Dear Editor,
Last month I submitted a piece in response to John Samuel’s November article. The online edition of en was able to capture my apology that I had misunderstood one aspect of John’s article: he did not himself supply the headline and framing which was part of what had attracted so much critique. I really should have checked with John earlier and I apologise publicly here as I have done privately to John. Though I still stand by my basic critique (see my corrected online version), I deeply regret this failure of basic courtesy and good journalistic practice and I am grateful for John’s good grace and kindness.
Yours sincerely,
Glen Scrivener Eastbourne
Dear Editor,
It might be helpful to clarify that the article I submitted to en for consideration was entitled by me: ‘Sad but not surprised - a brief reflection on the fall of Christian leaders.’
My opening paragraph included, after pointing out that I have been a pastor for over 30 years, this sentence: ‘Over the years and particularly in the light of recent revelations, I have reflected on the fall of Christian leaders.’
In other words, my brief reflection was in relation to several decades, not a single year, although revelations in the UK in the last few years have been a catalyst to make me put some reflections in writing.
The headline that en put above my article said that I was reflecting only ‘on a year of scandals’. I fear this headline may have coloured readers’ expectations of my article in an unhelpful way.
Doubtless my reflections are far from perfect as Jeremy Marshall and Glen Scrivener have sought to demonstrate. A letter like this is not the place to engage with their comments.
But I hope the above enables criticism of my article, which I welcome, to be focused in the most appropriate, helpful and fair way.
Yours sincerely,
John Samuel Richmond, London
Dear Editor,
Jeremy Marshall’s preoccupation with class in relation to abuse is both unfortunate and inaccurate. Abuse happens in all social groups – think Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris, Ravi Zacharias, the Rotherham scandals – and all groups close ranks to protect their own – it’s the human condition. All wrong of course, but all too typical. The upper classes might be more skilled and have more pull, but that’s about all.
Now there are other factors which Jeremy Marshall refers to, unconnected to abuse, especially the allocation of resources – most to middle-class areas – which are relevant and here you have a situation where the church just reflects the society. What to do about it is more tricky. Do you condemn every church focusing on students, the already, or want to be, middle class, instead of the council estates?
Certainly England still suffers from class problems and the church needs to address them – perhaps with some of the energy it keeps for ethnic problems. This will need more than an intense irritation with the public-school Oxbridge elite, who can indeed be very irritating. Though John Stott seemed a pretty useful sort of chap.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Cooper By email
From the directors of Evangelicals Now
Following recent appalling abuse scandals, the directors of Evangelicals Now Ltd want to restate that our first thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these horrific events.
The directors have been made aware of some online controversy following an article by John Samuel published by the newspaper in the November edition. No single article in en can deal with all aspects of such complex situations; but we fully support the editor in seeking to provide a range of content and comment so that we can all learn from these sinful and shameful situations and events and appropriately support those who have been harmed by them.
Our stated aim is to check all such articles with our independent safeguarding advisors. In this case, due to a human error, the check was initially overlooked, but as soon as the mistake was spotted, the editor cleared the article with our independent safeguarding experts. The editor has apologised for this mistake, and we are confident that it was a genuine oversight and not a deliberate error. It remains the newspaper’s editorial policy to undertake appropriate checks of relevant material we publish as part of our commitment to safeguarding and to those affected by issues of abuse.
