I encourage everyone interested in law and religion issues to read this challenging piece published on the Australian Broadcasting Commission website from Emeritus Professor Patrick Parkinson: “Christian sexual ethics and the abuse of adolescents: Lessons from the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle” (24 September 2024). Professor Parkinson provides some comments on the excellent recent review of the horrific child abuse perpetrated by some clerics in Newcastle published by Anne Manne, Crimes of the Cross (Black Inc, 2024). Both the article and the book itself are crucial reading for church leaders, who need to be aware of the terrible things done under cover of the Christian faith.

An important insight that Professor Parkinson brings is that the gradual departure of some in the church from Biblical standards of sexual morality has been one of the factors contributing both to the abuse of children but also to the unwillingness of those in the church to take action to prevent it. He comments:

I suspect that the abandonment of traditional Christian sexual ethics without a theologically informed replacement created an environment where the sexual abuse of adolescents became more likely in Newcastle; and this remains a continuing vulnerability for churches that depart from traditional Christian sexual ethics or that allow this to occur in a subterranean way. 

I commend the article, and Ms Manne’s book, as important reading.