As a JW were You Told to Not Report or Be Silent about Child Abuse ?

by flipper 34 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  flipper

  As most of you know in 2002 Barbara Anderson and Bill Bowen were on the Dateline program which revealed that child abuse victims had been theatened with disfellowshipping from the Jehovah's Witnesses for reporting child abuse to the police and authorities . And this actually happened to many victims and their families for standing up in behalf of the safety of abused children !

  Most here are aware of the out of court child abuse settlements the WT society made with 16 witness child abuse victims in 2007. A gag order was placed on victims so they would not speak of their experiences with the media. It was revealed in the news reports that allegedly the WT society had a database file with approximately 23,000 more names of current Jehovah's Witnesses who had either abused children , or had been charged with the offense.

  So- This brings an important question up for anybody here lurking , or who have known of child abuse going on in the Jehovah's Witness cult. Have you, or anybody you know of been told to remain silent about a child abuse incident ? Or told to not report it to authorities , or even talk about it in the kingdom halls where you or someone else attended ? Once again - The main goal of the WT society is to protect the alleged " clean " reputation of it's organization - not the protection of hundreds, if not thousands of children. So feel free to express any experiences you know of, either in the past or present as the protection and safety of children always should be of the utmost importance ! Communication and knowledge is power and always a path to safety and freedom. As always I look forward to your expressions. Thanks to all, and Peace out to all, Mr. Flipper
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  mrsjones5

  Yep, it happened in a congregation in Madera, Ca in the mid 80's. A brother (I think he was a ministrial servant) was sexually abusing his two young daughters. The whole congregation was told to be quiet about it. I often wonder what happened to those two girls. I think my beloved cousin would know.

  Josie
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  misguided

  Every time I tried to talk to the elders about the fact I had been abused sexually by 3 brothers, including 1 elder, I was given, for lack of a better way of saying it - the deer-in-headlights look from the elders I had just told. I was ALWAYS told not to talk about it. I was NEVER told what, if anthing was done about it.

  In all cases, the situations were denied, and it became a case of my word against theirs. In the case of one, he ended up doing it to a few other sisters, and he was eventually df'd.

  What kills me is, the last assembly held at the Coloseum in Vancouver after I was df'd that I attended, I see one of them walking around with his "attendant" badge on. Here I am df'd for being truthful, he lies, and he has an "attendant" label on. At least he was unable to look me in the eye. It was one more "nail in the coffin" there is no such thing as Jehovah's Holy Spirit, because if there was, he would have known the truth. He wouldn't be an attendant at an assembly if there was such a thing.
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  Homerovah the Almighty

  There always was a complacent demeanor amougst the brothers and sisters to not bring reproach on to god's organization

  and his people so hence talking about an expected situation of child abuse was deliberately muzzled.

  It was almost if you made mention of this sort of thing you could be placing yourself as a victim by

  opening the door to expose certain people. Fear is the protagonist in religious cults like this and JWS unfortunately follow that same model.
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  Big Tex

  Frank Nicholson, the circuit overseer for the White Rock congregation of Dallas, Texas, told me in 1989 to "shut up about this nonsense (i.e. the abuse I suffered by my worldly grandfather and my minsterial servant father) or I [he] will see to it personally that you [me] would be disfellowshipped." Two years later my father moved to Carrollton, Texas and this same CO overrode the entire elder body to affirm his status as ministerial servant. I was told by one of those elders that he took the matter to Brooklyn.

  Like Albert Speer, most Witnesses don't know because they don't want to know.

  Chris
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  redredrose

  What I have to relate may or may not be relevant. But it is a situation I have firsthand knowledge of.

  20 years ago two brothers ( 4 and 8) were sexually abused by a ministerial servant. They got up the courage and told their father, who subsequently confronted the servant. He confessed and the father filed charges against him and only then reported it to the elders. The elders were taken aback that it had already been reported to the authorities but went ahead and covened the judicial committee and disfellowshipped the servant. The servant's "fleshly" brother was an elder, and he asked the father to consider dropping the charges. Happily, the father refused and after a trial, the former servant was convicted and sent to prison for seven years.

  Last seen this sex abuse offender was reinstated and had married a woman with several small children. I wonder if she was fully informed of his past before she married him. I shudder to think of those poor children.

  Also, after he got out of prison he actually showed up at the hall where these two children that he had abused attended; and told the brothers that he wanted to attend meetings there ( most of his family attended that congregation). Thankfully, the brothers told him he needed to go somewhere else.

  Do I think the elders would have encouraged the father to not press charges if he hadn't already done so? Yes! However, they did at least try to protect these boys after the fact by telling him he had to go to another Kingdom Hall.

  I have no doubt that child molesters have, and are still, being sheltered behind the despicable principle of letting problems be handled only by the congregations as they are directed by the Watchtower organization.
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  misguided

  The grandfather of my older 5 kids is a pedophile. He had a baby with his daughter. My kids' cousin is also their aunt. When I married their dad, he was still an elder, with the "product of the incest" being 15 years old. The mother, my ex-sister-in-law once told me that the abuse started when she was about 4 years old, and happened even during field service.

  We were told not to say anything when it was found out (shortly after our marriage) that what my ex thought was his neice turned out to be his half-sister through his sister.

  It still is there, yet, l block it out - maybe more for my kids' sake than for protecting some Organization, but I still numb it.

  The baby is now in her 30's, and my ex said at Christmastime that she's recently df'd herself, grandma (my kids dad's sister, their aunt) is raising her 3 kids as jw's (although through Facebook, I think that's going to be short-lived, thank god.)
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  KAYTEE

  As an x-jw I know they "believe" the bible and its every word.

  I am puzzled therefore when I read scriptures like Rom 13v1 (be in subjection to the superior authorities)

  Surely its against the law not to inform the police ?

  What of gods law!!

  Lev.5v1

  NOW IN CASE A SOUL SINS IN THAT HE HAS HEARD PUBLIC CURSING,, AND HE IS A WITNESS OR HE HAS SEEN IT, OR HAS COME TO KNOW OF IT, IF HE DOES NOT REPORT IT, THEN HE MUST ANSWER FOR HIS ERROR.

  KT
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  StAnn

  My neice was sexually abused by a "brother" at her KH for several years. She finally told someone at school, who told the school guidance counselor, who called children's services. At that point, once children's services was involved, my neice's mother (ex-SIL) took her to talk to the elders. They told her NOT to tell anyone in the congregation about it.

  Because the "brother" stopped abusing her when he turned 18, nothing was done to him legally. Also, nothing has been done in the congregation because he denies it.

  This all came to a head about 18 months ago.

  Serena
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  no more kool aid

  Many years before my husband and I started attending our last KH this scumbag raped many children from a nearby congregation including his own 3 children (males and females, he is an equal opportunity pedophile.) He was sent to prison. I had heard this story through the grapevine and started keeping track of him through an online inmate search. I wanted to know what he looked like in case he ever got out and came to the hall (I have children). Well as the years went by he got out lived in a halfway house for 18 months he will always be on parole and have to register because he is tier 3 sex offender. He settled in a community about 2 hours from here and of course is just a model JW. Then one day he was at our hall to visit his extended family, after he offered his 2nd comment at the WT study we left. The next meeting his family told me all about the great weekend they had with him and they went to a local fair (big no-no for a sex offender). I immediately called his parole officer in his town. I was told he did ask for permission to travel for the weekend to see family but the same rules were to apply here that he was to stay away from small children. He was very appreciative of the tip and was not aware of the JW lifestyle of attending meetings and going out in field service where he would have contact with children. I warned many families at our congregation that have children and showed them his picture ( didn't make me very popular). I voiced my concerns to the elders about warning the congregation in his town and was told to stay out of it. Last I heard he is dating a sister with, you guessed it, a ten yr old child. I was told he is probably OK now because "with Jehovah all things are possible". My parents and friends say I just can't worry so much about all this stuff and just leave it in Jehovah's hands. Very sad and dangerous situation, these pedophiles know that no one from the congregation is going to tell them not to come to meetings or go out in service.