Sunday 18th January 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us,
not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Titus 3:4-5 (NIV)

Why I’m still a conservative evangelical
Shortly before Christmas I was asked if I would still call myself a conservative evangelical. 

It was around the time that Channel 4 broadcast the documentary See No Evil, investigating the terrible abuse – physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual – committed by John Smyth on boys and young men both in this country and in Zimbabwe.  He would have called himself a conservative evangelical.

My instinctive response was to say, “Yes, I would.”  I certainly want to distance myself as far as possible from what Smyth did, which is abhorrent.  I also have serious misgivings about the culture of elitism, privilege and entitlement which he represented, and can be a feature of some conservative evangelicalism.

Why, then, am I happy still to call myself a conservative evangelical?  Because I haven’t yet discovered a better term – one that’s accepted and understood – to describe the kind of evangelical I am.  A quick search defines a conservative evangelical as “a Protestant Christian emphasising biblical authority, personal conversion, and evangelism, but holding traditional views on social issues like gender roles and sexuality” – which is not a bad definition.

It’s also because I think it’s better to own the shame of having men like John Smyth in our number, to be reminded that people like me can do awful things like that – which is precisely why we need the gospel of God’s free mercy and grace in Jesus Christ.  Smyth himself wasn’t true to what he professed; he didn’t sit under the Bible’s authority but used the Bible to justify his abuse, with terrible consequences.

I was helped in my thinking by an interview with Smyth’s son PJ, who has had to come to term’s with his father’s abuse.  He takes an enormous family Bible from a shelf.  The owners of the Bible over the generations have signed its first page, from Jackson Smyth in 1874, through to John Smyth and now PJ.

He says, “When I was at a really low place, I so nearly chucked the Bible out.  And then I thought, actually, I’m just going to tear out the page [of family names].  And then I thought, I’m going to get a marker and cross out my dad.  But I’m glad that I didn’t.  We’ve got to own this as part of our story but the succeeding generations, they’re going to do better.”

If we can find a better term than ‘conservative evangelical,’ then let’s do it.  But sadly we’ll never erase the possibility of human beings doing terrible things in the name of truth, not until the end of this age.  Come, Lord Jesus!

Prayer
Lord, in your mercy, save us from the abuse of those who would use your truth to do evil, and keep us from every becoming such people.  Amen.

Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)