Later on this month there will be an amazing event happening right in front of Brooklyn's Bethel, the headquarters of the Book Publishing Company Formerly Known As A Religion, The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. Dozens, if not HUNDREDS, of Silentlambs and other interested and angry parties will be participating in this march. This is laudable - never before will the Tower have seen so much outright denunciation of it's "Child Protection Policy".
Let's have a quick review of this "Child Protection Policy" (as stated by the Governing Body on their website and in other publically available mediums - i.e. the official spin on the issue straight from the top) :
- Victims and their parents are free to go to the police.
- Victims and their parents will not be sanctioned for going to the police.
- Reports of molestions will be reported in states where it is required!
- There are fewer molestation cases on record than Bill Bowen and Barb Anderson claim.
- The "Child Protection Policy" of the Watchtower is "Bible Based (TM)", i.e. it is based on 4000 year old laws penned by a bunch of nomadic tribesmen who thought that polygamy was OK.
That should just about do it. Now, let's have a slightly closer look at these 4 points, as made by the Governing Body to my chagrin!
- Victims and their parents are free to go to the police.
Sure they are! They can go to the Police if they want! BUT there is one important, in fact critical, omission here by the Governing Body, and it shows just what a pack of reptiles they truly are. That is the "Doctrine" (everything that appears in the Watchtower, now matter how vaguely worded, is "Doctrine" and to be followed to the letter, even if it's a "conscience matter (TM)") of not taking your Brother to COURT! Elders interpret this "advice" from the Watchtower very literally in cases like this. Another thing that the Governing Body ENTIRELY leaves out of their little statements are the fact that under no circumstances are victims allowed to tell others in the Congregation about the abuse! Not even members of their own families! Yes, dear Apostates, this is SLANDER, and as such can be punished with disfellowshipping! Notice how cleverly the Governing Body leaves this out of their public statements!
2. Victims and their parents will not be sanctioned for going to the police.
Not at all! However, note the previous point about slandering your Brothers! It's even worse to slander your Brothers using the Police, isn't it? This is why there are still Brothers who are registered, convicted child molesters in prison who have entire Congregations of Dubbies standing behind them in Court denying that they would ever do such a thing and harassing the victims! This denial and outright lying continues even after the conviction of the molestors. I believe the correct term for this whole thing is "Theocratic Warfare". It seems that the Witnesses would rather have a convicted, active child molestor in their Congregation than a victim of abuse who speaks out and warns others about, or even goes so *gasp* far as to take their molestor to Court! This is how the Congregation is kept clean indeed!
3. Reports of molestions will be reported in states where it is required!
Yes indeedy! In those dastardly States or regions where such reporting is required, the Elders must report this. Now, one thing that struck me about this blanket statement by the lovely people of the Governing Body was the fact that it wasn't specified whether every single little allegation by any child was to be reported - no, the Governing Body left that out too. From what I've seen here and elsewhere, in many Congregations the actual procedure to be followed is that only molestors found guilty by the Two Witness Rule are actually reported! Granted, not all Congregations are like this, which is why I hesitate to make such a generalization, but I'm sure there's plenty of evidence for my statements on this site and others!
4. There are fewer molestation cases on record than Bill Bowen and Barb Anderson claim.
Here we get to see JR Brown's spin at it's finest - he uses the very vague, beloved phraseology of the Tower to say that there are "considerably" fewer cases on record in Brooklyn! Notice how he COMPLETELY omits to specify exactly how large "considerably" is! "Considerably", to the Watchtower, probably means, oh, 20? 40? 100 tops? We love the way they have all of this incredibly damning information locked up in Bethel, and yet won't comment on exactly how much of it there is! Surely the authorities will raid Bethel eventually over such a thing? Imagine if a private citizen were to keep records of 20,000+ cases of molestation in their home - they would be arrested INSTANTLY! Why should the Governing Body be given better treatment by "Caesar", their long-time buddy and occasional enemy? They should be FORCED by threat of liquidation and bankruptcy (their worst fear!) to give up ALL this information to the appropriate authorities to be used to protect the children! How can the phrase "protect the children" be reconciled with their current stand of keeping secret information about over 20,000 molestation cases? What a crock!
5. The "Child Protection Policy" of the Watchtower is "Bible Based (TM)", i.e. it is based on 4000 year old laws penned by a bunch of nomadic tribesmen who thought that polygamy was OK.
There are two scriptures used by the Governing Body to support their utterly ridiculous stance, one in the New Testament and one in the Old Testament, both of which basically say that you need TWO WITNESSES to a given crime to "theocratically" prosecute someone. As has been mentioned on this site and elsewhere ad infinitum, rarely do molestors invite people to watch them performing their crimes! And yet, the Tower stringently enforces this "policy" to a fault! Does using these verses make their "policy" shiny and pure? They seem to think so. After all, if it's in the Bible, it must be true!
On a related note, how is the child treated if they say that they have been abused? Bear in mind that these are children, who are not exactly known for their incredible ability to stand up to the most powerful adults in their world, the Elders! First, the child has to repeat their allegations IN FRONT OF the alleged abuser - a wonderful provision from Jehover indeed. Imagine telling the Elders in excruciating detail what someone many times your age and who quite possibly is in a position to make life very hard for you in the Congregation in future did to you. And then hearing the Elders dismiss your case because there wasn't anyone else to witness the crime! Can you imagine how incredibly painful that must be? And only after all of this Brownage will the Elders report this to the Police, if it is required by State Laws to do so...it's horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE!
Ghod forbid you try and tell other parents in the Congregation that your child was molested by "Brother So & So", to use a Towerism I've grown to hate in my years of Assimilation. You will be instantly charged and convicted by the Elders for Slander, a crime which is so heinous that it is worse than child molestation because you don't even NEED two witnesses for it! Slander must be far worse to Jehover than molestation - after all, the two witness rule doesn't apply here because of it's sheer gravity! Warning other parents of a dangerous child molestor in the Congregation is DEFINITELY sin against Jehover, to be punished with extreme prejudice by the Elders. Oh, I love this religion!
Getting back to the title of this post, I wanted to theorize and extrapolate the reaction of the Governing Body to the marchers later this month. What do you guys think will happen when the march arrives at the steps of Bethel, armed to the teeth with posters and testimonials?
My theory is that the Governing Body are going to stand and look out of the window, laugh, and carry on eating their doughnuts! I will be mortally surprised if one of the GB Members actually leaves the building to speak to the survivors of abuse - it is about as likely as flying pigs flying out of the icy wasteland of Hell, friends! For those who haven't had the "privilege" to meet these good old Boys, you need to understand one thing - they are ARROGANT beyond belief. Wouldn't you be arrogant if you had 6 million fanatical followers standing behind you, applauding your every history-rewrite and doctrinal shift? Wouldn't you be arrogant if you knew that even if you told the Sheeple you command that tomorrow purple Barney-shaped angels will come bursting out of the ground, that they would applaud you? Wouldn't you be arrogant if every "Resolution" you passed was greeted by wild clapping at Conventions by Sheeple far too scared NOT to clap, for fear of garnering the disapproval of their Brothers?
The Governing Body answers to NOBODY except the BOTTOM LINE, their PROFITS!
I sincerely hope that a representative is sent down to speak with the marchers on that day - they deserve at least that much, but, being the eternal cheerful pessimist that I am, in my heart of hearts I fear that that will not be the case. We all know just how neatly Bill Bowen or one of the others in that march will shred up anyone sent down to speak to the people of the march over their Bible Based (TM) doctrine and just how destructive it is.
One thing that renders the whole matter of whether Bethel will send someone down to speak irrelevant is the fact that there will be a LOT of publicity, a lot of cameras, and a lot of reporters there. Reporters who are used to reporting the FACTS, and who are going to cost the Tower a very large amount of credibility in the next few weeks. I for one am looking forward to reading the newspapers on the 28th of September. How I wish I could march too! *sigh* This march will be the tactical nuclear strike in terms of publicity - people on Dub sites are already beginning to chafe at the bit about it, deploying vast amounts of Dub Theocratic Ordinance, more commonly known to us Apostates as "breathtaking stupidity", in an attempt to rationalize away this march....but we are, of course, completely undeterred.
GO LAMBS GO!
Anybody else care to share any scathing diatribes against the Governing Body?