by Seeker4 33 Replies latest jw friends
Here are the links if anyone else would like to send an article suggestion to their local paper.
Find your local newspaper here: http://www.ecola.com
Here is a link to the AP article: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070510-1514-jehovahswitnesses-sexabuse.html
Here is a link to the scanned pictures of the tract: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/122327/1.ashx
Lets see how many articles we can get printed.
thanks unique
Written on the fly, but sent to the NY Post, NY Times and The Star Ledger (of NJ).
"Paying the Cost of Religious Pedophilia"
I started this thread, then had to head out for an interview for an article. Interview was halfway across the state. Just got back online now.
Good to hear from you DannyH.
And yes, I am a journalist. That is not necessarily a plus. I worked with a local journalist to do a considerably more informative article when a local quick build happened last year. REALLY ticked off the local JWs, but rather limited my ability to get a lot in the state's newspapers. I've written for most of them, and I can't really seem like a writer with an ax to grind.
Just a few thoughts that I felt might move a few folks here to write to their local papers. I'll check back in tomorrow.
S4
Letter to the Editor - Sample
In recent days, as is well reported in this newspaper, the Catholic Church paid out a record $660 Million to compensate victims of sexual abuse.
Not many months back, a lesser known evangelical group, Jehovah's Witnesses, also paid a settlement to 16 unnamed alleged victims of sexual abuse within the religion. The long time alleged coverup of these sins within that church make it, at least in some ways, even more heinous than that of the Catholic Church. Dateline broke the news on television with a program called ' Witness for the Prosecution' in May 2002. That program is still available to doubters via the internet. Several alleged victims of child-rape within the religion exposed the coverup. They were quickly silenced by being excommunicated from the faith. Their only sin was pain and anguish from sins left covered and hidden. The director of a non-religious organization devoted to giving these children [or adults later in life] a voice, Bill Bowen, also a Jehovah Witness at the time, was quickly expelled also. His sin? Protecting the children. His organization, Silentlambs, is prominent in the fight against these horrific attacks and rape of children within religion, particularly within Jehovah's Witnesses, which he is intimately familiar as a long time elder.
Not long ago, Jehovah's Witnesses distributed a major flyer to the public, in which they decried the hypocricy of religions that hide pedophilia within the church. Likely you got that little flyer in your door. In it, they picture a Catholic priest, intimating a disgust with religion of that nature. Interestingly, they are now found to be precisely like the Church they condemn, and have condemned for decades. Yet, among the rank and file of this group, most continue to be unaware of the hypocricy that has ended in hundreds of it's member being expelled and 'shunned'. The sin for which they have been expelled, was a desire to protect others from monsters hiding in the shadows of this religion.
The panoramic depth of this problem has been well documented. It is just a mouse click away on any desktop computer from within the privacy of your own home. Please make yourself aware. Protect your family, some of whom may someday think that they might join one of these insolar groups. While no one wants to imply that all churches have the same level of problem in this regard [there is likely some of it in all of them], the uneducated are always the victims of the pseudo-religious groups that cover up such crime.
By the way, in the case of the Catholic settlements, there was no restriction placed on the compensated victims. In the case of Jehovah's Witnesses, the recipients of the settlements, were 'gagged' to assure they did not write books, or place simple letters in the local papers like this one. In so doing, I hope to be at least a small part of a large voice for those who must remain silent. These isolationist evangelical groups, many of whom believe that God is using them exclusively as the 'TRUTH', are unfortunately covering the sins of it's leaders with the tears of it's children.
I hope that each person here will write a letter to his local paper. Cut and paste and localize this one if you like. Let's use every opportunity to spread this message to protect future and perhaps current victims of this crime.
Jeff
Thanks Jeff...I am going to see if I can get this in our local newspaper.
Leslie
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/122327/1.ashx
Maybe a scan of KN 37 to a less controversial website could be put in the material as well as well as the news articles on the WTS settlement.
Blondie
I want to 'say' something on this thread but the whole damned thing makes me want to 'spit'!!!
OK! What these Catholic Priests did, both abusing and covering over abuse was evil. The Church deserves its punishment and more!
What is more sickening, it the Watchtower Society and its gagging orders!!! Not only are these children abused, BUT, they are used and then paid to 'Shut up'! They can't warn or help others, which is what most victims of crime NEED to do to help along with recovery.
The Watchtower society continues their abuse by paying them, not as compensation but as 'Shut up!' money! That is even worse!!
I told you! This damned subject just has my blood boiling!!!
Agreed Gill. That's why we have to speak for them.
I just sent my 'Letter to the Editor' to 7 local papers. If even one of them carries it in each community, a large voice is being heard.
Jeff
Jeff,
Let us know what happens. Any others sending out letters?
S4
