I thought I was back on the JW radar after my JW daughter had a local elder call on me back in 2011 - but apparently not. He obviously didn't let his elders know I lived here, no record was kept for posterity and just called my daughter telling her that her " dad has differences with the organization " because he never called back on me as he promised to talk again. As I'm just inactive for 10 years.
So these two older JW ladys come knocking yesterday - one lady about 57 and the other lady older about 71 yrs.old ( I asked how long they had been JW's and told me they both have been in 30 years. Then told me their ages . ) These two ladys were QUITE indoctrinated and during the hour I talked with them on my front porch - they definitely gave all the JW pat answers to my concerns. They tried giving me their presentation then I politely said " Who are you again " ? They said , " Jehovah's Witnesses ". I said I am not a Witness however I have some " real concerns " about the Witnesses as I had an older sister who is a Witness who virtually disowned her adult daughter. Immediately the short 57 yr.old ( more self righteous ) interupts saying " oh she was disfellowshipped . " I said, " no, she wasn't excommunicated or anything- she just decided to stop attending and went to college to get a degree and my sister totally cut her off ! " They said that didn't seem right- there must be MORE reasons my sister stopped talking to my niece. I said, " yes, my niece had some issues or disagreements with the WT Society's views and just stopped attending. She didn't try to argue with her mom about it- just decided it wasn't for her. " Then the 71 yr.old tried to semi-accuse my niece of " fornicating " by applying 1 Corinthians 6: 9,10 reading about why some wouldn't " inherit the kingdom ". I stopped her in her tracks saying, " you are changing the subject and this does not apply to my niece as she did NOT commit fornication. " I continued, " It doesn't justify my sister shunning her own daughter . " I went on saying, " The point I'm making is that YOU as Jehovah's Witnesses have no ACCEPTABLE way to leave your WT organization without suffering negative repercussions. You lose everybody, all former friends shun you and cut you off. Is that Christian ? I don't think so. " They had no reply.
Then the ladys asked me what OTHER differences or concerns I had . ( Didn't realize they were opening Pandora's box now did they ? LOL ! ) I stated I had serious concerns about the WT Society's way of handling child abuse within their organization. I explained that I had asked my sisters husband ( a longtime elder ) about this as I read about the Candace conti child abuse lawsuit last year in the S.F. chronicle mewspaper. I asked both of these ladys if they had heard of the lawsuit of Conti versus the WT Society- they said " no. " I asked them if they knew the policies of how the WT Society handles child abuse ? The 57 yr.old Sister Self Righteous said " oh, the elders immediately disfellowship child molesters, we know of 2 in our area who went to jail in fact ! " I said, " I'm glad to hear that. But did you know that many times these child molesters just get a slap on the wrist for instance the JW man who molested Candace Conti had a past that the elders KNEW about molesting his own stepdaughter- yet they STILL sent him out in your ministry work alone with a 7 year old JW girl ? " The 71 yr.old said, " Oh no ! We never do that ! Even me as an adult sister cannot drive alone with an adult brother going out in service ! " I asked, " Isn't that kind of creepy ? Do they not trust you enough thinking you and the brother would jump each others bones and have sex out in service or something ? Seems like they don't trust you folks enough ! "
Then I tried driving the point home. I continued, " The point I'm making is that Candace Conti's ELDERS were responsible to protect her from this predator and they didn't do it ! " The 57 yr.old lady said, " No, it's the PARENTS responsibility to protect their kids, THEY have the responsibility to go to the police ! " I continued, " Yes, but apparently Candaces parents were NOT going out in your ministry work and were sending their daughter to the kingdom hall alone dropping her off- THEN assuming that the elders would take responsibility fr their daughter. And they dropped the ball because the child molester then took her to his own home, raped her- then took her back to your kindom hall to drop her off for others to pick up. He never took her into the ministry. " The JW ladys looked dumbfounded like a bomb had exploded in their heads. I wasn't done yet.
I continued, " Look, let me give you an example. Remember how several years ago the mainstream media talked about.... " Then sister 57 yr.old self righteous says, " the media hates us, they are always badmouthing Jehovah's Witnesses more than other religions. " I asked, may I continues please ? " So I said, many other religions have had child abuse exposed in the news media like in Texas where the Mormon Warren Jeffs had a compound where the Texas militia came in and took away all the children and teenagers out of the compound because allegedly Mormon men were sexually abusing minors. Remember how much animosity was raised by the Mormon adult mothers that their privacy and rights had been violated in that compound raid ? " The JW ladys agreed, they had read of this. I continued, " But a couple years later the REAL truth came out that Warren Jeffs had been marrying off 13 to 15 year old girls enslaving them illegally to Mormon men in the compound and then taking pornographic films of them having sex !! So by those ladys refusing to cooperate in protecting thir minor children- don't you think it was like they were in a cult ? They were mind controlled to believe that their leader Warren Jeffs was handling everything properly ! When in fact this action was violent, criminal child abuse against children and he got locked up for it for life ! "
The 57 yr.old lady said, " but who do you think will jdge them in the end ? God. They won't get away with it forever. " I stated, possibly true- however how many children will suffer in the years before God chooses to DO something about it ! ? " I said, " In the here and now there needs to be more responsibility taken by ALL religions to protect these children and not try to cover it up by settling out of court $$$ settlements to hush up any media coverage. "
I told her , " I will take your magazines and look into them if I can give you some news media printouts of these various child abuse cases and an article by a psychologist on the damages of shunning ? " To my surprise they said, " yes we will read them. " So I gave them the Candace Conti news printouts, also the 2007 Associated news printouts about the 16 out of court child abuse cases in California and the Huffington post report on " A time and season to stop shunning ". I told them that I have empathy and concern for them that they are NOT getting enough access to information in being aware of many things they SHOULD be informed about and I give them these things because I really care. So they said, thank you " we'll read them " and I thanked them for their concern and they left on a good note.
Sorry for the length of this but I tried to just stay on the main points. There was much more like talk about " generation ", etc. but I'll get into that later possibly . So I'm interested to see if you think any dent may have been put into these ladys ? Do ya think they'll call back on me as a return visit ? LOL ! I kinda doubt it, but I feel they won't soon forget this door. I hope they think about some things we talked about. Look forward to your thoughts. Take care all. Love ya