I have a few thoughts I would like to articulate as part of my blogging hobby and not least, my mental health in making sense of this crazy life inside the JWs. The link to the blog is below. I will summarize as best I can for the more casual reader.
When I was 14, I was in a poor state of mental health and shipped off to my not-as-zealous JW aunt and uncle's home for the summer. My cousin is my age and to this day, my only JW relative who was also a close friend. It started off well by staying up late, getting away with things my parents wouldn't let me get away with. I make friends easily and this well-off family with a nice swimming pool had us over often. My cousin was friends with their daughter, the same age as we were, and I also became close with her.
It was through them that I met the pedophile elder in Part One, and his a$$hole brother-in-law I write about in Part Two. This elder already had a thing for younger women and his bride-to-be (at that time still underage) was at this particular gathering. Show-off that he was, he had to be the one with the new Playstation. It was only a ruse and as we all were to discover later, he had been molesting this family's youngest daughter.
To make a long story short, this elder was disfellowhipped after the second witness came forward (her sister), but due to the accuser's own disfellowshipping, her story is denied by many to this day. The reason this comes to mind now is that I have heard that this pedo elder has been disfellowshipped yet again for marital infidelities, though not CSA this time. Part two is about his brother-in-law, who was and is an abusive and racist a$$hat. He had names for everyone (including me!) and as a Minsterial servant, had the "privilege" of running the sound system. He'd use his own snarky words to call this one brother an ape from the platform.
I conflate these two stories because they came out of one summer far away from home and it showed how the same boys club type of atmosphere covers up, tolerates and even encourages abusive men. Since I am going through a divorce with such a man, I'm more wired in to noticing things like this now that I am putting an end to it.
Madison.