BE, if I said you beat him up there or anywhere, or that I beat anyone up in response to abuse I saw, I think you are escalating my comments to a level I never said.
Many people saw how my father severely verbally abused us and humiliated us in front of his friends and my mother and did they did nothing to reassure us. Later in life I asked them why not and each one said they were afraid something bad would happen to them, that my father would quit fixing their car for free, my jw mother that he might divorce her and she loved him, loved the man she knew was sexually abusing us because we told her.
At the time I had an appointed position I could have lost, as my oldest brother, but we were prepared to lose that and perhaps gain a bad reputation. But we followed the WTS rules and herded the BOE, CO, DO, and WTS representative into a corner where they had to form a JC and see if my father was "repentant" since he had confessed to 2 elders. The elders on the BOE did not talk to us for years, shunned us. Not most because for once the gossip was contained. In their minds we should have let go and let Jehovah. I lived as a jw for 18 years after than and it ate into me; my sister had already tried to commit suicide once, would she have tried again if we had not helped?
I am just suggesting that people not give up too soon, and use the resources they have and realize that they might lose something, but nothing compared to what a child loses when people see the abuse and say nothing or very little, not even to the child later to reassure them they aren't worthless.
In my family it finally came to a head when my youngest half sibling (we were young adults when my parents divorced (2 siblings), and my father remarried, 3 more children) came to us and said she was being abused and then told us she had told 2 elders that and my father confessed, but no JC, no telling her she has not the guilty one he was.
So what I am saying, don't come here and just say what you saw, tell us what you did to help that young boy after that, commending, encouraging away from his father, being a friend?
BE is not alone is his response, I have seen jws and non-jws excuse themselves from reaching out to children when they see this happening. It is hard, painful even if you yourself were abused, but who will help and when and how.
If you don't know what your options are, contact support groups or agencies who offer help to such children or even adults that are still suffering from what happened when they were children. If you don't know and want anonymity, contact Barbara Anderson, she has contacts all over and can steer you to the right place.
I agree, I seem to be picking on BE but that was my intent. I may be judging but if you left out the most important part of the story, how you continued to help him after seeing his pain. If you did continue helping, forgive me.
For those that think I have not healed from this, I have; but not from realizing there is always something I can do (beating up the parent is not even a response I would suggest and it would have made things worse).
Love, Blondie
