Yesterday I promised I would tell another ugly but true story about sexual abuse within the org,so here we go:
My ex comes from a Catholic family.His youngest sister and he became a JW at the same time ( like me they had an elder brother in the org.but not much contact with the JW) My sister in law had a large family -7 children.6 of them very pretty but also rather stupid but then came young P, a very gentle, handsome and intelligent boy.He really stood out. He was brilliant at school and they wanted him to study- but his parents said no.Somebody from school came over to talk with the parents-This man said it would be a terrible waste not to let such an intelligent young man study, but they were unshakable-it was almost paradise time and this boy would never use that education for anything- so why bother? He was 16 and it was a real fine time for him to start as a pioneer. Nobody ever asked P what he wanted,after all he was only 16 and mom and dad knew best.
There was an elder couple in their hall-(in their 60s) and they invited P to spend the week-end with them -as they said to P´s parents: to get his mind of all the fuss there was with school and convince him that pionering was the only right ting to do, now with the big A just about to happen.
He ended up in bed with them. Drama of course- but what Í´ll never understand: the boy gets DFd and the couple only a slap on the wrist!!! But it was double abuse...or am I crazy?!?
By now P was obviously sick and tired of it all-he didn´t want to go to the hall (shame,the gossip) he didn´t want to be a pioneer,all he wanted was to go to school.But his loving parents gave him an ultimatum:either you get reinstated and become a pioneer or else it bye bye little P. He wanted to go to school-nothing else, so...
His parents threw him out.A 16 year old boy with no place to go, no money and nobody to turn to was kicked out on the streets of Amsterdam.
That summer assembly we run into my sis in law.She had been crying and was shaking like a leaf.She told my husband that they had seen P the other evening,walking the streets as a mail prostitute.(wearing lipstick, she added _like that made it even worse) I asked her if they had stopped and offered their love and help. NO she said. No,it was P who was stubborn and who had broken the rules of God´s organisation-hurt Jehovah! She was hoping on Jehovah´s help and praying for him but no way would they help him before he changed his ways.
4 years later we are on holiday in Spain and we see P with a much older man.My husband went over to talk to him and gave him our number.He told P we were willing to help him-but we never heared from him or saw him again.
We often talk about P and hope he has a better life now, but how big are the chances for that?
We learned something from that case and promised each other that we would never do this to one of our boys-no matter what the boys might do and what the org. might say or do against us.We also promised each other we would always say hello to those who were DFd,no org.would dictate us who to say hello to and who not.
And that´s just what we did.
Mathilde