by berrygerry 11 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
An acquaintance in Canada is making a serious attempt at ending children being forced, or coerced, to attend a Judicial Meeting.
Are there any here who had to attend such a meeting, and would be willing to contribute their feelings?
Likewise, any who were baptized as minors, but felt later that at the time of their baptism, they were not old enough to have made that decision.
It is a complicated issue. When does a minor have rights to sign or verbally agree to a contract in your country.
A minor should never be allowed to sit alone with adults who are not parents or guardians questioning them.
If this works the walkout of those baptized before 18 or 19 in Canada will be enormous.
The walkout is already happening, a young JW I've known since birth just left her parents when they were out of town.
She was the last person that I would have expected.
The concern is the amount of mental/emotional damage that is being done, whether they eventually leave or not.
It's merciless and contradicts Malachi 6:8
So sad they want the chidren to get baptized younger and younger and before their thought processes can discern things critically and analytically.
There is no Malachi 6:8 lol... I think you mean Micah
Good luck. Young people get teribly chewed up by all sorts of things in life. The defense would argue that the structured, rule-bound lifestyle in the organization is far preferable to the drug-adled lifestyle many young ones fall into.
The US would never get involved in anything like that, no matter how abusive. Separation of Church & State.
Doc
Your concern is not clear to me. Are you worried about minors being dragged to a jc by their JW parents? I don't understand the exact status of a jc and children. I faced the situation of being fifteen or sixteen and refusing to leave high school. The legal rights of children near the age of majority are confusing. There is also the situation of nonJW parents trying to force blood on their now activeJW child. I recalled Justicia reported a case of a fourteen year old boy being allowed to refuse blood.
If you can demonstrate abuse or emotional distress, you could definitely bring it up to the authorities. This may especially be the case if you have custody over the child. If you don't have custody, then it's up to the parents. If you can prove it's child abuse, you could talk to CPS or similar for your area but I doubt they'll stick their heads into it.
