by Nosferatu 14 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
As these pronouncements were made to hundreds at an assembly does anyone think that the appalling comments made by the speaker will have hit home to any others present? How could you sit through this and not realise that a big red danger sign was flashing! Been said before but - how do these people sleep at night?
PS Glad to note from the speaker that the end is still imminent - been imminent for last 50 years so no change there then.
Strange, I also just went to a two day assembly and heard nothing like this. I thought there was a more consisten approach on this kind of thing. Do DOs and COs just get to spout what they want to?
This is their spin to do damage control with more lies and placing guilt on the victims and to shame future victims from coming forward. In our own case we were asked to put these things behind. What they did not realize was that the abuse from the perp had already been put behind us. We were moving on with our lives in a so called positive way in the organization. What we were unable to put behind us, as long as it was continuing, was the continual denial and cover up of the incestuous elders and family members who were telling other witnesses that the victim was lying. Though the sexual abuse had been over the emotional abuse and spiritual abuse was a continuing process. It opened our eyes to the real goings on in this false organization run by lawyers.
I found this whole topic one brought out quite an emotive reaction in me.
Two of my five children are sexual abuse survivors. The abuse against them was committed by the same person who was and still is in fact a JW. The most difficult aspect of the situation was that it was my ex husbands mother who perpetrated this crime against our children. We were still married at the time and both of us were still practicing Witnesses at the time. We went to the elders of our congregation with this information and following their advice my ex husband wrote a letter to the body of Elders in the congregation his mother belonged to detailing what the children had told us.
After many meetings between her Elders and ours (which we were not invited to attend) they decided that the matter was better dealt with by not even telling her what we had accused her of. I was told that I needed to work on forgiveness over this and learn to move on. My reaction was one of utter rage as any parent can imagine and I very loudly and forcefully expressed my disgust at how they couselled me regarding this matter when this woman was among Witness children unchecked.
The reason they gave us for not confronting her with our accusations was simply that there had to be two witnesses to such a thing and because she had abused the children on separate occasions and not in the presence of each other then there was nothing they could do.
These children, who were then 5 and 7 years old and now are 14 and 16 years old, have recovered from what they went through for about 4 years at the hands of this woman I trusted with them. It is however not due to any support or validation or help from anyone within the organization. My ex husband and myself took measures to see to it that she never had contact with them again and we sought help from so called worldly counsellors and support groups to help us with their healing process.
As far as the Elders were concerned, Jehovah's "good name" was more important than my children's well being and the safety of other children within any congregation this evil woman is part of. I know of other evil doers who have committed such crimes against children and always it has been the experience of the victims that the burden of protecting the name of Jehovah requires their silence and allows these evil people to hide behind their facade of "Christianity" and continue on hurting the innocents.
It has been said by Elders and CO's and DO's and at assemblies that Jehovah will bring about justice and repair all the damage from such things. I ask, "How will he do that for the many who have left his so called 'chosen' organization because they have been hurt so badly by the ones he allows to remain in it? If I have not survived 'the end' because I have since become inactive and my children are executed because of my having left then how will justice be served? If we are to believe that the perpetrators of these disgusting crimes against our children are forgiven by Jehovah and therefore we must forgive them also and they get to walk among the survivors into the new system yet due to our inability to 'let it go' we die, how is that just?"
Much is said of the pedophile Catholic priests among Christendom and it is too often that I've heard the words that JW's would never tolerate such goings on. This is not true. They not only tolerate it - they enable it just as much as the hierachy within Christendom.
To this day I will not go to any other organization because doctrinally speaking I cannot tolerate the BS. I no longer am an active Witness because I cannot tolerate the BS that covers over the evil deeds within.
I loved your sumation of the witness's stupid reasoning. Frankly speaking the witness's don't like the world knowing that they are walking a tight wire and are full of:
