Displaying items by tag: bishop

Law professors have urged the US commission on international religious freedom to intervene for the Finnish Christian MP, Pavi Räsänen, who faces criminal charges for tweeting her views on marriage and sexuality. The bishop-elect of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission also faces prosecution for publishing a booklet in which Ms Räsänen made similar comments. The professors ask the commission to ‘press our government to use its legal powers and fulfil its duties under US law to aid victims of human rights violations such as Pavi Räsänen and Bishop Juhana.’ The prosecutor general’s pursuit of these charges sends an unmistakable message to all Finns: no one who holds to the traditional teachings of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other religions on questions of marriage and sexual morality will be safe from state harassment if they openly express their moral and religious convictions.

Rt Rev’d Andrew Watson, the Bishop of Guildford, has said that he is a survivor of ‘appalling activities’ perpetrated by John Smyth QC, a former Iwerne Trust chairman facing multiple allegations of abuse. Bishop Andrew said, ‘It was abuse perpetrated by a misguided, manipulative and dangerous man, tragically playing on the longing of his young victims to live godly lives.’ An investigation by Channel Four found that both the Iwerne Trust and Winchester College had learned of allegations of abuse by Mr Smyth in the 1980s but failed to report them to the police. One man told the programme that some boys had been beaten so badly by Mr Smyth that they had to wear nappies to staunch the bleeding. When one of the men tried to take his own life, the Iwerne Trust launched an investigation. It compiled a confidential report in 1982, which described the beatings of 22 young men: eight of them received about 14,000 strokes. A statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury said: ‘We recognise that many institutions fail catastrophically, but the Church is meant to hold itself to a far, far higher standard and we have failed terribly. For that the Archbishop apologises unequivocally and unreservedly to all survivors.’