Sexual abuse and Jehovah's witnesses- the gift that keep on giving

by wannaexit 25 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  ThomasMore

  The inquiries and charges and lawsuits against JWs and WTC have been ongoing for a number of years and still, WTC continues to address them the same way, despite their financial losses and incredibly bad reputational damage. WHY???

  Their acceptance of losing over and over defies logic. They were counseled by a secular firm to change their position - still they resist doing what is right morally. WHY????

  WTC will not capitulate and end the damage to victims AND themselves…. WHY???????

  When a rat is willing to chew its own leg off rather than remain in a trap, it is a sign he knows he will die otherwise. I suspect that WTC knows that any compromise will result in the exposure of all the abusers in their 3 databases. Those databases surely contain names and details that would destroy any confidence still had by the R&F in the GB and the shadow leadership at Bethels throughout the world.

  I can find no other explanation for their madness. The excuses they make are lame beyond what anyone could dream up in a think tank of 3rd graders.

  Tell me where I am wrong.
• 

  Phizzy

  " Tell me where I am wrong." You are not wrong in any way. There can be no other explanation.

  It isn't as though being apologetic, open, paying compensation and implementing proper care of the vulnerable in their midst has done any other Church any damage, so why will JW Org do none of this ?

  It is as you say TM, if they did so, then previous members of the "Spirit Anointed" G.B and other Big Wigs would be exposed for all J.W's to see, as either paedophiles or Homosexuals and sometimes both.
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  James Jack

  joao

  Man's Law.
  
  
• 

  arwen

  Thank you for sharing this info. Unreal.
• 

  Vidiot

  What Thomas and Phizzy said.

  A cornerstone of the WTS’s entire reason for existence is the fiction of “God’s Exclusive Earthly Organization”.

  Undermine that too deeply, and that existence is threatened.

  And nothing undermines it more than evidence - i.e. admission via their own internal correspondence - that sex crimes were repeatedly occurring and being swept under the rug, all the way up the Watchtower hierarchy, for decades…

  …and that - most egregiously - the Org’s so-called “Biblical” policies for dealing with it were making the problem worse rather than better.
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  DarleneGatus

  The "two-witness rule" being applied to child abuse cases is bad enough. The way they won't allow consecutive victims to be counted as more than two witnesses causes further insult to victims and causes reasonable people to disbelieve in God - how's that for a stumbling block?
• 

  Lost in the fog

  The bother is that the R&F are told that they must follow the advice given to them by their local elders without question. "The elders told me not to report it and bring reproach upon the Organisation."

  The abused children are confronted by a 3 man tribunal (always males) who have no training in counseling or how to talk to a trauma sufferer - other than maybe a 40 minute talk in the middle of an elder's school that they probably slept through. And the accredited qualifications of the judicial committee members? Lol. Probably a window washer, a car mechanic, and a man who spends his days knocking on doors and getting them slammed in his face full-time!

  Is it any wonder that secular authorities are aghast when they discover the inner workings of a congregation!? And just how blind the org is to its own obvious failings.
• 

  Earnest

  DarleneGatus : The way they won't allow consecutive victims to be counted as more than two witnesses causes further insult to victims

  Shepherd the Flock of God, April 2022, 12.40.2 "Evidence Establishing Wrongdoing - Eyewitnesses"

  If there are two or three witnesses to the same kind of wrongdoing but each one is witness to a separate incident, the elders can consider their testimony. While such evidence is acceptable to establish guilt, it is preferable to have two witnesses to the same occurrence of wrongdoing.
  
• 

  TonusOH

  Lost in the fog: The abused children are confronted by a 3 man tribunal (always males) who have no training in counseling or how to talk to a trauma sufferer

  I think this is the worst part of it, which often adds suffering and pain to an already traumatic experience. Victims are frequently forced to face their attacker without any concern for their own mental and emotional wellbeing, and possibly even without any supporters to help them through it. The questions can be very invasive and personal, being asked by a group of men with no training or understanding of how to deal with such situations. How will the victim feel when they are in a room with their tormentor, plus three men who seem unsympathetic or even hostile?

  And these men sleep easy, believing that they are doing the Lord's work.
• 

  Earnest

  TonusOH : Victims are frequently forced to face their attacker without any concern for their own mental and emotional wellbeing, and possibly even without any supporters to help them through it.

  While that has been true in the past, it is not true now.
  

  Shepherd the Flock of God, April 2022, 14.18 "Child Abuse - Investigating Allegations"

  During the investigation process and during the judicial committee process, a victim of child sexual abuse is NEVER (my capitals) required to make her allegation in the presence of the alleged abuser. However, victims who are now adults may do so, if they wish. In addition, victims can be accompanied by a confidant of either gender when presenting their accusation to the elders. If a victim prefers, the accusation can be submitted in the form of a written statement. Generally, in the case of a victim who is a minor, elders should be able to obtain necessary information from the parents. In addition, sufficient evidence needed to establish wrongdoing on the part of an alleged abuser may already be available to the elders. In the exceptional event that the two elders believe it is necessary to speak with a minor who is a victim of child sexual abuse, the elders should first contact the Service Department