Hearts, Not Garments: A Response to the Makin Review

A man covers his face with his arms in an image representing despair.

‘Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness …’ (Joel 2:13)

On behalf of LGB Christians, Mark Chater offers this response to the Makin Review which was published in October 2024 into the Church of England’s handling of allegations of serious abuse by the late John Smyth.

In union with the whole church, we at LGB Christians are reeling at the horror of the Makin Review. There are no adequate words. We think first of the victims and survivors, who were so badly betrayed by the abuse itself, then by the cover-up, then by the delay. We long for a time when church leaders can look them in the face, say ‘never again’, – and really mean it. 

For us, as lesbian, gay and bisexual Christians, and our friends, three things stand out. Three small details in the story, small yet chilling and revealing. Each of these details points to something rotten at the heart of the church. The evidence is in italics, and the source in the Makin review is in brackets.

1.  He gravitated towards the better-looking and ‘sporty’ boys (the widow of a Winchester College chaplain, and others, Makin paragraph 11.3.22). This and several other pieces of evidence suggest that he, a man married to a woman, was fiercely repressing his own same-sex desire. We can’t and shouldn’t label him as gay or straight or bi: but perhaps what he was beating so savagely was something inside himself that he hated. Internalised homophobia might be manifested here in an extreme form. The damage done by repressing one’s sexuality is not only or even mainly damage to oneself, it is damage to others and to the whole church. Let us pray and work for a church where no one feels they need to hide their sexual orientation.

2. It would do the work of God immense damage if this were public (David Fletcher, a senior Iwerne camp colleague, Makin paragraph 12.1.10e). ‘The work of God’ was winning elite males for Christ and setting them on the road to leadership in the evangelical mould. It was considered more important than the truth, more important than compassion. We might say that was the 1980s, and now we’re different, we have safeguarding: except that we know the church’s safeguarding is deficient, and the same thing happened in subsequent decades and was covered up. It goes on. Let us pray and work for a church in which people are not blinded by their zeal or cowed by their institutional loyalty.

3. He preached and gave advice to boys about ‘marking your repentance’ (several Iwerne witnesses, Makin paragraphs 11.3.12 and 11.3.79). By this, he meant that the boys should accept prolonged beatings so that they could prove to God that they were sorry for their sins. The sins were usually sexual ones. In some conservative evangelical circles, still to this day, there is a preoccupation with guilt and punishment. Such a milieu suited the abuser well. It was and remains very, very bad theology. Orthodox theology teaches that our sins are atoned for by Christ’s sacrifice, and that death and evil are vanquished by his resurrection. There is no need for additional punishment. To suggest that it is needed was heretical, an abuse of scripture as well as human beings. No one challenged him on this bad theology. Let us pray and work for a church in which bad theology, which punishes and scapegoats and costs lives, is called out every time.

There is much more to say about the abuse itself, the cover-up and the prolonged, disastrous mistreatment of those who suffered. We join with many individuals and organisations in calling for profound repentance, accountability and pervasive change in the church. This means much, much more than better safeguarding, though that is obviously an urgent requirement. It also means a different, a new way of being loyal to the church, a new dedication to better theology, a new openness to God’s unqualified love and to the sacramental presence of that love in all sexual orientations.

Additionally, the widespread promotion of gender ideology, and calls for a conversion therapy ban should be seen, especially in the context of our Churches, as part of the same problem which caused John Smyth’s sexual abuse, and institutional complicity.

This is a crisis. Tinkering with our structures and accepting a handful of resignations is like rending our garments. We need to rend our hearts. Then we need to change.