A comment without complications not offering initial betrayal (8)
I believe the answer is:
apostasy
'betrayal' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a comment without complications not offering initial' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
'not' could be 'o' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'o' is located in the answer.
'comment' could be 'ps' (PS is an example) and 'ps' is present in the remaining letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for apostasy that I've seen before include "Renunciation of one's beliefs or principles" , "abandoning principles" , "Ditching faith" , "Rejection of religion" , "Abandonment of religious faith" .)