I caught up with an old friend on the weekend. She's still a loyal dub but has had terrible marriage problems in the past (they've been divorced for some time now) and feels that she has been slandered in the congregation. She's also pretty wild for a dub...anyway, that's a discussion for another time...
Over lunch, we got to talking about one of her friends (also a dub) and she mentioned that she is very promiscuous. I asked her if she had been sexually abused. She said 'yes, by an elder.' The elder has been disfellowshipped but she didn't know if he had been reported to the police (not bloody likely). As he has not gone to jail, it would seem that he was not reported. Then she said something to me in a shocked voice. She said she had heard at a meeting the other night something she had never expected to hear from the platform. She said that the "brother" counselled the congregation that there are pedophiles in the organization and that they should not trust their children with anyone. She couldn't believe it. Well...this proved to be too much for me to resist. I told her all about Silentlambs and the upcoming Dateline story. I told her that that was probably the reason for the announcement and she agreed that it was probable. I'm certain that they are trying to prepare the rank and file for this shocking exposé. I tried to be as neutral as possible for fear of alienating her but I couldn't help but get a few digs in about how the truth has to come out and how the borg has vilified the Catholic church over the same issue, and how the policies of "two witnesses" and not reporting abuse to the authorities has resulted in rampant child abuse in the org.
So, I guess Silentlambs really is making 'em shake in their boots after all!