I personally know Verystupid77 and she's sure not stupid. We were in Bethel when she came in after she married a Bethelite who we knew. She had the misfortune to have an overseer who was a misogynist. He was a single man and a Witness fanatic and apparently wanted to break 77's spirit. It was because of actions of men like this one that I talked to Harry Peloyan and Eric Beveridge. These mental cases were psychologically abusing young women in Bethel. Consequently, Harry assigned Eric to write, and I was the researcher for, the July 8, 1992 Awake! cover series articles, "Women Deserving of Respect."
The problem at Bethel was that running it had not changed with the times. The people who came in while we were there had worked in the ole' world and were accustomed to being treated well because of their legal rights. But Bethel did not put into place "worldly rules." Eventually, due to immense pressure from within, some things did get better.
It was either change the system or continue to contend with complaints from people whose lives were torn apart by ignorant or worse overseers. Most of these dummy overseers had been in Bethel from the time when it was mostly men at Bethel, with a few women working as housekeepers, except older women, married to men in very responsible positions, who had great office jobs. During the mid-80s and early to mid-90s, many young women were accepted in and they did jobs that were previously done by men. (Joe had many women working for him as plumbers.) That was the case for 77. She did heavy work meant for a man and it nearly broke her health.
It was difficult to ferret out men like 77's overseer who actually reported to an equally foolish overseer. So she had nowhere to turn for help. It was a very trying time for her as it is now that she is again bucking a system that protects wrongdoers who say that they have repented, but who are actually conniving criminals. One of these days, I bet her story will be in the newspapers. Hopefully, no one will be injured because the elders in her congregation are too scared to stand up for what is right. They not only live in fear of the WT Society removing them for stirring up the waters, but are in fear of a criminal who might resort to harm if he can't continue to get his way.
I'll tell you about one change that I was involved with about seven years before I went public on Dateline revealing WT's child sexual abuse problems. We were out of Bethel about three years. I had learned what the majority of the people in the Manchester, TN, congregation did not know regarding a former elder in the congregation: he was a confessed molester. Yet, he was Grandpa Russ to all the kids. The elders did nothing to stop him from holding kids on his lap during the meetings or holding babies after the meetings.
I called Bethel and related the events as I saw them. The matter was taken up by the GB and three months later the August 1, 1995 BOE letter went out and addressed this situation. It said,
"It would be appropriate to talk very frankly to a former child abuser, strongly cautioning him as to the dangers of hugging or holding children on his lap and that he should never be in the presence of a child without another adult being present. This may prevent putting that one in the way of temptation or unfounded accusation."
Of course that paragraph has its problems which I won't address here, but at least elders were being told to warn known (to the elders only) pedophiles not to be alone with children and to keep their hands off of them. Yes, the GB did what was right in this case because of a complaint from outside. They knew that I was right about something no one had ever given thought to before. They were not going to back off from my complaint because they could see the handwriting on the wall: if they allowed confessed molesters to hold children at the KH they could be liable. And I’m sure that Bethel attorneys agreed with me.
In the future I will discuss on my Freeminds blog, and in another medium, some of the other changes that the GB were forced to address to make my point that many of the procedures and policies of the organization were adopted because of outside influences.
Barb