JW Comments on Connie Chung!

by Seeker4 12 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  Seeker4

  Watched Connie Chung last night with my wife, an active JW. Right after it ended she called a very close relative - a very active JW. Pioneered, brought hundreds in, husband an elder, Witness since the 50s. We all know the type.

  That sister had also just watched Connie Chung, and she said that she totally believed what Heidi and Amber said on Chung's show! She said she didn't like Bill's attitude, but that she believed EVERYTHING the girls said, and knew from her own experience that it was true. She also questioned her elder husband about how these matters were dealt with in the past, and what he would have done.

  I also found out that there are evidently other lawsuits pending in her congregation about this issue. I've known of some in the past, but not that there were current ones.

  My wife also knows that this stuff is the truth. My whole family, Witnesses and non, read with great interest the NY Times article - which was actually reprinted in THE major statewide newspaper of my state - Sunday edition!

  What really pissed us off was the comment from the Society to Chung to the effect that they continue to provide help to victims of abuse. We had a son sexually abused by a Witness. At the time the abuse was revealed (about five years after it ended) the abuser was then serving at Bethel. My son received essentially NO help from either the local elders or Bethel. Not ONE phone call from Bethel offering any sort of guidance, even though the abuser had gone to his Bethel elders and admitted what he'd done.

  We DID get a very nasty phone call from the Bethelite's elder father when we reported the abuse to authorities. He was VERY upset that it had been reported, and essentially just told us that we should have forgiven the abuser and kept quiet about it, and that Jehovah would judge us for revealing the abuse to worldly authorities.

  Hey, Watchtower Soceity, you're finally getting some real justice for your actions. Enjoy.

  S4
• 

  LyinEyes

  That is so sad to hear about your son. It just makes my blood boil. I am in the process of watching the Connie Chung coverage(thanks to TraumaHound) . When I heard that Ms. Chung was covering this ,, I knew this was another milestone in the cause agaisnt coverups in the JW handling of these matters.

  Very interesting what your wife and others are saying. If I were still in I would have to at least have a doubt about the goings on behind the headquarters and locals elders doors. Even when I was a witness, I would have beleived these people who have said they were abused. My mother always told me "where there is smoke , there is fire". I have seen in my lifetime that that is usually true.

  I hope that the faithful JW's at least get their eyes opened even just a bit,,,,,,,,, it is a start,, the start of the downfall of the might WT....

  God, I am so glad I am not associated with that group anymore, I couldnt hold my head up out in service. I wonder how they go door to door and asked about these matters.
• 

  hawkaw

  Thanks for the information Seeker4.

  If I remember I thought you had some help getting the Dateline thing going?

  I am glad you are posting and this is good to hear. It might really shake a few up.

  hawk
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  AjaxMan

  ((((LyinEyes))))

  I wonder how they go door to door and asked about these matters.

  I'd think that they would deny it and keep on denying it as well as trying to change the subject, but if the potential recruit is persistent with questions about these matters (the abuses), all the JWs will do is smile, say Have a nice day and walk out of there in a hurry.

  Seeker4,

  I am sorry to hear about that about your son and my heart goes to you and your family. Like you said,

  Hey, Watchtower Soceity, you're finally getting some real justice for your actions.

  That's quite true. After Dateline and this, I hope that there will be few lawsuits from victims just like how Erica did. It seems this ought to be the time for all the victims to step forward and file lawsuits against their former congregation elders and against the WTS.

  With that many lawsuits at the same time, I don't think the WTS can hide itself behind its lies and I wonder how many Maalox and Tums does JR Brown have to take to keep a straight face when answering the public media?

  Definitely, the more public exposure of this, the more the WTS will be under scrutiny to see if they TRULY follow what they said regarding how they handle these situations.

  regards to both of you,

  Ajax
• 

  FreeFallin

  ((((Seeker4 and Family)))

  I'm very sorry for what you have gone thru. Like you said, Watchtower will find out what real justice is.

  Free
• 

  Seeker4

  Hawk,

  I worked as a contact and resource for producer Richard Greenberg at Dateline, with Richard Ostling and others at AP, with writers at Christianity Today and a few other places, and especially with Peter Smith at the Courier-Journal on Bill Bowen's initial pre-Silentlambs work. Peter and I emailed back and forth a lot, and became friends over all this, and I was able to help get photos for his huge WTS expose that sort of broke all this into major media.

  I work as a journalist, including as a correspondent with a paper that beat out the NY Times for a Pulitzer last year, so it gave me some legitimacy with fellow journalists. They also used my 35 years as an active JW as a resource to check out questions they had. I provided all of them with several pages of background material on these issues, most of it based on my personal experiences as a Witness elder and servant for some 25 years.

  I also served back then as a contact for Witnesses who were willing to go public with their abuse stories, mostly via the old H2O. I've got a huge file now with about 60 people who contacted me, most from the US, but also other countries. I culled the best contacts and passed them on to all the above media. Actually, one of the "worst scenario" cases that Peter Smith and I researched has never really been discussed in all of these stories, as it was settled out of court by the WTS in the mid-80s. There was the usual "gag order" that prevents the victims or the lawyers from taliking about it, but trust me, it was exactly the sort of case Bill Bowen and others are revealing - a wife told by the elders to keep her abusing husband in the home with the little girl he was abusing, and told not to report this to the authorities on threat of being disfellowshipped.

  The time that I was involved with this also served as a time when my wife found out that I was actively working against the WTS. Calls were coming into the house at all hours from all around the world, and I had to tell her what I was doing. These also involved getting info on the blood policy changes and the big organizational change two years ago into the media. It was so cool to have these issues in the NY Times two days after they were known and LONG before the average Witness would ever have heard about them.

  Since then Bill and several others have needed no help in getting the message out!! Now I'm just sitting back and watching the WTS shoot itself in the foot over and over and over as the media coverage just explodes. Bill and those that have helped him have done a terrific job. The role I played was quite small and a while ago.

  S4
• 

  hawkaw

  Seeker4,

  Thanks for the message.

  I just snapped you an Email.

  hawk
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  sf

  Hello Boys,

  Seeker4, hawkaw is aware of a 'situation' with my local newspaper re: the importance of printing what is happening in this church, and the fact that they seem to not want it in.

  Please, as an expert in the field of journalism, why did it not make certain community papers, such as mine, and was nearly front page news in others?

  Also, would you too, be ble to help with this 'situation' by emailing or phoning the Editor of my paper? Hawkaw has the number. I will be most appreciative.

  Thank you, both of you, for such diligence in your ACTIONS in what you've accomplished thusfar with the media. {{hugs}}

  sKally
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  Seeker4

  For a lot of local papers this would not be big news. I mean, JWs are not what you'd call major media material for the most part. I think the fact that Bill has been able to get the huge amount of media that he has is simply amazing and a testament to his ability and perseverance.

  Would a call from me to a local paper in another area be of any help? Probably not at all. Perhaps the editor thinks favorably of the Witnesses, or perhaps the editor just thinks it's not an important issue locally. And editors are always wary of individuals demanding that certain stories be covered in certain ways. As journalists, we constantly have to deal with people who have certain causes that they want us to write about. And we have to constantly make judgement calls as to whether there is any validity to the request.

  One thing you might do is to simply make copies of all the media that has covered this so far. There are by now dozens of newspaper articles, and I'm sure you can access them from Bill's site. Make copies (from the original newspaper links, not from other sources), create a packet and send it to your local paper. It can make a huge difference for them to know that this has been in the NY Times, on AP and so on.

  If they ignore that, there is little else you can do. Good luck.

  S4
• 

  sf

  Thanx for the reply Seeker4.

  [[ "It can make a huge difference for them to know that this has been in the NY Times, on AP and so on." ]]

  They DO KNOW it is from NYT. This is the very REASON I am not Comprehending why it was not in our area.

  Who are these 'jouralistic judges' who decide what should and should not be reported?

  EVERY COMMUNITY IN THE WORLD SHOULD KNOW OF THIS STORY. I see NO EXCUSES why it isn't 'WORLD NEWS' if indeed NYT is so 'Big'.

  So it would seem now, that we have to contend with PEOPLE WHO DECIDE WHAT WE, AS THE PUBLIC, SHOULD AND SHOULD NOT BE WELL AWARE OF.

  The media IS RESPONSIBLE FOR REPORTING THIS TO EVERY COMMUNITY IT CAN. Not only selected news outlets.

  How much sense is it making sir, to NOT have it in all newspapers in the country? Pardo me, but is just bunk! And I hold reporters RESPOSIBLE TO REPORT ALL IMPORTANT NEWS THAT RELATES TO CHILDRENS SAFETY IN MY NEWSPAPER and television news... so why and for what REASONS?? Pardon me, again, but......Duhhhhhhhhhhhh.

  A W A R N E S S !!!!!!!!!!! IN ALL COMMUNITIES!!

  It's GOT to change, like everything else that's screwed up in this world.

  Again, I ask, will YOU, someone in that very position TO CHANGE the way IMPORTANT NEWS, relating TO ALL CHILDRENS SAFETY, please, help??

  Sincerely, sKally