Watchtower to pay for Silentlambs trip

by Dogpatch 182 Replies latest jw friends

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  amac

  Because regardless of the strength of their belief in the WTS teachings, they had authority over this women vested in them and were duty bound by the dictates of their own conscience to search their hearts before they gave Sarah Berry advice.

  But didn't the mother also have authority over her children and isn't she duty bound by the dictates of her own conscience to search her heart before acting on advice?

  I understand your points about climbing the ranks of authority and increasing culpability, but where does the buck stop? Eventually, you could cast blame on the Bible and God for their "influence" on the matter.

  Is it unfair that they are being sued for holding to similar beliefs as the mother? Perhaps it is, but that is beside the point.

  That may beside your point, but it is exactly my point.

  The designers of the drug Thalidomide felt that they were doing a service for mankind in manufacturing this drug. It came to blight the lives of many of the people it was designed to help. Perhaps they should not have had to pay for their error because after all, the outcome was unexpected? This is of course nonesense. They had authority over the user and even though their motives were unimpeachable and their belief in the product absolute, they had to pay for the misuse of this authority.

  This example could also aptly apply to the mother and her authority over her daughters.

  Again, I'm sure we will have to agree to disagree.

  In conclusion, I'd like to make known that I do not mean to harp on the mother, nor do I think she should be punished. I think she was wrong in her decision on reporting and made a tragic error, I think the elders were wrong in their decisions and made a tragic error, I think the father is evil and deserves what he got (assuming justice prevailed and he wasn't an exception to the system, I don't know much about the case.)
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  RevMalk

  HS,

  I do agree 100% that the Elders are responsible here, there is no doubt in my mind. And I hope I'm not sounding argumentative, I'm merely trying my best to see the this from your angle. Your last post made much more sense than any I've seen yet, mainly because I misunderstood. I thought we were saying that the parents that allow these things to continue are 110% without blame. I apologize for misunderstanding.

  However (you couldn't wait for this could you? haha),

  You almost had me on the thalidomide example. But there's one loophole in that argument. The drug company didn't have 'authority' over the user, they inadvertently misused the consumer's trust. No-one forced them to take the drug, they simply trusted the manufacturer and their prescribing Doctors. This is still very similar to the cases found in the Watchtower Abuse issues, except that the parents that keep going to the Elders for 'help' and do not receive the help they and their children need, just to take the kids back to an unsafe environment, KNOW for a fact their children are being harmed. Just like if a parent were giving a prescribed drug to their child knowing full well it was harming that child. Perhaps they have an allergic reaction that most people don't encounter. If they gave the medicine to the child once, and that child dies from it, well, they couldn't have known, they trusted their Doctor. If they gave the medicine to the child, and the child got worse, even deathly ill, but they continued to give the child this medicine in spite of an obvious problem, well then they're equally if not more responsible than the Doctor or the Pharmaceutical co.

  Or even better, and I've seen this happen before. A child is deathly allergic to penicillin, and the Doc screws up and prescribes a drug that happens to contain penicillin. After the parent picks the medicine up from CVS, they realize what's in it. What do they do, trust the Doctor or give it to him anyway because the Doctor knows best? Can you imagine the Judge's ruling at that hearing?

  We can probably go back and forth for days, but at least I got a better understanding of where you're coming from. I thought you guys were saying it's all the Watchtower's fault and the blame ended there. I still believe the ultimate responsibility lies in the hand of the one parent that knew better, but that in no way means I don't back this case up all the way.

  Is it unfair that they are being sued for holding to similar beliefs as the mother?

  I don't think this is true at all. The girls have the choice of who they hold responsible. I don't know what goes on in their home. Perhaps they have come to terms with their mother's involvement in other ways, perhaps they never held their mother responsible. I have no clue, and I can't pass judgment in their place. I can only speak of these issues in general, or if I were closer to the case, I might have stronger views in one direction or another. But I do know that we can't say with definity (word?) that these Elders knew they were doing wrong, or that they know they're not working through the Holy Spirit, we don't know these men, and even if we did, we couldn't get in their heads to find out what's ticking. Why, I once saw Jesus Christ himself preaching from atop a Diner table.....up until the cops dragged him away. If that guy can believe he's Christ, than it's conceivably possible that the Elders involved in the Berry case believed they were 'OF' Christ.

  Rev

  PS - I love this new 'civil' debate thing going on around here. A guy leaves for a while and comes back to everyone being nice. What happened??? :)
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  happy man

  thanks fore this debatt, I think it was the most edjucatied I ever read here, perhaps this should bee read of evry JW like mee to understand this issu , a littel bit, thanks to the wictims as told ther story, and all former elders and bhetelites as tell ther wuie, and also sword of jah, as tell hes points, I can as ongoing JW tell some also.

  I now several case here in sweden and they have been dfd and send to prison, so I think this is diffrent , depends perhaps on who is handeling this things, not only in cong, also CO and legeal dep, have diffrent peopel who handel this things, and this result in diffrent outcome I think, some CO are very afraid of that some bad is coming out from ther congs, and perhaps try to proteckt themsevls.

  I also think we never heard one word from this still inn, to much to lose to tell this things, even myself have seen things when I was young who I never told anyone, why? yes Why, to much to lose, how want to destroy a whole cong and your parents life , your childrens life and so on, is the prise not to high , i think it is to many on going JW, they prefer to live widh the memorys, and try to handel them inside them self.

  I putt this in jehovas hands, cant do anyhthing else, but I can sure understand the frustration from this who dont can live widh this and come forward widh it and have no witnneses and are not belived by the elders, if I tell what I saw 35 years ago, I have no wittness, I now the involvd peopel never will confess,

  but I can tell it is sure difficult to listen to all speaks and all demonsraitions from them under 35 years,

  so in this I am also a wicktim, hurt in my heart of what i saw fore so long time ago.

  One thing we can thank BB fore, now it is end of this , here it is almost oppostie now, evryone are afaid to do anything wrong, so this fight have some good, not so many more abused children i think, perhaps Jehova have used BB to show this problem as we studied on WT sunday, kings from Israel do a lot of bad things, but was told from surten men send from jehova what wrong they was doing and was p unished , BUT WHO LOOK AT THE GOW BODY TODAY ?

  ve

  t