My opinion/experience for what its worth is I agree that the police should be informed in every case of suspected child abuse. I hear comments like the elders should report it wether the law requires them or not but ultimately its the parents responsibility. However I believe if one goes to the elders they should ask wether the police have been informed and if they say no then they should 'encourage' them strongly that they do. I had a conversation with an elder a short while back and we were talking about this subject and I asked him if he suspected his child was being abused by another witness what would he do? He threw the question back at me and I said I would immediately inform the police. He said of course you would and so would I and he also said he would encourage others to go to the police if they hadnt already.
I can not understand any parent not going to the police in this situation and therefore making redundant that the elders should it. Its a heinous crime and as already has been said if you suspected or knew of someone who murdered someone close to you you would immediately go to the police so why not this?
On the point of how they handle suspected or convicted child abusers afterwards i think it would be very difficult to get it right from a Christian perspective. Imagine someone who has abused a child and is genuinely repentant and i mean genuine. Should an announcement be made to the whole congregation about what he's done? If he moves should there be an announcement at his new hall saying Bro so and so has moved in and he abused a child in the past but he's sorry for it? Put yourself in that situation. Would you want that? I have no answer to this problem.
The difficulty would be to know for certainty that someone is genuinley repentant or not. If they have done it more than once obviously that an indication. I guess my question is if the policy is so wrong now and ones are suffering (btw i do not question this) is it ok to change it to a policy that says they should announce to the congregation of ones who they know (convicted or by confession) have abused children if its going to ruin the lives (yes i know invariably the victims life is ruined as well) of someone who did it once but is truly sorry for what he's done? ie doesnt matter if the odd few genuinely repentant ones suffer as long as we get the rest.
I dont think its possible to have a policy that would please everyone as we all have different levels of forgiveness and empathy which would effect what we would want doing however i do agree changes need to be made to the current one. For one thing i dont think elders should deal with it all. Its a crime and should be reported to the authorities. If the suspect denies it but is found guilty in a court of law the Witnesses should abide by that verdict (even though more than likely there werent two witnesses) and treat him accordingly. And thats the problem 'accordingly'. I do not know in the full sense of the word what that is.
