by Kismet 15 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
WHEN I was at bethel barbara husband was my overseer and we used to often laugh at how his wife was more of a "Bethel Heavy" than he was since she was a researcher for the Writing dept
i got a few calls last night from folks wondering how did she have access to such files
well as stated there are a few sisters at bethel who are in some pretty "HeaVY JOBS"
AND SHE WAS ONE OF THEM
just my 2 on the matter
I've e-mailed with Barb Anderson before - when a newbie to the web. Maximus introduced us. I am a rape victim - and I do get triggered occasionally. I did then - and we e-mailed back/forth for a while.
She explained who she was, and why she was silent on the forums. But she told me a little background about herself.
Remember the first issue of the Awake! that dealt with remembering child abuse? About 1983 - the grown woman looking in the mirror and a child looking back? I remember, because a year later, I was desperately hunting that issue to share with my daughter- who just told me that she was sexually molested as a child.
Barb told me that she was one of the major researchers (or the only one) for that molestation issue - and had to argue hard with the men to get what was printed on paper. They didn't want to, as it was too sensational. She also said it was hard for them to allow a bibliography of other "worldly" books to be in the article - as all Jehovah's people need is WT writings, in their opinion. Btw, she said that much of the research was never used in the article - and that the men demanded that it be watered down for us jw's. Even as it was printed.....it was the first lifesend to many a jw woman.
A fine woman - and it seems there are more fine brains at the WT than men. Lol, if only the locals knew!
Thanks, Kis, for this fine thread. But don'tcha think it might do better with Barb's REAL NAME in the subject line?
waiting
B. Newfield and G Macnamara
I know these names. Especially Macnamara. I heard them around here and also when I was in the letter answering dept. at Georgetown.
Hmmmmmmm....
By the way. I happen to know that there's a slew of "sisters" doing "male" work at Georgetown. I was there for a stint. Saw it with my own eyes. I also had a recent contact with some there that pointed this out, that it's not only still the case, but the numbers of sisters doing "male" work is growing.
This, due to the lack of "qualified brothers"
I know these names. Especially Macnamara. I heard them around here and also when I was in the letter answering dept. at Georgetown.
Mr Macnamara has nothing to be proud of in the way that he handled such issues, as well he knows.
The past, he will find has a very strange way of leaping up from its seemingly comotose state and slapping ones head very hard.
More about this at a later date.
HS
Thanks to Kismet and others for sharing more detail re: Barb Anderson. I knew I loved her from the first time I heard she tried to educate the "menfolk" on what she discovered in her research 10 years ago.
Earlier today I read at some yahoo group that she was being DF'd, not because she spoke up, but because she "stole stuff" from the Society. Just goes to show ya what people will say to cover up their own denial.
G.R.I.T.S.
Girl Raised In The South
Dear Waiting: Ahhhh, thank you for this info. As a sex abuse survivor myself (non-JW abuser, tho), I liked your "get triggered occasionally" comment. ;) But even more so, this info/below re: Barb Anderson's major contribution to that Awake! from the early '80s, which I remember very well indeed. Now I love her all the more. -- I always knew I had some odd personality quirks, and that mag was my FIRST INKLING of the connection to the rapes/molestation years prior. I LOVED that magazine for that reason, and am thrilled to learn it was Barb Anderson who put it together. Can you believe she had to fight the menfolk to have it published? Gimme a big break. (What are men so afraid of? This really gets my goat.) -- Also, how you mention that the bros didn't want the wordly secular references in the mag... well, like, WHY NOT? That's EXACTLY WHAT I LOVED ABOUT IT! Years later when delving into my own problems and the possible sex-abuse connection, I bought some of those same sex abuse books/titles which I had seen quoted in WT literature! Those "worldly" books were a SANITY-SAVER! Arrrrrggghhh! Knowing they whined about such info being printed for OUR BENEFIT really gets me irked!
Anyway, you are so correct: That mag was the first godsend to many a jw woman.
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Waiting wrote:
Remember the first issue of the Awake! that dealt with remembering child abuse? About 1983 - the grown woman looking in the mirror and a child looking back? I remember, because a year later, I was desperately hunting that issue to share with my daughter- who just told me that she was sexually molested as a child.
Barb told me that she was one of the major researchers (or the only one) for that molestation issue - and had to argue hard with the men to get what was printed on paper. They didn't want to, as it was too sensational. She also said it was hard for them to allow a bibliography of other "worldly" books to be in the article - as all Jehovah's people need is WT writings, in their opinion. Btw, she said that much of the research was never used in the article - and that the men demanded that it be watered down for us jw's. Even as it was printed.....it was the first lifesend to many a jw woman.
G.R.I.T.S.
Girl Raised In The South
