ALL JWs despise child molestation (as well as molestation PERIOD) - except the Pretender Pedofiles lurking in ALL groups, even ours.
The Catholic Church is the only Church that openly just transfers Ped-Priests to other locations when discovered, not US.
Mad, Mad, Mad.
The rank-and-file members do hate the acts of child molesters. There are not necessarily more molesters in the JW's
than in other groups. Don't miss the issues here. Read some of the stuff at silentlambs and learn.
The problem with the Catholic Church was the transferring Ped-Priests as you mention, but also the problem was that
they covered up the problem for the victims. It would look bad.
WTS is just as guilt in this. They covered it over. Policy dictated that nobody was guilty without two credible witnesses.
That could be understood if that were the only issue. If the person denies the allegations, and there is only the one child
coming forward, then the child and his/her family were powerless. If they warned others, they were spreading gossip and
slander, subject to DF.
Two elders would interview the child to determine credibility. Let's see. I was an elder. How much training did I get to
prepare me to interview children who are potential abuse victims? NONE. How could I say, "Well, little girl, nobody else
agrees with what you said. You have no proof. Don't tell anyone else about this." (Elders always tell people involved in anything
judicial "Don't tell anyone else about this.") Later WTS told elders not to discourage parents from reporting this to authorities, but
what about a child abused by a parent? Maybe the elders needed to report this to professional authorities who are trained to
ascertain the truth of the matter and are trained to help the victim, instead of protecting a corporation.
If the elders say there are not two witnesses, and haven't ENCOURAGED professional help for the victim, there is another
danger. The pedophile is still meeting with other JW children (nobody is allowed to warn them) and is going door to door and
meeting more children, sometimes studying the WT literature in the homes of families that learn to trust him around their
children. If the child were helped by authorities, and the authorities eventually found the pedophile guilty, or at least found
that the child had been abused, the elders could directly tell the guy not to work with children, always be accompanied by
adults. Perhaps there would be times that direct warnings could be appropriate.
You can say that the elders and the WTS are not responsible for all this, but the WTS put the process into place that
abuse victims had to work within. They damaged the victim before they could seek true outside help. They belittled the
testimony. This makes it more difficult to go forward in life. Many were told they would be DF'ed if they breathed a word to
other JW's (with children).
I agreed with you at first, then I learned the issues. Now, the policy of WTS is to only report to authorities when the law says
they have to. Otherwise, the untrained elders still interview the little girl. "How did he touch you? How often? Who saw this?"
The congregation still doesn't warn others. I know these are complex issues- you can't just tell everyone that former Elder Bob
was a pervert. He has rights. But the way WTS policy has dealt with this was very wrong.
