Inter-Varsity Press and the Stephen Sizer Antisemitism Scandal
In October 2016, Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) withdrew Stephen Sizer’s books from sale, returning the publishing rights to Sizer himself. Sizer had by this time gained national notoriety as the “9/11 Israel conspiracy priest” due to his 2015 Facebook link to an antisemitic website claiming Israel was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In contrast to earlier (Peter O’Brien) and later (Steve Timmis) book withdrawals, IVP did not issue a public statement explaining its decision to withdraw Sizer’s books. Nonetheless, IVP’s disassociation from Sizer became public knowledge and was briefly mentioned in Evangelicals Now in January 2017.
IVP’s silence about its decision was profoundly regrettable, and it could be compared to the equally regrettable silence of Christianity Explored Ministries (CEM), which secretly suspended Sizer in 2015. In the absence of any statement from IVP, the door was left open to another publisher to reissue Sizer’s books without having to explain itself — which is exactly what happened.
Despite its reprehensible silence, IVP deserves credit as the only conservative evangelical organisation to take meaningful action against Stephen Sizer in the years preceding his January 2023 ministry ban. (IVP was taken over by a non-evangelical publisher in 2015, but Evangelicals Now reported that all of IVP’s existing trustees would join a new board “constituted to preserve IVP’s longstanding and highly respected conservative evangelical ethos.”)
Looking at the list of IVP’s trustees in 2016, it’s noteworthy that none of them seem to have been simultaneously serving on the board of any of the other evangelical organisations involved in the Stephen Sizer scandal. This was unusual. The leadership committees of the other organisations exhibited a kind of cross-fertilisation during the relevant timeframe. Hugh Palmer was on the boards of Evangelicals Now and Christianity Explored Ministries; Mark Burkill was on the boards of Evangelicals Now, Church Society, and ReNew; Simon Vibert, Sizer’s successor at Christ Church Virginia Water, served on a Church Society committee; John Stevens was “deeply involved in the development of the [Gospel] Partnerships” and also served as an associate editor of Evangelicals Now; William Taylor, who had led the South East Gospel Partnership, served as a trustee of Church Society at the time when its director, Lee Gatiss, falsely denied knowledge of any of the Sizer scandal’s details; Taylor also served on the board of the Proclamation Trust at the time when its chair, Vaughan Roberts, refused to provide any assistance in relation to the Sizer scandal; and Taylor also led ReNew when it accepted Sizer’s application to attend its October 2017 conference.
Without access to the minutes of the relevant meetings, it’s impossible to know who said what when. However, it’s plausible that the leaders mentioned above spread a dismissive attitude towards the Sizer scandal, influencing board members who might otherwise have taken responsible action. None of those leaders were present on IVP’s board, and so there was no opportunity for a dismissive narrative to take hold. When presented with the same information about Sizer, IVP’s trustees saw that radical action ought to be taken.
