread and institutional and totally negates the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is sheer poison in the Body of Christ and we must mourn the harm done to untold numbers of innocent children. Our United Church is not without stain. The systemic abuses inflicted upon Indigenous children in the Residential School system were horrendous and our work of reconciliation is far from over.
Is it any wonder that so many people have turned away from organized religion?
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