WT Society Creates the Atmosphere which Spawns Child Abuse in Congregations

by flipper 37 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  flipper

  Thanks for all the great comments. Got back in town so I have some time to reply.

  SPARROWDOWN- I totally agree with your take. I remember when I used to be a JW - really weird people would come into the congregation claiming to be the 2nd coming of Jesus- or whatever- and act all " spiritual " - then later you'd find out they had extorted JW's in other congregations by financially bilking people out of their money- or something strange like that. Kingdom halls are public buildings so we never knew who might show up. The experience you shared was really creepy about that guy. Wow. Shows how careful we had to be , or how careful we should have been as JW's. Thanks for sharing that experience.

  STILL TOTALLY ADD- I'm so sorry to hear that you were abused as a child. I hope you have been able to heal since then to some extent. But you are right - all of us were trained as young kids to always trust the elders and never question anything- which set a dangerous precedent and trend in every congregation for abuses of all types to take place. I'm sorry you had to suffer my friend. They controlled us through fear.

  LOVEUNIHATEXAMS- Good points you make. It's like most JW's have " blinders " on and don't even notice other adults spending too much time with minor children. Way too much trusting going on to the point of being gullible and naïve to the dangers posed. And how people substitute names like " auntie " and " uncle " - exactly. Steve Hassan mentioned even the use of " brothers " or " sisters " is a way that all mind control cults try to substitute people in their churches or congregations to replace our real family relatives. Pretty creepy really.

  PETE ZAHUT- Good points. I saw so many JW's taken in by financial schemes due to their being gullible and really uninformed about money and how the financial world really works. I'm so sorry to hear that your male relative was abused by an adult JW woman. That's really sad. And that he took all the guilt upon himself - yet she sat smugly in the congregation not feeling any regret or remorse. It's disgusting how she ruined that young man's life. But I bet nothing was ever done in the congregation to her by the elders as far as discipline as her own husband never found out. She should have had her ass thrown into jail ! Sick.

  IOWNMYLIFE- Little red flags indeed ! Thanks for sharing that weird experience. An elders wife saying it's " O.K. " that this young man held a knife to his wife's neck because he's regular at meetings and in service. Exactly the point I'm making in this thread. Thank you. The things JW's justify and make excuses for are absolutely incredible and unbelievable ! Total insanity. Mind control in action.

  CHOOK- Good points about child abuse not being mentioned in the Bible. That is really weird. Never thought about that before. And you're right- JW's jump through all kinds of mental hoops to justify their denials.

  SMIDDY- Great points you make about the JW child abuse issue endangering children and families within communities. That is SO true. Anybody in the congregation can go knock on doors without elders or any other JW knowing and if it's a pedophile - it makes it even more dangerous. You would think that just the liability factor against the WT Society in that scenario would make them change their child abuse policies- but not so. WT leaders are too arrogant to change. They feel they are above the laws of the land. Pretty disgusting. Take care, Peace out, Mr. Flipper
  
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  flipper

  Wanted to bump this thread up in response to the thread that was put out about " God " helping the JW's in Russia. These experiences of folks on these threads should assure many that " God " is not " protecting " Jehovah's Witnesses- if anything he's asleep on the job all the while allowing sociopath's to continue abusing others in his " clean " organization. Any comments welcome
  
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  OrphanCrow

  Flipper, I totally agree that the WT creates an atmosphere that spawns child abuse.

  There isn't just one factor and it is more complicated than just the habit of not reporting child abuse allegations to the authorities. The way the organization is structured creates an environment that fosters child abuse. It is a systemic problem.

  Several factors are at play and the insular nature of the cult supplies one of the requirements that allows child abuse to grow. Another thing is the lack of clear boundaries between minors and adults.

  The early baptism of children, propelling them into "adult" status in the congregation's spiritual measuring, is one factor that I think is critical. Not only do the adults not have a boundary line they have to respect, the baptism acts as an emotional stopping point for the children who become baptized. In effect, the child stops maturing - they don't have to mature anymore because they have attained the top adult prize: baptism. I think that some of those who get baptized at such an early age simply get stuck there. They don't advance beyond their age of baptism. And therefore, when it comes time to chose a preferred sexual partner, they naturally gravitate towards a partner that matches them in emotional and psychological age.

  Early baptism, JW style, where the child becomes an instant adult, leads to emotionally stunted adults. Adults who never mature beyond their age of entry into the adult world of JWs. Adults who seek out the emotional comfort of younger people. Because they are of similar emotional age.

  And then throw in all the sexual restrictions. The WTS is focused on controlling sexual behavior. Children are given inappropriate information about sex. So are adults.

  Then there is the issue of power. Power is woven into the WT structure. Power at the top and filtered down, each rung down with less and less power. Until it stops at the man on the bottom. Women and children are below any level of power. The problem is that it is only an illusion of power. Those men who are given their power from above the ladder, know that they don't really have any. They know, deep inside, that the power they have been given is fake. They know they are powerless. That is reinforced every time they open their mail and get yet another BOE letter telling them in detail what to do. That isn't power and they know it.

  A person's self empowerment is critical to emotional and psychological health. It is imprinted in our genes. We must have power to survive. A cult member does not have personal power. They only have the power of the cult. They have none of their own. And they are terrified of the One who has the most power of all - Jehovah.

  But, a human being's need for power is fundamental to their nature - each and every one of us must have it in order to feel like we will survive. So, all those powerless people inside the WT's made-up religion, have to, and they will, seek power somewhere. And where better to find power than to take it from those who have no way of protecting their own? From the children. The powerless steal the children's power. Because they can. And because they don't know how to be powerful by themselves - their power has been stolen by the WTS. They have given their power to the cult.

  And another thing...the JWs are incestuous. The "Brother" and "Sister" thing is just plain creepy
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  Diogenesister

  Remember also, sexual predictors are regularly known to spend years manouvering themselves into positions of Trust and POWER.....teachers, scout masters, Choiristers, Priests....how relatively easy it would be to become an Elder, therefore, or Pioneer.

  The "men behind the curtain" - Franz, Knott etc - were not just misogynists but cared less than nothing for children : which led to an atmosphere where, I strongly believe, networks of paedophiles infiltrated the organization with impunity.
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  snowbird

  Flipper, good thread, Brother.

  You are right; WT fosters an environment where scammers and abusers can roam freely.

  Down here, we have a reputation for being trusting and hospitable, and city slickers sometimes try to take advantage of this.

  One came down from Detroit, and a pushy sister tried her best to get my little JW daughter interested in him.

  This sorry you-know-what didn't even have a job; I told her if she didn't get him off my property, I would notify my daughter's crazy Jamaican dad.

  Yay, mon.

  That was all it took to send both of them running like a scalded dog!

  The nerve of them! I'm getting steamed all over again just thinking about it.

  Sylvia
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  TheWonderofYou

  In this ideological frame of a completely surrendered, open minded sheeps the disfellowshipment (DF) has a perfect fitting role in the system of funcionalized obidience.

  On one hand disfellowshipment is not really so much a chastidy method for healing a weak charakter than it is useful to control „the performing of the WT-functionalism“. It doesnt play so much role in reality what kind of character-problem one admits, how fast and if one repents at all internallly, but what counts is to show publicly that everything is okay, to perform activity. Not to perform in the boundaries of this system of WT-functionalism is seen as "disobidience".

  On the other hand disfellowshipment is the ideal measure that makes the ideological system of trusting a „good associtation“ complete. In fact through the complete separation of the fellows from the disfellowshipped the impression appears for the sheep of being in a safe haven in the congregation, that the good assosiation is yet more clean, yet more trustworthy if its protected by the chastidy of disfellowshipmment. The fellows so close ranks and trust only the fellows who are good association.

  An offender would try to function and to remain so in good standing. The victim would funtion and try to obey and hear to the elders and not be loud but silent, because disobidience is worse than a sin.

  The offender has to play the innocent because he doesnt want to loose the only power he has namely observe the funtions of those who fear him, because he has no real friends, but only functions, he doesnt want to loose his authority and functions and tries to misuse them to protect the position if necessary. He wants to remain good association and spiritual leader for the other family-substitute friends.

  The victim likewise wants to remain within the bounders of "good association" and keeps silent not to loose its good standing or because this would be against the order or could end in disfellowshipment.
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  flipper

  Thanks for the responses , really good thoughts !

  ORPHAN CROW- Good point you make about the JW lack of clear boundaries between children and adults, very true. I agree and I think you are onto something about children not emotionally developing correctly due to being thrust into the adult world of baptism. It's kind of like as you say- they've reached the expected JW " pinnacle " and are looked at and expected to be " adults " forevermore. Even at age 10 - it's twisted and disgusting.

  " Children are given inappropriate information about sex. " You've got that right as well. What sane parent in their right mind wants to have their children hear about oral or anal sex at a WT Study ? Or discuss and hear about " bestiality " ? I mean- it's ridiculous- and criminal in my opinion how much sexual information gets discussed in front of minor JW children . That's one of the reasons- among many - that this JW organization produces INSANE parents and INSANE children.

  Your points about JW's having a lack of power in their lives as well as the elders are very good points. I agree entirely. Elders THINK they have power- but they really don't. So to compensate for their lack of power- due to frustration I think they take this power out on JW's considered " lesser " in the organization - women & children. But it's not just due to " frustration " - JW elders are an extension of the Governing Body and they are molded, trained, and indoctrinated to abuse the " power " that's been given them- because it's how the GB is hardwired and the elders are hardwired that way as well. It's an extremely disgusting and damaging scenario within the JW organization that continues to foster abusive elders abusing the rank & file JW's. It's criminal- really.

  DIOGENESISTER- Good points. These JW men who become elders or get positions of power over others seek those positions out for years and many of them are " groomed " to be in power positions over others- even from an early age. Think of teenage elders sons conducting meetings for service while less " qualified " older JW males sit there or older JW women sit there listening to a teenager pontificate who has no life experience. I mean - think about it. How weird is it that we used to see such scenarios in the JW congregations ?

  SNOWBIRD- Hey Sylvia, good to hear from you ! How you doing ? We'll have to catch up sometime. Mrs . Flipper mentioned to send her regards as well to you . Good points you make- I think scammers and users are very common within the JW cult due to the environment of too much trust and no checks and balances on these people sneaking in the back door. Some of these wack jobs even walk right in the front door ! I'm sorry that that weird man tried to pick up on your daughter, but like the great protective mom that you are you protected your daughter, good for you ! I hope you scared the wits out of this guy ! And you are right- even in the non-JW and JW world we all have to be careful of scammers . Crazy world we live in. Take care, thanks for sharing that experience !

  THEWONDEROFYOU- I agree with you on disfellowshipping. It's used to " control the performing of WT functions " . Exactly. DFing creates those boundaries that the WT Society seeks to use to divide people one from another while splitting up families in the process. And the perpetrator and victims of any kind of abuse try to work behind these WT sanctioned boundaries constantly doing some kind of a twisted mental dance so they stay accepted to other JW's who live in this conflicted bubble with them. Not until a person breaks away free from the organization will they ever shed the heavy load that abusive elders and fellow abusive JW's put on their shoulders. And once a person leaves this abuse- it's like a ton of bricks gets lifted off of our shoulders
  
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  flipper

  Another thread here I thought I'd bump up as it deals with the serious issue of child abuse and the atmosphere that fosters or encourages abuse of power in the JW organization. Your comments and observations are invited definitely. Thanks
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  OrphanCrow

  flipper: " Children are given inappropriate information about sex. " You've got that right as well. What sane parent in their right mind wants to have their children hear about oral or anal sex at a WT Study ? Or discuss and hear about " bestiality " ? I mean- it's ridiculous- and criminal in my opinion how much sexual information gets discussed in front of minor JW children . That's one of the reasons- among many - that this JW organization produces INSANE parents and INSANE children.

  This is a good example to illustrate how inappropriate the JWs indoctrination of children is: In this video, we view a 3 and a half year old boy reading Esther 7. The chapter where she is raped and the man who raped her gets hung. The boy reads the words (which he cannot in any way comprehend the content of what he is reading), the audience of JWs listen to this infant read out the account of a woman getting raped, and then they clap

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW9NNo9cIIU
  
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  flipper

  ORPHAN CROW- Thanks for posting that. Absolutely disgusting that they'd have a three and a half year old boy reading about rape at all. Personally- I think it's disgusting to have a 3 year old boy in the ministry school anyway- but especially with that subject matter. This organization is insane. Poor kid