7th Day Adventists / Child Sexual Abuse

by Amazing 15 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  Amazing

  The Seventh Day Adventists are cousins of the Watch Tower religion. I went to their web site at http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/main_stat41.html to see what they say about various topics. The Adventists, like Jehovah's Witnesses, believe in a New Earth, a Paradise, etc. The following is something that the Watch Tower Society should consider. Here is thier formal policy regarding Child Sexual Abuse:

  The Adventist Christian community is not immune from child sexual abuse. We believe that the tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist faith require us to be actively involved in its prevention. We are also committed to spiritually assisting abused and abusive individuals and their families in their healing and recovery process, and to holding church professionals and church lay leaders accountable for maintaining their personal behavior as is appropriate for persons in positions of spiritual leadership and trust.

  As a Church we believe our faith calls us to:

  1. Uphold the principles of Christ for family relationships in which the self-respect, dignity, and purity of children are recognized as divinely mandated rights.

  2. Provide an atmosphere where children who have been abused can feel safe when reporting sexual abuse and can feel that someone will listen to them.

  3. Become thoroughly informed about sexual abuse and its impact upon our own church community.

  4. Help ministers and lay leaders to recognize the warning signs of child sexual abuse and know how to respond appropriately when abuse is suspected or a child reports being sexually abused.

  5. Establish referral relationships with professional counselors and local sexual assault agencies who can, with their professional skills, assist abuse victims and their families.

  6. Create guidelines/policies at the appropriate levels to assist church leaders in:

  A. Endeavoring to treat with fairness persons accused of sexually abusing children,

  B. Holding abusers accountable for their actions and administering appropriate discipline.

  7. Support the education and enrichment of families and family members by:

  A. Dispelling commonly held religious and cultural beliefs which may be used to justify or cover up child sexual abuse.

  B. Building a healthy sense of personal worth in each child which enables him or her to respect self and others.

  C. Fostering Christlike relationships between males and females in the home and in the church.

  D. Provide caring support and a faith-based redemptive ministry within the church community for abuse survivors and abusers while enabling them to access the available network of professional resources in the community.

  E. Encourage the training of more family professionals to facilitate the healing and recovery process of abuse victims and perpetrators.

  (The above statement is informed by principles expressed in the following scriptural passages: Gen 1:26-28; 2:18-25; Lev 18:20; 2 Sam 13:1-22; Matt 18:6-9; 1 Cor 5:1-5; Eph 6:1-4; Col 3:18-21; 1 Tim 5:5-8.)
• 

  Kent

  This is also interesting:

  This statement was voted during the Spring Meeting of the General Conference Executive Committee on Tuesday, April 1, 1997, in Loma Linda, California.

  This proves the 7th Day Adventists actually did see the danger many years ago, and actually did something to handle the prblem properly when anything happened.

  Flowers to the ones who deserves it, and this time I have to admit a so called christian congregation actually do deserve some roses!

  Yakki Da

  Kent

  "The only difference between a fool and the JW legal department is that a fool might be sympathetic ."

  Daily News On The Watchtower and the Jehovah's Witnesses:
  http://watchtower.observer.org
• 

  detective

  Where specifically does it say anything about notifying law enforcement agencies? It says they've taken measures but nowhere in that statement can I find a reference to notifying LAW enforcement. Is it there and I somehow missed it? If not, why would something so essential be omitted?
• 

  Amazing

  Hi Detective: Item 5 above states:

  5. Establish referral relationships with professional counselors and local sexual assault agencies who can, with their professional skills, assist abuse victims and their families.

  I suppose the phrase, "...local sexual assault agencies..." is a very generalized term to address the various ways such matters may be dealt with in different jurisdictions. Certainly, the police would be among such "agencies", but not the only ones contacted. And, most importantly, such agencies would contact the police, as they are normally required to do, and would do anyway.

  The Adventists statement, I feel, is more comprehensive than anything the Watch Tower Society has published. All in all, while the Adventist's policy could be improved upon, the Adventists nevertheless have a far better policy -- one recognizing abuse exists in their religion -- and provide ways to properly handle it with "professional" help. - Amazing
• 

  willy_think

  Amazing

  4. Help ministers and lay leaders to recognize the warning signs of child sexual abuse and know how to respond appropriately when abuse is suspected or a child reports being sexually abused.

  i thought this might be looked at twice

  "when abuse is suspected" (not when abuse is known)

  "a child reports" (sinlular)

  the ideas and opinions expressed in this post do not necessiarly represent those of the WTB&TS inc. or any of it's subsidiary corporations.
• 

  detective

  Hi Amazing,
  Maybe I'm just a bit skeptical but something still doesn't sit quite right with that statement, in my opinion.

  I would naturally be inclined to see the statement about sexual assault agencies as somehow inclusive of local law enforcement authorities but you'll note that law enforcement an dthe word police are specifically missing from their statement. I'm definitely suspicious. I would normally assume that notifying a sexual assault agency, particularly in the case of a minor, would mean the police would be notified as a result. However, in no way shape or form did they state that they would notify a sexual assault agency. Instead, they said:

  "Establish referral relationships with professional counselors and local sexual assault agencies"
  Hmmm. Establish referrals. Not NOTIFY agencies. NOT notify the police. Give a referral. Now, my doctor could refer me to a specialist but they can't make me go. It's OPTIONAL. I'm wondering about these referrals. I mean, they've set up all of these measures to protect and handle it within the church, so would a person be encouraged to seek outside assistance? Maybe we've got another peer pressure situation going on here? Especially when they are busy with "the training of more family professionals to facilitate the healing and recovery process of abuse victims and perpetrators." Now, does that sound like they intend to take this up with secular professionals? How much counselling would the pedophile in jail be getting from these folks? That is, if the pedophile actually went to jail. They said they plan to hold the abuser accountable. Won't the law handle that first and then they can demote them or excommunicate them afterwards?
  "Endeavoring to treat with fairness persons accused of sexually abusing children". Won't a jury of their peers treat the accused fairly? Or maybe it won't get to the courts?

  I find this very suspicious, indeed. There is no mention whatsoever of notifying the authorities. I find this a very strange omission. Wouldn't notifying the authorities be tops on the list of things to do? Instead, there is the possibilty of a referral. Hmmm. But would you need it? After all, there are plenty of measures within the church to counsel the individuals involved.
  I just can't shake the feeling that we've got another situation of putting on a good face to the outside world.
• 

  Amazing

  Hi Detective: I am not able to defend the Adventist policy. My goal is not to try and parse out every phrase the Adventists use, and find some 'legal-eagle' tehcnical meaning that allows Adventists a way to possibly shield molesters. Remeber, the JW religion is not a normal religion, and that other religions tend to think more rationally. Also, I already agreed that the Adventist statement could use improvement. Nevertheless, I found it comnprehensive in that it does several things:

  1. Recognizes the problem openly and publicly.
  2. Encourages a safe environment for the victim to report.
  3. Seeks to properly train their clergy to recognize such abuse.
  4. Establishes some kind of 'professional' connection and help.

  True, had the Seventh Day Adventist Church contacted us here at JWD, we could have offerred several suggestions to improve their policy, such as "Thou Shall Call the Cops" etc. But, the point is this: can you find anything remotely like it at the Watch Tower web site or within their publications? - Amazing
• 

  detective

  Hi Amazing,
  I would never hold you to defending the procedures of the Adventists. I appreciate your opinion and feel glad that you share it with me. I want you to know that I'm not trying to argue with you. You see the policy one way and I see it another way. A difference of how we view it in no way reflects on what I think is an interesting conversation with an interesting person!
  I will say that the way it reads to me, the JWs might as well adopt the policies. It has so many loopholes in it that it really could just be a face for the public with another much more dark reality inside the Morman-world. It just reminds me of the ways JWs sugar coat their doctrines and mislead people by omitting essential information and by downright lying at times. The Mormon policy speaks to what we, as rational people, would assume would happen. However it doesn't explicitly state essential information (like, we're gonna call the cops) so we as readers are left to fill in the gaps. It speaks to what we'd naturally assume would happen, but not necessarily to what would happen.
  I see this as just the type of policy writing that would be perfect for the WTBTS. It leaves out just enough apecifics so that we're led by what we think would naturally follow, not what they actually explicitly say will happen. It reminds me of the WTBTS telling the Euro. council that there won't be any penalties inacted by the society on European witnesses having blood transfusions. But it leaves out the fact that people who do have them are considered automatically disassociating themselves and therefore receive the usual abusive shunning/spiritual death penalty. That'd probably old news by now, but I think you get my point.
  I see this Adventist policy the same way. Now, I don't have any idea if they do or do not go to the police in cases of suspected abuse. I'm not alleging anything. I'm just saying that this policy has lots of squirm room. Are the Adventists slimeballs who'll take that squirm room? I have no idea.
  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the IDEA of the policy, I just can't help myself to ignore those nagging little alarms that go off in my head when I read it, that's all. Again, it could be nothing.
  Thanks for your thoughts Amazing. I'm glad to talk to you.
• 

  Amazing

  Hi Detective: You make some very good points, and i agree with you that the JW Legal Dept. could as easily adopt such a similar policy and find 'loopholes' to skirt around it. I agree that the Adventist policy is not as good as it could be.

  Also, I did not view our exchanges as arguing. I was just trying to give the perspective that the Adventist do have a more comprehensive 'public' policy, whereas the WTS one has to read a confidential letter to the BOE to find out much of anything. So, the tactics seem different between the two groups.

  You may also find the Roman Catholic position interesting that I just posted. I am curious as to how you view their policy compared to the Adventists. Thanks. - Amazing
• 

  soylibre

  My husband is an SDA and was just appointed an elder in his church....they are much more qualified than JW's to deal with such issues.....SDA's as a whole encourage higher education they have schools from pre-school to Universities and all of their pastors (not elders) must hold degrees in theology, (does NOT have to be from an SDA University).....They encourage community involvement and their disaster relief progrom Adventist Disaster Relief Assoc? (ADRA) helps ALL people NOT just SDAs....they also have the freedom to speak out an disagree....and can write their own literature if they choose to....