Sam Herd’s comment on the 2001 Dateline expose

by Londo111 21 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  cognac

  Was this a rule at some point, that you weren't supposed to go to the authorities or did the elders do that on their own?
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  umbertoecho

  Londo, I thank you as well for posting this video. I had not seen it before. So much of what the victims said were exactly as I recall them.

  I await the Royal Commission which is due to start next week here in Australia, Monday to be exact. I hope the questions are hard and clear and do not allow the ones being questioned to slither out of a complete and revealing answer.
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  cha ching

  Cognac, the thinking was "why would you want to go to the world" when you have "Jehovah's glorious organization that will rule the world in righteousness!"? That was, and really still is, the guilt trip that laid upon each and everyone of us.
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  cognac

  Cha Ching - just wondering if they ever said specifically not to go to the authorities. Weird that the elders would go so far as to say she'd be d'ffed for going.
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  cha ching

  cognac: They do not "say it".... but all the cases I have read about child abuse, people are treated as IF they are DF'd, because they "are bringing reproach upon Jehovah's name."... they have brought shame to the congregation...

  Not written, but you can hear the same phrases uttered everywhere.... Phrases are repeated in WT's, asked like a question instead of a demand, "Would WE want to bring reproach on Jehovah's organization? No, we love Jehovah"

  People who testified, telling the truth at trials. were DF'd at the end of the trial. Not until the end... o/w the WT lawyers could be accused of messing with the trial, after all, the WT lawyers ARE part of "Jehovah's LOVING worldwide organization" and if anything is wrong with it "Jehovah can read their hearts" and "Jehovah will straighten it out in his own due time." I heard, and still do hear these phrases over an over.

  People who tell the truth, and testify in trials are charged with "speaking abusively of the glorious ones," or "brazen" in their conduct, and DF'd. Barbara Anderson was DF'd right before she went on TV..... Why? all because she told the truth!
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  Bob Loblaw

  I wonder how many witnesses who watched it were hung up on the word "church" which is outside their brand of good mind control trigger words (or at least it was over 20 years ago when I was in). The Dateline narrator kept saying the word "church" or "the church" to describe what JW's know as "the truth". In the JW mind the words "church" and "truth" are like oil and water.

  In the average JW controlled mind, the word "church" = doomed christendom or satanic, its one of the bad mind control trigger words.

  In their minds, perhaps some viewers were thinking, "well they got us all wrong, their calling us a church (evil)", meanwhile missing the entire main point of the presentation.

  The mind control is so strong, that's why it is so hard to wake up and leave. Once a person is awake, the whole thing is soooo obvious. Its sick really.

  ...and so entirely sad, as a dad with little girls, it saddens me and sickens me to think of the little ones, to this very day, that may be trapped and abused in that sick organization.
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  truthseeker100

  I wonder how many witnesses who watched it were hung up on the word "church" which is outside their brand of good mind control trigger words
  

  I was wondering that too Bob

  As a Father of two daughters who thankfully to me, were not raised "in the truth", I am sickened by all of this stuff too. Even if the JWs who see it get hung up on the cult phraseology, surely some will see the dateline report as eye opening.
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  life is to short

  Thank you so much Barbara. I will never forget the night this was on. We had just come from the meeting and I just stumbled across this by accident while flipping through stations. Though I did not leave the religion at the time this dateline story never left me and when I faced it in my own hall I knew it was true my world just crashed in on me. What I find amazing now is how many ex JW's do not want to know or hear it or talk about it. I was forbidden to even mention it to some ex JW's. I just do not understand why people want to bury their heads over this but I am so thankful for ones like you who speak out.

  All I can say is thank you so much for all you do and all that you have helped.

  LITS
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  life is to short

  I did just want to add one more thing to this.

  Barbara has been so wonderful, beyond wonderful. She is so caring and really put herself out. When this show aired I was a really true believer. I had been abused by my parents who were quasi JW's and I rationalized that no one knew because it all happened behind closed doors.

  The night this Dateline aired I had been having issues with my elders about my needing to take care of my parents and I had mentioned that I had been abused by them. Little did I know that I was touching the tip of an iceberg. I was finding it hard that my elders seemed to be siding with my parents, I was so hurt and confused. Here I was an elder's wife, pioneer, been to Bethel, etc and yet I was not being believed.

  When this show aired we did not have even a computer in our home. This is so long ago now but it seems just like yesterday. I went to the local library which has free computers to use. I looked up silent lambs. I was shaking so hard and so afraid that someone would see what I was doing in such a public place. Man that seems so long ago now. I was shocked by what I saw. Just writing this is making me cry, I was so scared and hurt at that time it was unreal.

  My mom died in 2003 and my dad in 2005. They were the worst years of my life in some ways,but I was still a very hurt but devout JW even though my elder husband and I switched halls largely due to how hurtful the elders had been to me over my parents. Finally in 2007 we had a pedophile move into the hall we were attending. I could no longer hide from myself that my case was just a fluke.

  I wanted to get a hold of Barbara but did not know how. We had finally gotten a computer in 07 and I knew nothing about how to really use them. I somehow contacted Bill Bowen. He was so rude to me and hurtful. I had asked for help to get a hold of Barbara and he just went off to me in an email. Bill pushed me right back into the JW's.

  It took me another two years to figure out how to reach Barbara. She has been so kind and wonderful.

  The last thing someone needs who has been sexually abused is to be talked down to and belittled. It's just been such a hard road. I thought I had made some friends here who were ex JW's. They had not been sexually abused they left over the 587, 607 thing.

  It is like we came from two different worlds, all they wanted to do was talk about 587 for hours and hours and hours and send me tons of prints outs on it. All I wanted to do was talk about the pedophiles and how unjust it is being handled.

  Everyone leaves for different reasons and different hurts. Bill Bowen I just do not understand, even now thinking back to that email he sent it still makes my stomach flip. It took me so much courage just to contact him through silent lambs and for him to get so angry with me? I wish I had printed it out to keep but we did not even have a printer at the time and that email is lost.

  I am just so glad that there are kind ones out there like Barbara. Because I know only two well how hurtful words can drive someone right back into the arms of the WT.

  There is a saying that I just love and it says "people may not remember what you said or did but they will always remember how you made them feel."

  LITS
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  Vidiot

  I remember watching it with my inactive wife when it aired (she'd wanted to see it, and even back then, I was never a chauvinistic prick, so... * shrug *).

  The revelations (no pun intended) didn't surprise her at all at the time; she basically said, "why wouldn't there be a problem, they're like any other church" (obviously, Mrs. Vidiot was and still is is a very smart woman)...

  ...I was still (more or less) a loyal JW at the time, and the broadcast really bothered me, but even then I'd had to admit that if it truly was all bullshit, the WTS would have sued Dateline's producers for every penny they had... and that never happened.

  Not to mention that the announcement of Barb's DFing at the end of the episode was also very telling in and of itself.

  (Interesting sideline; one of the elders in my congregation actually addressed it at the next meeting, and acknowledged that apparently it has happened, although he'd never encountered it personally.)

  x

  When I finally did fade, I'm very embarrassed to say that looking into the child abuse issue ended up being the very last thing I did (probably because it was simply too horrible to contemplate). By then, of course, I had to admit that it was as big a problem as "apostates" had been saying all along.

  And, by then, I realized I already was one, too.