AuntConnie,
"...he said in all his years of elderhood "men and women who were sexually assualted came forward when they were old enough, they did not wait for decades to report they were abused."
My goodness, how many child abuse cases has he been in on "in all his years of elderhood"? Is it enough to amount to a large enough sampling to be meaningful? That would take quite a lot of cases, more than he would want to admit to as an elder since it would indicate there is an extremely large pedophile problem among Jehovah's Witnesses. He should be more careful with his words if he is concerned about protecting the Organization's reputation.
- And -
"...please tell me why he would say this."
In reality he is being defensive and attempting to protect his religion, although carelessly. Perhaps he is thinking about the Candace Conti case, and his intentions are to discredit it since Candace is an adult now; maybe he wanted her to come forward at a much younger age.
I doubt he personally knows of enough pedophile cases to have a truly informed opinion about when victims should come forward. He is doing what most JWs do when confronted with a problem, he is shooting straight from the hip and going headlong into denial, making up whatever argument seems to make sense at the moment.
- And -
"I listened to him say "Jehovah would not have allowed him to remain a elder if he was really that bad, would he?""
What a ridiculous and dangerous way of thinking. It is cognitive dissonance for sure.
Yes, forgiveness is possible but it should be remembered that the vast majority of pedophiles repeat if given the chance, therefore the pedophile should be watched by informed parents, and it is their call if they will associate with him or not. He may be truly repentant but that won't stop another offense.
He abused a 4 year old girl? We have to protect our children first and foremost, and JWs aren't doing that.
The arguments that your husband is making to defend Watchtower are very troubling.
Edit: I wonder if FHN is right. There are posters here that are quick to spot pretenders. Are we being played?