Governing body GUILTY of wife beatings

gumby

An ex-dub friend of mine and I were discussing the various ways in which the WTS ( governing body) has in so many ways, been guilty of many ruined lives. I mentioned to him something I had forgotten about......that being the policy the witnesses had in the past with regards to how a witness mate handled physical abuse by their non-believing mate who physically beat them over their religion.

I related to him how my wife and I used to take a sister with an abusive mate back and forth to meetings for quite some time. Many times she had black and blue marks on her face as well as other areas. He beat her regularly over the witness faith she had. All in the congregation admired this faithful sister who dealt with this "persecution" she was faithfully enduring.

Back in those days......the 3 rule policy that NOW exists in the organisation as ground for seperating from your mate.....didn't exist. The 3 rules that NOW apply to a scriptural seperation are,

1) willfull non support ( financially)

2) Spiritual endangerment ( such as non-stop apostate talk or refusal to allow them to attend meetings)

3) Physical abuse

My concern is.........how many mates were needlesly harmed/killed...along with children who lived through the beatings and were affected? Did the WTS EVER apologise for not enforcing this sooner to all who suffered and didn't really need to? Of course not. They have NEVER apologised for ALL the heartache, lost lives, and ruined lives, that were due to their erronious teachings. If there was a god who judged...........the old bastards who run the show haven't a damn chance in hell.

Gumby

tetrapod.sapien

They have NEVER apologised for ALL the heartache, lost lives, and ruined lives, that were due to their erronious teachings.

hey gumby,

this is sad. and, i might add, that if they did apologize, it would foster doubt in followers minds as to what they were thinking. and thats the thing: religions do not have the freedom to be wrong about things. in the case of the wits, they would lose money and power by confessions of stupidity.

rebel8

Was the rule against leaving a spouse for physical abuse a widespread one? I don't remember it, although I might just be forgetting. Can't think of any examples off hand.

Dragonlady76

They had a 3 witness rule?

I thought 2 was bad enough!

Gumby, why did they not take her bruising into account? Is that not direct irrefutable proof?

DL76

Netty

What about adultery? Can't they separate for that?

They have NEVER apologised for ALL the heartache, lost lives, and ruined lives, that were due to their erronious teachings.

Not only do they not apologize, they dont even admit the erroneous teachings at all. They act like they never said it at all. Bastards is right!

What every happened to your friend?

Odrade

Rebel: yeah, I think it was a widespread rule. Around here is was "understood" that if your life was in imminent danger you could flee the house, but if it was "just slaps and pushes" that the wife should just "let it go." Actually I remember a brother giving a talk about that one time, and saying that women seeking to leave their mates for "minor incidents" like "slaps and pushes," needed to show a more godly attitude, recognizing the man as the "husbandly owner." Now that I look back, I'd bet good money that he was a "slapper and pusher."

gumby

Here is some selected paragraphs from a,

1971 Watchtower, p.201-213 in a series of study articles dealing with "Divided Households".

Uniting the divided household

8

Remember, unbelievers differ as to degree. Some bitterly persecute the believer. Some constantly nag the believer, trying to break down integrity. Some subtly discourage the believer. If the unbeliever is opposed, the believer needs to endure even under abuse and persecution.

HELPING

THE UNBELIEVING MATE—THE SECOND GOAL

12

Tim. 1:1, 2) Continuing to live with an unbelieving mate may subject the believing one to some form of domestic persecution. But, rather than separate, the believer can accept this as suffering for Christ’s sake and can strive to show the unbelieving mate good Christian endurance. "If, when you are doing good and you suffer, you endure it, this is a thing agreeable with God."—1 Pet. 2:20.

The Christian Wife and Children in a Divided Household

"You wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, in order that, if any are not obedient to the word, they may be won without a word through the conduct of their wives."—1 Pet. 3:1.

7

Showing respect toward her husbandly head, the Christian wife would not use God’s truth to threaten him. (Eph. 5:33) Even if he rejects the truth, does not want to hear about it, or even treats his wife abusively, reviling her, she would not be justified in using the truth to threaten him. When her gracious words are rejected or she is treated abusively, the Christian wife does well to remember Jesus’ example. Concerning this, the apostle Peter wrote: "In fact, to this course you were called, because even Christ suffered for you, leaving you a model for you to follow his steps closely. That is the wise course for Christian wives.

12

Illustrating that an unbelieving husband can be won to God’s truth by the fine conduct of his wife is an experience in Hungary. An unbelieving husband treated his Christian wife cruelly, often beating her until she was unconscious. But she kept integrity to God, and always dealt with her husband patiently and with love, and this over a period of years . On one occasion she told her husband kindly but firmly: "Here I am and you can kill me, but even so I shall trust in Jehovah!" He began attending meetings of the Christian congregation with his wife and took up preaching the very truth he had formerly opposed.

You can pretty much look up any article dealing with "Opposition" "Persecution" "Divided Households"....and find endless amounts information such as in this 71 Watchtower dealing with wives and their integrity they show by getting the shit beat out of them.....yet never encouraged to seperate till the change was made many years later.

Gumby

Dragonlady76

Gumby, I can't believe I just read that! ..........

That is indeed really bad. I cannot comprehend how they could ever use such a poor example for an article.The bible says that women should be treated with "honor and respect," as they are the the "weaker vessel". Even worse they would tell a woman to subject herself to abuse in hopes of changing the mans errant ways? No person should ever have to martyr themselves. Grrrrr!

Imagine all those poor women stuck in abussive marriages and thier kids being witness to their abuse and or also being abused themselves, what kind of monsters are the WT breeding here?

DL76

gumby

Gumby, I can't believe I just read that!

Dragonlady....your not alone. The average dub today has been in the organisation 10 years or less. MOST dubs haven't a clue of all the wacko policies and teachings that are now old news. In remember when a witness woman wasn't allowed to divorce her husband even if he was pokin the family dog as it wasn't considered pornia at the time as they thought it had to involve two humans. Women would get disfellowshipped for obtaining a divorce from these animal pokers.....only to LATER find out it bestiality was included in pornia and they changed it to being scriptual grounds for divorce. They never apologized to any of those women who lives were ruined from being shunned for no reason.

Gumby

katiekitten

Yes I remember that too Gumby - dogs, chickens, it all really happened.

It makes me sick to think that the society encouraged these poor sisters to put up with domestic violence just so that the Borg had a couple of outstanding stories to put in their magazines. I also hate that sickly holier than thou attitude it encouraged. I mean, honestly If I was beating my partner up id really want to kill him if he went all limp and holy on me, and started saying 'go ahead kill me, I trust in god' Not exactly designed to help two people get on the same side of an issue is it. Im not making light of this - I think this is part of the passive / aggressive thing EF was talking about.

Surely the way to help an abuser is to get angry and tell him / her you are not willing to put up with it, not to go all limp an rightous and super holy.

Anyway, never having been in this awful situation Im not entitled to pass comment, but I dont think the Borg could have thought up a worse response designed to continue the abuse, if they had tried.

Governing body GUILTY of wife beatings

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