It's crazy how the British government/Church, in looking at the case of John Smyth, decided that the problem essentially was there wasn't enough "social conservatism/religious dogma" in society, rather than there being too much.
"People want a cohesive society. They want a society where we know who we are and what we value and where we're going - and this is where the Church plays its role."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj929xd84e3o
When you look at the abuse John Smyth engaged in, it appears to be a sort of sadistic desire to inflict pain out of self-hatred for his own attractions (an affront to God). He was trying to "purge" himself and his victims of "sin" by beating and abusing them. Almost like a male version of the headmistress from Matilda.
Christians do the darndest things...
@Aldo2 I know there's been allegations of the catholic church of sexual misconduct and abuse
@bulky_nerd in this case is was Protestants/Evangelicals.
It's a very British thing.
Conservative British Christians are always involved in "buggering" of one form or another...Everyone knows it.
Look up their involvement with the Northern Irish Paramilitaries and organized crime/child-abuse rings. Very crazy rabbit hole to go down.
Double irony is that John Smyth went around the world campaigning for "Muscular Christianity" and against legalizing gay-marriage.
Another interesting thing to note is that some victims actually said they would have forgiven their abuser, no questions asked, if he actually apologized.
Obviously, John Smyth was too proud and too religious and too conservative to come out and apologize to the (then) boys he abused.
Conservatards really just make the situation worse for everyone, all the time. They make it worse for themselves by hiding and refusing to apologize for their mistakes, and then when they get revealed the society goes into hysterics and overreacts, leading to mass-repression to "prevent this ever happening again".
Pathetic.
Conservatards are pretty pathetic.
The only ones who are not pathetic are those who are open, and they are precious few.