Dear Editor,
In the January John edition of en, Benton drew a striking parallel between the recent advent of safeguarding officers in the church and the introduction of video assistant referees (VAR) in English Premier League football. Provocatively, John chose to transpose the initial, lumbering use of VAR (seen as ‘petty’, ‘unjust’ and ‘dominant’) with the worst-case scenario of safeguarding officers subverting their roles to wrest authority from local church elders.
Surely, when a series of major safeguarding reports is about to drop – critical for resetting the compass of our constituency – now is not the time to indulge conspiracy theories about coercive control by safeguarding? We need carefully weighed arguments, nuancing the legitimate scope of leadership authority with appropriate checks and balances, rather than an ill-judged ‘appeal to fear’. Indeed, we must be careful not to set ‘honouring the authority of elders’ against caring well for the spiritually abused – by depriving them of well-informed independent advocates.
