Driving Force.
However, just this morning, she was making breakfast and she seemed in a good mood, so I raised it again. I said did you know Geoffrey Jackson ...one of the GB was questioned by the commission for over 2 hours.
Well, I couldn't believe it, we ended up having a great discussion over it. To appease her to begin with....I said to be fair, he did hold his ground quite well bringing out the scriptures; BUT was caught out a number of times. She asked like what? I said well you have to remember, these lawyers a the RC have razor sharp minds and they are really on the ball about things. I mentioned how the 2 witness rule was brought up and Jackson showed what Jesus said in Matthew about this. But then Angus Stewart (who I have to say was brilliant) said that Jesus would have been referring back to the mosaic law In the book of Deuteronomy. and that Jackson agreed. Then....unbelievably Angus Stewart asked Jackson to read a portion of scripture about if a woman was raped in a field and no one heard her screams. That the person who raped her would be put to death. The point being that it was her word and 'circumstantial evidence' because obviously there was no other witness; therefore the man was judged on this alone. My wife totally saw this point and agreed with me.
I then explained, so if a 15 year old girl goes to the elders clearly traumatized having told them her father had abused her and the elders could clearly see the girl was telling the truth...and that they had other circumstantial evidence in the face of the father was lying, that they could then make judgement on the matter. My wife again agreed.
I then said that justice McClellan then asked Jackson....supposing she doesn't want to go to the police. What would you do? Clearly, Jackson didn't give a clear concise answer to that question and tried to dodge it at one point.
This again created further discussion and she said something to the effect that the elders couldn't do anything!
I however mentioned what I would do in line with my experience in social care work, that one of the things they should do, not only to protect the girl, but also the congregation and public at large was to at least get some kind of background check on the guy at the very least. Also, if as per what the elders were saying at the commission, they had no doubt that BCG was telling the truth about her abuse, they should have supported her to go to the police or contact them to say they had deep concerns so that the matter could be investigated further by professionals who know how to deal with such situations.
My wife completely agreed with me. I said to her. The society/organization NEED to make changes. She again agreed. Note: my wife likes to gossip btw. It will be interesting if she brings up the subject amongst her very large group of friends :-)
TE