BOTR, I respect you, your posts and your insight, but I agree with the others, that statement was completely uncalled for and in poor taste. I'd say it boils down to seeing some kind of karma coming back to pay the WT for it's nasty polices about covering things up.
The Lawsuit Landslide: Irwin Zalkin representing ELEVEN child abuse victims against Watchtower
by cedars 62 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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Violia
Curb your freaking enthusiasm people.
wow BOTR, way to go.( adding the little icon so my comment is clear)
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OnTheWayOut
Sad to hear of more victims, but great that they are proceeding against their demons.
Power to them, whether they accept settlements or go all the way to court -
Ruby456
here is what Judy Steed, a journalist, who wrote Our Little Secret writes about the seismic shift in public consciousness after the Hughes proceedings about Catholic clergy abuse were televised
"THe trick for the perpetrators, had been in keeping the victims quiet, maintaining their shame and thus their silence. For the first time in Canadian history, a group of adult victims of child sexual abuse were publicly identified as they told their story on television - real faces, real names, men in sweaters and trousers, leaning into the microphone, sobbing" (1992, p 78)
Please remember that the Watchtower society is a corporation and it has a corporatist mentality that adopts corporatist stonewalling of victims whoever they are. Lawyers who do inter corporate work would rather not involve the public to protect their clients and to protect their wallets. Corporations that come out and admit their mistakes and apologise are very few in number but they are the ones that the public forgive more easily. Gaining public sympathy and support can move mountains! I am so glad that Rick Simmons and Candace Conti shared their story publicly.
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Yan Bibiyan
These lawsuits are a nuisance, not a death blow.
Hmmm, my 2nd grade math tacher disagrees....How many $30mil upheld verdicts do you need to make the bean counters very uncomfortable...
Also, we are not delighted that children were abused. Sadly, it already happened. The delight comes from having some freaking accountability forced down the throaths of these people...
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Chaserious
How many $30mil upheld verdicts do you need to make the bean counters very uncomfortable...
As encouraging as it is to see victims come forward, I don't see this as a "death blow" either. The Conti verdict has been reduced to about $10 million, so that's the worst case scenario for the WTS if they lose their appeal, plus maybe a couple million in interest and legal costs. There is no reason to believe that every case is going to cost nearly that much. Jury verdicts are wildly unpredictable. The Economist reported that abuse cases cost the Catholic Church over $1 mil each. I don't see any reason to think comparable cases will cost the WTS ten times (or 30 times) as much). On one hand, juries might be less sympathetic to the WTS because it's viewed as a fringe religion/cult. But on the other hand, the lawyers have an easier case to make against the Catholic Church in that the priest abusers were paid employees of the church, which isn't the case with any of these WTS cases.
The larger positive that might come out of these awful instances of abuse is public awareness, and maybe more internal awareness, about the failings of the WT organization to protect its children.
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Gypsy Sam
Marked
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Band on the Run
These are all alleged cases. There is certainly a zeal here. Why bother with a court? Rick Simons himself did not want every two bit case referred to him. He pointed out that the Conti case involved notice. Most cases will not involve notice. The liability of the WT must be established in these cases. There is an old saying about not counting your chicks before they are hatched.
Elders are not employees of the WTS.
I must admit that I am very curious to hear what WT Legal says to elders calling in for instructions.
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LostGeneration
Why bother with a court?
Do you have an alternative for victims of child abuse that could have been prevented by the WTS or the local elder bodies under their direction?
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Malachi Elijah
I hate to say it but both sides is a really bad story. Like any Catholic or any jury or any court, it is not as if the WT has Jehovah and the world is Satan. Every case itself everywhere is hypocritical. Innocent people get accused of sex abuse they didn't do and then get punished, and people guilty of sex abused go to court and claim a case is not beyond doubt. The games on TV listening to courts are the same even in kingdom hall elders. In a group of peer-aged kids 15 to 21, I was showing them how to jitter-bug. A ministerial servant used to flip my mom over his shoulder (while dating my older 16 year old sister). So I did this and the girl almost hit her head because she grabbed tight upside down. I lowered her gently, but next day Sunday at the hall got accused by an elder of grabbing her boob. They accuse who they wish, and excuse who they wish. Like killing Jesus they gather witnesses when they have none, and when you have two they'll say only one qualifies. Its a game of Satan in the Hall no different than Satan in the jury and the court. Justice barely tops any reality, any where. I know a brother who got reproved fro breaking an engagement to a pioneer who insisted the WT tells people to describe what kind of sex you expect in your marriage. BIG ISSUE then, if you're not yet engaged how do you discuss it without accused & removed for sex talk with the opposite sex. And if you're engaged, how do you end an engagement (forbidden to) upon finding out the pioneer is kinky in this case, and wanted to lay it on the line this kind of sex she wanted. I foresaw this in her, because the person who told me this pioneer got dumped for this demands from him, reproved him, but kept her as a pioneer, she was telling elephant cum jokes door-to-door with us. Yet bring this to the elders, and they will tell the person who heard it direct that they must be silent or become DF. Quite opposite from when I was told by elders that I know nothing, when two pioneers women who were told not to speak ANYTHING to me cleaned house for Peterson who kept her 12 inch jeweled cross in the basement drawer. Simply hypocrisy is everywhere and people are liars. Stuff goes on everywhere everyone, and the liars win. Not saying Conti is the liar, but her speaking truth, what has it gained. Be proud the truth gets exposed, it's enough.