How the org will spin the Midweek meeting about Child Abuse in Australia

by tor1500 21 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  pale.emperor

  I knew there were accusations against witnesses for covering up child abuse but knew nothing about it. Dismissed it all as apostate lies. I remember my father in law coming back from an elders meeting in a bad mood and randomly said to us all "whenever there's an accusation of child abuse it's always the same - we call the police". Of corse now i know that's not true.
  

  Im positive that 99% of rank and file witnesses know absolutely nothing about the child abuse accusations or why those accusations were made. It's sad really. And dangerous. Only last month my ex wife said to me "people need to be disfellowshipped - otherwise we'd be like the Catholic church where they have pedophile priests and just move them on". I calmly tried to tell her that the same thing goes on with the JW's and she kind of gave me a blank stare. Then i felt bad, like i've just ruined her perfect picture of her religion.
  
• 

  Vidiot

  pale.emperor - "...Only last month my ex wife said to me 'people need to be disfellowshipped...'..."

  Problem with that is - I strongly suspect - the WTS would have a serious shortage of "qualified brothers" who could help run the Org at the grassroots/congregational level, which would make it increasingly harder for the religion to function.
  

  Why do I suspect that?

  Because shortly after the Dateline thing in 2001(?), they quietly distributed a document amongst the BOEs that disqualified any man with a history of child abuse from serving... but a few years later, they even-more-quietly reversed that decision... right around the same time they ramped up the reminders that young bothers needed to "reach out" for congregation duties (because - let's face it - fewer and fewer JW guys are doing so).
  

  It's part of the reason why I think Barb Anderson's right, and that their goal is to transition to a predominantly internet-based "e-religion"... doing so would effectively mitigate the problem.

  Same with the trolleys and park tables... it mitigates the (perfectly justified) accusations of "pedophiles knocking on your doors trying to recruit your kids".