Marvin: I would welcome a law that requires all present and former Watchtower appointed elders to immediately report instances of child molestation they are aware of to secular authorities. They'd get a god-damned earful from me, and they'd be shocked.
Do you need a law to require the reporting of a known crime?
If you are aware of a criminal act that was committed in the past, are you not obligated (morally, at least) to report it even if there isn't a "law" to tell you to do so?
I dunno...maybe it is just me...but, I have reported suspected child abusers to the authorities in the past and I won't hesitate to do so again...and there wasn't a law that told me I had to. I did it because it was the right thing to do. I did it because it may have stopped another child from suffering abuse. I did it so that the police could at least put the suspected child abuser on their radar screen.
Just because there isn't a law that specifically requires ex-elders and present elders to go to the authorities with historic child sex abuse, doesn't mean a person can't go and make a statement to the police anyways. For all you know, that statement may be what the police need in order to proceed with an ongoing investigation.
And besides, if it was a historic case, it means that the perpetuator is still at large, and still able to continue victimizing children.
Why wait for a law to be put in place that demands you report a known crime? If a former elder is aware of a child abuse case that wasn't reported to the police, what is holding them back from reporting it now?
Maybe if all the former elders who are aware of a child aubser in the JWs went and made statements to their local police, a child somewhere could be saved from experiencing the same kind of abuse we have heard from the victims who told their stories to the Royal Commission.