Hi Elmer,
I'm in a situation on another forum and so I'm looking for as much evidence as possible from friends here.
Is There Concrete Evidence That The Org. Has Covered up Child Abuse?
by Vanderhoven7 60 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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EasyPrompt
(I know Barbara is on this forum 🙂, but here is a link to more info about her experience and also about Bill Bowen...)
https://watchtowerdocuments.org
https://silentlambs.org/resignation-letter
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EasyPrompt
CourtListener.com is also a good source of information on the CSA cases...if you go to the Court Listener home page you can search "Watchtower" or any of the names that have been in the headlines or on the jwchildabuse.org website and find the court documents, including what people like Allen Schuster and Gary Breaux and Philip Brumley other WTBT$ guys said under oath, as well as how the WTBT$ handled CSA...here is an example of some court documents from the Lopez case...
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/3194461/lopez-v-watchtower-bible-tract-society-of-new-york-inc/?q=lopez%20watchtower
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MeanMrMustard
If I were tasked with coming up with a policy that would maximize organizational reputation, it would be this:
"Any report of serious, illegal wrongdoing, a potential felony, including all sex crimes, murder will be reported to police. We won't assume guilt, but the police are better equipped to conduct a criminal investigation. Any judicial committee formed will be concerned with spiritual matters only. Elders may reprove any individual while they address the wrongdoers relationship with God. We believe that part of seeking forgiveness is to take responsibility for your actions, which means the organization will not shield members from their legal accountability. The two-witness rule applies to organizational procedure only. If this deters wrong doers from confessing their sins (because we report crimes to the police), fine. The results of the criminal trial may play a part in a disfellowshipping decision."
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Fisherman
Depends on how one likes to define cover up. Sure you know that WT DFs people that do those things.
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EasyPrompt
What ends up happening now is that if anyone in the congregation goes against the dictates of the Governing Body/Bethel/WTBT$ headquarters as regards reporting CSA or warning others in the congregation, then that person reporting or warning others will be disfellowshipped rather than the person doing the abuse being disfellowshipped.
(Here are two of the Watchtower CSA cases you can find on Court Listener...)
If you scroll through the documents on those cases you can find individual pdfs like these two that show the WTBT$ headquarters leadership effectively deny under oath that the Governing Body has anything to do with giving direction in the congregations, even though the rank-and-file know that they have to listen to the dictates of the Governing Body and Bethel Headquarters or they will be disfellowshipped for "apostasy".
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mtd.63559/gov.uscourts.mtd.63559.192.5.pdf
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mtd.63559/gov.uscourts.mtd.63559.192.11.pdf
The screenshots from earlier in this thread make clear that the elders manual and other directions from WTBT$ headquarters demand that the elders consult the Service Department and Legal Department before following through with any action when CSA is involved. The Service Department and the Legal Department are under under the authority of the Governing Body, according to what the WTBT$ teaches (unscripturally, by means of twisting scripture), in essence, that the Governing Body is the Faithful and Discreet Slave, into which Jesus has given all the domestics. "All the domestics" includes the Service Department and the Legal Department, which are under the direct authority of the Governing Body according to what is taught in the Watchtower. Thus the WTBT$ headquarters representatives lied under oath when they claimed to not have anything to do with the goings-ons of the congregations. They are the ones who make the directives for the elders to follow. When the elders fail to warn the flock about an abuser, the elders are just following the direction they get from headquarters. It is organizational complicity.
https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/governing-body-jw-helpers/
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EasyPrompt
https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/governing-body-jw-helpers/
The Service Committee and the Legal Department are clearly under the authority of the Governing Body. They are guilty of covering up child abuse.
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Vanderhoven7
Great Info. Thank you EasyPrompt and Mr Mustard!
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EasyPrompt
🫶🙂I hope it goes well, your work on the other forum!
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MeanMrMustard
I guess what I was trying to say is that I don't know why they don't adopt a policy like that. I mean, it gives them a lot of reputational points. Just come out and say "Predators are everywhere. No religion condones this stuff, and we belive its not a reflection of the religion when a predator tries to find a spot to prey on innocent people. But we won't tolerate it."
I mean, why not? It makes the org look cleaner. Then would be cleaner, objectively! And they aren't violating biblical standards at all. All the law suit stuff goes away (at least going forward).