Why don't they do more to protect the children from sexual abusers?

by Lady Lee 33 Replies latest jw friends

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  JWoods

  Just one more point (and I agree with every one above comes in to some extent...) -

  The Witnesses have an inherent distrust of the police. This follows right along with distrust of government, the military, charitable organizations, in fact - everything except the WTBTS itself.

  I think they have a literal fear that the government, court system, and police are there to "take them away" - after all, they have done every possible thing they could to antagonize the normal systems of society. For example:

  I was the magazine loader asst. servant at Oak Glen in Oklahoma City way back when, and thus was the one to discover that we had a burglery as I had to come in early to separate the magazines and put them in the publisher's boxes. The robbers stole our sound system and pissed on a green NWT; that was the only damage.

  I called the cops from the KH phone immediately and kind of got told off for it - should have called the CO FIRST, and then we could have decided whether to file a police report!!! At the time, I assumed this was just because the CO was a control freak, but now I think that it was also because many of the senior servants did not want to have a "dirty worldly cop" actually inside their inner sanctum.

  More of the "we can take care of everything by ourselves better than anybody else". Wonder if I should have called the CO FIRST (instead of the fire department) if the place had been on fire?
• 

  llbh

  This a very interesting and enlightening thread.

  Chairman Mao put into place the criteria you put forward. In Mao The Unknown Story by Jung Chang, it is amazing and depressing how ruthlessly and effectively he put this into action. Also worth noting is that whilst Mao publicly exhorted his subjects to eschew culture he very much enjoyed it; in private !

  The Ayatollahs of Iran do the same as well. I have a friend from Iran, he said to me the other day that the people of Iran now realise that have swapped one dictatorship for another, and that they want to rid themselves ot it.

  I now have four tests as to whether an organisation is about control. Is it homophobic, racist, misogynist ( i know of of no misandrist group) or anti education? If it exhibits one of these traits, and often all four are present, you can be sure they are about control. Often they are anti culture too, as culture very often challenges people to think, thus undermining the group.

  This does come through in their attitude toward children as well

  Thus to answer your question, they are for more concerned to protect themselves because they see an admission of complicity or omission,as weakening themselves.

  Regards David
• 

  littlebird

  It's sickens me how ironic it is that they proclaim how clean their organization is, and yet they harbor and exhalt some of the filthiest people on the planet!

  They often use the scriptures about "not taking a brother to court" to cover up a host of illegal activities. I believe that is one of these reasons that the rank and file, skip the police altogether and take everything to the elders. Along, of course, with the excuse of not putting shame on Jehovah's name, like hiding molestors really helps Jehovah out.
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  HintOfLime

  It's sickens me how ironic it is that they proclaim how clean their organization is, and yet they harbor and exhalt some of the filthiest people on the planet!

  The mythbusters should tackle some of the watchtower myths. Oh wait! They already have!!!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBj6PonX14A

  - Lime
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  Lady Lee

  I think any dictatorship fits the criteria. I think a lot of people make a mistake thinking that cults must be led by one person. Sometimes the leadership is a collective that thinks and acts as one. That fits the GB to a tee.

  Few doctators are willing to admit they have made a mistake. That would lead to people questionning other decisions that are made.
• 

  Lady Lee

  JWoods

  I can see them not wanting police or anyone from the outside coming in to investigate crimes.

  Rutherford really instilled the anti-police fear mongering among JWs. He used the police methodically to stage arrests ato instill a persecution complex in JWs. It worked.
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  flipper

  LADY LEE- Great point you bring out about the witnesses always using the term " pedophilia" or " pedophiles " instead of referring to the actual act " sexual abuse " of children. I was curious so I looked the word " pedophilia " up in the dictionary. It states : " Sexual attraction felt by an adult toward a child or children. " So you are right Lady Lee , the term pedophilia describes the attitude of sexual attraction towards children but it doesn't accurately describe the SEXUAL ACT or CRIME already committed . Big difference.

  So apparently it is an attempt by the WT society to " soft pedal " what is actually happening by describing the actions as " pedophilia " ( just sexual attraction by adults towards children ) instead of what it ACTUALLY is - the act of sexual abuse of children. In my opinion it's not only a " soft pedaling " manuever by the WT society it is outright word manipulation to exercise " damage control " over it's members and to the outside media.

  Also Lady Lee- My dad who has been an elder since 1953 ( he's 84 now ) took it upon himself to call up families with children in his congregation when it became known that 2 former convicted child molesters would be attending his congregation. He told the families that the child molesters were NOT allowed to work with any children in service and they were not allowed to be alone with any children. But even though my dad received NO INSTRUCTIONS from the society- he felt obligated on his own to protect these families. It made me proud that he did that on his own without the socities input.

  Like Mary said earlier- if the WT society years ago had just told elders it's MANDATORY to report to police , and als ( in my opinion ) make it MANDATORY that elders inform parents with children about those who are convicted child molesters in their midst- then it might not have snowballed on the WT society like it did. But- The WT society is not that humble to ever admit they handled it wrong. They can't admit a mistake or defeat . It's all about control
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  Lady Lee

  Flipper

  Thanks for that clarification. It makes perfect sense. To be fair though I don't know that the WTS was the one to coin the term as it is used now regarding the WTS. I think )and I could be wrong) but Bill Bowen of silentlambs was the one to start using the term pedophiles regarding the list of names the WTS had. But even so the list was more than a list of people with a sexual internest in children. it was a list of people who had been accused of sexual acts with children - HUGE difference. So the word "pedophile" just doesn't work again.

  God for your dad - a man with a real conscience.
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  verystupid77

  Lady Lee

  You make an excellent point about the word pedophile. We have two child molesters in our hall we had three at one point and like I have said no one was supposed to know. Definitely not any parents.

  Well one of the child molesters who was in prison for 10 years and on parole for another 10 got totally mad at my husband. Now my husband does not have a lot of love for child molesters having seen how it has affected me from my being molested as a child. Well this psychopath child molester got mad at my husband for not being more of an elder to him. He asked to speak to my husband alone and my husband told him he just could not respect a man who raped his own daughter along with another child. This totally set the pedo off and he went to anther elder all ticked off at my husband for saying he raped his daughter which was a provable fact.

  How I found out that my husband had said he raped his daughter was not from my husband but from the elder who the child rapist went to. Now this elder was totally mad, in fact mad is an understatement for how upset this elder was he was pissed at my husband. He told me that he would not ever stand for my husband to ever call anyone a rapist. That is when I asked my husband about it and my husband said I did not call him a rapist I said he raped his daughter which he did go to prison for.

  This elder was so mad. He said no one would ever use the word rape to any brother. Well that is what this child molester did. He raped his own kid. How can you call it anything else.

  How totally crazy is all of this. So if a brother murders someone or does arm-robbery or if God forbids he has oral sex with his wife what do the elders call all of these crimes.

  Yes lady Lee from what I have seen with my own eyes they just want us victims to go away. vs77
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  Lady Lee

  It is so insane that they protect the sexual perpetrators/rapists and sacrifice the victims.

  I can't believe that elder came to you. Actually I can believe it. But so much for confidentiality.

  The only thing I can conclude is that stupid belief that their law is above the law of the land.

  Even when the law of the land convicts them and puts them in jail the elders still consider they are innocent because the perpetrator deny it and there weren't two witnesses.