In Depth:  John Steley

50 years ago this month, the government of the US led by their idealistic young President, John F. Kennedy, launched an invasion of the island of Cuba.

A group of 1,500 Cuban exiles with American support landed at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs. Their intention was to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro. The result was an utter disaster. Cuba had an army of about 25,000 and a militia of about 200,000. Within a few days, nearly all of the invaders had been killed or captured. The US was humiliated. Castro was triumphant.

Adoption is often thought of in rather fairly-tale like terms.

A lost and unwanted child finds a home in a loving family and everyone lives happily ever after. The reality can be very different.

In 2006, The Independent on Sunday reported that almost 40% of the male population of Britain had used pornographic websites in the previous year.

The study by Nielsen NetRatings also showed that 1.4 million women in Britain had used online pornography in the same period.1 I would like to think that the situation among Christians is totally different. Sadly, this is not the case.

I feel sorry for parents today. So many people tell them not to smack their children. They are told that smacking only modifies behaviour in the short-term. They are told that it models violent behaviour and can therefore teach the child to be violent towards others.

If a child’s behaviour must be changed then they are told that it can be done more effectively by other non-violent means. The logic of these arguments, based as they are on the social psychology of aggression and the behaviourist theory of reinforcement, seems to be irrefutable.

As a Christian, I would like to think that abuse cannot occur in Christian families.

The sad fact is that after many years of counselling both Christians and non-Christians, I have to conclude that Christian parents can sexually abuse their children - even when they are respected members of the best evangelical churches.

I have a confession to make. It's not that I have done anything illegal or even grossly immoral. It's just that sometimes I question my role.

You see, I work as a psychologist down in the East End of London. That place where the soap opera comes from - except there aren't any cameras. It is not a lack of work that is my problem, there has always been plenty of that. Nor do I question the effectiveness of psychology in helping many of the people I meet.