Washington Post is carrying the story: Australian Jehovah’s Witnesses protected over a thousand members accused of child abuse, report says

by AndersonsInfo 23 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  AndersonsInfo

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/28/australian-jehovahs-witnesses-protected-over-a-thousand-members-accused-of-child-abuse-report-says/
  

  Over the course of about six decades, more than 1,000 members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses were accused of sexually abusing Australian children, according to a new report. Victims were ordered to keep quiet. Not one of the alleged perpetrators were reported to the police.
  

  Now, a royal commission in Australia has found the church demonstrated a “serious failure” to protect children from the risk of sexual abuse and relied on outdated policies and practices to respond to such allegations.
  

  A 107-page-long report released Monday detailed a number of ancient policies that exhibited what the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse referred to as a “serious lack of understanding of the nature of child sexual abuse.”
  

  One such practice, derived from scripture, requires church elders investigating incidents to secure a confession from the person accused or the testimony of two “credible” witnesses to the same incident, two witnesses to separate incidents of the same kind, or strong circumstantial evidence testified to by at least two witnesses. The accuser also has to justify his or her allegations to church elders, often in front of the alleged perpetrator.
  

  The commission’s findings were based on a close examination of the allegations — which averaged one a month for 65 years and were recorded in sealed files along with the church’s responses — along with the findings of a 2015 public hearing.
  

  The report found that the Jehovah’s Witness organization’s internal system for responding to complaints of child sexual abuse was not child or survivor focused, “in that it is presided over by males and offers a survivor little or no choice about how their complaint is addressed.” READ MORE

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/28/australian-jehovahs-witnesses-protected-over-a-thousand-members-accused-of-child-abuse-report-says/
  
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  Phizzy

  The more exposure the dreadful history of JW Org has as to Child Abuse gets, the better.

  All the survivors want is to change the policy of the JW Org, which facilitates the Paedophiles in their disgusting, perverted actions.

  Change, it seems will have to be forced upon this intransigent group, who simply decide not to see how immoral their lack of concern for those in their care is.

  Much is coming to light about the dark deeds done within many Institutions in the past, but the vast majority of these have now got robust procedures in place to protect the vulnerable, not the JW's.

  Where was their god whilst these poor children were being raped by His Witnesses ?
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  steve2

  "The head of the Jehovah’s Witness community’s service desk, Rodney Spinks, told the Sydney Morning Herald the church is taking the royal commission’s work seriously."

  Great to see this get coverage in the USA.
  

  This response augurs well for a re-casting in 2017 of JW organization's policies and practices in responding to allegation of child sexual abuse.

  Finally - perhaps - JW organization realizes this is huge so is not an issue that can be dismissed or misrepresented.
  
  
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  sir82

  That's a good article - well-written and the JWs come across as even more "culty" than normal when written about in the media.

  The comments at the end are pretty good too.
  
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  Listener

  Who is he trying to kid when he says they are taking it seriously? Their written response to the first report was anything but serious when they denied, refuted and argued against just about everything.
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  TheWonderofYou

  I bet you anything that the GB simply waited for the report to have a basis for a legal and scriptural response and react more smoothly to the accusations. They only act if the authority wants it . Perhaps they waited for this loophole to get rid of shunning and 2 witness rule and throw both away. They cant do it themselves, but only if they are urged by authorities.

  What if they offered a deal: they could hand out to the Commission the "australian files" about all cases and open it for a "public" police and legal check-through or simple give insight to the computer-database?

  Then they could invite the officials to the new Headquarters in America and show them how they "hort" the "abuse cases" withouth reporting them, so claring that and how their JW intelligence works fine.

  Then together with the lawyers from the higher authority each case shall receive special attention and time, a detailed agenda will be worked out, what to do and how to recompense victims.

  _
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  Crazyguy

  Sweet, that the press from other countries are running this story!!!
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  GrreatTeacher

  I just want to add that the Washington Post is not a tabloid. It's the major newspaper for Washington, DC, the capital of the United States. Very well respected. Large readership.

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  zeb

  Rodney Spinks, told the Sydney Morning Herald the church is taking the royal commission’s work seriously." is that another term for shitting itself.

  I think of when I was in hospital emergency a nurse asked among the many things they do. '..and you are a jehovahs witness?". I was pleased to say "was." and related in a line about the child abuse.
  
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  Virgochik

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