For the JW apologists, they debate certain factors to down play all the recent sex abuse information in the Jehovah's Witness organization. And there is so much focus on "two witness rule" and "parents can report" the "elders aren't legal authorities" and many other smoke screen issues. A lot of these issues and discussion are down stream from what I believe to be the root of the issue. And at the root is in fact the arrogance and self protection of the organization.
Yes many many details of how its dealt with are damning and thank Dionysus (my new god @_Morpheus and Cappy) the Aussies are picking the gory details apart one elder at a time. This commission is showing an undeniable systemic problem with the curtain pulled back and its AMAZING to watch unfold. But still I think when speaking to an in RF witness, this is my stance, without getting bogged down in the details.
A sex crime against a child is a criminal act
If religious authorities are made aware of the mere allegation, it should be brought to criminal authorities FIRST
Then the almighty elders can deal with the spiritual JC (bullshit) later.
As it is now, they are interfering with protecting others (witnesses and non-witnesses) from predators. This is what the facts of the commission show.
By making this a Judicial witness matter, they are (most of the time) making it possible to keep a predator out of jail. They may find him guilty or not guilty by their own means, but this NOTHING to do with taking a monster off the streets and out of the hall.
They say "we (elders) are not legal experts, thats why we call the legal dept at bethel and they tell us what to do"
Then why get involved at ALL! Give it to the authorities. It is a CRIME, not a sin. The fact that they don't do this shows the institutional desire to protect their own image, and to deal with it on their own. You don't have to get too engrossed in the downstream issues when it starts out wrong from the beginning.
So they say "the parents can report it." Then why aren't more abuse cases reported? I will tell you why. From my own experience in the org, and knowing of many such crimes, the abuser was one of two people the majority, if not, every time:
- A parent
- Very close family relative
So... you (elder) are privy to abuse, and you say "we'll i'll leave it up to the family if they want to report it."
Well their interest and motive is often in protecting their own ass, their own privacy, and their own embarrassment. Not in protecting other kids in the hall or even other kids that are not in the hall. They will generally protect the predator for their own selfish interests
The bottom line, all semantics aside, the Jehovahs Witness system in dealing with these matters has quantifiably kept people exposed to predators no matter how you slice it. It's not treated from the beginning as an actual crime. The Jehovah's Witness's policies and whole process leaves the door wide open for dangerous perverts to continue walking the streets, simple as that. For every apologist thing they say, "catholics are worse", "people just want money and to hurt the org", "elders do what they should" on and on and on so many more, the basic reality is systemically and institutionally they keep pedophiles in business.
Just based on the fact that by their own admission "ours is a spiritual protection" these mother f%$#ers should hand these things over immediately to those who will provide physical protection... FIRST AND FOREMOST. and they just don't. Period.
FMF