Do YOU Believe That JWs Have A Huge Problem With Pedophiles?

by minimus 120 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  diamondiiz

  While the 23000 number is alleged, there is a good chance it's true. It seems many of us heard of a pedophile in our congregations and most of these were in and not out. As I suspect the ratio of them within wts are greater than that of general public mainly due to how wts covers things up, how they "trust" their own and what kind of people are swayed to be recruited.

  We need more victims to contact the authorities and hope to have another class action lawsuit that will push for all the documents to be made public.
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  Balaamsass

  Well, while I thought this was just about Pedophiles.....I also know of EX murderers, drug dealers, etc......and had personal experience with a very dangerous JW/ex-elder who attended meetings and dealt drugs as part of his "Double Life". So much for Holy Spirit involved in appointments.
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  Mad Sweeney

  Haven't read the responses yet. Answering the original question cold.

  YES, the problem is HUGE. The fact that offenders are NOT reported and often NOT punished in any way at all means they MUST have a higher percentage than in groups that DO report and DO punish pedophiles.

  This is common sense. The organization has a failed mechanism for dealing with the problem so of course the problem is HUGE.

  (when I have time I'll read through the thread and no doubt discover extremists who say there isn't a problem in the Borg any worse than anywhere else and other extremists who say the Borg is 95% pedophile and 5% kids.)
• 

  Violia

  That BOE letter would be hilarious if it were not so weird and scary.. The man is guilty of murder and other crimes but they may see the need to call a JC over him maybe smoking some weed or cigs.
• 

  Lady Lee

  The problem with your comment Balaamsass is that murderers, drug dealers etc can actually clean up their lives and stop committing crimes.

  Pedophilia is a whole different thing. While sexually abusing a child is a criminal act it is a mental disorder that so far cannot be changed or controlled.

  Many people erroneously believe that castration is a solution whether that is a surgical or pharmaceutical treatment. The surgical solution will not get rid of the mental disorder because that resides in the brain. A pharmaceutical solution might have a better chance of reducing the desire but it won't affect the thinking about sex with kids. And all the person needs to do is stop taking the medication and they are free to start hunting down new prey.

  We could lock them up for their criminal actions but those sentences are very short compared to the damage they have done to innocent children. Once they are back on the street they will startt heir hunt again.

  Most sexual abusers are pretty smart. Generally they have been able to commit a crime dozens or even hundreds of times without being caught. There are few other criminals who can say that. Even serial killers can't go undetected for very long. And once they are caught they rarely get back out on the streets.

  The WTS fails to see child molestation as a serious problem. Even if an abuser admits to the elders what he has done, or gets caught in the act the elders believe the abuser if he says he is sorry and shows he is repentant. To the elders and the WTS the problem is fixed. All that they require is someone who says the right thing therefore there is no need to go to the police. God's spirit is not going to come down on the pedophil's head and miraculously cure him. No amount of prayer, meeting attendance or preaching will change him.

  And they just don't get that.
• 

  minimus

  I appreciate that this discussion is quite civil. I also appreciate that those that haven been directly affected by sexual abuse are more vocal on the subject.

  One thing I think we all can agree with: The Watchtower Organization should be less legalistic and more humane. Forget about 2 or more witnesses. Get the police and the courts involved. Stop making the victims become victims yey again!
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  Violia

  LL

  I was told more than once that woman was put here for man's pleasure and children have entirely too many rights now-- back to the good old days when they spoke when spoken to. Their basic attitudes are: women being lower than men and just being there for their pleasure. Until we get some elders in there who realize this for the bunk it is, this will rock on. Yes they may try harder now ( due to bad publicity) but in private , in the back room they rue the day women ever got the right to drive, vote or anything else. We can shame them but until women are seen as equal human beings the 'beatings will continue". Children are not little adults, and until the wts sees them as precious and to be protected , the abuse will continue. There goal is protect the guys at all costs. Even when they do recognize the child abuse, I would wager a bet that they take male molestation ( by males) more seriously than female.
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  Sola Scriptura

  To Balaamsass:
  
  you said...
  
  

  "If the house is on fire we call 911 for the fire Department, not the Elders. Why call the Elders when a child is raped?"

  
  
  Child Abuse is BOTH a Crime and a Sin.
  Caesar should handle the Crime while the congregation handles the Sin (i.e. Disfellowship/Reprove the sinner & Help/Encourage the Victim).
  
  This thread probably wouldn't exist right now if it wasn't for the following 2 facts most commonly associated with JWs:
  
  1)JWs have established progressive policies to investigate, and if proven, publicly reprove/disfellowship rank & file members, as well as it's leaders, for outrageous sins such as Child Abuse.
  Most Religions don't, to my knowledge, have policies for publicly disciplining rank & file members for child abuse. Even if a child abuser confesses his sins to a priest and admits he can't stop, there is no official policy, that I know of, that warns the family with 5 kids that he sits next to on the pew each week, that something isn't quite right with this guy.
  
  2) For years the Watchtower has famously & publicly blasted other religions on their toleration of child abusing leaders.
  By doing this they have set the moral bar so high that ANY cover up ANYWHERE in the JW world seems hypocritical. That's why I don't sugar coat our bitter flaws when I speak to Non-JWs about my religion. I have consistently found that Non-JWs listen more favorable to me when I'm honest about some of the missteps JWs have had over the years (e.g. 1925, 1975, child abuse policy etc.)
  
  I've had a few robust debates in the past with respected JWN posters about this subject. If you have time please check 1 or 2 of them out...
  
  Barbara Anderson debate:
  
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/scandals/180508/2/Its-WT-leaders-not-elders-who-are-responsible-for-all-the-harm-My-Geneva-Switz-lecture-posted-here-for-new-ones-Sola-Scriptura-to-read
  
  Mary debate:
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/experiences/196933/2/The-two-witness-rule
  
  Big Tex discussion:
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/scandals/180309/2/Anyone-heard-of-Watchtower-policy-change-concerning-pedophiles
  ---
  respectfully,
  Sola Scriptura
  
  ”We would not refuse to treat one as a brother because he did not believe the Society is the Lord's channel.
  If others see it in a different way, that is their privilege. There should be full liberty of conscience.”
  
  WT April 1, 1920, p. 100, 101
• 

  skeeter1

  I knew of three pedophiles. And, that was in my limited experience. So, yes, I think the problem is large. I bet there are 2 to 3 pedophiles in every cong
• 

  diamondiiz

  ”We would not refuse to treat one as a brother because he did not believe the Society is the Lord's channel.
  If others see it in a different way, that is their privilege. There should be full liberty of conscience.”

  To quote this tells me you're deluding yourself. You're quoting old old theology that has no place in today's wts. This light is so old, they forgot all about it, that's why it's not on your WTS CD-Rom.

  This thread exists because there is so many victims of wts, and there are pedophiles that are allowed in. The fact that so many here known of a pedophile within their old congregation or someone that was molested by a witness tells you that this problem is greater than that of a general population.

  1. Policies cannot be administered by uneducated class of elders who have hard time keeping their own homes in order.

  2. WTS are hypocrites, there is no doubt about it. In fact people that understand the false teaching and preaching that have occurred for decades and continue to participate and distributing deceitful propaganda like the Oct and Nov watchtowers dealing with 607 are no better than the liars at the top.

  Imagining that there are few renegade elders while ignoring the fact that these are directed by wts and supposedly guided by holy spirit won't fly here. Few elders named in the lawsuits doesn't represent many that dealt with thousands of these cases and yet still ignored to call the proper authorities tells us that the problem is deeply rooted involving more than just a few renegade elders. WTS follows rules that are only beneficial to them while they have no problem sacrificing it's followers in the name of "religion".