Just a short introduction.
I was a Jehovah’s Witness for more than 30 years.
By the time I left I had the ‘privilege’ of being an Elder, had given Public Talks, Memorial Talks, Wedding Talks and Convention talks up to circuit assembly level.
Dear Third Witness
I read your comments on the topic: “Does the Policy of the Watchtower create a safe haven for Molesters?”
In my humble opinion you are getting hung up on theory. What things really are and what they appear to be can be vastly different.
Please consider the following.
The greatest SIN that the Watchtower Society is guilty of goes way beyond their false teachings and very evident faults. It revolves around “Double speak”, something they are masters at!
It will be very helpful to read the book written by Scott M Peck, “People of the Lie”. Someone that has been as intimately involved with the Watchtower Society over the number of years that I have been, will be able to identify the Watchtower Society as clearly falling into the category of “People of the Lie”.
Peck said he chose the title “because lying is both a cause and a manifestation of evil. It is partly by their lying that we recognize the evil.”
On Page 69 of the book: "The central defect of 'the evil' is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it. More often than not these people will be looked at as solid citizens. How can that be? How can they be evil and not designated as criminals? The key word is "designated". They are criminals in that they commit "crimes" against life and liveliness. But except in rare instances- such as in the case of Hitler when they might achieve extraordinary degrees of political power that remove them from ordinary restraints, their "crimes are so subtle and covert that they cannot clearly be designated as crimes. The theme of hiding and covertness will occur again and again throughout the rest of this book. It is the basis for the title "People of the Lie"."
How does the Watchtower achieve it’s “double speak”?
What people do not realize is that the Watchtower communicates in more ways than just the written word. An important communication comes through District and Circuit overseers. Where this communication is in written form it is restricted to DO’s, CO’s and sometimes to Congregation Elders and will not reach the Congregation. Sometimes the communication to the Elders is VERBAL with a strict instruction not to take notes. This communication can often override and contradict what the Watchtower has printed in their publications. What is communicated through DO’s and CO’s to Elders is taken as LAW that overrides anything written! A prominent Elder, Gilead graduate, ex Bethelite, Circuit Overseer friend (Now ex-friend) once told me “Always remember the District and Circuit Overseers are DIRECT representatives of the SOCIETY”. THERE IS CLEARLY A LACK OF TRANSPARENCY IN THE WATCHTOWER ORGANIZATION.
This is the REALITY, not theory!
They also produce a vast amount of writings over years which makes it difficult to pick out the contradictions (recently some have done an excellent job of exposing the contradictions, but it takes much time, effort and availability of all the material – which clearly puts it out pf the reach of most persons. One can get totally lost and confused in Watchtower verbiage.
POLICIES: This is one area where the Watchtower Society can clearly confuse the rank and file. To the best of my knowledge there is no Policy Document that is available to ALL in the Congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. How anyone can talk about the Watchtower Organization as having the BEST policies is beyond my comprehension.
Good Policies are:
- Available to ALL.
- Clearly Organized with Policy Numbers.
- Clearly and unambiguously communicated.
- When policies are updated Policy revisions become available with clear reference to the Number of the Policy being updated, and when a Policy supersedes another a clear link is made to which Policy being superseded so that it becomes null and void and there is no risk in accessing it for future use.
The Watchtower Society deliberately does none of this so that their position can be secured through confusion and lies.
Great confusion has been created as far as the Blood Transfusion Policy for example.
An example of Watchtower Double Speak personally experienced by me.
Around about 1997/8/9, (I cannot remember the exact year), a talk was given at a District Convention by a District Overseer I personally knew. What angered me about the talk was that the Society was telling the rank and file that they should not seek help from Psycho Therapists as these persons where demonized and may land up blaming the Society for the problems experienced by them.
Now, if you asked me to show you this statement in any Watchtower writings I personally will not be able to do so. But this was clearly food coming from the Faithful and Discreet Slave, which I heard with my own ears. Why I was so annoyed is because at that same time I knew of Brothers in very important positions in Bethel whose wives were receiving treatment from Psychologists!
There are many, many more examples that I can refer to and I am sure others can too.
In my opinion, to answer the following questions:
Did the Watchtower in the past through its DO’s, CO’s and Elders tell persons not to report Child Abuse cases to the Authorities? I Truly believe this to be the case.
Is the Society’s current “policies” more advanced than that of the Catholics Church: I say NO! The Catholics Church has admitted it’s guilt. It now has a policy to report Abuse cases to the Authorities, NO Ifs and buts.
The Watchtower Organization is a very dangerous organization for the simple reason that this organization often deliberately publishes lies.
The book “Children of the Lie” brings out the following: "Utterly dedicated to preserving their self-image of perfection, they are unceasingly engaged in the effort to maintain the appearance of moral purity. They are acutely sensitive to social norms and what others might think of them. They seem to live lives that are above reproach. The words "image", "appearance" and "outwardly" are crucial to understanding the morality of 'the evil'. While they lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their goodness is all on a level of pretense. It is in effect a lie. Actually the lie is designed not so much to deceive others as to deceive themselves. We lie only when we are attempting to cover up something we know to be illicit. At one and the same time 'the evil' are aware of their evil and desperately trying to avoid the awareness. We become evil by attempting to hide from ourselves. The wickedness of 'the evil' is not committed directly, but indirectly as a part of this cover-up process. Evil originates not in the absence of guilt but in the effort to escape it.
It often happens then that 'the evil' may be recognized by its very disguise. Because they are such experts at disguise, it is seldom possible to pinpoint the maliciousness of 'the evil'. The disguise is usually impenetrable."
They are truly CHILDREN OF THE LIE