Should cult members be allowed to adopt or be foster parents?

by Mad Sweeney 44 Replies latest jw friends

  • Scully
    Scully

    Restricting someone's ability to adopt or serve as a foster parent would totally get the agencies in hot water for religious discrimination.

    Now, having said that, I was completely relieved when a baby was spared from being sent to JW foster parents, with the plan to eventually adopt.

    The fact that it is known that JWs will reject their own flesh-and-blood child if he/she eventually is Baptized™ and is subsequently Disfellowshipped™ doesn't seem to me the kind of environment that will serve the emotional best interests of an adopted child or foster child.

  • AGuest
    AGuest

    I should think that anyone willing to step up and care for/adopt a fatherless child... with no INTENT to literally abuse such child (i.e., pimp out, physically enslave/abuse/confine, etc.)... should be allowed to do so, dear MS (the greatest of love and peace to you!). Why shouldn't these be allowed to feed/clothe/shelter a child in need? I mean, in the absence of... or at least until... the rest of the world stepping/steps up?

    Perhaps they're not the best choice, dear one... but they're certainly not the worst, either.

    Again, peace to you!

    A slave of Christ,

    SA

  • journey-on
    journey-on

    Would you want a child to stay with people that practice voodoo? Although good foster parents are not abundant, they are out there. IMO, weird off-the-wall suppressive, repressive, oppressive, mind-screwing religious practices and cults should be kept away from children. People that can provide food, clothing, shelter, love, education, and support can be located if the social workers are dedicated and hard-working.

  • Gayle
    Gayle

    Please do search about "Dennis Lindberg." One of the very saddest of JW destructions.

    http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/medical/171297/1/Urgent-Anyone-in-WA-state-remember-Dennis-Lindberg

    other references at this site: check 'search' above.

    Because of blood issue alone,,I think most agencies will not accept JWs as good candidates for this.

    With relatives, with specific request, maybe it can still still be done.

    I've known a JW was very critcized for adopting, because end near,,important to do full time work instead. Blah. Blah. They adopted and child grown now. Ha-Ha. All free of JWdom now and living happily ever since.

  • talesin
    talesin

    No, no, no ... a thousand times no!

    I, too, know JWs who adopted children ... from another country... my own parents were foster parents for a couple years.

    t

  • AGuest
    AGuest
    The fact that it is known that JWs will reject their own flesh-and-blood child if he/she eventually is Baptized™ and is subsequently Disfellowshipped™ doesn't seem to me the kind of environment that will serve the emotional best interests of an adopted child or foster child.

    Not that standing up for JWs doesn't give me the willies, dear Skully-Girl (peace to you, my dear!)... and it totally does... but, for the most part, these children would be adults by the time such a thing occurred. Or almost there... and it's not like "worldly" kids don't undergo their fair share of "generation gap" tribulations with THEIR parents, as well. Not to negate the effects of what you mentioned - I realize that having this happen can be devastating (even fatal for some) - but there are those out there fostering and adopting children... who literally abuse them before kindergarten/puberty. Some only take such children in in order to exploit them in some heinous manner.

    But I and other "sisters" I knew took kids into our homes as JWs all the time. Some even from JW homes. Some of these went to meetings with us (their choice), some didn't. Again, their choice... or their biological parents (which often have visiting rights). But... they all knew they were safe, warm, and well-fed... in MY house. And that really was the most important thing to THEM... at the time.

    Again, a JW household may not be the best scenario... but there really are worse scenarios out there. Indeed, unless the world can completely ensure the safety, security, and well-being of ALL children... it really can be a bit of a crap-shoot. Even in many biological homes...

    Again, peace to you!

    A slave of Christ,

    SA

  • journey-on
    journey-on

    You make a good point, Shelby, but, still, I have to say it should be the very very very last resort. You, personally, are always the exception to the rule, my dear.

  • Band on the Run
    Band on the Run

    My main KH in Newark, NJ had an entire coterie of lazy, heavy sisters getting paid to be foster parents. Altho the children were not their own, they were active Witnesses. Most of the foster children were boys. They had to sit through the most boring meetings. The foster mothers always made a big announcement when we referred to the boys as their children. I am NOT his mother. The state pays me. These single women were capable of working.

    The heat was always being turned off or there was no food all the time. I never heard gentle, loving words. Without any male role models, the boys were rambunctious but not bad. The elders always attacked the foster mothers.

    If I were a bit older, the boys should have been with someone who cared about them. The housing was atrocious. Why were our tax dollars supporting a religion? They were viewed as the next generation of brothers but almost all were disfellowshipping in a single night for sexual immorality.

    Few of the judgmental brothers had their own children.

  • AGuest
    AGuest
    Would you want a child to stay with people that practice voodoo?

    Depends on what I know about those people, dear JO (the greatest of love and peace to you, dear one!). Seriously. My people are from the south... in places were voodoo is a real religion. Actually, it's a gollymoffry of the religion of some of my ancestors with what they picked up in the "New World." Some of it's used for "good"... some for "bad." Depends on who you're dealing with. I personally don't believe in it, so it has no hold on ME, though... but, yeah, if those "people" were kind, loving, and had hearts generous enough to take in someone else's child (which, BTW, a LOT of the grandmothers who practice voodoo DO)... I'd say, sure!

    Although good foster parents are not abundant, they are out there.

    Yes. But I think the ratio of kids needing foster homes... and foster homes, let alone those with "good" foster parents... is balanced in the wrong direction.

    IMO, weird off-the-wall suppressive, repressive, oppressive, mind-screwing religious practices and cults should be kept away from children.

    And so should drugs, and guns, and racism, and molestation, and child pornography, and child trafficking, and child labor/slavery... and... and... and... But sometimes you have to go with what you got. Or, alternatively, return to state-run orphanages... which also come with no guarantee and a just as dicey history.

    People that can provide food, clothing, shelter, love, education, and support can be located if the social workers are dedicated and hard-working.

    I really am not sure it's THAT easy, dear one. I certainly believe that most social workers are NOT all that dedicated and hard-working. And those who are... are just as imperfect... and so subject to error as the rest of us (thus, sometimes place children in homes where they end up mutilated... or dead... vs. indoctrinated into a cult of primarily illiterate people who live in fear... of a lot of things... which they CAN walk away from once an adult. Like some here chose to do...).

    Yes, some of those kids will miss out on Hallowe'en and Christmas. Some of them won't ever get to go to Disneyland or see "Harry Potter." Some won't see an "R" rated movie until they're 18 (yeah, right!)... and some will feel forced to marry at a ridiculously young age. Bad stuff, all. But I think that if it means a home for them... and takes them away from the drugs, violence, poverty, starvation, sickness, abandonment, abuse, etc., that they may already be experiencing... they won't mind too much.

    Until they turn 14, that is. Then all bets are off... for foster, adopted, AND biologically raised kids.

    Again, peace to you!

    A slave of Christ,

    SA, who has seem some hairy stuff in her life and while she understands that the JW experience as a child was bad for many, just thinks folks should keep it in perspective: a kid who's lost his/her parents to AIDS... or drugs... or prison... who has NO other means of care... yet, several younger siblings... won't care if the parents are somewhat religious fanatics.

  • ProdigalSon
    ProdigalSon

    JW's shouldn't even be allowed to breed their own children......

    ....it's child abuse before the kid is even born.....

    Babies can hear from inside the womb and they're getting indoctrinated before even taking a breath....

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