When the ARC made their recommendations to the Society last year I genuinely thought we'd see some real changes. Oh sure, I expected a lot of feet dragging, double talk, and general nonsense - but at the end of the day I was certain the Society would do what they legally had to and then run around claiming:
A.) These new policies and procedures aren't really new we've always done them
B.) JWs have the best practices and policies out of any group ever, aren't we great? Let's all pat ourselves on the back and go tell the R&F how awesome we all are!
But what I did NOT expect was to end up where we are today. After watching the ARC last night I can't help but feel deflated this morning. I had hoped the Society was finally going to get it's act together and start taking some concrete steps to prevent and address sexual child abuse. Instead, they've decided to do next to nothing and only tacitly update their policies and procedures. It's so sad.
The ARC has tremendous expertise and resources that the Society could tap into. Many organisations pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees for the type of council the ARC is giving to them for FREE! It's just so damn tragic to watch the Society squander an opportunity for long term change on the cheap merchandise of saving face today. They won't admit they did anything wrong. And they refuse to make the necessary changes to protect children from sexual abuse.
Saying they "abhor child abuse" means nothing when they do nothing to try and stop it. The Watchtower Society is truly a wicked system of things.