Posts by Jankyn

I’ve been fuming all weekend about Pope Benedict XVI’s letter to the Catholics of Ireland, mostly because it’s more of the same. The European nations are just now having the sort of wake-up call that the U.S. had over the last decade.

Instead of acknowledging the role that the Church—and he himself, as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, or Holy Office—had in covering up child abuse, moving abusive priests from one parish to another, and swearing abused children to silence rather than turning their abusers over to the cops, ol’ Papa Ratzijust told people not to lose faith.

Well, he also said it was wr-wr-wrong. But it was all on the priests, and no admission of guilt from the church that harbored and enabled them.

Of course, the Catholics would like to (and have been trying to) blame all this on the gays. So sorry, can’t do that. Pedophiles are not gay. There’s plenty of evidence that a desire to rape children is not the same thing at all as a sexual identity that orients one toward consenting adults of the same sex. Read the testimony in Perry v. Schwarzenegger. There’s absolutely no evidence to back up that lovely little prejudice, guys.

You can play the homophobia card all you want, Mr. Pope, but it’s just not gonna fly any more.

Instead, I’ve just got to ask: What makes the situation in the Catholic church different from instances of abuse in other religious groups? Why has the Church insisted on covering up, obfuscating, blaming anyone other than themselves for not reporting pedophiles to the police and protecting children?

Unfortunately, child abuse happens. But rarely does it happen in an atmostphere where it is covered up, silenced, and allowed to go on like it has in the Catholic Church.

In fact, the only similar circumstance that comes to mind is the sexual abuse scandal among Jehovah’s Witnesses. It’s not been as widely reported, but there are only about 6 million Jehovah’s Witnesses in the world, and unlike the Catholic Church, they don’t spend a lot of
time trying to influence public policy. (Best thing about Jehovah’s Witnesses? In most countries, they don’t vote.)

But they have had a very unhealthy practice of handling complaints of child molestation internally, keeping the results quiet, and allowing molesters to move from congregation to congregation without warning families of the threat. They’ve also got a history of convincing abused children and their parents not to make a police report, “lest it bring shame on Jehovah’s name.”

And, since the Jehovah’s Witnesses internal justice system requires two witnesses to an act of wrongdoing in order for someone to be “convicted” by one of those church courts, and usually there’s only one witness—the victim, a child—in instances of child abuse, all too many cases have been completely hushed up.

Oh, and let’s not forget the Boy Scouts of America. That homophobic, atheist-phobic organization (in which a large number of troops are sponsored by the Catholic Church and an even larger number by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) is currently defending itself against a lawsuit that says it allowed a pedophile to continue working with boys after it became known that he had molested children. The LDS, which was also named in the lawsuit, has already settled.

Gee, what does that remind you of?

So let’s see. What else to the Catholic Church, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Boy Scouts, as well as the Mormons, have in common? I mean, aside from hating gay people?
There’s the whole patriarchal thing, right? Priesthood (or in the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses, eldership or oversight of the congregation) are limited to men only. Women don’t get to take any leadership role that would put them in a position of supervising men.

And then there’s the hierarchical organization. The Catholic hierarchy leads to Rome; among Jehovah’s Witnesses, it goes to Brooklyn (though I hear they’ll soon be moving to the country); and for Mormons, it leads to Salt Lake City.

Then there’s the infallibility of the leadership. If you’re Catholic, when you talk to a priest, he stands in for God—and the Pope is infallible, with a direct line to the Lord. If you’re a member of the LDS, why, the priesthood (all male) is your only route to the Celestial Kingdom, and ticking ‘em off means you don’t get there. For Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Governing Body is Jehovah’s leadership on earth (their baptism vows have, since the 1980s, had them baptized in the name of Jehovah God, Christ Jesus, and Jehovah’s “spirit-filled organization." No, I’m not kidding).

As for the Boy Scouts? Well, once they weeded out all the atheists, who have they got left that will stand up to authority?
This morning, I took a phone call from a woman about my post on Bishop Jaime Soto last week. She wouldn’t give me her name or phone number, but she told me that when she was a child, a priest raped her. She tried to tell on him, but her parents wouldn’t (or couldn’t) believe it. She finally stopped going to church because she threw up every time she went in. I gave her information about SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), and I hope she gets help.

"It’s like he took away God,” she said.

As long as Benedict XVI—or for that matter, Bishop Jaime Soto—continue to avoid offering a mea culpa for their part in covering up the abuse of children, I’d never suggest she go back to church.

Bottom line, folks: Your kids are much, much safer from molestation at Gay Pride than they are in church, the Kingdom Hall, or a Scout meeting. That’s because when gay people see a kid being hurt, they call the cops.

That’s apparently a whole helluva lot more than priests, bishops, elders and Scout masters do.

::posted by Kel Munger @ 2010-03-22 2:12 PM permalink

8

2012 Movie Trailer (Will the Governing Body Come Down Strong on this Movie?)

by frankiespeakin in

jw
friends

jehovah's witnesses outa love this:.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxtqxpy1xz0&nr=1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyccd8mcczy&feature=related.

Jankyn

It might be worth my time if we saw any scenes with a bunch of JWs standing on a corner holding up the Watchtower.

43

How miserable are Witless Kids REALLY?

by hamsterbait in

jw
friends

25 years ago i lived in an apartment overlooking the grounds of the local high school.. at the time i still totally believed the lie.

a lot of the dub students went to my hell.. i noticed looking out my window, that the witless kids always looked miserable and isolated.

yet in the kingdumb hell they would behave almost euphorically.. what was going on?.

Jankyn

The advantage to being in a fairly small congregation in a fairly small town: Since all the JW kids were either older or younger than me, I wasn't really expected to hang out with them. Also, the long history of my family in the area meant that I had friends and relatives outside "da Troof."

For me, school was a break from the constant pressure. None of my friends were JWs, and though my mother did try to "limit" my association, she also wasn't inclined to keep me isolated. She was very concerned that I be socially adept so that I would be more effective in the ministry. Her opinion was that the socially maladapted JWs (who at that time significantly outnumbered the socially adapted JWs in my congregation) weren't likely to be listened to in the service, while she and her gracious sisters would be (and were--at one time, my aunt had 18 studies going).

So she put the kibosh on anything too outrageous, but still made sure that my clothes were fashionable, if not trendy, and that I didn't stick out like a sore thumb. Of course, my dad was df'd, so that may have made a difference, too. He simply wouldn't have tolerated any rules or demands that caused us pain; that's the best thing about his staying in the marriage and in the home after he was df'd.

I wasn't bullied at school, and I loved it.

Being well-socialized also made my transition out of the bOrg much smoother, as it did for my brothers. I know that my mother now regrets giving us too much of "the world" when we were younger. She's said as much on several occasions; the old "if I knew then what I know now, you'd have never been in the band" thing.

On the other hand, I always felt extremely sorry for other JW kids, who seemed to struggle so much and were so isolated.

29

Do you have a Jezebel photo?

by feenx in

jw
friends

alright, so i am sharing some fun tidbits with my fiance about things i remember as a kid growing up.

we were trying to remember the woman from the old testament who murdered a king (she went to a christian school so we both got hammered with the bible) and we couldn't.

inevitably when you're talking about any women from the old testament jezebel comes up.

Jankyn

I think you're talking about the Revelation Climax book, where the illustration is of a "figurative" Jezebel, causing trouble in the congregation. I don't have it handy, though. Maybe someone else does?

4

Anybody read Tony Dushane's "Confessions of a Teen Jesus Jerk?"

by JimmyPage in

jw
friends

if there's already been a hundred threads on this, i apologize.

i'm only on the board sporadically..

Jankyn

It's been reviewed in our local alt-weekly, too: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1368275. I'll have to buy this one.

Book Reviews

Buy it at Amazon!

Stop playing with yourself

Confessions of aTeenage Jesus Jerk Tony DuShane

By Jenn Kistler
[email protected]
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This article was published on 02.11.10.

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Novels about coming-of-age in oppressive religions must contain dilemmas with masturbation—and Tony DuShane’s debut novel about life as a Jehovah’s Witness is no exception. Yet, unlike similar novels, DuShane’s protagonist doesn’t get annoying. In fact, it’s almost heart-wrenching that Gabe is tormented with fear that playing with himself will ensure smiting from God. The novel is ripe with other dilemmas afflicting J.W. children: finding normality in a dysfunctional family, dreading knocking on classmates’ doors while preaching. DuShane flows from humorously absurd tales (overhearing his father lecture a married couple for accidentally having anal sex) to more serious issues about the organization’s inner workings, including the protagonist’s excommunication from the church and thereby his friends and family. DuShane shines a bright light on the hidden world of J.W.s with minimalist eloquence, well-timed humor and raw honesty.

5

"Give back the rib"

by Jankyn in

jw
friends

today's sacramento news & review (my hometown free weekly) has a story about different ages of feminist, and one of the twenty-somethings is an ex-jw.. http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1362042.

jenn kistler | 20s.

give back the rib.

Jankyn

Here's NOW's mission statement:

Since its founding in 1966, NOW's goal has been to take action to bring about equality for all women. NOW works to eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, the justice system, and all other sectors of society; secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women; end all forms of violence against women; eradicate racism, sexism and homophobia; and promote equality and justice in our society.

http://www.now.org/organization/info.html

I'll never understand how feminism got equated with man-hating, since, frankly, guys, it's not about you.

5

"Give back the rib"

by Jankyn in

jw
friends

today's sacramento news & review (my hometown free weekly) has a story about different ages of feminist, and one of the twenty-somethings is an ex-jw.. http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1362042.

jenn kistler | 20s.

give back the rib.

Jankyn

Today's Sacramento News & Review (my hometown free weekly) has a story about different ages of feminist, and one of the twenty-somethings is an ex-JW.

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1362042

Jenn Kistler | 20s
Give back the rib

Eve is always to blame. She is the seductive original sinner, a produce-wielding siren inflicting mortality upon man. She also hijacked a bone from Adam’s rib cage.

Yet her greatest offense—which has left her female descendents in an eternal pickle—is that she was created after Adam. According to the religion of my childhood, since Adam was first in line, that logically meant men were in charge of religion, their families and of women in general. As a repayment for Eve’s rib-bone loan, women in my church were required to obey men’s decisions, maintain the household and raise obedient children. Jehovah’s Witnesses still declare that “[Women are] to be silent in the sense of not getting into disputes with a man. She is not to belittle his appointed position or endeavor to teach the congregation.”

While boys my age stood upon the church stage nervously cracking their knuckles and injecting “ums” and “uhs” into their religious speeches, I sat in the audience daydreaming about how I’d show them up—if I were allowed. Women were forbidden to speak to the congregation, serve as religious leaders, wear pantsuits to church, get in religious debates with men and pray in front of men (unless they adorned their heads with a doily, napkin or similarly ridiculous headpiece). Higher education was out of the question, too. Female independence went against God’s decree that man was king of the symbolic hill, so feminism of any kind was deemed evil.

By the tender age of 11, I was ready to return Adam’s freaking rib bone.

So I protested. I avoided learning how to cook, abandoned belief in marriage and vowed never to have children. (I even requested a hysterectomy as a high-school graduation gift—I was only half joking. My mom obviously refused.) My dad jumped the Jesus ship when I was 15, giving me an opportunity to embrace full woman power through education and debate, sans doilies. No one was going to silence this Eve.

Yet in college, I struggled to define a line between my feminism and my femininity. Was there a line? Did feminine characteristics go against the feminist credo? Was joining a sorority anti-feminist? Even if it led to me becoming involved in student government, community-service organizations, academic honor societies and serving as a leader? To some fellow students, sororities were the antithesis of female equality. I saw it differently and am a stronger woman because of my experience.

Somewhere between women’s suffrage, the feminist movement and the 21st century, the true meaning of feminism was obscured by the superficial “battle of the sexes” adage. For some women, feminism became an image dominated by abhorring “girly” interests such as bouquets of flowers, acts of chivalry by men and wedding ceremonies. Other women rejected the term feminism because they enjoyed those “girly” things and didn’t want to be considered a “feminazi.”

But they all forgot the original meaning of the word: “to make legal, political, social and economic change in our society in order to … eliminate sexism and end all oppression,” according to the National Organization for Women.

Yes, oppression based on one’s gender remains an issue worldwide. Somalia-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali related her personal account of being circumcised as a Muslim girl in her autobiography, Infidel. I was horrified that such misogynistic religious persecution and torture still occurred.

In an age when more people seem less dependent on archaic religious laws—where there are more secularists, humanists and atheists—there also seem to be growing numbers of religious extremists, a kind of third “great awakening,” to the detriment of women. Even in the United States, where there are more women enrolled in college than men, some religious sects prohibit women from aspiring to higher education. They are indoctrinated to bear unhealthy numbers of children, forced to stay in abusive relationships because divorce is a sin and prohibited from using contraception.

Feminism is not a battle of women vs. men. It never was. It means embracing the biological differences in men and women, yet realizing we are all humans in the end. Feminism demands humanity and equality for all; its survival is dependent on activism and continuing education. True equality for women, and men, cannot exist in a world where blame is always placed upon Eve.

Jenn Kistler, SN&R’s calendar editor, is a 26-year-old writer, graduate student and running fool. She survives almost entirely on peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.