Hello to those following what is going in Australia with our Royal Commission.
I want to let all those abused, neglected, shunned and blamed that I understand why you may not front the RC. The WTBTS is hoping you will consider yourself an invalid complainant, because you are not or were not.....baptised. If you were abused at a young age and you told on your dad or the bad man that did it.......you would have been taken aside by the overseer and read scriptures about lying and being immoral; even if you didn't know what that word meant.
They would have told you outright!! That you were wrong to let it happen and to be a very good girl and stop telling tales. And that would have confused you, because they were calling you a liar at the same time as telling you, you were to blame and naughty for not being modest enough.
You have probably been threatened in various ways, from the start. Death at Armageddon, being taken to the police for lying. I was taken to court at sixteen for being bad in wanting to get away and every one was there to watch the show. But the magistrate was somehow wise and saw something cunning in my father......
You may have taken overdoses at a young age when you found your' mums tablets, hoping the hospital will keep you in. But they gave you back to your father who took you away into the bush. You probably pulled your' hair out, spat in your own hand grabbed dirt and mashed it into your face and scratched it to pieces.
You found glass, knives and razor blades and slashed yourself feeling that you may as well finish off what was started a long time ago.
Either way, horrifyingly..........You were taught that you were born with a mental flaw, that just blossomed as you matured and developed in your body.....And so you were called wicked, evil, hysterical, ungodly, not to be trusted, a bad girl/boy.....from the minute you could make out words.
If you tried to tell someone about the bad man, that was your father or another authority figure. You will know that the second you spoke to that trusted person (in the WT religion) You saw, with your' child's eyes". That they were not going to keep your secret safe from the person who was doing it to you. You would be called a dirty girl and the overseer would come to the family to sort out your bad,or very naughty imagination. And you would have scripture read to you about what lies are and how God hates a liar and a fornicator and every other scary thing you were starting to think you were/are. You would not know what fornicator or adultery meant, but they were bad words and bad things.
I was threatened in 1998 by the JW family and this was sustained by the friendly family elders. They let my family know that anything I said would notl could not be used as I was not a baptised witness and so I was a worldly liar.
The society is banking on people feeling they have no recourse to action due to this little matter of not officially belonging to the WTBTS. And they will exploit this point in any way they can.
The society has tried to play on that point in defending it's lack of action and concern. I know that had I not read copious amounts of documents supplied to RC I would have remained under the impression that WT was not culpable in those cases, and certainly not in mine.
These are stressful times for "us" who are willing to share our information to this Commission. I know of a few others who are just as afraid and exhausted.....
I just want you to know that I believe you. The courts believe you and the groups set up for such
abuses, believe you.
I have been under sustained pressure and some threat for the last two months. From the day it was announced that this commission was going to take place. I have been hounded, or outright mistreated and shunned. The straw that broke the camels back for me, was having the elder and his wife try to trip me up, whilst she recorded me. I actually thank my perceptive powers in being watchful..........Her voice activated recorder, a sort of tablet, was facing my way at some point and I leaned over it and looked up at her, letting her know that two could play that game......
Anyway, for all of you who were taught to minimise your suffering........don't you dare believe it.