Do YOU Believe That JWs Have A Huge Problem With Pedophiles?
by minimus 120 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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Aussie Oz
While we will never know the number of criminals in there
It IS a HUGE problem because of the way they 'handle' it.
One day i am sure, the law will hold them accountable for the the mass hiding, but it has a way to go yet...
oz
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Violia
Bill Bowen called it a Pedophile paradise and he was right. The 2 witness rule, the elders and Ms lack of accountability to anyone, the doctrine itself is abusive to women and children. There are so many reasons why jws are among the really high offenders and YES, I will say there is more than you may know among them. Most secretly just move around or they get complaints about them but can't do anything to them. The jws world has been so open it is easy for children and women to be abused- and who's judging all this? Elders who many be guilty themselves.
So yes, Bill Bowen is correct and it only hurts women and children for you to put these kind of attitudes on the board. There are more in the jws world b/c they can get away with it.
I myself, one person, have been molested by an elder and he was put on the "list"they said. It was however many years after the fact and they did not even DF him. I have had other things happen to me that never saw the light of day, so if it happened to me I know it happened to others. It is very underreported.
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minimus
I'm sorry that anyone was abused!
Having said that, I think Bowen has overblown the reality. That does NOT diminish the victims or their families. But I don't believe there are as many pedophiles as Bowen would like you to believe.
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Gayle
The issue is the congregation community (average congregation size is about 86 pubs.), becomes a small "village" They hob-knob twice a wk for meetings sitting in close proximity, meet for service once or twice/wk for service (driving around together through territories) and then sometimes do a social gathering of some sort. Familiarity becomes 'quick' and is assumed everyone cares and pretty much expected to be trustworthy to some extent. Everyone is called a "brother" and "sister." Many religions don't have this level of familiarity.
This becomes quite a convenient setup for predator type people. These type, find they're 'in' to some degree right away. Naive type people, especially children, think they would be safe in that sort of environment. Predators find an opportunity to single out someone innocent or somewhat 'controllable.'
This may not happen in every congregation but when it does 'come out,' most elders are totally blown away, don't know what to do, so they have to call the Headquarters, now are supposed to according to Manual. Now Headquarters, are very remote to reality of life and children, but all they do know is to protect the organization image, that they tout only, that their congregations are all so wonderful.
If a victim speaks out about the pedophile (I suspect many don't till possibly grown), the pedophile usually will try to deny if they can, some elders want to 'hush' up the most despicable thing that can happen in their midst. However, now fortunately, the Law is requiring this to be reported to police, (not everywhere yet though.) They know how to investigate such issues better. It gets better exposed. Thus, laws as the WWC and programs are needed. It won't completely fix such problems but still have at least some impact.
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minimus
Agreed! My point though is pretty simple. Bowen has overblown the issue.
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botchtowersociety
Do YOU Believe That JWs Have A Huge Problem With Pedophiles?
Depends on what you consider huge. I don't think things are worse in the JWs with pedophilia than in society in general--although I don't have any real data to back up that assertion.
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Violia
Thank Goodness Bill Bowen had the courage to do what he did.
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Shanagirl
The JW's made it a pedophile paradise by protecting the pedophiles and making it hard for the victims. Even the two witness rule. If a pedophile was known to molest several victims and they wanted to come foreward and validate each other, they were threatened by those elders or freinds of pedophile not to speak of it or risk judicial action. I think Bill Bowen was right when he said it's a pedophile paradise.
Shana
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