"The BBC has now been told that Smyth also recruited one of his victims and asked him to administer further beatings."
We are postponing the testimony of someone involved in a 9Marks style church takeover in order to bring a shocking update regarding John Smyth. It has just come to our attention that Smyth allegedly recruited one of his victims to carry out beatings on other students. Here is a screen shot from a recent BBC report:
Even more shocking is the following video that details the accusations against John Smyth.
Smyth allegedly began grooming Andy Morse (featured in the video) at the age of 14. Less than two years later Andy he was getting regular and violent beatings in John Smyth's garden shed. He believes he may have been struck as many as 3,000 times over the years.
WARNING: VIDEO INCLUDES GRAPHIC MATERIAL
As revealed in the video, 22 young men were brainwashed and beaten in what has now been described as a 'religious cult'.
According to his bio on the Covenant Life Church website, P.J. Smyth, son of John Smyth, was born in the UK in 1971. Is Andy Morse the godfather of P.J. or one of his younger siblings? More importantly, was P.J. exposed to these purported severe beatings which left some of those who were hurt disfigured?
Simon Doggart has been identified as the one who was recruited by John Smyth to carry out the beatings Smyth could no longer administer. When Andy Morse described the beatings by Simon Doggart, he said they were much worse than Smyth's.
Doggart is now critically ill and unable to respond to questions. He is the headmaster of Caldicott (near Cambridge, England).
John Smyth can be very persuasive, as evidenced by this interview regarding Oscar Pistorius. Notice how Smyth mentions his credentials and qualifications. Perhaps this is a strategy he used to garner the trust of the young men he allegedly abused.
We wrote about the accusations against John Smyth when they first became known. The post was entitled:
John Smyth Allegedly Led Meetings in the Nude and Wouldn’t Let Boys at Camp Wear Underwear (link)
Here is another video with a pastor of the South African church from which Smyth resigned. It provides some fairly current information (skip over the intro if you like).
We will continue to follow this tragic story and bring you any updates. In the meantime, please pray for those who have been hurt by John Smyth. May others be emboldened to come forward and tell of the horrific things that happened to them.
Praying for the victims.
@ Velour:
I will join you in prayer for them, Velour.
A vigil prayer for those who have been abused:
Breathe wisdom into our prayers over the harm done to our brothers and sisters and and keep them enfolded in your Mercy.
Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom we place our trust, hear our prayers for those who have suffered and grant peace to their hearts.
Amen
From the final video in the post:
Pastor David Beyer says regarding his friend and former colleague Pastor John Smyth’s behavior, his track record with those under his charge: “Things go wrong in people’s lives.”
Really? How about people make, shall we say – evil – decisions. People indulge in evil practices, gratifying evil pleasures, destroying other peoples’ lives, in the name of God, as wolves in sheep’s attire. Matthew 7:17-18, Luke 6:43, Jesus says: a bad tree produces bad fruit.
Those who endorsed Smyth and his ministry as good, in this new light, need to retract the endorsement and now condemn the evil. But retraction requires humility and admitting one was wrong about the good old teammate. Pride can prevent this – and thus comes to light another bad fruit, produced by another bad tree – the good old team network.
A bad tree is known and displayed in full view by its fruit, says Jesus. From the perverted perpetrator to the turn-a-blind-eye-regarding-one-of-us facilitators. Rotten at the core. Veneered with good old team religion.
BTW: It appears that the PJ Smyth videos posted by TW 2 Sam 12.7 TATM on 2.03.2017 have disappeared.
@ JYJames:
I just pulled up Todd's Wilhelm's Feb. 3 post and noticed that, too. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
JYJames wrote:
See also: “mistakes were made”
It takes the active component out of an action. People make choices. People do evil.
If someone is only hurting themselves, you can say that it may be a result of things in their lives, but I don’t buy when they are actively hurting others.
@ Lea:
sometimes it’s the passive ‘looking away’ that is also evil, when you think about it
in some cases, even the law will charge a parent who ‘looked away’ while another parent brutalized a child.
I suppose the argument is that the passive parent ought to have reported the abuse and sought help for the child and by not doing it, is also considered complicit in the crime
other considerations:
reasons as opposed to excuses …. they are two very different things
does a person KNOW what they are doing? a mentally-challenged person may not understand on the same level as an adult
If a person is willingly hurting another person, that is certainly something to be held accountable for, yes
where it gets tricky: when people are placed in ‘forced choice’ situations and both choices are terrible (example: the film ‘Sophie’s Choice’ where the Nazi officer tells the Polish mother to choose which one of her two children to keep …. no mother can even contemplate something so terrible)
“John Smyth can be very persuasive, as evidenced by this interview regarding Oscar Pistorius. Notice how Smyth mentions his credentials and qualifications.” (Deb)
Proof that perversion can transcend intellect.
I still find it amazing that JS’s transgressions over a number of years involving multiple victims went unnoticed. The control he had over those poor boys to keep their mouth shut must have extended to family, friends, and peers who surely knew something and should have said something.
Lea wrote:
So bad fruit suddenly, mysteriously, inexplicably [without accountability] appears on a good tree?
Max wrote:
Agreed. Anyone who knew what was happening and did nothing should be held to account. One need look no further than what is happening with that Penn State fraternity. A pledge was forced to consume alcohol, fell down the stairs, and the frat brothers did NOTHING!
It sounds like some of those who were allegedly hurt by Smyth have some deformities. Surely Mrs. Smyth knew something. Shame on her if she did!
Deb wrote:
Dottie Sandusky, blowing kisses to her hubby in court.
Deb wrote:
And anyone – in Smyth’s network – who now knows what was/is happening with Smyth and does nothing should be held to account as bearing equally bad fruit as the predator.
Jesus said the robbers attacked and left the man to die, and added that the Levite and Priest saw the man who needed help and likewise left the man to die. All three left him to die.
JYJames wrote:
Equally perverted.
JYJames wrote:
That’s right up there with “Mistakes Were Made(TM)”.
Was this written by his attorney?
JYJames wrote:
See also: “the Geraldine Defense”.
JYJames wrote:
“Have disappeared” or “As of now, It Never Existed”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole
Max wrote:
This is an interesting thing. I remember going in for an interview when I applied for assistance a while back. When I got there, the person doing the interview was someone who had been a friend of my parents and went to our church when I was little. I was already uncomfortable, but this amped that up. Then she started asking questions about family. And then said something that, as an abuse survivor, I still am not sure what to do with. She said, "The other ladies and I knew that your mom was not 'being a mother to you,' but we were too busy with our own problems…" um…gee…thanks? What does that euphemism even mean, exactly? People can see and just not want to face it. And I am left asking, "you could see and you didn't even reach out to me a little? You didn't do anything?" That both adds to the pain and confirms that the abuse was not something I made up (something victims get accused of all the time). To her credit, she at least looked a little contrite.
@ Jeannette Altes:
That is just awful! I'm sorry no one had the concern to intervene when you were young.
@ Deb:
Thanks, Deb. It’s an interesting thing – when you begin to speak up about the abuse, people will say the most revealing things. In talking to family members about some of the specifics of the abuse, they have told me that, 1) they could see that I wasn’t being treated well (though it was much worse than what they could see), but no one wanted to confront or cross my mom because she was ‘so difficult.’, and 2) they may have treated me a little harsher than I deserved just because I was my mother’s daughter, i.e., taking my mother’s behavior out on me.
These were actually some pretty big admissions, even if they were used in an attempt to justify. They helped me see my childhood more objectively which has helped in facing things and healing.
From the Huffpo, 5.11.2017, by Tim Rymel, M.Ed., Author | Educator | Dad: Has Evangelical Christianity Become Sociopathic?
“Evangelical Christianity … crossed a line… Is it fair to call it sociopathic?”
“Psychology Today listed sixteen characteristics of sociopathic behaviors, which include: Untruthfulness and insincerity, superficial charm and good intelligence, lack of remorse or shame, poor judgment and failure to learn by experience, pathologic egocentricity and incapacity for love, unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations, specific loss of insight, and general poverty in major affective reactions (in other words, appropriate emotional responses).”
“We see examples of these kinds of behaviors in church leaders and followers.”
JYJames wrote:
I believe all the videos are working now. The only problem I had with was the one of Mark Mitchell telling the stooges in the audience that they had thoroughly vetted P.J. Smyth. (Reminds me of a George Strait tune, “I’ve Got Some Ocean Front Property in Arizona.”)
I reinstalled it. Not sure why it wasn’t working. It was a copy I made; having written extensively about CLC I have found it best when dealing with the businessmen of Covenant Life Church to make copies of everything. (Trust, but verify doesn’t work with these guys. My S.O.P. is “Don’t trust, make copies.”)
I believe those still in attendance at CLC are beyond hope. They have willingly embraced P.J. Smyth, their new pastor who flagrantly lied to them right out of the gate. When confronted with evidence that his two statements to the church regarding what he knew about his father were lies, Smyth declared memory loss. The businessmen of CLC backed his play and of course the lemmings in the audience were only too happy to follow them over the cliff.
CLC has a sordid history of covering up sexual abuse from their very earliest of days when they claimed pastor Charles Schmitt was leaving due to doctrinal differences. Thirty six years later Schmitt has been kicked out of his church for multiple homosexual affairs. These affairs have been ongoing for his entire adult life.
Believe me, there are a few charlatans in the pulpit hoping Schmitt takes some secrets to his grave.
Link to the post referenced by JYJames:
https://thouarttheman.org/2017/02/03/covenant-life-church-sure-knows-pickem/
Todd Wilhelm wrote:
“If conservative Christians want to protect the faith — especially in a time when they fear loss of cultural power — they must show preferential care not for the powerful but for victims. … This is the hard work that epitomizes Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s conception of ‘costly grace.’ An application of costly grace would mean showing perpetrators that their actions have real consequences. It would also ensure that victims are heard and given tools for healing long before there is any talk of restoring their abusers.”
– NYT article on TWW’s Hot News page: 5.2.2017, By KATELYN BEATY. Great post, TWW!
I agree with Jeanette about people saying they were to busy with their lives to get involved. If we don’t step in to stop it, we bear part of the guilt. This has happened in my life to me. I can now accept things for what they are, and go forward with life. Several yrs ago, at a store, I saw a young man harassing a girl. I stopped and asked if she was ok and if she needed me to get security. She said she didn’t. I have my doubts about that. But at least my husband and I were willing to help her out if she needed it.
Velour wrote:
I’m also hoping that justice will be done. This is the tip of the iceberg.
JYJames wrote:
We’ve seen this before with the other pastor before he went on ‘ecuador sabbatical’.
This is some very twisted belief system.
Highly recommend ‘The List,’ a tv documentary about the decades of clergy sex abuse of children in the RC church in Philadelphia. I believe
the tv station is WHYY? Link is at the Philadelphia-based blog Catholics4Change.
@ TomkeinOK:
Thank you for the info. I loved their statement, this:
“We are not sheep.
We are angry at this abuse.
We are angry at this cover-up.
We are people of faith.
We are people of hope.
We are people of love.
We support survivors of abuse.
We support good priests.
We say, never again!
WE ARE SILENT NO MORE.”
Here’s the link:
https://catholics4change.com/about/
@ Christiane:
What I have found most heart-rending in reading the comments at the blog: the pain of people who have learned that priests who taught at their children’s schools, who christened their nieces or nephews, who married friends were ķnown by their superiors to be abusers and were nevertheless protected – often for years – ‘for the good of the institution.’ The abuse and cover-up went on for decades. The immense pain and disillusionment ìs hard to read or grasp.
sad,sad,sad,bad,bad,bad,mad,mad,mad.
if you do anything to little ones…….
TomkeinOK wrote:
I think those who placed abusers into new situations where they could abuse again …. those enablers will always be seen as one of the great horrors because THEY, each one of them personally, are directly responsible for all the evil that occurred subsequently. Far from ‘protecting’ the institution, these enablers magnified the evil and have NO excuses for the harm they did to the most innocent among our people. The follow-up will take years, but in time, Catholic people hope to see every case addressed and every victim helped in so far as is possible. The pain of these victims is felt by all in the faith who are to ‘bear one another’s burdens’ in the Name of Christ.
‘Never again’ speaks of a vigilance in the Church that is unremitting in its pursuit of justice for victims, and for protection of the innocents from harm. This vigilance, having begun, will not end. The Catholic people will keep watch for the sake of the innocents so beloved by Christ Himself. And they will work for justice for the victims whose suffer still from the effects of the evil done to them. As long as they suffer, so will the Catholic people suffer. The victims and the Catholic people seek healing in unison, as their pain is ours also.
Jack wrote:
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
— Voltaire —
Am watching ‘The Keepers’ on netflix …. a powerful and very sad, moving story of abuses, even murders, and a church cover-up …..
the victims are so moving in this series and I recommend it, although it is painful to watch
the ending is hope-filled, and the hope is coming from the victims themselves and those advocates who want justice for them
worth watching, yes
Todd Wilhelm wrote:
Didn’t Dante Aligheri inscribe “Abandon Hope all Ye who Enter” over the gates of Hell?
Deb and Dee, John Smyth’s Cape Town church made the following announcement this Sunday past http://churchonmain.org.za/announcement-regarding-john-smyth/.