Brass tacks with his testimony was that they like power but really aren't keen on the whole responsibility thing. Wonder how quoting some of Spinks testimony back to a local judicial committee would work out. There's a moral cowardice in the WBTS - they are very keen to dictate within the community, but when questioned on that by those outside, well it's those daft enough to follow their 'advice' who are at fault. They're ever so 'umble mi'lud. There's a part of me which has some sympathy with all those stupid, silly men who think that they just need to pick up the phone to get top quality advice on child safeguarding when reality is they get a generic, flawed and inappropriate set of guidelines they already have read back to them. Jehovah's Organisation in a nutshell.
His attitude towards women in particular was striking. He probably doesn't realise he's doing it. His desire to not answer the question asked, well, I think he's fully aware of that from how he responded to McClellan's pulling him up.
And the passive aggressive nonsense about 'scriptures' and how happy they are to see others go to prison because of what they've been told by WBTS. One wouldn't expect him to acknowledge that their interpretation is purely an interpretation and they're picking out sentences to support how they do things, but at the same time they're happy enough to new light things whenever it suits them. Still, McClellan is clearly aware of the absurdity of being assured that JW HQ will always follow the law whilst being told, at the same time, they get to decide which laws they want to follow.
There's a major issue if the GB is handwaving any responsibility for policies and procedures around child abuse, when it's their own interpretation of scriptures which then creates those policies and procedures and leaves them unchanging. One can appreciate their desire to pass things off to Oz branch rather than set precedents for other countries (especially the States), but it gets to the heart of how this group operates as this is meant to be a religion, not a multinational printing corporation with regional HQs.
