Hi, everybody
I don't find it surprising that Ray was never confronted with having to deal with child molestation issues specifically.
It is my observation that prior to the early 1980s people just didn't talk much about child abuse issues outside seeking medical help if their children were involved. General society in most developed nations has come of age on this issue over the past 20 years or so.
Part of my personal experience in dealing with child molestation has been dealing with quite a few congregation publishers who decades ago experienced child molestation themselves or in their family. When explaining why they didn't come forward at the time, quite often these individuals would say things like, "People back then just didn't talk about these kinds of things outside the immediate family," or, "Back then families dealt with this kind of thing their own way." I get similar responses from women who experienced abusive husbands. Today a woman is far more likely to seek help outside the family for abuse than she was decades ago, at least that is my personal observation, and that observation coincides with what healthcare professionals in my area tell me too.
Another part of my experience comes from open and frank discussions of child molestation with fellow elders, which tend to speak frankly in close company. Those we tend to refer to as "old-timers" are invariably surprised by what is going on these days in the number of child molestation cases. Almost to the man these old timers will tell you the same thing. They say things like, "We didn' t have this problem way back," or, "I bet this is what happened with So-and-so and they never told us," or, "I can only remember one other time where I had to deal with this." This lack of experience by old-timers coincides exactly with my observations of victims of child molestation from the same general period. Victims often didn't report to anyone other than the family doctor, and they swore him or her to silence. Elders almost never heard of it for the same reason. This led to a circumstance where too often elders failed to recognize symptoms of child molestation in victims because of ignorance.
Over the last two decades practically every aspect of society has grown in awareness of and understanding child molestation as an issue. Accordingly, over that same period we see that federal and state governments and peer review groups have instituted new laws or guidelines to better fit the need that was there all along but that so few had good awareness of. Unfortunately, for reasons only they can answer for, during the same period the WTS stopped short of instituting one of the most recognized and simplest of provisions that would have (and still could!) alleviate much of the suffering and reduce future suffering. This would be a policy provision that victims of child abuse living in developed nations should ALWAYS be encouraged to report their victimization to authorities. How to deal with reporting policies in nations with retarded social and political growth (e.g., Iran, Iraq, etc.) is the difficult question. What should be done in terms of reporting or encouragement to report in developed lands is a no-brainer. The WTS is shamed for its failure in this instance. The only reason for its current policy, which does not ALWAYS encourage victims to report, can only be a bad reason. As for Ray, my experience tells me his comments as reported by Jim are the norm; it's what I would have expected to hear from anyone in the WTS' organization from Ray's period of reference.
Probably unlike most that post here (but like a few, for sure), I have sat personally and spoken with Ray and his wife, Cynthia about many issues. These are among the most honest, caring and, yes, God fearing people I know. To even think either of these people would support any policy that has the effect the WTS' does on victims of child molestation is outrageous to me. It is inconceivable to me that Ray would condone undisclosed facts about victimization at the hands of the WTS. If he knew them he would tell them. But then again, I've only sat and talked with Ray and Cynthia in person to measure their dynamics for myself, besides reading what Ray has put to writing.
Edited by - Marvin Shilmer on 11 October 2002 11:57:38
