Parallels between Catholic and JW sex abuse scandals?

by Check_Your_Premises 14 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  M.J.

  If the 2 witness requirement isn't met, are the accusers free to go to the police anyway?

  What happens if someone goes to the police first rather than the elders?
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  blondie

  Just one woman's input

  JW Policies that make molestation more likely:

  1. If a child is molested, and it is brought to the elders, they contact law enforcment ONLY if required by law.

  The elders are drilled to call Bethel Legal first; call Legal, call Legal, call Legal. Only if Bethel Legal tells them to call law enforcement, do the call.

  BTW, I wouldn't put it past a BOE to bypass Bethel's orders.

  2. If a child is molested, and there are not two witnesses to the act, the accused molestor is free from any organizational sanction.

  two "credible" witnesses to the act; the BOE may decide the child is too young to be believed.

  If only one witness, they may put it on the back burner and pursue it if another person comes forth and accuses them.

  Will the elders who know protect their own families; maybe, maybe not. Depends if they believe.

  3. If a child is molested, the JW will disfellowship anyone who presses charges against the alleged molester. (Is this correct?)

  Now this is tricky. If there was not sufficient evidence to handle it judicially in the congregation, if the family or friends say the person is a pedophile, this could be considered slander.

  If they press charges in the secular system, officially the WTS says they have that right (now they do anyway). The WTS allows JWs to sue each other in regard to traffic accidents in the secular courts without DFing looming over them.

  Now if the person was found guilty as a pedophile in the secular courts and sentenced, but not dealt with judicially in the congregation, would it still be slander?

  You have to remember there are written rules and unwritten rules and there are elders who seek the advice of the WTS and there are those who don't. So whatever written rules the WTS has, they could be easily ignored.

  I'm sure there are people who were DF'd for taking it to court; I'm sure there are JWs that were told not to go to the authorities by the elders; but nothing is in writing and available for legal scrutiny.

  4. If a person is accused, and even found to be guilty by judicial committeeof molesting children, no person is allowed to inform other members of the congregation for the purposes of protecting them.

  Officially, anyway, just like they aren't supposed to tell people if someone was guilty of smoking, adultery, fornication, reading pornography, etc., etc.

  Of course, the elders families are protected.

  I just talked to the people in charge of monitoring sex offenders in my state. They said it is dangerous to assume that just because you have identified some offenders that you know who all the offeders are. The ones that don't get caught are more dangerous.

  5. JW require that their members prostletyze. Therefore they send known pedophiles to the homes of an unknowing public.

  The policy of the WTS now is not to send a convicted child molester door to door alone, only with a mature JW and that they will not go in a car group with children.

  Dateline showed JW pedophile Clement Pandelo on film going d2d by himself.

  My own JW pedophile father has access to many children at the KH and in d2d although the elder body is aware of his confessed pedophiliac activities.

  Written and Unwritten Rules, folks
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  Check_Your_Premises

  Blondie,

  Ok give me some advice.

  Let's say I wanted to bring this up to a dub. The approach I was thinking of taking was to first get them to take notice of, and join me in criticizing certain practices of the Catholic church. And then once those specific criticisms are firmly established, I then begin to inquire about the practices of the witness with the hope that those same criticisms would be applicable to the witnesses.

  How do you think I should go about doing that?

  Any thoughts?
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  blondie

  Just remember this, the WTS buries the bodies deep. It will be hard to prove how the WTS has handled abuse cases without referring to non-JW sources, Silentlambs, media shows on it, even copies of police reports, in person individual testimony of JWs.

  The average JW will reject these as apostate sources.

  Unless they personally know of a family member or friend they respect that has been abused and given the shaft by the elders/WTS, they will deny, deny, deny.

  Blondie (been there and done that)

  PS if they have had a bad experience, they will be more receptive to seeing that they aren't the only one and that it is a organization wide problem not just their congregation.
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  Check_Your_Premises

  I am just giving this one a bump. I figured it would get more action, but it was Friday afternoon....

  CYP