by wifibandit 52 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
Australian Congregations announce Child Safeguarding Policy is available upon request - good but not good enough.
Copies of this new policy should be printed and handed out to all congregants. It (or a notice advertising it) should also be pinned up on the noticeboard of every KH in Australia.
Edit: good point, K99 - the policy document should be downloadable from the JW website.
There will be no mention of how they were forced to do this - nor that the 2 witness rule still will make this difficult
The two witness rule applies to what action the elders can take in terms of congregation discipline. I would agree that there are still holes in this policy and it needs to be freely available as a notice board document and downloadable from jw.org but I don't think there is anything in there that restricts the reporting of an allegation to the authorities even in the event the elders cannot act right away due to the two witness rule.
The policy is clear that anyone can report an allegation. Of course it is limited in that there is no compulsion on the part of elders to be proactive in supporting this and I am still worried about the cultural norms of deference to the organisation trumping people's better moral judgement but I do think there is a step in the right direction of there being a separation of religious process and secular process.
So the CSP gets about as much if not less airtime as a hall cleaning announcement. They could devote a whole meeting part to the subject if they wanted to, they do so for
"go bags"
exiting the KH in an emergency
blood cards
convention reminders
If a member of the congregation would like a copy of the Child Safeguarding Policy of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Australia, please see the coordinator of the body of elders or the secretary.
What about if a non-congregation member wants to see the policy?
This policy should be a yearly topic they cover in a mid-week meeting, complete with questions and answers.
This shows a lot about the organization. First, when it comes to Jehovah (read, the organization), nothing is ever good enough. You must do more, more, more for Jehovah, put more time into study, more into the ministry, improve the quality of your ministry, give more money, more, more, MOAR!!!!!!! Then when it comes to protecting little children, let's do as little as humanly possible to comply with the proper authorities. Let's make as few policy changes as possible and let people know only in Australia because that's all we're required to do. Let's make a general announcement so that few people will realize what's going on, and let's hide the information behind a wall known as requests to the COBE or Secretary. Above all, instead of waiting on Jehovah, who we all know is slow when it comes to protecting children, let's wait on the governmental authorities, complying at the last minute and hoping that they make reporting mandatory because otherwise there's no possible way that we could do so ourselves within our organization.
What about all of the other children in the organization around the world? Why are they handling criminal acts in the first place, as though their unlettered and ordinary men have any business handling such matters? Why do they do as little as possible for their members but demand as much as possible from them?
They are a disgusting organization.
Astonishingly, not one single, solitary mention in the document of the over-shadowing "two-witness" rule.
To be fair, it does seem that going by that document that the two witness rule is irrelevant when it comes to reporting it to the authorities.
It's neither comprehensive, nor perfect but at least it's a start!.
The 2 witness rule does need to be changed BUT what floors me is that according to the Elders rule book, an elder that has molested a child in the past can become an Elder again (if some time has passed and he is in good standing). This is unbelievable! They will actually put one of these monsters in a position of authority again.
the Child Safeguarding Policy of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Australia
LOL.
I can see it now. It's a one page document, containing one sentence:
"If someone reports child abuse, call the legal department at Bethel."
THAT is the sum total of the "Child Safeguarding Policy" in Australia and everywhere else.
what floors me is that according to the Elders rule book, an elder that has molested a child in the past can become an Elder again (if some time has passed and he is in good standing) - good point. This concerns me, too.
I read about this some time ago and, from what I remember, there was a paragraph that went into how long the 'some time has passed' should be.
Three years, wasn't it?
What about all of the other children in the organization around the world? Why are they handling criminal acts in the first place, as though their unlettered and ordinary men have any business handling such matters? Why do they do as little as possible for their members but demand as much as possible from them?
In this Jehovah sets the precedent. It is he who apparently blesses his people with literature carts, new buildings and animations for the kids but is unwilling to stop people being killed in their thousands, sometimes tens or even hundreds of thousands, through natural disasters.
