Hidden Abuse Under Watchtower

by MicaSmith 23 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  MicaSmith

  The Center For Investigative Journalism whose website is now called RevealNews.org, has an entire section on stories being investigated by their staff and others on how the Watchtower is handling child abuse cases.

  "The Jehovah’s Witnesses have systematically instructed leaders to keep child sexual abuse secret from law enforcement and members of their own congregations." https://www.revealnews.org/topic/jehovahs-witnesses/

  Please share you thoughts on this issue because I really would like to know when the governing body and their lawyers are going to properly address this issue because I can't worship in a place that allows dangerous men in, that's what they accused the Catholic Church of doing and now here it is that they are caught doing the same thing but have not expressed any concern for the victims. They have done nothing to protect victims from harm, and once again I can't help but wonder if there is predator community at the top, because the culture of an organization starts at the top and works its way down. This is not something I can't ignore and anyone with a child in the KH should make it their business to learn what's happening and sit down with their child and ask them if anyone touched them inappropriately or asked them to keep secrets about things. This can't be allowed to go on. The mental and physical health of children are at risk. Abuse injures lives long after it happens.
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  jaydee

  
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  zeb

  re 'reveal news' reports. I have read some of these and they are good sound reporting.

  I see a situation where the entire world will know about child abuse but the r&f jw who will still have their heads in the sand.
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  Heaven

  They will never fix this problem because the fundamentalism of patriarchy from the Bible is at the core of the issue.
  
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  OrphanCrow

  Heaven: They will never fix this problem because the fundamentalism of patriarchy from the Bible is at the core of the issue.

  I agree wholeheartedly. At the heart of the issue is the dis-empowerment of the individual.

  The focus is always on the WT changing their policies when the problem is far deeper that that - it is the doctrine that has to change. And that never will.
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  Diogenesister

  THIS /\/\/\/\ ( heavens & Orphan crows post)

  Mica women and children mean less than nothing in that organization. It wasn't so long ago that they actively advocated routine physical punishment of kids, too.
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  Vidiot

  Heaven - "They will never fix this problem because the fundamentalism of patriarchy from the Bible is at the core of the issue."

  Not to mention that effectively fixing the problem would a) require changes too radical for an ultraconservative, authoritarian high-control group to implement, b) openly doing so would too deeply undermine their claims of exclusivity, and c) they'd rather piss acid than be seen capitulating to their opponents (i.e. everyone who isn't them).
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  Vidiot

  @ OrphanCrow...

  Yup.

  To a WT loyalist, doctrines are policies, and policies are doctrines.

  Therefore, to require the WTS to change their policies would require them to change their doctrines, and they'll never do that to the degree that they'd need to, for reasons already given.

  It's the reasoning behind their "freedom of religion" legal argument; that the state has no constitutional right to dictate a church's religious doctrines.
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  fulano

  .
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  MicaSmith

  Hello Everyone, thank you so much for your responses. Everything you wrote makes a lot of sense.

  I am of the opinion that something is deeply troubling at the top. One of the attorneys representing a victim in another case I read about said that the The Watchtower treats victims as adversaries. He said at least the Catholic Church agreed that they needed to do something, but the witnesses are arrogant, they accept no responsibility.

  My conscience tells me to stay away, and you know what that's what I must do. The more I read about these cases the more I see the KH as an unsafe place because it is not just bad men but evil women molesting children, and God knows what else they are doing. I read an article about how a young kid was violated and the mother took it to the body of elders, and the parent was told that she could not tell anyone about it. And, that's what she did so basically there is an automatic suspension of one's common sense which Jehovah told us not to relinquish. We must constantly try to ascertain if what we are being told is the truth. And if these men at the top are so arrogant and untruthful about this issue, what else are they not lying about? You can't help but ask yourself that question. It is a worthy question.

  The book of proverbs advises us to act wisely. How then can a body of elders tell a mother whose child has been violated to put the matter behind her and not tell any one about it because "Jehovah will take care of it." This is wrong. This is enabling a crime. What will they do when the U.S. Department of Justice steps in? If the governing body continues on this path protecting bad people when they should be defending the lowly that is proof that they are not representatives of Jesus Christ and his father. It's just not possible. Jehovah has nothing to do with their decisions. I am sorry but he is never going to approve of this type of abuse of power. This is the very type of behavior that lead to him eliminating persons who represented him, wrongly. No one is going to convince me otherwise because I read those accounts in the bible and more importantly I didn't see Jesus handle others unfairly in the bible. He was loving and just. But here it is that the governing body's actions are duplicitous and egregious. This is why the KH is so corrupt. The culture of an organization starts at the top if the top is deceitful everything else will be. Sorry to rant but I am really tired of hearing them emphasize that they represent God. How could they represent him and allow such bad policies to exist? It's just not possible, not based on what I have read about God's character.

  Thank you for allow me to share my thoughts.