I was speaking to a fellow retired clergyman some time ago about the safeguarding culture that appears everywhere in church life today.  He responded by telling me about an offer made to him by an insurance company over safeguarding.  This company offered to provide access to legal protection if ever he was subject to an accusation of abuse from the past.  Because the amount required for this cover was a modest sum, he decided to sign up, even though he knew that there were no genuine stories about him to be told.  The possibility of a false accusation remained a real, but thankfully improbable, threat.

False accusations of abuse sadly are not unknown, even in the church.  We can remind ourselves of the unsubstantiated rumours and gossip that attached themselves to Father Griffin, which lead to him taking his own life.  The accusations against Bishop Perham did an enormous amount of damage to him personally, his family and the whole of his diocese.  His untimely death from cancer following his exoneration may or may not be an indicator of the nature of the stress he had been under.  Chronic illness does often seem to go hand in hand with the trauma experienced through abuse.  So, it is not unreasonable to wonder whether the same illness inducing factors are at work from the stress of being accused falsely. Such an accusation places one in a no-man’s land of forced inactivity for months and years.  How do bishops and clergy required to step back from their duties spend their time?  They are required effectively to disappear, but this is quite hard to do when you have been used to a degree of public exposure through your relationships, writing and preaching.

Those who have studied the issue of false accusations against clergy and Christian leaders mention the statistic that around 5% of these accusations are false.  I do not know how this figure was arrived at, but this percentage is sufficient to make it important for those charged with examining abuse cases always to face the possibility that with accusations of abuse, there may sometimes be falsity and malice present in the accusation.  The case against John Brassington seemed to achieve its apparent credibility, not from a careful examination of all available evidence, but from a number of prejudices and assumptions that reportedly existed in the minds of members of a core group gathered to deal with the case.  Now that most of those originally in this group have moved on in their careers, John will probably never see justice or vindication.   Although the substance of the story remains in the voluminous paperwork collected by John’s friends and supporters, it will probably be of interest only to a historian who, in the future, wants to understand how the Church did its work of operating its own version of a justice system.

In this blog I want us to set out some of possible reasons for someone to bring a false accusation against a Christian leader, to accuse them of assault or bullying.  While I have the Brassington and Griffin cases at the back of my mind, my observations here are also based on a number of other episodes beyond these two cases alone.   If future core groups are to handle these kinds of accusations against individuals, they need to have some insight into the dynamics of a false accusation., even though they are rare events.  I am going to suggest that there are, in most cases of false accusation, some common themes.  It is to these that we now turn our attention.  My aim here is not to go further in discussing actual historical cases, but to indicate some of the distinct dynamics potentially present in the false accusation cases that I have encountered.

Why would anyone seek to accuse another person falsely of a serious offence, thereby breaking one of the Ten Commandments about bearing false witness?  Most people have encountered this ‘false witness’ offence at some point during their lives.  In the process of administering justice, courts take very seriously the possibility of perjury and lies.  For the proper administration of justice, a court expects to hear ‘nothing but the truth’ in the testimonies given in evidence.  False accusation and false testimony are also taken very seriously by Scripture.  If an individual chooses to break this commandment we need to reflect on possible reasons. 

In the Litany of the Book of Common Prayer, God is asked to deliver us from numerous evils that may assault us at the hands of others. The quartet of ‘envy, hatred, and malice and all uncharitableness’ is included.   My spell-check does not like the final word, but I think we can read the word as a synonym for the other sentiments mentioned, malice and hatred.  Before we come back to the idea of false accusation being an outworking of malice and hatred, I want us to think about ‘envy’.  The word envy is often replaced by the idea of jealousy and this is a distinct form of malevolence.  Such a feeling is going to be common in any environment, particularly one which tolerates or encourages competition.  To be jealous of another person is to resent the fact that they have achieved a skill or power that the jealous person thinks desirable.  Any institution (think Church or public school) that is organised by a system of promotion and reward will likely be place of festering jealousy.  Some will benefit in a race for promotion and status while others languish at the bottom of the pile.  This distinct version of hatred and malice felt by one party against another may in some cases lead to violence.  If jealousy or envy can provoke violence, how much more can we expect to see on occasion false accusation used as a weapon against the individual who is seen to have achieved success in one of life’s races?  The race that has been won, whether for money, power or status, may have cost a great deal in terms of expended energy, but the culture of competing to win always makes such a struggle appear worthwhile.  The atmosphere of permanent and intense competition creates, on occasion, a situation of passionate jealousy, and this is something we have all witnessed. False accusations may well appear in this kind of setting, drawing on the considerable energy evoked by the feelings of passionate jealousy.  The question in a core-group setting should always consider whether envy and jealousy might possibly be a factor in an accusation.  Ever since the struggle between Cain and Abel it has been a factor that infects relationships, even those of the closest.

Jealousy and malice may exist in a situation where there is a history of competition between individuals and needs always to be considered.  There is also a further type of false accusation which needs to be assessed. We have all been part of human families as children and we can remember well how we and our siblings sometimes sought to be the centre of attention in the family group. The announcement that ‘my brother hit me’ is one way for a younger child to seek the help of adults and be the focus of attention for a few minutes.  Such a situation normally resolves itself, but the complaining child has learnt that such a complaint or accusation provides them with a momentary access to real power.  In schools the world over teachers are today wary of the child in a class making accusations against other children.  More serious are the accusations made against a teacher.  Procedures are instantly activated and there may have to be an immediate ‘stepping back’ by the teacher concerned.   Most of us hear only part of the story but it seems clear in many of the stories I have heard, that becoming important and listened to, may be a motivation for a young person to make an accusation against an adult.   Such a potential motivation has to be (or should be) examined to assess whether the accusation is real or stems from a desire to be right at the centre of a serious drama.

The possibility of false assumptions, rumour-mongering or simple malice will always be scenarios that have to be considered when cases of alleged abuse are being considered.  Careers and relationships can be destroyed on the basis of an accusation made.  Those who have to make decisions on these matters for the Church need always to have a clear understanding of the dynamics of prejudice, malice or scapegoating that may exist in schools, churches and other similar organisations.  The procedures to avoid such possibilities may normally be robust but, if ever the system gets it wrong and listens to the false accusation, the knock-on effect can last for decades.  Institutions are seriously weakened by even a single mistake and the assumption that truth and justice are always a priority can be destroyed in the minds of a watching public.  We know that malefactors can be accepted for decades without challenge in some parts of the church.  It seems that the same system that failed to spot them to protect their victims is sometimes unable to discern the innocent who are accused of the most appalling crimes.  The great loser in all this is the Church itself.  Confidence in its integrity remains as a vital part of its ability to survive and serve another generation.