Yes its sad for child abuse victims to have to suffer such abuse and seemingly not have their prayers heard but not all child abuse victims believe that God is cold and doesnt hear them
With all due respect, you either did not read my post or misunderstood. I am not speaking for every single human being on the face of the earth. I am speaking of human psychological behavior in the face of severe trauma. Humans do, in general, respond to trauma in very similar ways. Is it possible that there is one child who was abused did not feel as I described? Yeah, sure. I guess so. Meanwhile millions of other children do feel as I described, many even moreso with horrible reactions and behaviors as they grow up. If you think otherwise, you have not really talked with many survivors of abuse.
The impact of rape on a child is tremendous and for fundamentalist sects like Jehovah's Witnesses to place blame on Satan, rather than place responsibility where it belongs, on the offender, is not only confusing to the child it creates in the child a sense of worthlessness and guilt.
As for the prayers, there is no seemingly about it. When a child of abuse prays to Jehovah that the rapes, or beatings, or ridicule, or whatever form of abusive treatment is being foisted upon them, to stop, and then the abuse does not stop, their prayer is not heard. Their prayer is not answered. Jehovah DID ignored them. There is no way around it.
If you teach children to pray to Jehovah for aid and comfort, and the child receives neither especially in a time of tremendous danger and stress, what message does that child taken in? The natural message is that (1) Jehovah does not care; or (2) the blame for being ignored lies with the child. A child of abuse will not think otherwise. I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Most of the time, the child will take in the rejection by Jehovah and make it about themselves. "It's my fault somehow" and the shame of abuse will be exacerbated. The guilt from the abuse will increase exponentially with each ignored prayer. And anger over being mistreated, and then asking for help and being ignored by Jehovah, increases as well.
This is real and this happens daily. Jehovah's Witnesses only serve to harm the child by placing further shame and guilt on them by telling them their broken bones, or being used as a sexual toy, are not really caused by their daddy but by Satan and they should pray to Jehovah to feel better.
some do still remain close to God understanding that he WILL answer their prayers. They learn to believe in faith and exercise that faith. Child abuse victims ALL deal with their abuse in different ways and go down different paths also, BUT yes ALL carry the scars for the rest of theirs lives, even though eventually they do move on.
Good for them. I would like to point, however, even in your answer above there is the message of guilt and responsibility on the child who does not follow your dictates.
If you were to say that to a child being abused in a home, I guarantee you the majority of victims will hear that as being their fault they did not "exercise faith" in Jehovah, that somehow the abuse continuing was their fault for not beliving in Jehovah strongly enough or long enough.
Don't you see? Jehovah has got nothing to do with saving a child from abuse.
I believe there is a place for spirituality with regards to child abuse, but in recovery not in stopping the abuse. Once again, to tell a child to pray to Jehovah for help is only setting that child up for failure and years of heartache and pain. If you do not understand that simple fact then more's the pity.
Chris
