Sex Abuse - JW Procedures

by Amha·’aret 8 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  Amha·’aret

  I need a little bit of help in gathering some information for my mother who's still in. I've left (faded) and she wants me to come back. (As if! )

  Anyway, she started ranting about the sex abuse scandal of the Catholic church (which she was part of 20 years ago). I told her about the $12m JW payout etc. She asked why they had to pay and I said it was because their procedures don't make them report it to the authorities and that they hide behind clergy priviledge.

  I have scans of the Elders book and all the policy letters that are to do with this matter. They seem to have a nicey-nicey letter that they read to the cong in 2002 but the real policies are in slightly older letters. However, I can't find anything about hiding behind clergy priviledge.

  Any help would be greatly appreciated as I feel like I might be able to get thru to her with this.

  Thank-you,

  Am
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  jamiebowers

  Here is a newspaper article on two cases in CA where elders refused to testify against an admitted child molester.

  http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_C_trial06.439464c.html
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  Amha·’aret

  Thank-you! That's a really good starting point.
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  jwfacts

  http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/paedophilia.htm discusses this topic briefly. http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com offers a book for sale that goes through thousands of court documents outlining the court case.

  As a summary, the reason the WTS was sued is that known paedophiles were promoted to the position of elder, in some cases being reappointed multiple times as they moved from congregation to congregation. Bethel was aware they were proven paedophiles, yet continued to approve the appointments. This is exactly the same situation that happened in the Catholic Church with their priests. Due to the position of authority exerted by elders Bethel was deemed to have failed its duty of care towards the congregation.
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  Amha·’aret

  Thanks jwfacts. I'll look at those links now.

  Btw, your website is great. It really helped me to "see the light"!
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  happysunshine

  Wow, good resources Facts and JB.

  I have been trying to find that Dateline show, but can't get a working link anywhere. Ideas?
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  StAnn

  Here 'tis-

  http://www.silentlambs.org/education/multimedia.cfm

  Scroll down about 1/4 of the page. It's directly under Videos/Transcripts.

  StAnn
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  happysunshine

  cheers!
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  Lady Lee

  There is a lot of info at The Best of... WTS and Sexual Abuse of Children

  When confronted ekders the abusers will deny. The accuser (most often still a child) must produce 2 witnesses.

  Now how absurd is that? Sexual abuse rarely, happens in front of other people. Abusers rely on the fact that it will boil down to an adult's word over that of a child.

  Since there are no witneeses to the abuse the elders accept the word of the adult saying they can do nothing. Now th be clear about this - elders cannot do anything as leaders of the congregation. According to their rules the issue disappears. The accused is declared innocent - within the congregation. That is the extent of their "spiritual help"

  Now a couple of other things come into play here.

  The WTS has pretty clear rules about not bringing shame on "Jehovah's" name or the WTS. If the accused is not a JW then the elders might be more willing to tell the victim they should go to the authorities. But if the accused is a JW going outside the cong with accusations of sexual abuse would cross that line of bringing shame on the org.

  The victim winds up with a gag order within the cong. Elders tell the victim that repeating the accusations to others would "cause divisions" which could result in facing a judicial committee.

  If the victim tells others about the accusations the elders again could call that JD and accuse them of gossip and spreading lies (because thier investigation resulted in an "innocent" finding)

  So the victim gets no help because he or she can't go outside the congregation because they would be bringiont shame on the WTS/JWs. And the victim can't tell anyone within the cong because he or she will be meeting in the back room with a group of elders saying they need to shut up or risk getting tossed out.

  As crazy as all this sounds this is how it works and a number of people here have goine through it