here is a quick version of my life in the org.
i was born and raised in it.
my father was physically and mentally abusive to my siblings and i. he was inactive from the meetings and service for much of my life.
Welcome
It is so nice to hear you are in school. You are also young, you have your whole life ahead of you. Good for you to learn that this is not God's religion so young.
I just left myself last year, it has been hard to learn I was lied to and believed it all, I still feel so stupid for not see what a cult it was.
I am hopping it get better, I still have my really bad days.
Thanks for sharing your story.
LITS
my answer would be, no, never.
wt society cannot and will not ever admit their faults regarding child abuse they failed to report.. in the sacramento bee article today it quoted cardinal sean brady as saying " he was " ashamed " of the role he played decades ago in handling accusations of child sexual abuse against a priest who went on later to sexually assault scores of children, and hinted that he might bow to calls for his resignation.
brady stated , " i want to say to anyone who has been hurt by any failure on my part that i apologize to you with all my heart.
Blondie you are right on in everything you have said. Not one member of my SNAP group is still in the RC. Many have been shunned just like the Witnesses do. In fact one of my SNAP members was in the store and a person from his church came in saw him and tried shun him but he blocked her with his shopping cart and made her listen to him about the child abuse in the RC. It was so cool to listen to him tell his story. One woman in my group has not had any abuse happen in her family but like she said how can I go to a church that allows this to happen and she is one of our biggest supporters. It takes all our voices to say NO.
Yes I would love to start a chapter here in my city with other JW"s but no one wants to get df'ed.
Who knows what the future will bring though.
Thanks blondie.
my answer would be, no, never.
wt society cannot and will not ever admit their faults regarding child abuse they failed to report.. in the sacramento bee article today it quoted cardinal sean brady as saying " he was " ashamed " of the role he played decades ago in handling accusations of child sexual abuse against a priest who went on later to sexually assault scores of children, and hinted that he might bow to calls for his resignation.
brady stated , " i want to say to anyone who has been hurt by any failure on my part that i apologize to you with all my heart.
I sorry to add one more post but would it be wonderful to have Ted Jaracz, Samuel Herd, Tony Morris, David Splane, Geoffrey Jackson, Stephen Lett, Guy Pierce, J.R. Brown, David Sinclair, Philip Brumley, or so many others say what Cardinal Sean Brady say.
Yes it would be way to late for all of us victims and I would still be mad. But at least we would have forced them like SNAP did to finally admit that children were and are being rapped because of their stupid polices.
LITS
my answer would be, no, never.
wt society cannot and will not ever admit their faults regarding child abuse they failed to report.. in the sacramento bee article today it quoted cardinal sean brady as saying " he was " ashamed " of the role he played decades ago in handling accusations of child sexual abuse against a priest who went on later to sexually assault scores of children, and hinted that he might bow to calls for his resignation.
brady stated , " i want to say to anyone who has been hurt by any failure on my part that i apologize to you with all my heart.
I do want to add that SNAP is wonderful. I am so thankful I found them. For any victims of abuse in the "truth" join your local SNAP group they will welcome you with such care, it is better than being on your own believe me.
And for those of you that think I have not done enough or stood up enough or said enough to stop the abuse myself in my city, you cannot even begin to know what I have done.
Yes it sometimes only takes one voice but it helps to have others behind you. Maybe my one voice has made a difference. I have been shouting this problem to everyone who will listen. I have talked to the police on and on.
Like SNAP it takes victims to Say NO More!
my answer would be, no, never.
wt society cannot and will not ever admit their faults regarding child abuse they failed to report.. in the sacramento bee article today it quoted cardinal sean brady as saying " he was " ashamed " of the role he played decades ago in handling accusations of child sexual abuse against a priest who went on later to sexually assault scores of children, and hinted that he might bow to calls for his resignation.
brady stated , " i want to say to anyone who has been hurt by any failure on my part that i apologize to you with all my heart.
I think one of the points Flipper was trying to make is that there are support groups like SNAP out there for Catholic's. We as Jehovah's Witnesses have no such group.
I have joined my local SNAP group and they have totally welcomed me. There are a great and very supporting group but they are not Jehovah's Witnesses. If it were not for SNAP and ones like Flipper and others on this board I would have went crazy with dealing with the elders in my hall.
But the crux of the whole matter is we do not have a David Clohessy who fights tirelessly for the victims. The members of my SNAP group think Bill Bowen Silent Lambs is our David Clohessy.
When all of this started for me about the abuse in the "truth" I tried to contact Bill Bowen before I found this web sight, and reconnected with Barbara Anderson. Bill just totally blew me off. See this is the problem with Jehovah's Witnesses is that there is no unity in supporting the victims. Disfellowshipping, shunning, scare the heck off most abuse victims and they shut up. Bill Bowen just made it worse for me.
If we as victims of abuse in the "truth" could stand up as a front like SNAP we could say
"Let's be clear: one complicit Catholic official stepping aside won't usher in a new day of compassion and transparency and prevention. The church's deeply-rooted, long-standing and widespread cover up of horrific child sex crimes demands broad structural reform.
But one more corrupt church official being removed is a tiny step in that direction."
If it were not for SNAP Cardinal Sean Brady would not have done anything to stop the abuse but SNAP forced the issue and brought it to the public. And the public took notice. I have tried to tell JW's and none JW's about the abuse in the "truth" and all I seem to get is just a big yawn.
I do not know what the answers are but the way Jehovah's Witnesses are handling this right now is not in anyway shape or form doing, or is it going to do anything to stop the abuse that is going on RIGHT NOW. Silent Lambs is just making it worse from what I have experience.
The statistics that Flipper gave are scary and could very well be true. Think about the victims that are going through hell right now in the "truth" with no place to go and no support. I know the wrath of the elders as an adult much less a child.
I truly wish I had the answer.
LITS
i was talking to a jw friend about what it was that ct russell was doing prior to 1914 that made him acceptable to jesus, over everyone else.. i mentioned the pyramids, celebration of "pagan" holidays, stealing of thoughts from other religious people, the "odd" lifestyle of russell, etc.
and i asked, "so, what was it that made ct russell more acceptable to god than anyone else at that time?".
the answer:.
It is so frustrating trying to talk to them. It is so like you said trying to nail jello to the wall.
But I did like your points. Thanks for the post. LITS
on atj's thread about making jw's seem "normal,' outlaw asked the questions:.
what the hell are a bunch of jw ladys doing in the wilderness... .
driving around in a beater car?.
I was driving by a home today where when I was a teenager this really scary old man asked me and this other young sister to come inside alone. We were both about 16 years old. We said we could not do that and he kept insisting, we did leave and told the elder who was with us, he just blew us off.
I was thinking now who stupid that was, and what were the elders thinking sending young girls out alone. They still do it. This religion is truly crazy.
LITS
i had posted this as part of another thread, but thought it might make a good separate thread.
here's a jc fubar decision that i experienced.. i dealt with a brother who threatened to kill his family, my family, and then himself.
this guys' secret sins were becoming manifest and as an elder some things came to my attention, including wife abuse and according to her, allegations of possible misconduct with the young daughter.
Thank you flipper it has been a very exhausting week. I am so tired right now that I do not really want to respond expect to say that something is very wrong with all of this.
If the elders are not trying to drive me crazy then why are they lying, why not just keep the child molesters away from the children? It truly is that simple. Why am I the one being counseled over not listening to a man who raped babies give his talk in the school. I was told that I really upset the pedophile and I should not do that. If that is not trying to drive me crazy than why was I threated with being df'ed? Why was I accused of causing divisions because I told a mom that a man who is on the internet as a level two sex offender and who is also a brother that all the elders love in fact one elder calls this child rapist a gentle giant in one of his public talks. This gentle giant raped a eight year old child from what the internet and COP shop says. If that is not trying to drive a person who herself was rapped as a child crazy than what are the elders doing.
There is way more than what I have written and I am just too tired to say anymore.
Just thank you so much Flipper and Palmtree and wildflower.
LITS
i had posted this as part of another thread, but thought it might make a good separate thread.
here's a jc fubar decision that i experienced.. i dealt with a brother who threatened to kill his family, my family, and then himself.
this guys' secret sins were becoming manifest and as an elder some things came to my attention, including wife abuse and according to her, allegations of possible misconduct with the young daughter.
Thanks so much awidflower.
i had posted this as part of another thread, but thought it might make a good separate thread.
here's a jc fubar decision that i experienced.. i dealt with a brother who threatened to kill his family, my family, and then himself.
this guys' secret sins were becoming manifest and as an elder some things came to my attention, including wife abuse and according to her, allegations of possible misconduct with the young daughter.
So OldHippie
Not quit sure what you meant by that. But if you are saying that the elders are loving by telling me that my being abused sexily as a child was a just a dream of mine that I made up and that as a three year old child I wanted to see my dad naked and masturbating and I just put that picture in my head after reading happy children books and that the man at my support group who spent his whole live prosecuting sexily offenders is lying to me. That the elders are only being loving to me by telling me that I was not sexily abused and that I have just made this all up in my stupid little mind.
Then it must be nice to live in you little bubble word.
If I am wrong in what you meant then I will say I am sorry. But I am so sick of being told that I wanted to be molested as a child and that I just came one to everyone as a five, six, seven year old as my sexily abusive parents have told me and the elder back my parents.
I just told the new poster that there are people on this board who can hurt you and it is true.
LITS
