I was watching the news today and a man from Harvard and his wife, a child psychologist, said they met with the catholic bishop and gave their advice on the benefits of the church reporting child abuse. What was interesting was the point that they told the church leaders in this meeting back in 1993 that all cases should be report to the authorities, not just handled in the church. The reason was that pedophiles are very likely , if not all the time, to return to their abusive behavior. If they were taken to the authorities it might be the only way some children would be saved from the abuser. There would be public awarness about the abuser. The man from Harvard said that the church leaders did not respond in a positive way and that is why things have gotten so bad. So now I think it is interesting that the emphasis is on reporting these and all cases of child molestation to the police. He made the point that the church leaders are not in the position to help victims with the trauma they have been thru and that by going to the police, the legal authorities, these people could help the victim get the help they need. Now let's move on to Jehovah's Witnesses on this............. will they ever see the importance of reporting these cases?? By reporting each and every case of child abuse, they would save other children, help the child that has just been hurt, by being supportive . These children feel like they are left alone and are even blamed for the abuse many times. JW elders are not in any kind of position to help the victims, why cant they just hand the case over to the authorities and let them decide what the next course to take to help the victim.
I guess as usual they are more concerned with making their organizaiton look perfect , when it is far from it. They too think they are above"worldly intelligence", and people who are trained in these fields. They will let their pride come before the welfare of the flock and of the most tender of the flock the children. I think they will always try to keep cases like this within the confides of the congregation if they can. Maybe with all of this in the media now, there will be new laws making it illegal not to report cases of child abuse . THen if the JW do not report it immediately they can just share in the sins of the abuser . I mean that is their own policy right?