A Message To All The Lurkers (page 2)

bernadette

Thanks Anitar. I have to say that I am deeply ashamed over the way abused children are treated in the organiation. In our cong we have a pedophile who is on the society's most highly likely to offend register. I have made up my mind to warn parents myself as much as I can whenever I observe that he is becoming close to a family. That's not enough I know but I am ssaying this publicly to you now because I want to encourage victims and their parents to speak out to professionals who can help them. This is an area where we do not obey the organisation but seek to protect the defenceless.

Michael Gabriel

Hi. I am new here, well actually not really new, I am I guess what you call a "lurker" for a couple of years or so. Grew up in the organization but after a divorce began questioning my beliefs and what I was taught. I usually read the posts at work (which my system there did not allow to register or post myself) and am able to get some good thoughts and reasonings on many subjects - THANKS!! I was always a bit skeptical when it came to the subject of pedophiles in the organization. Nah, there can't be that many, it can't be that big of a problem, I would think. Well just recently I was reading here about this subject and was directed to another site that allows you to find registered sex offenders in your neighborhood. I checked out the area where I grew up & where my younger 11 year old bro lives (who are witnesses) and right off the bat recognized TWO names both still today JW's. One of them was someone I had know all my life and in fact had married my wife and I !!!! I was pretty shocked. The other "brother" happens to live on the same property as my JW sister & husband & where my younger bro spends time with alot as he goes to visit with our sister frequently. I was very disapointed in the organization AGAIN to say the least. I got on the phone with my ex-wife & we both agreed that we would do whatever to make sure my ten year old daughter does not get involved with this organization (I say so bec both sides grandparents are JWs).

In conclusion, thanks anitar for your post, very true & I think the only way change will come about is by making more people aware of the situation in order to force the organization to HAVE to make changes in their policies. I plan on doing my part by making sure that my mother (wife of an elder) knows about these two individuals. Im not trying to get her to want to leave but just to be aware, because the more active JW's know, the more they may question, and the more pressure can be given to the "brothers" at the top.

Michael.

Anitar

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who posted. Thank you all for being so supportive. Skally, Bernadette, Michael Gabriel, Moshe, you all validated my point, and I'm glad I said it right. To the new people, welcome and I'm so very happy you're here! Please keep posting and tell us your ideas. There's nothing wrong with being a lurker, that's how I started. My only goal is to help and be helped by as many people as possible!

Take care everyone!

Anitar

FreeChick

Anitar,

Thank you for a beautifully articulate post. Well done!

FreeChick

codeblue

bttt

Anitar

It's my pleasure Freechick!

LuckyNun

this is a really good message to get out there. something similar happened in my family. if we had been "in the world" my parents would have been put in jail. as it was, none of us children escaped unscathed, and my parents basically got off scot-free.

Sam87

bttt

Anitar

LuckyNun: what happened to you? How could the congregation just stand by and do nothing?

LuckyNun

All of us kids were physically and sexually abused. The teachers at school discovered bruises and we ended up in foster care. Eventually it was determined that since I hadn't been abused as much, I would go back home. By that time, my parents were being shunned. My mom wasn't df'ed, but my dad was. People avoided us like the plague. Eventually, my brother and sister were disfellowshipped (for smoking, underage drinking) after they came back from foster care and by then my dad had been reinstated. He was dfed for six months for what he did. Eventually, since my parents were in good standing and my brother and sister had left, everyone new in the cong. started to assume it was just another case of good parents having bad kids. My mom even managed to convince people that we had made it all up because we didn't want to follow their rules.

When my sister's df'ed husband attempted to rape me when I was fifteen, my parents refused to let my sister and I press charges. They told her husband if he went back to the meetings, they'd forget what happened. He went for a month, and then stopped. Sadly, I had to recount this to the police five years later, when it was discovered he was touching my niece inappropriately. Rather than fight all this crazy, I left home at seventeen. My mom and dad are now seen by the cong. as two nice elderly people who are too sick to attend the meetings, and have awful children who left the truth. I understand the congregation shunning my dad, but they ignored us kids and we had no one to listen or believe us except people in the world. They just washed their hands of us, too, even though we hadn't done anything wrong. And later on they took my parents back with open arms.

A Message To All The Lurkers

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