Why Justin Welby had to resign

‘The scale and severity of the practice was horrific. Five of the 13 I have seen were in it only for a short time. Between them they had 12 beatings and about 650 strokes. The other eight received about 14,000 strokes: two of them having some 8,000 strokes over the three years. The others were involved for one year or 18 months. Eight spoke of bleeding on most occasions (“I could feel the blood splattering on my legs”, “I was bleeding for three-and-a-half weeks”, “I fainted sometimes after a severe beating”)… Beatings of 100 strokes for masturbation, 400 for pride, and one of 800 strokes for some undisclosed “fall” are recorded.’

I chose to open with this quote so nobody can be under any doubt why Justin Welby has resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury. The quote is from 1982. That’s how long this has been going on. Back then senior figures within the evangelical movement, which ran Varsity and Public Schools holiday camps, held an inquiry into whether one of their leaders, John Smyth, was systematically abusing boys and young men in their trust.