Should I continue to support Bill Bowen?

by Gamaliel 83 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  hawkaw

  Undisfellowshipped ....

  It would not be "slander" in this case because Bill put it in writing. It would fall under a "tort of liable".

  Of course I am still trying to determine if "liable" occurred. So far, I personally can't find any.

  hawk
• 

  ozziepost

  "liable"?? or "libel"?
• 

  hawkaw

  Thanks - my spelling skills today really suck. I have edited and re-edited all my posts all morning long morning.

  Sorry about that.

  hawk
• 

  Gamaliel

  Pleasuredome,

  You asked:

  can anyone tell me if Franz now believes that there is a problem of child abuse coverups in the organisation?

  I personally don't know if Ray is aware of the scope of the current situation, but I know that he indicates that it must be a much bigger problem now than it was when he was a JW, 20 years ago. He said:

  It is quite na[i]ve of persons to assume that the intense publicity on this issue in recent times necessarily means that the situation was similar in earlier periods.

  I don't necessarily agree with the logic. I believe it is quite possible for something, like earthquakes, for instance to be as frequent in times past, but then, a lot of intense publicity can make people think they are now more frequent. However, in context, he seems to be saying only that current levels of publicity mean that the problem must now be worse. This is what he meant by it when he repeated something like it to me recently, but it is just as possible to mean that a lot of publicity now may be fooling us into thinking it is a much bigger problem than it really is. Maybe it was just that it was considered more of a shame and coverup in his day, and maybe the problem was common, but that's why so few of the issues were raised even to the level of the late Harly Miller (the J. Edgar Hoover of the WTS Service Department).

  If the policies in place could be used to contain the issue, there was no reason to raise it to the GB level. (I know of cases of in an old congregation of mine where there were so many new problems in a six-month period that some of them were not to be brought up to the Circuit Overseer because they thought he might think it was a "reflection of how poorly Jehovah's spirit was working with the congregation." (I think it really translated to: some of the elders didn't want to be told that they themselves should spend more time in congregational field service" a typical solution by this CO).

  I think that fits in with the experience of most of us. I was extremely surprised to hear of the large numbers reported on silentlambs.org, for example. Ray may not be personally aware of enough specific cases that have been proven and documented to point of being ready for publication. However, he is quite aware of the possibility of cover-up based on the misuse of the policies and the mistaken need to present the organization as a spiritual paradise.

  In fact, my first quote in this thread was from Ray, where he said:

  Of the many sexual crimes, child molestation is unquestionably one of the most despicable. Those who shield child molesters certainly bear a very heavy responsibility."

  I found some additional quotes from Ray, included the following phrases, which tell me he considers the current policy very wrong, and the reason they might be used in a cover-up:

  Watch Towers twisted policy regarding the handling of child molestation cases

  The fact that the Watch Tower Society distorts the purpose of that law principle referred to by Paul and Christ (which was to protect the innocent against a false accuser) does not justify ones distorting the meaning or intent of a quotation of that principle such as is found in the chapter of the manual referred to. As I have already expressed, I do not believe the Mosaic Law was designed to be rigid and "cut and dried."

  What is here stated is in defense of the rightness of Gods law and the validity of citing its principles, not in defense of the misuse of that law by a religious system.

  Similarly, to say that because one does not choose to align himself with a certain movement (whether Silent Lambs or any other anti-Watch Tower movement) he thereby can be labeled an apologist for the skewed Watch Tower policies is unjust and hence unchristian.

  There is a more basic problem underlying not only these but all the legalisms promoted by the system here involved.

  current policy is designed to maintain the image that the Watchtower is a spiritual paradise, which it is not.

  In both books, COC and SOCF, Ray deals with this last issue: the fact that the JWs are willing to use a kind of double-think or double-speak to cover up the fact, even to themselves, that there are big problems with the JW policies. They won't see that there's "trouble in paradise." He says that policies are effectively given more importance than justice.

  When I spoke with him on the phone a couple weeks ago, he told me much the same thing. I wish I could remember the exact quote, but the idea was that a policies can be made or twisted to fit the interests of maintaining a false pretense about the reputation of the Society.

  This is in line of course with what he has been saying for 20 years, and it explains why everyone who has ever called him about it (save one person) gets the exact same explanation that fits consistently his larger set of beliefs about Law, legalism and WT policies.

  Gamaliel

  Edited by - Gamaliel on 22 November 2002 13:29:57