I was given permission by a JW friend of my wife and me to post this experience. She's anonymous and posts on the board. We shall keep it that way. She is married to a witness still but is fighting on behalf of children in her congregation to not be a next victim of a pedophile who attends her congregation. This pedophile was convicted before becoming a witness and served 10 to 15 years in prison for sexual molestation of 2 young children. The pedophile has been touching young children right in the kingdom hall , called grooming , even patting his own daughter 13 yrs.old on the butt before sitting down at the meeting. Our friend has brought this to elders attention and she is being counseled that she is "causing division".
She recently mentioned to an elder that because the pedophile was recently given the " privilege " to give talks that she felt uncomfortable sitting there listening to him speak - because she knows about him and what he is up to. The elder who is friends with the pedophile said , " Sister you need to forgive his past and sit and listen to this brother give talks ! " So our friend talked to another elder about it , and initially it looked like he empathized .
The P.O. said to our friend, " You don't have to sit there and listen to the pedophile give talks if you feel uncomfortable about it ! " Our friend mentioned this pedophile touches his own daughters butt , and other young ones in the congregation then the P.O. said, " That's unnacceptable and not right ! My wife and I have teenage daughters and we always knock before going into their rooms . And we never touch them on their butts or walk around naked in our home. ! "
Up until this point the P.O. had an authentic, real concern with a non-cult personality , but then something happened. Our friend told the P.O. " I just don't know if I even believe in God anymore seeing this pedophile give talks. " Then the P.O. elder's cult personality kicked into high gear ! He said, " Sister - Satan is using the pedophile to shake your faith in Jehovah . Don't let it cause you not to believe in God. It's still jehovah's organization. "
So our friend was really shocked that this P.O. elder was shifting the blame from the pedophile to " Satan " trying to draw her away from Jehovah by using the pedophile to shake her faith. My wife and I told her that it was an easy, convenient way for the elder to not deal with the real culprit, the pedophile , and shift the blame to some inanimate figure like Satan ! It is such a copout on the elders part to ignore the real devil in this - the pedophile !
So I wanted to post this thread to show how easily ANY JW switches from being a real or authentic, supportive person to a mind controlled non-supportive person making fake excuses in support of the WT society views ! And all it took was one catch phrase " not believing in God " to set the P.O. elder into cult protection overdrive ! Amazing .
I'm sure our friend will read this so any thoughts, observations, or views from all you good people here would be appreciated ! Thanks so much, and Peace out to you all. Mr. Flipper