Posts by Maximus

31

Pedophilia, slander, the process, culpability

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
friends

1. jane doe reports her suspicion to elders that her jw husband is sexually molesting their two daughters.

2. jw elders initiate an investigation.. 3. suspect husband denies the crime.. 4. children do not corroborate the accusation.

5. medical examiners do not offer any corroboration of the accusation.

Maximus

.

*** w95 6/15 20 "Sacred Service With Your Power of Reason" ***
8 A second way in which we can cultivate our power of reason is to avoid
adopting rigid, dogmatic viewpoints. An inflexible outlook hinders the growth of our power of reason.

Huh?

Max

31

Pedophilia, slander, the process, culpability

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
friends

1. jane doe reports her suspicion to elders that her jw husband is sexually molesting their two daughters.

2. jw elders initiate an investigation.. 3. suspect husband denies the crime.. 4. children do not corroborate the accusation.

5. medical examiners do not offer any corroboration of the accusation.

Maximus

In your excellent analysis, you use the term WTS, which conjures up a picture of some faceless monolithic organization, in actuality the top echelon of a hierarchy.

The Berry Writ and Summons or complaint has clearly put a face on "the Society" for all to see.

I'm struck with thoughts harking back to the thread on GB and Blood, and the Watchtower article about Cyril Lucaris (w 2/15/2000).

About a ruling ecclesiastical class it says: "They proved to be among the worst enemies of religous freedom and truth. Sadly, this is a stance that in various ways survives even to our day." That's prescient.

I hope enlightened readers will see clearly who is responsible for the policies that have reaped such ugly fruitage. Even if top decision-makers disagree among themselves about abuse policy, none can escape culpability.

Watchtower has settled cases before, and it could win or lose one. Can it afford to lose its market? Follow the money: to survive they need income to continue. What if the public decides it no longer wishes to purchase the magazines and publications of WTS?

The battle is now over a case and future precedent. It's the war that they cannot afford to lose.

Maximus

29

Newbie in the house

by Stealth in

jw
friends

i have been lurking for a few months now.

the only reason that i have not posted until now is because of the paranoia that comes with being raised a jw.

my current status in the congregation is irregular, reaching out for the office of inactive.

Maximus

Ooops, UR, sorry about the "they"--was just beating out a note and grabbing an opportunity for a back-handed compliment to you that recognized your use of language. I hate the nitpicking stuff and hoped to come across more jovially. My way too of letting you know someone picked up on you previously, but just hadn't the time to reply. (Remember the Et tu Brute rather than Et tu Brutus?)

"They" is the guys who pretend to dish out the food at the proper time, the meat in due season, those in Brooklyn who "flash light from the temple." That's an old expression you may not be familiar with, and there was an old Latin expression akin to fulguration, flashing light. It is these who are reaping the bad fruitage from what they have sown.

When it is expedient, policy changes quickly; i.e., light suddenly flashes from the temple in some mysterious way. When Gilead grads needed to be vaccinated to get into a foreign country, light flashed quickly and voila! it was suddenly okay for them to do so.

There are actually quite a few of us who savor language, and not a few on the board who read Latin. Sorry about the lapse. In haste,

Max
For others: Ancient plays sometimes presented insolvable situations. The deus ex machina could resolve them. Here's what I meant about Alan, lest one say I called him a god:

deus ex machina, noun.
1. In Greek and Roman drama, a god lowered by stage machinery to resolve a plot or extricate the protagonist from a difficult situation.
2. An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.
3. A person or event that provides a sudden and unexpected solution to a difficulty.

29

Newbie in the house

by Stealth in

jw
friends

i have been lurking for a few months now.

the only reason that i have not posted until now is because of the paranoia that comes with being raised a jw.

my current status in the congregation is irregular, reaching out for the office of inactive.

Maximus

You might get your vocative case ending wrong, but your message comes through loud and clear always, UR! I expect there will also be future flashes from the temple about a few doctrinal things--a play on your fulgor, but meantime they are reaping some very unpleasant fruitage. What's with this AlanF; thinks he's some deus ex machina or sumpin'? In his joust with Scotus shall we dub Alan Squatus*?

Stealth, a very warm welcome from me too.

Maximus
Who takes his material seriously, but not himself

*L., shark; noun
Bobby Darin in the background, singing Mack the Knife

23

Compassion For Those Who Remain Silent

by Kismet in

jw
friends

fellow jw-com'ers:.

as excited as we are by the events announced by silent lambs and upcoming media attention, i would like to ask people to remember the many silent lambs who simply cannot speak or have not yet found their voice.. these victims should not be made to feel as second class people for their decision to remain silent.

i will not go into all the possible reasons why these victims remain silent.

Maximus

What do you say to a fifteen-year-old girl with hollow listless eyes, cigarette burn marks all over her left arm, tell-tale pale scars of many razor cuts on the right, desperately trying to be her own person by tattoos and green hair ....

To a long-abused girl now being patched in a mental health facility, whose father is a respected elder, who says she makes up lies because she is bad ....

To a painfully thin girl who asks why God withholds his love from her ...

To a girl who can no longer feel joy nor pain, just blackness, for whom a smile is a dim muscle memory ...

I can speak with her physicians about things medical and psychiatric, about SSRIs and cognitive therapy, acronyms of diagnosis, but what could I say to her? I love you? You are loved? I had no scriptures, no platitudes; to say 'you'll get better soon' would ring so hollow.

I did what came naturally: I just reached out to hug her ... and I saw the unspeakable terror come over her face.

How to convince a body of male elders she was speaking the truth, for they were convinced beyond doubt that Satan himself had entered into her--not in some backwater town, but in a great metropolis of sophisticates. They knew her father, who was one of the boys who played baseball and had pizza afterward.

I've been there, you see. I know.

She still haunts me, now one of so very, very many. You won't see her on Dateline or read her poignant story in a transcript.

I won't forget you, Lori, nor not one of the others.

Maximus

14

Doubt Not-Fire Two......

by silentlambs in

jw
friends

i am going to let j. r. brown look this one up for himself,.

from day one of this issue being raised the watchtower has maintained there is no problem with child molesters being shielded within the community of jehovahs witnesses.

the questions that beg to be answered are: .