Nevertheless, isn't there quite a bit of speculation here? I mean, why don't we just blame the elders for this tragedy? How does anyone know that the elders asked them to "work things out" and prevent her from getting a seperation? Honestly, no one here knows the particulars of the case, at least not the "Witness" side to it.
I didn't speculate what happened. I didn't blame the elders for the tragedy. In my post, I made it clear that my perspective was based on my knowledge of how JWs work in marital strife situations. I plainly said that "
maybe, just
maybe" the elders counseled her. I also said that "
I can't prove it" and that we as former JWs know "how that scenerio
could have played out". That's one possible scenerio out of many, but as a former JW and having seen similar situations in the religion, it's a scenerio that is entirely possible. I didn't say it happened that way, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did happen that way.
While we can't blame the elders for this tragedy, I think some responsibility for how some of these tragedies happen lies within the infrastructure of the religion, it's leaders and it's policies and practices of encouraging abused spouses to continue to put with abuses so as to not bring reproach on the organization. Not bringing reproach on the organization is resulting in the deaths of abused spouses. I, for one, would rather see a religion's name and reputation dragged through the mud than see an innocent person die.