Rights vs Beliefs vs Compliance vs Blackmail
I did not want this subject to get lost amongst the many valuable threads because of it’s Finnish title… Please read the comments on this post, as it moved me to boil it down to how it really strikes me…
PLEASE THINK ABOUT THESE QUESTIONS.
If I grew up in the ‘Mafia,’ was a “ born in, ” and had no idea what ‘the family business’ was all about….
Believing it was an honest business… & I participated, what would happen if, at a more ‘mature’ age, discovered what was going on behind the scenes… pedophilia, money laundering, blackmailing…… ????
and THEN was actually “ compelled ” to either ‘support the family business’ …‘make a hit’ …either you do it, or else your family will “miss you” …wink, wink.
Now, let’s say I was ALSO a person in a public position , who would be able to influence people’s decisions regarding the validity and success of this ‘family business’ I had grown up in. (Lawyer? Congressman? School teacher? CEO of a Charity?) (an elder? Pioneer? C.O.?) Would I be ‘free’ to express my findings without harm to myself or my family?
Upon hearing that I might not “comply,” to ‘the family’s orders,' strange and scary things start to occur. Imagine three people, from out of the area, appearing in your nice, happy, sweet little “family business” (All with guns, hats, over coats and the power / authority to use ‘whatever means necessary’ to straighten out the ‘situation’.) Your father (‘mother’) has sent them… (“ “Extreme problems often require extreme solutions.” )
You’ve loved your parents, have been raised to believe in ‘loyalty’ to the family (organization) and now the ‘family’ (org) is ready to ‘delete’ you.
Now, if we need any help visualizing, let’s put it in context:
You have just discovered the way the WT deals with pedophilia.
Perhaps, like Manuela Dorman, you just found out that your child has been molested, and you are threatened with blackmail if you go to the police… “We will tell everyone about what happened years ago if you testify or go to the police about this.” Is your “family,” this loving brotherhood/sisterhood really saying this to you?
OR.....
You have testified in a trial “in opposition to the WT”, and now that the case has ended, three new elders with the power to ‘kill’/end your life as you know it, delete your very existence, sweep you under the carpet, take away your good name, infer whatever they want to, have been appointed to your congregation! Your “mother” wants to keep her name “without reproach.” ( “Our principles are highest; honor, solidarity and vengeance. We know there’s no justice for us, except we earn it. We earn respect.”)
They go about “their business” according to the book, feeling no twinge of conscience; they just ‘point and shoot.’ (“ Make a wish...it'll be your last")
Is their a difference when a ‘religion’ ‘deletes’/ ‘disfellowships’ people, to cover up their wrongdoing, or is a crime just crime?