by cedars 68 Replies latest jw friends
So when I compare what Bill Bowen has done for victims to what 'Anonymous' has, no contest.
Bill Bowen without a doubt has done more for the cause of Watchtower victims than Anonymous can even dream of.
Without Bill Bowen and Silentlambs 10 years ago, no Candace Conti today; that is how I see it.
He and Barb Anderson raised the issue when no one thought it was remotely possible that WT was hiding it's policies and tactics.
<<<<Without Bill Bowen and Silentlambs 10 years ago, no Candace Conti today; that is how I see it.>>>>>
Please clarify what actions you attribute to Bill Bowen/Silent Lambs that you believe made Candace Conti's case possible. I do not know of any.
While the Silent Lambs site claims that all money donated there goes towards helping victims of child abuse, the site does not disclose any financial statements for Silentlambs (please correct me if I'm wrong, but I could not find any financial disclosures on the Silent Lambs site other than their claims that all money donated goes towards helping victims).
Caveat emptor - Buyer Beware!
Silentlambs was the first website I checked out when I heard the NBC news report years ago. It clearly had the ring of truth to it. From there, I found my way to JWfacts and here. Frankly, there were plenty of other "apostate websites" that were crazy enough to probably have convinced me to return to WT, but silentlambs got through to me, motivating me to investigate more.
People like Bill and Barbara were brave to step forward and speak up about the issue of WT protecting pedophiles in the congregations. I realized that their courage to step forward would make them targets of personal attacks and smear campaigns. I have no expectations that they're perfect or superheros. Dig deep and you'll find plenty of flaws in them, and certainly in me. Flaws that WT hides with propoganda, lawyers, and money, and that anonymous hides with anonymity.
So what's next for anonymous? Since they haven't destroyed WT yet, perhaps they will...
If anonymous can't think of anything better to do than to attack Silentlambs and Bill Bowen, I think they need to clarify their raison d'être.
Does my posting this now mean that anonymous is going to focus their efforts to bring down Watchtower on personally attacking me?
>>Please clarify what actions you attribute to Bill Bowen/Silent Lambs that you believe made Candace Conti's case possible. I do not know of any.>>
What I mean is that the process of holding WT accountable began with Bill Bowen and Barb Anderson working together first to try to get WT to change; WT refused and both Bill and Barb were disfellowshipped over their raising the issue. With public awareness of the issue, including present and past victims, the road was made easier for Candace Conti to bring suit.
Jeff Anderson, who handled Heidi Meyers lawsuit in 2002, said at that time that the lawsuits and the case against WT was about 10 years behind the Catholic Church scandal and that it would take time for legal precedents to be set.
My point, and I don't care if you agree BTW, is that Bill and Barb started the process and raised the public and legal awareness of the issue.
Bill probably won't win popularity contests; it doesn't change what he accomplished.
<<<< My point, and I don't care if you agree BTW, is that Bill and Barb started the process and raised the public and legal awareness of the issue.>>>>
Your original statement:
<<<< Without Bill Bowen and Silentlambs 10 years ago, no Candace Conti today; that is how I see it.>>>>
It's good that you don't care if others agree, because there are no facts to support your ridiculous claim that Bill Bowen made Candace Conti possible. He didn't.
and all the infighting type remarks make Bethel very happy. Read the Art of war. Most attormeys have. It teaches u to defeat an enemy using other means than direct fighting. If the WT really wanted to smear Bill's name and character, they won't do it directly as they have an ax to grind. And everyone knows it
Is Bill actually banned from here or does he choose not to post?
I dunno. I haven't spoken to him in years, but I remember years back when his name was getting dropped, he responded once or twice, but didn't want to get in the middle of a bunch of threads
144001, If you're going to be technical, just say that Jonathan Kendrick, the North Fremont Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, and WT Corporation made Candice Conti's case possible. That happened nearly 20 years ago.
However, if you look back 10 years ago in 2002, it was the story on Dateline, which included footage with Bill Bowen, that brought the issue of child sexual abuse to national attention. And I still kick myself for being an obedient JW and not watching the story because we were told in bethel not to watch it. He, Barbara, and Carl and Barbara Pandello were DF for being part of the story. And Silentlambs still seems to have the most readily accessible history of JW legal battles with molestation cases. But I digress. I'm assuming that you consider that story on Dateline 10 years ago as being worthless history and a waste of their time.
In honor of tomorrow being MLK day, we can say by illustration that he did great things, however, there were many that came before him that did great things for civil rights as well. And if you look at the abolishionists in the North, do you think that the white union soldiers that fought for the Union in the Civil War to end slavery had done nothing to advance the later work of MLK?
<<<< However, if you look back 10 years ago in 2002, it was the story on Dateline, which included footage with Bill Bowen, that brought the issue of child sexual abuse to national attention.>>>>
Candace Conti would have had the same legal and circumstantial opportunities to bring her case if: [1] Bill Bowen had never been born; and/or [2] the Dateline segment had never aired.
Billy,
Get serious! You're comparing Bill Bowen to MLK? Exhale whatever it is that you're smoking!
Edited to add:
Sorry guys, but I'm not going to jump on the "let's honor Bill Bowen" bandwagon. I have seen enough of him over the years to form my own judgments. He's no Martin Luther King, and he is not deserving of any credit for making legal recourse for sexual abuse any more accessible to victims than it ever was.
