This was sent to me re the Silentlambs Newsletter. When the WTS representatives deliberately do not protect children from abusers who could be influencing them, God? According to WTS dogma, the only other choice is Satan.
http://www.silentlambs.org/newsletter/NewsLetterItem.cfm?SendoutID=234
Newsletter
| Denmark Media Call JW's Satan's Witnesses |
| Three articles in Denmark newspaper |
Young woman accuse Jehovah's Witnesses of sex abuse Jehovah children are afraid to tell mom and dad about abuse http://ekstrabladet.dk/visartikel.iasp?pageID=247236 By Rikke Halberg - 8:55 - 29. April, 2004
Twenty-three year old Miriam Poulsen has during her 22 years as a Jehovah's Witnesses experienced five cases of sexual abuse against under age girl friends. A ten year old girl in Trige by Aarhus was abused for a longer period by her own grandfather, who is one of the congregations so called elders. A seven year old girl in South Jutland was abused for seven years by her grandfather. The case was exposed but the grandfather was never punished, even though everybody in the congregation knew about the abuse. An elder in Koege abused his own ten year old daughter and her friend over a period of three years. This is abuse that had no consequences for the guilty. Abuse that the girls could not bring themselves to talk about to adults. Only Miriam and her close friends got to hear the s tori es. - We didnýt dare say anything to the congregation, for fear of being disfellowshipped or disgraced, says Miriam, who are no longer a member of Jehovah's Witnesses and lives in Aarhus . KISSING GAMES
Miriam was also herself subjected to one of the elderýs sexual advances. She was 12 years and were to be baptized. One of the elders of the congregation was rehearsing the rules of Jehovah's Witnesses with her. This took place in the basement of the Kingdom Hall in Thorshavn, Faroe Islands . Miriam was to answer questions posed to her by the elder. - At some point he asked me to come and sit on his lap. Then he told me to kiss him every time I got a new question. And when I answered correctly he would kiss me. This went on for one and a half hours. He held around my waist and kept kissing me. He said that because he was one of the elders then it was God who kissed me through him, she says. - Today I clearly rea liz e that this could have lead to something much more unpleasant, perhaps rape. The fifth actual abuse case that Miriam knows about was a completed rape perpetrated against was a girl from the Faroe Islands by the same elder who was playing kissing games with Miriam. ASHAMED OF HERSELF Miriam was afraid to tell her parents or others in the congregation about the episode. - I had been raised to believe that the elders were always right. If someone accuses an elder the others in the congregation will say that it is the acc user who is to blame. I felt ashamed of the kisses for years afterwards. I believed there was something wrong with me since the elder must always be in the right because he is chose by God, she says. - Jehovah's Witnesses put rules before human beings. They are deeply hypocritical. I encourage all Jehovah's Witnesses to fight against the code of secrecy. Additional facts ILLEGAL -It sounds horrible, and it is certainly criminal. P rofessor of Law Eva Smith, has been presented with the rules that Jehovah's Witnesses impose on their disciples regarding sexual abuse of children. - In such cases there is a particular duty to report suspicion or the acts. It is illegal and punishable by Law to fail to report or to withhold such information and it a criminal offence to encourage others to withhold information about a criminal act, says the Professor of Law Eva Smith to Ekstra Bladet. Jehovah-spokesman Erik Joergensen maintains that the organization is operating wholly within the boundaries of the law: - Definite, actual cases of abuse are obviously to be reported. It is merely false, so called ýrepressed memoriesý about sexual abuse that we have other rules about. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Second Article ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jehovahýs Witness girl had a baby with her father -There were meetings with the elders. I think my father helped arrange them and showed himself to be at their disposal. He wanted so much to be an elder. http://ekstrabladet.dk/visartikel.iasp?pageID=247355 By Rikke Halberg - 8:45 - 30. April, 2004
Thirty-nine year old Dorte Tveiti still remembers the first time she was abused by her father. -I had on a light blue dress with mother of pearl buttons. I was about 3 years old. It hurt terribly. The abuse which was combined with beatings and psychic terror against the whole family until Dorte was 13. GAVE BIRTH ON THE LIVING ROOM TABLE Then she gave birth to her fatherýs child on the living room table. She remembers that her father took the healthy crying baby out to the kitchen. - It suddenly became silent. Like someone had pressed a button. - No one has ever said it out loud but I know my father killed my baby. No body was found. Dorte was instructed by her parents not to breathe a word about the birth to anyone. The murder was first in the media when Dorte Tveitiýs book ýAbuse ý He stole my childhoodý was published in October 2003. There she describes her horrible childhood ordeal, and Dorteýs sister corroborated the extensive use of violence and incest. SYSTEMATIC SEX ABUSE Dorte Tveiti witnessed as a child how a group of up to five Jehovah leaders, elders was abusing and raping five children, she was herself the fifth child. -There were meetings with the elders. I think my father helped arrange them and showed himself to be at their disposal. He wanted so much to be an elder. Today Dorte still remembers the names of the four other children which were present at the elders meetings which could lat for hours. All of them were abused regularly in the period when she was between five and twelve. Three of the children which today are in their thirties are still members of Jehovah's Witnesses. What went on in those elders meetings was reported to the police thirty years later, but they have dropped the investigation because of the long time that has passed since it all happened. Dorte donýt want to say much more. It is only a few months ago that members of her former congregation pestered her family with letters, visits and phone calls. SILENT WITNESSES In Dorteýs world her fatherýs sex abuse dominates. But she never told anyone outside the family. Silence was widespread in the little congregation in Himmerland. - Not myself, my mother or my siblings told anyone that I was abused by my father. Partly because it was a closed congregation, where problems hushed up, partly because we were terrified of my father that one day beat me so hard that I vomited blood because I had tried to tell a teacher about it all. - And then it was the congregation where such matters was silently accepted. There was several who did the same thing. NO ONE TO TURN TO The knowledge that child abuse wasnýt isolated only to herself but several children meant that she didnýt know who to talk to. Who in her little world would be for or against child abuse? And where could she seek comfort? - Like all the others I attended the meetings held by Jehovah's Witnesses three times a week. I couldnýt understand how the elders could preach about being good to one another when my father and others continued to hurt me. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Third Article --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Satan's Witnesses 4-29-04 http://ekstrabladet.dk/VisArtikel.iasp?TemplateID=4587 They call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses, and we see them standing on our doorsteps evangelizing, or when they want to distribute their unreadable magazine, the Watchtower on front of the Grocery store on Saturdays Otherwise we don't see much of the members of this sect, although there are 20,000 of them in Denmark . That is to say they prefer to live isolated from other people. They take the joy out of their childrenýs lives with strange rules of not celebrating Christmas or birthdays. Talented youth are prevented from getting a proper education and are instead placed in a cleaning service run by some sect member where they dont run the risk of being influenced by mixing with normal people. This misanthropic sect is known to ruthlessly split families which violate thei r r ules. A totalitarian mentality which reminds us of the Tvind movement. Children are being separated from their parents, or spouses from each other with threats of expulsion from this insane community, of which the members are hypnotized to blind adherence. Under threats of losing eternal life which is exclusively for the sects true believers. The foundation for this whole degrading circus are some crazy rules which are allegedly drawn from the Bible by the sects American headquarters. Cunningly the people are indoctrinated, people which isn't the fastest animals in the wood, which often find themselves in some life crisis where they can be easily picked up by Witnesses pretending to care. It is tempting to just leave this mendacious nuisance to its own devices. But the time dictates the opposite: Knock in the windows of the so called Kingdom Halls, and clean them up. As will be seen in today's paper many children are harmed by this sect by being subjected to sexual abuse, and then being forced to remain silent about what has happened. A young woman's courageous disclosure of the indecent life behind the sanctimonious faýade indicate that the police is starting to take an interest in the conditions in this environment, where it is a downright rule that knowledge of sexual abuse is to be concealed, unless the abuse is very recent. This isnýt only sick. It is illegal. Sexual abuse of Children is something everyone has a duty to report. It is illegal to keep silent. It is about time that current or former members conquer their fear, comes forward with their knowledge about what is going on in this prison camp of souls that with much justification can be called Satan's Witnesses. |
