I'd just like to put UmbertoEcho's excellent OP side-by-side with a Jehovah's Witness view from a pro JW forum..
If you have a similar sense of humour to me, it may amuse you.. Anyway.
UmbertoEcho:
Straight after the commission ended today within minutes, the phone rang. It was one of the people who are working on it. Firstly she established if I was alright and did I want to talk.
I said I was too tired and unhappy that Geoffrey Jackson managed to do some preaching....
She said they were aware of that.
Then I said.."You know he was lying don't you, he was lying about the role of the GB in many subtle ways and not so subtle ways?" .............
"Oh we knew that all along,we had the documents right here with us".
I then said...." You do realize he is one of seven men who vote on policy and they don't sit around prayerfully as Jackson maintained, they just vote and sometimes the deciding factor is perhaps one vote?"
She said she knew that too, and for me not to be too worried about the commission being fooled, for they were not fooled at all.
I asked her if she really thought for one minute that the society is feeling bad about the plight of sexually molested children? And " You do know this is all about money don't you?".....
Yes, she said they all knew it was about showing a façade of decency and holding onto money.
...OH!!!! Dear old Geoff made a few enemies today when he talked about a mother grooming her child to accuse the father of molestation....They thought it a dirty cheap shot..!
View of a Jehovah's Witness:
I personally think Brother Jacksons testimony was the best thing that has ever happened in relation to the issue of child abuse within our organisation.He skilfully and humbly answered their questions using the bible and sound reasoning. He clarified various issues and corrected the commissions wrong assumptions.
He humbly acknowledged where our organisation could do better to help the trauma of abuse victims.
He expressed his love for and sympathy for the individuals who were abused and who gave testimony to the commission.
He gave a fine witness about the governing body's love for all of the sheep especially those who have been hurt in such a bad way and their desire "more than they will ever know" to fix anything that could be causing distress for the sheep.
Brother Jackson was extremely respectful and humble.
Telling the lawyers and the chair how good some of their questions were and how he thought the commissions work would ultimately help the sheep and help the organisation deal with such a distressful and delicate problem and that they only viewed it as a good thing.
Just his demeanour seemed to breed respect and you could tell that come the end the commission all including the lawyers seemed to be happy with the information that they had got.
In fact a lot of their concerns had been addressed and so they could see that there would be a probable solution to many of their concerns,
I really liked the obvious concern Brother Jackson had for the abuse victims though and I think even though we all knew it, it was something that everybody needed to hear, including the abuse victims who were probably listening in.
I just get this feeling that after all that questioning, the brothers including the governing body are really going to do their best to iron out any problems there are and apply the commissions recommendations.
I think the testimony was a triumph for all parties
;)