by AndersonsInfo 90 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
All in attendance were told about the forthcoming Dateline program and told that the allegations were TRUE. However, they were instructed to deny the allegations, if asked.
I'm speechless.
Any idea on how many of those elders, MS, etc. who were at that meeting have since stepped down?
I have never seen the Dateline program myself but I can surly witness the snowball effect it had here in Germany. This issue got JW and authorities to think.
Freetosee
IW and Fangorn: I can appreciate your skepticism and it's always a good idea to want to see the facts. I hope my answer was helpful although I wish I could reveal further details which certainly would be more helpful.
Dismembered: Thank you for asking me to post more often. Yes, you're right-I don't want to be an icon! All I want to do is share information with people who want to know more facts about the Watchtower. I really try hard to be unbiased and not color information so to mislead. Soon, you will find on the Internet lots of information about my personal experiences as a JW, mostly about nearly eleven years at Bethel. I sincerely hope my relatively short memoir will be of some interest and not bore anybody
candidlynuts: You said, "multiply that by however many congregations are in the usa.... you have your tens of thousands!" I couldn't agree with you more. Joe and I personally know of a number of Witnesses in this area that left because of Dateline. Plus, we know of people who stopped studying with the Witnesses after they saw Dateline. So it's only reasonable to assume that my statement, "tens of thousands," is correct.
willyloman: Thank you for backing up my assertion with facts of your own.
blondie: Glad to know the Dateline program was of some help to you. Validation is always liberating.
sir82: Joe, Bill Bowen and I were also speechless when that information was passed along to me a few days ago. I only wish someone would come forward with more details about that meeting. We have no idea if anybody else who was at the meeting left the organization other than the one ministerial servant.
freetosee: You can read a transcript of the Dateline program on www.silentlambs.org. At one time, someone on the net provided a video of the program, but I don't remember where it was or if it was removed. Oh yes, Dateline caused Witnesses to think and that's what our work is all about.
Barbara
What I dont understand is the toalty sero respect fore peopel as know how the polyci is.
When the TV program i our country come we have a letter the day before the program from the hedquorter, about al lies as come on TV they told us not to look, after the on the summer we have this terribel talks on assamblies, dont listen to the voice from the strangers,I was so uppset when I heard the leading man from HQ say dont you trust us in this, do you realy think we hide peoel as have done bad things, no of course not, evryone was so happy, but not we as know, how can this man be so evel that he was lying to all this people, he must know how bad we must feel as hade been told to put things in Jehovas hand, in my case, when I was told from sercuit overser that i must forget and dont talk about this widh anyone, if I do I will dirty Jehovas name,I know that the man as talk on the assambly himself have decide to hide things after the TV program, and despite this he say this lies .
But if you read the letter they send out very carefully they addmit the problems, beacuse they say, we must have the power to judge about ourselfs, and we put in peopel too the police if THE LAW SAY So, my mother told mee, ther you see they give in peopel to the police if they have done bad things, but i TOLD HERE, IN OUR COUNTRY THE LAW DONT SAY THET YOU MUST DO THIS, so what they say is if you read carefully ,is we dont do this beacuse the law dont force us to .My mother was then silent, talking about dubbeltalk.
The most terribel thing in my expiriense was when th CO try to explain fore mee why I as a famyli member and wittnes to bad thngs done by unother famyli member, dont have to tell anyone in my famylie about this , this was the sinners djuty to do, and if he dont do this, we cane do nothing, when my mother call the elders and ask why her husband was putting down as elder, they answer ,ask him, we cane say nothing.
I have been succes full in fading away, nowan contakt mee, not even from near relatives from the cong, we are outlaws , my wife is still very active, despite this she is also frozen out, evrything is very tragik, peopel as know whats happend beacuse I told them is very unhappy, two have died from heart probelms, as I see it beacuse al this mess in the cong, some have other sikness probelms, like depresions.
This is a problem, shall you convince peopel as you love about bad things is in ther religion, and the outcome is they lost ther love to life, this is a bigg dillma fore mee, it is not so fun to see how loved ones lost ther joy fore life , so I have decide to not say so much any more, the price is to high, the most important thig is that the elders and Co never try to contakt mee, and it looks like they dont fell fore contakting mee, they know that I have 100 procent proof fore what I tell tem.
Barbara, thanks very much for the information. I feel somewhat better about the statement now and I know it's really hard to nail down hard numbers on this kind of thing.
freetosee,
First, welcome to JWD.
You wrote:
I am happy to say that here in Germany this problem has been recognized by authorities.
and:
I can surly witness the snowball effect it had here in Germany.
I've not been here much lately, so perhaps it's been mentioned and I've just missed it, but d o you have any more specific information on how the authorities picked up on this problem, what they have done, and what has been the ('snowball') effect?
Thanks also Barbara, for your costly personal sacrifices to protect the children.
IT support,
my family wrote a letter to the Berlin senate, there the officials were already well informed about this problem and referred us to the internet. The government officials we spoke to could also tell us about the change in WT policy regarding blood and voting before it was printed in the WT, because this was criticised during the process of WTS alias “Religionsgemeinschaft der Zeugen Jehovas in Berlin” suing for greater privileges and status. The responsible person representing the state and standing up very strongly for abuse victims is Wolf-Dietrich Patermann (never a JW). Even thought Mr. Patermann is now a pensioner he is still involved in representing the Berlin (city) senate before the high court –the Berlin senate is against JW to receive higher legal status and privileges. - http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2005/0207/blickpunkt/0001/ (German)
Through writing letters and petitions to the government I have spoken to politicians who are surprisingly well informed about JW victims going public and told me about silentlambs as I did not read ‘apostate’ material at that time. They considered JW to be a peaceful religion before finding out about this scandal, which also directed there attention to other control groups like Mormons, etc.
I can’t offer you statistics or numbers, but my personal experience is that the message is out and has reached many of the responsible officials.
Freetosee
If people have left the JWs because of this problem, which I believe---- those that are still there, imo, do NOT regard child abuse as an issue at all. Do you agree with me??
Minimus, That was one of the main reasons why I left. But most JW deny this problem and call it persecution since they can not comprehend the systematic cover-ups within their “clean organisation”. Even abused victims remain in the organisation not realizing that they were not an exception, or they leave many years later after consulting professional help. The r&f can be deceived more easily, but I wonder how this works so well with elders, COs, DOs and WT heavy weights?
I think a lot of elders, cos,dos, are not that dumb but will tow the party line. But I honestly think we apostates make the issue what it is at this point in time. I hear no active meeting attending JW ever talk about it. Granted, I don't talk to many but my mom does and I still hear what's happening in the congregation.
