In response to Standfirm's comment about the two witness rule.

by life is to short 67 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

  • life is to short
    life is to short

    Standfirm told me thatl

    ife is to short,

    The JW organization says that two witnesses to SEPARATE acts of wrongdoing are acceptable for someone to be DF'ed.

    "If there is another witness to the same type of sin on the part of the accused, this would be basis for forming a judicial committee."-Flock book, elders' manual, published in 1991.First of all it dose not say that the accused could be DF'ed all it says is that it would be the basis for forming a judicial committee a far cry from being DF'ed.

    Anyway I wrote this to Standfirm on my thread and thought I would start a thread with this story on it own. Sorry it is a little but it is what happens when a victim finally comes forward and why most do not speak out.I will try very hard not to be upset here, but are you kidding.

    Standfirm Did you not read what the 1995 WT SAID!

    Unless a child has the ability to come forward when he or she is raped at the age of six, seven, eight, nine or ten years of age which most kids cannot do. I know I could not do IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then what they say later in life when they are in their 20's, 30's or 40's is memories.

    So let me walk you through this since it seems so hard for you to grasp. The elders will say well the 1995 WT of November 1st pages 25-29 says that your memories are repressed since you did not come forward when you were raped at the age of 8, or 10 and now that you are 35, now you are coming forward. Why did you wait all of these years? Why now? Why are you doing this to Brother Wonderful now? What is your problem? You have even had Brother Wonderful to you home for meals when it was your turn to feed the speaker and you just last month worked in field service with him and now 25 years after you now CLAIM and allege he raped you when you were 7 to ten years of age! Now, just now you are speaking up. If it was so horrible you would have spoken up years ago.

    Then the elders go to Brother Wonderful who has by then way been promoted to being an elder or MS or pioneer and he looks at you blankly like you are a nut case and says why would I ever hurt you like that. It never happened and you know it this is in front of the elders after they have met with him privately. You just stand there feeling like a fool.

    You know it did and you suspect that it also happened to other kids in the hall too, so you go to them and ask them to help you but they know what you are going through with the elders, they know you are looking bad in front of the whole congregation, that no one is believing you and that you are living a life of hell because of it all. Even if they say that yes Brother Wonderful fondled then or made them before oral sex on him they will not be believed because they were alone when he did it. They are also in their late 30's early 40's maybe they have not even told their mates that they were raped as children.

    No they all tell you Brother Wonderful is truly wonderful he never hurt us. You are crazy like the elders are telling you. You truly wonder if you are going crazy.

    You watch Brother Wonderful at the next meeting picking up a toddler and holder her and insider your heart is breaking because you have no power to stop it. You wish you could die, because you died when he raped you at age 10 inside, but yet you still kept living outside. Brother Wonderful looks over at you while holding the child and similes that smile you know only too well.

    Finally another adult victim you age sees the pain you are in and finally get the courage to speak up. She goes to the elders also and says Brother Wonderful also molested her. The elders ask her the same questions they asked you. Why did you wait so long? What do you have against Brother Wonderful since you waited so long to come forward? How long have you had these memories? How do we as body of elders know they are true memories? How do know they are not repressed memories?

    Brother Wonderful denies he molested this sister also.

    Then they pull out the WT or 1995 and tell both victims that "Since the accusation is denied, that nothing more can be done in a judicial way. The congregation will continue to view the one accused as an innocent person, being the Bible says that there must two or three witnesses before judicial action can be taken. Even with their now being two of you saying the same thing it still happened 25 or 30 years before and nature of these recalls is just too uncertain to base judicial decisions on them without supporting evidence." The elders then tell you in a condescending why "this does not mean that such "memories" are viewed as false (or that they are viewed as true). But Bibles principles must be followed in establishing a matter judicially."

    You leave the elders meeting in a daze. The next meeting you watch the elders backslap Brother Wonderful you even hear the COBE telling him he knows Satan was testing him these last few weeks. You meet for field service and watch the COBE put Brother Wonderful in the same car group with the single sister and her three little girls to work together in service together you feel like throwing up.

    You sit there thinking why did I not come forward when I was ten years old and say Brother Wonderful molested me in service? You hate yourself so much you wish you were dead. None of this is making an sense. This is the Jehovah's true religion. Why is this happening? where is Jehovah?

    One of the elders who was not involved in the committee case but knows everything comes up to you and says Sister LITS you look so sad just remember though to focus on the Kingdom when Jehovah will do away with all crimes, throw your burden on Jehovah, read the Bible more, pray more and just go out in service more. Keep you mind off this think 'happy thoghts.' You look puzzled at him and then he says well sometimes even elders make mistakes. You are even more puzzled. Then he tells you ‘Even if Brother Wonderful is guilty though I am not saying he is' "Does he "get away with it." As it were? Certainly not! The question of his guilt or innocence can be safely left in Jehovah's hands. "The sins of some men are publicly manifest, leading directly to judgment but as for other men their sins also become manifest later." He then asks you to read 1 Timothy 5:24; Romans 12:19; 14;12 You feel like throwing up and you never want to read the Bible again but you do as you are told like you always have and read the Scriptures not understanding a word of what you have just read because you are in such a daze. The elder then says to you "The book of Proverbs says: "The wicked man dies, his hope perishes." Proverbs 10:28 11:7 Ultimately, Jehovah God and Christ Jesus render everlasting judgment in justice" and he asks you to read 1 Corinthians 4:5 as Brother Wonderful leaves the meeting for field service caring one of the toddler and holding the hand of the eight year little girl of sister single, as he walks by you he winks.

    You wish you were dead but you are still alive to here this elder telling you sometimes all that happens is a person just dies and is never given everlasting life, we just need to leave it all in Jehovah's hands. Jehovah knows what he is doing and sometimes he allow evil to happen.

    You just cannot grasp any of this and nothing is making sense.

    So Standfirm even through as you say in the elders book of 1991 "If there is another witness to the same type of sin on the part of the accused, this would be basis for forming a judicial committee."-Flock book, elders' manual, published in 1991. blah, blah, it does not mean a dam thing.

    Us victioms do not come forward until we are older because we are so afraid of not being believed especially when we were kids being molested and yet that is what happens anyway now that we are in our 30's and 40's adults and we finally feel we can speak up about the horrible things that were done to us we are still told we are crazy, looking for money or our memories are repressed and just too foggy to be believed. We are asked why did we not speak up when we were children and you are thinking in you head I am 40 years old and you are not believing me now, what chance in hell did I have as a 10 year old or 6 year old to be believed. What the molester said was true no would believe me if I did tell. It is true no one does even now that I am 40 years old.

    Why do we come forward finally is because the pain inside of us hurts to much and we just cannot shut it up anymore, we died inside when we were molested at the age of 6, 8, 10 and we have been dying a slow death outside every since. The pain is just too much for us to keep quiet anymore.

    There is no answer the victim dies either way you look at it.

    LITS

  • OnTheWayOut
    OnTheWayOut

    LITS, this is the most succinct, concise writing from you I have ever written. I want to say it's beautiful, but in such a tragic way. I really get where you are coming from.

    It would seem that, if the religion were the truth, Jehovah would have revealed the matter back then- causing the man to confess or commit suicide. That, if Jehovah didn't just prevent the evil to begin with and remove the evil man some other way. If I were to accept that religion as truth, I don't get what Jehovah has about testing children beyond reasonable measures. A bunch of gobble-dee-gook from the scriptures doesn't change the fact that a reasonably innocent child is adversely affected by this while they are supposedly being watched/protected by the Universal Sovereign.

    I want to add for those that want to say, "There are no easy answers," that you are correct. If it ain't the truth, if it's all about covering your ass in legal stuff, if God truly isn't blessing it, .... then there are no easy answers.

    If it's not the truth, then it is in need of destruction. But seeing how that is not forthcoming, there are still better answers. First of all, if they cannot warn parents of such dangers, then NO CHILD SHOULD GO DOOR-TO-DOOR! If they insist that children should go door-to-door, then they should only go with their parents. When they come forward, all these cases should be turned over to people outside of JW's who are trained to handle them. Even adults coming forward- an expert could determine the truth of the matter.

    And in this day and age, if there is even a suspicion of molestation happening, talks should be given, marking should be done. Elders and WT-bigshots should protect the children and let Jehovah protect the organization. (I know, that goes back to assuming Jehovah would protect the organization- no easy answers when it's not the truth.)

    Thanks, LITS. I really appreciate your suffering with this issue and understand much better thanks to this writing.

  • mrsjones5
    mrsjones5

    You go girl! *thumbs up*

  • flipper
    flipper

    LIFE IS TOO SHORT- Very well written and the thoughts expressed accurately on the WT society's faulty child abuse policies. The WT society's child abuse policies are indefensible, unexcusable, and inhumane. No amount of justification can EVER explain away the WT leaders unwillingness to protect innocent children in their organization. The more exposure that comes out about it- all the better to awaken other JW's AND the outside world

  • life is to short
    life is to short

    Thanks everyone. It is just so hard to not be believed and Standfirm's response just depressed me so much.

    LITS

  • cantleave
    cantleave

    Good post!

  • StandFirm
    StandFirm

    life is to short,

    At the time of my response I did not realise that you had been abused. I am very sorry to hear it. I hope you are feeling okay, and that the abuser and any who covered it up get what they deserve. I also apologize if my comments were taken as callous, which they in a sense were. I only thought you were commenting on the policy, not that you were abused yourself. That was my mistake.

    Regarding your comments on Witness policy,

    You wrote:
    "First of all it dose not say that the accused could be DF'ed all it says is that it would be the basis for forming a judicial committee a far cry from being DF'ed."

    But it is the first step in that process. Being hardened in a course of sin, like abusing others, is generally considered indicative of lack of repentance. Even if the person was somehow considered repentant, child abuse always means that a public reproof is given with a warning talk on the same subject, thus all will know what the person did.

    "Unless a child has the ability to come forward when he or she is raped at the age of six, seven, eight, nine or ten years of age which most kids cannot do. I know I could not do IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

    That is, sadly, true in many cases, but not all.

    "Then what they say later in life when they are in their 20's, 30's or 40's is memories."

    The 1995 Watchtower was speaking about repressed memories, not memories you carry with you always but don't speak about.

    "The elders will say..."

    I think that this is attributing bad motives to the elders. Even if some elders were so callous, such an attitude has always been condemned by the organization. People in the world in general have said similar things, but that doesn't mean all of the world has such a callous attitude.

    "Even if they say that yes Brother Wonderful fondled then or made them before oral sex on him they will not be believed because they were alone when he did it."
    This is precisely the thing the "Flock" book spoke against. They stated that "another witness to the same type of sin" was sufficient for judicial action to be taken.

    "We are asked why did we not speak up when we were children and you are thinking in you head I am 40 years old and you are not believing me now, what chance in hell did I have as a 10 year old or 6 year old to be believed. What the molester said was true no would believe me if I did tell. It is true no one does even now that I am 40 years old."

    That is very sad. It is a human failing, not an organizational one.

    "There is no answer the victim dies either way you look at it."

    Sadly, that is true. No matter how well things are handled afterwards the damage has been done.

  • StandFirm
    StandFirm

    OnTheWayOut says:
    "It would seem that, if the religion were the truth, Jehovah would have revealed the matter back then- causing the man to confess or commit suicide."

    I suppose you believe that no religion is the truth, since no religion can do as you demand.

    "If it ain't the truth, if it's all about covering your ass in legal stuff, if God truly isn't blessing it, .... then there are no easy answers."
    And if it were the truth there would be easy answers? I think not.

    "If it's not the truth, then it is in need of destruction."
    A revealing comment. How do you propose this be done?

    "When they come forward, all these cases should be turned over to people outside of JW's who are trained to handle them."
    What if nobody wants to? Should the Witnesses override the person's free will? Leaving it up to the family what to do is the best way.

    "And in this day and age, if there is even a suspicion of molestation happening..."

    In the Salem Witch Trials and the Inquisition judicial acts were also done under the "suspicion" of something happening.

  • JRK
    JRK

    Here is the exact wording from the new cluster-Flock book (pages 71-72):

    " If there are two or three witnesses to the same

    kind of wrongdoing but each one is witness

    to a separate incident, the elders can

    consider their testimony. While such evidence is

    acceptable to establish guilt, it is preferable to

    have two witnesses to the same occurrence of

    wrongdoing.

    • The testimony of youths may be considered; it

    is up to the elders to determine whether the testimony

    has the ring of truth."

    JK

  • OnTheWayOut
    OnTheWayOut

    OnTheWayOut says:
    "It would seem that, if the religion were the truth, Jehovah would have revealed the matter back then- causing the man to confess or commit suicide."
    I suppose you believe that no religion is the truth, since no religion can do as you demand.

    You got that right. How difficult would it be for the all-powerful one to protect little children from such unwarranted horrors?
    But why do you want to make this about what I believe? Why not just stick to defending your God? (OH, because such horrors are indefensible.)
    Or stick to offering real solutions of your own instead of defending terrible solutions.
    "If it ain't the truth, if it's all about covering your ass in legal stuff, if God truly isn't blessing it, .... then there are no easy answers."
    And if it were the truth there would be easy answers? I think not.
    I already provided the easy answers. God could prevent the horror and remove the man in some other way. Heart attacks and getting hit by trucks comes to mind. Causing these criminals to come forward and confess their sins would be wonderful if God could not prevent the horror to begin with, which (apparently) He cannot do.

    "When they come forward, all these cases should be turned over to people outside of JW's who are trained to handle them."
    What if nobody wants to? Should the Witnesses override the person's free will? Leaving it up to the family what to do is the best way.

    "And in this day and age, if there is even a suspicion of molestation happening..."In the Salem Witch Trials and the Inquisition judicial acts were also done under the "suspicion" of something happening.

    Often, family will do the same thing WTS does- they just want the accusations to swiftly go away and they want to shut the victim up because it makes the family member (and supposedly the whole family) look bad. Victims need help. If they get the help, maybe there won't be charges against the perpetrator. Maybe there will. This is not about a witch hunt against pedophiles, I am simply suggesting that victims don't need to shut up about this for the rest of their lives or wait until they are adults with damaged lives to start seeking help. If you are concerned about false accusations (happens in divorce cases sometimes) then let the professionals iron that out. If the family wants to pretend that Uncle Steve did not do this and tell little Sally to just pretend it didn't happen, then YES, I am for overriding the decision.

    "If it's not the truth, then it is in need of destruction."A revealing comment. How do you propose this be done?
    Not going to bother about this part, it just derails the discussion. StandFirm, the bottom line is that there are way better answers than WTS offers.

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