The Day Jehovah's Witnesses in Riverside California Blinked
On fairly short notice silentlambs sent out an advisory to the public that Jehovah's Witnesses were once again going to court to speak as character witnesses for a convicted pedophile.
Earlier in the week on Monday a large group of Jehovah's Witnesses had made known their intention to come to court as they had for the last two years to publicly support and offer character statements for a man convicted on several counts of molesting his daughters. Brother Kanehe was disfellowshipped for confessing to child molestation in the early summer of 2002 but reinstated by August 2002. Why? As the elders stated, "Due to his great repentance." This is the man that beat his daughter when she finally said she would no longer be a silent lamb by staying silent about her abuse. Does that appea
Silentlambs put out the word and it appears several of Brother Kanehe's supporters seemed to have lost their nerve and decided to not defended his character. Instead four steadfast pedophile supporters from the local congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses stood in court with bibles in hand and went on to describe what a great guy the pedophile really was in their opinion. The said he was generous, loving, kind, a good worker, a good father, and deserved mercy from the Judge. In an apparent attempt to intimidate the court they stated that the molester had only made one mistake and God had forgiven him. In so many words basically putting forth the thought, what right did the Judge have to overrule God? Stupid, stupid stupid. Then to add insult to injury once again a Jehovah's Witness stood in court before a Judge and said they would be totally comfortable for this convicted pedophile to baby sit their children. This makes the third time this has been documented in the last four years and certainly shows the persistency of blind ignorance.
Apparently the Judge was not intimidated or impressed by Jehovah's Witnesses defense and faith in a man that molested his daughters on numerous occasions. The Judge mentioned that it was not a "one time" mistake but something that had occurred hundreds of times. Brother Kanehe was actually convicted on ten counts and therefore carrying a bible and trying to use God to intimidate the Judge just did not seem to make mercy go in favor of a pedophile. The Judge gave him the maximum sentence of twenty one years.
The advocates and victims of this man sat on the other side of the court room with little toy stuffed lambs in hand as their statement of truth. It was something the Judge noticed and the little lambs served to make a far more powerful statement than all the eloquent theocratic ministry school trained verbiage that the spokesmen for the pedophile could muster. The fact that the little lambs were known to be coming intimidated most of the Jehovah's Witnesses not to speak and helped those that supported abuse survivors say all that needed to be said. Is it somewhat ironic that Jehovah's Witnesses the pride themselves in being sheep should be intimidated by a little toy lamb? Once again the work of silentlambs was accomplished and abuse survivors were supported. Silentlambs forwarded numerous emails of encouraging comments to the sisters and they commented that in the last week they had gotten more support than through the entire trial process through silentlambs. Below are some comments from those that attended as well as the last remarks from the sisters themselves. What better way to end this newsletter than to let former silent lambs have the last word? Sisters, thank you for your courage and your brave stand to protect children.
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