Justin Welby says he 'forgives' John Smyth

After seeing him forgive John Smith I thought of all the fire and brimstone
preachers who think hell is justice for all people who don't know Jesus as they say and haven't been born again These people don't question why God wouldn't forgive someone who had never heard of him and might even be kind ok people But Smith was probably amongst the saved and maybe even born again

Pretty rubbish religion

I wonder of the victims are so forgiving. Easy for him to say that.

I happened to watch the Laura Kuensberg interview on tv this morning and when he said he could forgive Smyth i thought bad idea, he had hesitated a second so had time to think but still said yes.. He followed this with something along the lines of the victims had every right not to. Quite so. Obviously!
He has said and done some foolish and irresponsible things and will be remembered as the first ever A of C to be forced to resign. Rightly so in my opinion.
The interview rather reminded me of P.Andrews unfortunate one.

It's an inner prejudice, from being raised a Catholic which I put my hands up to and God knows there's enough wrong with that religion, but I can't help finding some of the spiritual leaders of the CofE so wet and uninspiring.

As you say Monica, it's not his place to forgive only the abused can do that.

I think there are many reasons to judge Welby, I don't think this is one of them. It is part of his faith to forgive presumably any crime. I don't subscribe to that but I understand that there are people who do.

No, it’s not a “ rubbish religion”. However, what is wrong is the amount of abuse being uncovered done by people who are supposed to be there as guides and supporters in the faith to the congregation, and the lack of prompt and adequate action to deal with it - that is the rubbish part, and these individuals need bringing to account for their actions, and the ones failing to act also need bringing to account. To say the religion itself is rubbish is pretty unkind and hurtful to all who follow the faith, and frankly, unhelpful.

I wish he wasn’t being given a voice through the media, he has nothing I wish to hear having badly screwed up his right to a view by his inaction.

In his defence he was answering a direct question and did also say that it wasn’t him who had been abused and that his forgiveness is irrelevant.

However I do agree that his lack of awareness is alarming.

How magnanimous of him! I wonder if Smyth’s victims have taken comfort from Welby’s forgiveness?

Forgive him for what ?

Watching Justin Welby's
hand-wringing, excruciating display on the news made me very angry indeed! 😠

Why is Welby agreeing to an interview? Can his ego not allow him to live a quiet life out of the public eye?

The Bible informs that God forgives us our sins.

Justin Welby was asked if he would forgive Smyth, Welby said in an interview broadcast on Sunday with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “Yes. I think if he was alive and I saw him, but it’s not me he’s abused.

“He’s abused the victims and survivors. So whether I forgive or not is, to a large extent, irrelevant.”

But he didn’t have a lack of awareness he had the awareness but chose not to act on it Iixy
What a blooming plonker a nasty piece of work who seems so self absorbed he can’t even get something as huge as sexual abuse right
C of E, RC makes no difference they are all infiltrated by sexual predators

My point was that a religion where any kind of evil is forgiven if you have accepted Jesus but not knowing you had to accept Jesus is unforgivable isn't a religion that makes sense Anyone who can accept this I'm not saying they can't

I just find it hard to understand it doesn't seem like justice

I simply cannot see what forgiving John Smyth has to do with Welby. The only thing he can forgive him for, is being the unwitting instrument that caused his resignation.

His answer should have been 'Forgiveness from me does not come into it, forgiveness can only come from his victims.'

Bluebelle is right when she talks of infiltration by by sexual predators, but this applies to all religions, schools, childrens organisation, care services, any group where children and young people are brought together. They will inevitably be the targets for sexual predators.

Until recently I really believe that many of the people running these organisations just did not realise the extent, deviousness and persistence of these predators, that or they were one of them and, as more and more historic abuse has come to light, I can see that it is overwhelming, but if you are in, any profession where your aptitude and judgement is thought by your peers to justify appointing you to a top position, it goes with the job that you either deal witht the problems the job presents you with or you resign - before you fail and let so many wounded and abused people down.

I just watched some of this interview- the man comes across as utterly charmless and lacking any emotional depth.

It wasn't for him to forgive this pedophile and I felt Welby was just making some sort of vacuous point here, as if it did matter that he forgave this Smyth guy, who only seemed to have caused Welby to lose his job?

I thought Kuensberg was silly to even ask the question, however. because she was not interviewing the people most affected by Smyth's terrible abuses.

She did ask him he come he didn't know what was going on, and Welby replied with something along the lines of 'I had no clue what was going on.' This response reminded me of Welby's mate Paula Vennels when giving her evidence to the Post Office scandal enquiry. It was her job to know, and also Welby's job to know!
What do they think they were there for? That is a rhetorical question. They were there for the pandering to their own vanities, hob nobbing with royalty and the establishment, and ignoring the abuses that were happening to innocent people.
I hope I never ever seee ither of them being courted in this way by the media again, but I won't hold my breath...

When asked during the BBC interview if he would forgive Smyth, what he actually said was this.

"Yes, I think if he was alive and I saw him but it's not me he abused. He's abused the victims and survivors so whether I forgive or not is to a large extent irrelevant". He went on to say that it is more important for the victims to be cared for, and liberated to re build their lives by the church, than to speak about forgiveness.

He shouldn't be giving interviews at all.. he's still trying to be in the public gaze and once again his ego is evident.. he has never shown any sign of admitting he failed in his duty.. and that is again obvious in this interview where he deflected the question..

It is not Justin Welby's place or privilege to forgive this abuser. Only the victims can forgive - but the former Archbishop of Canterbury has even robbed them of that.

I just wish he’d go away.

Welby was complicit. He knew about these offences and put this man in positions of trust where he had access to new victims.

Should be serving time in prison in my opinion.

Yes, he did say that Smilelesss, he’s very wordy, but what do fine words amount to when he failed to act when he was in a position to do so?

Everything he says is designed to give a favourable impression of himself. He comes across to me as a shallow man puffed up with his own importance.