by AndersonsInfo 44 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
OMG!! I mentioned that little fact with my JW in-laws tonight (just as a random point as we were discussing the interview) and holy hell did I get the stone-face and angry denial!
I felt kind of bad for bringing it up afterwards, since I try not to rock their boat too much.
I felt kind of bad for bringing it up afterwards, since I try not to rock their boat too much.
Don't feel responsible for their bad behaviour. If their church has a problem, they should grow a pair and deal with it, not pass the buck onto someone else.
In this case, you could have told them to take ABC to task for it, then used that hackneyed old line about not shooting the messenger. Put on angel face.
Kingdom Ministry April 2003. Italics original.
What cautions should we heed when witnessing to prison inmates?
Worldwide there are at least eight million prison inmates, some of whom show an interest in the good news. (1 Tim. 2:4) One branch office receives some 1,400 letters each month from inmates and their family members requesting literature or a personal visit. While the interest of many inmates is sincere, experience has shown that some feign interest, seeking to take selfish advantage of God's people. In view of this, all should heed the following cautions regarding witnessing to prison inmates.
In many cases inmates are given a witness by means of correspondence. It is strongly recommended that sisters not write to male prisoners, even if it is with the goal of giving spiritual help. That responsibility should be handled only by qualified brothers. Qualified sisters may be assigned to correspond with female inmates who express sincere interest in Bible truth. Money or personal gifts should not be sent to inmates, despite the fact that such may be requested.
When an incarcerated person shows interest, his name and address should be turned over to the congregation in the area of the prison facility. Usually the qualified brothers there know how to handle the various situations that can arise. If the congregation is not known, the information should be sent to the branch office.
It is not objectionable for the assigned brothers to hold meetings with prisoners so that several may study at one time. However, special events in which publishers mingle freely with inmates should not be held in prisons. Furthermore, it is ill-advised for publishers to visit a prison indiscriminately and have close association with prisoners.
May we be "cautious as serpents and yet innocent as doves" as we share the good news with prison inmates.-Matt. 10:16.
In a psychological evaluation after the first year of Garrido's sentence, psychologist J.B. Kiehlbauch wrote that Garrido had joined the Jehovah's Witnesses and became a fervent practitioner.
"He sees himself as one whose life is and will be based on his strongly held religious beliefs, and all indications are that he is conducting his affairs in accord with the principles implied therein," Kiehlbauch wrote. "Prognosis for successful transition to the community is considered very good." http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-phillip-garrido5-2009sep05,0,2197399,full.story
That makes it sound like Phillip was a baptised JW before Nancy (raised-in) first met him in Leavenwort.
The local Elders would have done the studying, not Nancy, so no rules would have been broken and no advice not taken.
Phillip's mother was (reportedly) a JW and would have been a member of the Antioch congregation until she became bedridden in 1998. I would presume that she converted after Phillip. If anyone knows otherwise they are keeping quiet about it. http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/child-abuse/181439/1/Garrido-was-a-very-absorbed-Jehovahs-Witness
I wonder if she was getting visits from the Elders, as she should have?
I don't expect to see a disclaimer in a WT publication any time before Armageddon.
This sort of thing is a real problem for the untrained elders. It seems like they don't want to tackle anything difficult if they don't have to, so confronting possible child molesters or wife beaters isn't on their agenda. They'd rather focus attention on young kids and single women for minor infractions. Much more fun to get some young person in a backroom discussion of exactly what naughty sexual experimentation they might have done than to confront someone with a real mental problem. To be honest, I can't say I blame them. What qualifications do they have to counsel real mental cases? Heck, look at the government agencies that fell down on the job too...and they supposedly are trained. I guess its human nature to take the easy road. It just annoys me that witnesses will stand around patting themselves on the back for how loving and involved they are when, in reality, they are no such thing.
Seems like these people really used the JW mind control they learned on Jaycee. I hope this paints the witnesses as even more of a cult in the public eye and it causes more people to avoid them.
Nancy Garrido led a double life. Abductor/jailer/abuser/photographer of young girls to help out her pedophile husband....wonderful nurse's aid, beloved employee, and devoted lady who cared for the elderly and her mother-in-law.
Living a double life must have been second nature to Ms. Garrido. Many Jehovah's Witnesses live a double life!
I knew Ministerial Servents who would speak against fornication in a public talk, but were having sex with any woman in the congregation. Because he was young and single, the women 'fell for him' even if they were married. Congregations that were swapping spouses - Griffin Georgia! "Respected" brothers who were raping their daughters and neices, and one that gave drugs to his wife so he could rape her neice in front of her - Homestead Florida. "Respected" brothers who were showing Jesus's non-violent message at the doorstep, but beating their family to a pulp - Everywhere USA. Pioneers who did their time in hotel rooms, drinking and having sex - Deerfield Beach Florida. Elder's sons who carried and brandished guns to other drivers while speeding in their own car - Boca Raton Florida. Geez, the list of "Jehovah's Witnesses Gone Wild" that I can write. All the while, the Society did very little to stop this behavior or to eradicate these bad ones from the group. The subtle, silent lesson learned by all was, "It's not a sin, unless you get caught. And, even then, if your daddy was high enough in the group, you'd be let off. Act remourseful, dress nicely, go out in service a little bit...and you're fine" So, the Jehovah's Witnesses "look great" at the doorstep....as perfect as a Stepford Wife...nothing could be farther from the actual truth for many of them.
Many Jehovah's Witnesses have mental problems, and those mental problems led them to become Jehovah's Witnesses, hoping that stringent rules would make them a better person. But, the rules are so strict (toddlers can't even fidget at a 2 hour church meeting without a dreaded trip to the woman's bathroom and subsquent beating with a brush), that not even Noah, Job, or Moses could tow the line. Eventually, many "good hearted" Jehovah's Witnesses will lead a double life. This double life causes some alot of stress from the guilty conscience. Others, it doesn't bother them at all. Those are the ones that can become truly twisted.
Case in point - my one relative. Last night, she was going to a local gambling joint. She was walking in the door and said on the phone, "Oh, we're at where we go." She'd NEVER admit to me where she was going. I know. Her husband told me. They go there every week. Tee, hee, hee. Double life. But, she has to appear like a good Jehovah's Witness to me. I think it's fun to watch, but one day, I fear, she'll come undone. She used to admit to me that, "We're going to (Casino) for the day. I'm going because my husband likes to gamble...."
The Jehovah's Witnesses demand that a woman is 'sweet as pie' in front of the public and a submissive helper to her husband. So, Nancy Garrido took on the role of a good Jehovah's Witness wife. Yet, she conveniently forgot the part about 'not joining your husband in a sin against Jehovah.' Therefore, I have a strong suspicion that she reallly enjoyed the crimes she and her husband did against Jaycee. This, leads me to think that she was probably abused as a child...as many Jehovah's Witness children are so abused and they and their family are silenced through coercion by the elders. www.silentlambs.org Not everyone who is abused, becomes an abuser. But, those who are abusers, likely were abused as a child.
Skeeter
Just finished watching the interview last night.
What an amazing story and woman Jaycee is. Wow. Fascinating.
An elder's wife who calls to chat everyday did see the interview and did tell me Phillip's wife was a JW. She said she felt sick.
I am so happy there is this ending to this story.
In the hall I was in those who came from prison were looked up to. It was like a badge of honer or something because they had turned their life around and now were severing Jehovah after leading such a terrible life. We were taught to respect them from the elders in the hall and not to ask any questions PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Everyone else who became a JW did not have to overcome so much to be in the truth so they were special in many ways. It was like Jehovah loved them even more then normal.
I remember very well one man who came to the hall and it was his first day free. His first day out of prison and he was at the Sunday meeting how special was that. Everyone gushed over him like he was some rock-star.
I was standing in the back of the hall and asked someone who he was and that was when I was told this was his first day of freedom and he had chosen to give it to Jehovah. It was so great I was told.
I found out latter that one of the ex prison brothers in our hall who had encouraged him to come to the meeting that day and was befriending him was a pedophile who had rapped a eight year old child and who the elders loved to bits and held up in the hall as a person to look up to. One elder even calling him a gentle giant in one public talks, saying that his serving time in prison was a miscarriage of justice.
As far as women having contact with prison inmates when I was a teenager there was a sister who loved to write to prison inmates she was in her late 20' early 30's. She was a problem case in the hall and the elders did not know what to do with her. This one elder seemed to have been the one who was chosen to look after her. Well his wife hated it and did not want anything to do with this sister, so here I was 19 years old and this elder's wife dumps her on me telling me that I was young and could really help her. Well this woman tries to get me to write to the prisoners too and I will not do it. She gets mad at me for not wanting to help people, I go to the elder's wife who blows me off telling me that I need to learn forgiveness.
LITS
This case makes me concerned that the Garridos went to the Antioch congregation after being released from prison back in '88, at least for a while. Certainly, there would have been no obligation by the elders to tell the congregation about Garrido's criminal past. I can't believe he would not have tried to hurt any female there even then if given the opportunity. Did he try is the question? Are there secrets there? To cover for the image of the WTS?
If investigators knew the policy of the WTS, especially back then, they would try to pursue members in that congregation with questions. The exposure of the WTS at this time on their policy of pedophiles would blow up huge right now. Investigations went to all the authorities to catch all their 60 slip-ups regarding parole checks on him and their was a $30M settlement won for Jaycee.
Diane Sawyer and Jaycees' mom would be good 'sniff dogs' on this issue right now.
blacksheep: Thanks for providing the LA Times link to the shrink who "certified" Garrido as a non-threat because he had become a "fervent" JW. I looked all over and couldn't find it.
That was a key to his being released on parole after serving about 1/5 of his 50-year sentence for raping the 21 dealer he held captive as a sex slave for 8 long hours in his "love shack" storage shed in Reno.
There are a lot of JW connections with this pair of dirtbags. What this teaches us is that JWs are lying when they claim to enjoy special protection and have a unique relationship with the god of the universe. They are no better than any other religion and worse than many of them in terms of the damage they do to the human psyche. And they attract wingnuts in droves, in part because their beliefs are so "out there." In this they are not unlike other whacky fundies. The Mormons, for example, have to live with their "reformed" polygamous wing. That church that protests at funerals must be embarrassing to members of mainline Christian churches. The dubs have their own skeletons in the closet.
As more people find out that the JWs have a dark side, it will be more difficult for them to proselytize. The evidence suggests this has already happened in the advanced western nations, where their growth in the past two decades has been largely limited to baptizing their own children.
