07 Jul 2023
Rev Peter Crumpler, associate minister at St Paul’s Church in Fleetville, talks about accountability at all levels of public life.
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” – so wrote Lord Acton, a 19th century historian and politician.
It’s one of those wise statements that tends to get quoted whenever a senior person is found guilty of abusing their power. It’s as true in today’s St Albans and Hertfordshire, as it was in Victorian England.
What’s less widely known is that Lord Acton made that statement in a letter to a senior Church of England cleric. He wrote it in 1887 to Mandell Creighton, who would later become Bishop of London.
Creighton had objected to what he saw as a modern tendency to be unnecessarily critical of authority figures. Acton disagreed, and felt that all people – past or present, leaders or not – should be held to universal moral standards.
In his time on Earth, Jesus tended to be found with the poor and marginalised. He had his strongest words for people who had power and were using it to exploit others. He spoke out for people ignored or rejected by others. And this made enemies of powerful people.
Christian theologian Richard Foster put power’s threat like this: “Power can destroy or create. The power that destroys demands ascendancy. It demands total control. It destroys relationships. It destroys trust. It destroys dialogue. It destroys integrity.”
We see this in today’s fractured politics. We see it in big business and in charities. We see it in so many areas of our public lives. The Church, at times is, sadly, no exception.
When church leaders cannot be challenged, or leaders of Christian organisations are perceived as beyond criticism, then alarm bells should be ringing.
When people are frightened of speaking out because they could be isolated in their communities, discriminated against or passed over for promotion in their workplaces, then power is being abused.
A wise person told me that whenever someone says to you, “This conversation never took place,” then that’s a red flag that something is not right. “Better not mention this to anyone,” is another cause for caution.
It’s advice that’s resonated with me, through roles in journalism, local government, corporate communications, the energy industry and the Church. Often, it takes a brave whistle-blower to sound the alarm, maybe at risk to their livelihood or reputation.
In the UK and around the world, journalists have spoken out against powerful interests – and paid the price. In some countries with their lives.
One of the aims of the St Albans Times is to hold those with power to account, and I see this as vital in any community.
But while I salute the whistle-blowers and investigative journalists, often the solution can be a whole lot less headline-grabbing.
It’s about having good checks and balances in place, about having governance structures that work, and regulators with powers that really bite.
About making sure that accountability really exists and can be seen to work.
The devil, they say, may be in the detail. But often angels can dwell within the small print of laws and regulations designed to hold powerful people to account.
