Protest for Mandatory Reporting?

by Luther bertrand 15 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Luther bertrand

  On another thread, I have been having a discussion about protests in connection with Watchtower policy. One of the biggest and more re-occuring rebuttals to protesting at Kingdom Halls and Assemblies is that it does two things: 1. It re-enforces the apostate "mentally diseased" narrative heaped on the xjw community by the GB 2. It causes people to withdraw and get closer to the bORG.

  What if we as a group took the protest to city halls and government authorities to raise awareness of the need for Mandatory Reporting laws, rather than protesting @JW events? Hell even Geoffry Jackson, when he gave his testimony at the ARC, agreed that it would be "helpful".

  What are you thoughts? Would you feel more comfortable offering solidarity to actions like that?
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  ScenicViewer

  I believe education is far more effective than protest when it comes to religion. Web sites like this one, JWfacts and others are the answer to waking up Jehovah's Witnesses.

  Watchtower itself operates behind the concept of 'freedom of religion.' That won't change, and all the protest in the world will probably be counter productive. However the people within the religion can come out of it, and that will happen better through education than anything else.

  Just my thoughts.
  
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  Luther bertrand

  @ScenicViewer Taking the protests away from the Kingdom Halls and assemblies would actually take the protest from a focus of hey this is a cult watch out to we need to change laws concerning Mandatory reporting. By doing that it takes religion out of the emphasis of the protest and more on change legal policies.
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  bafh

  What needs to happen it seems is more clear guidelines around mandatory reporting as it applies to religious groups. Given the recent lawsuit where the WT claimed to have an exception due to clergy-laity privilege when a child and parent reported abuse, there needs to be legislation that is explicit and requires that all religious affiliates are mandatory reporters and to explicitly define the clergy-laity privilege as applying to the admittance of guilt, and not the reporting of a crime.
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  Luther bertrand

  @bafh I agree with you10,000% So back t the original question. Do you think it would be easier for exjws to organize as a single group in solidarity if the protest were shift in the way that I described?
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  smiddy

  Justice McClelland pointed out at the ARC that regardless of mandatory reporting of Child Sexual Abuse , if a person was aware of such abuse/ a crime , , he/she was obligated to report such abuse to the police or Child Protection Authorities ,it was their responsibility , Duty of Care. Accessory to a crime .

  Jehovah`s Witnesses have tried to excuse themselves claiming Clergy Penitent , however the official doctrine of the religion is they have no Clergy / Laity distinction , so why under oath in a court of law do they make this claim ?

  1006 cases of Child Sexual Abuse was handled by congregations over a period of 26 years , their are 3 Elders that handled each of these cases in their judicial Committees , that amounts to possibly 3018 grown men/Elders with not one of them reporting these allegations to the police. That is more than one a month for every month of every year for the past 26 years and no Elders reported this crime to the police.

  And to this date not one Elder has been charged with a crime in Australia in breach of this law.

  Why is that ? Why hasn`t their been any charges laid against those who failed to inform the police when clearly the law required them to do so ? regardless of mandatory reporting of an offence committed against a minor ?

  These are the facts that need to be got out to the media , Newspaper , TV , Talk Back Radio , or whatever

  smiddy
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  Luther bertrand

  @smiddy The problem is that each state in Australia have different laws concerning the reporting of alleged child sex abuse. Some require others do not.
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  Enlightenment123

  I think it's a bad idea to protest at Kingdom Halls, assemblies, whatever JW event. I think it does more harm than good, because remember...this is how we're portrayed - protesters trying to get their attention. And they're told to ignore us because we're trying to draw them away from God. July 2014 WT Study Edition

  I think if protest is going to happen, it needs to be somewhere more effective, because taking it to them is only going to push them away and closer to the Borg.

  
  
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  Luther bertrand

  @Enlightenment123 from your comment am I to assume that you would be ok if protests were brought to secular authorites rather than to the KHor Assemblies?
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  defender of truth

  A group called Mandate Now is already taking action in the UK.

  Supporting a group effort, especially one that already has political backing, generally has more of an effect than a few individuals stood around at a protest.

  www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/172490001/do-you-want-take-action-support-mandatory-child-abuse-reporting-uk-us-mainly?page=3#/5079478900359168