I am not sure there exists any culture in the entire globe that is not male dominated. If you go back to the cave man days or even to the Bible times of mans' creation, the male of the species was generally physically stronger and provided for his family while the females gave birth to that family.
So whatever grand creature(s) created all this and put all this into motion felt that there needed to be a dominate male and a submissive female in order for life to flourish and have generations of humans always inhabiting this planet. Now, in the animal kingdom everything is sort of out of control, with female lions hunting and providing food for the dominate male lion and amphibians changing sex to suit their environment, and a host of organisms that procreate no matter what happens. But with humans, we've basically got a dominate male over a female. However, in our modern times females are not bound to this rule. They can survive and flourish on their own without a male telling them what to do to function in this world. Even in the gay communities it is the males who take the leadership roles. I know, there are exceptions, but especially in the entertainment industry it is no secret men control it, whether they are straight or gay, it is a male dominated society.
It is also no secret that [being born and raised in the Jehovah's Witness (JW) Society] the JWs are a male dominated society in the shape of a pyramid. Recently the JWs have been getting attention for publicly reiterating their two witness rule in cases of sexual misconduct, there must be two witnesses to the act in order for a congregational committee to take action. Normally, it is two men forming a fact-finding committee. If they believe there is guilt they can place on someone, then the official Judicial Committee will be formed consisting of three men.
The basic scripture they use for the two-witness rule is from Deuteronomy 19:15 where it states that no single witness should rise up against a man respecting any error or any sin...At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses the matter should stand good.
The JWs also quote verses in Leviticus about how sexual immorality was handled in Bible times:
The JWs also quote verses in Leviticus about how sexual immorality was handled in Bible times:
The JW leadership say that they do not enforce the rules quoted in the scriptures above from the Old Testament about stoning a person who is guilty of sexual immorality and somehow they think they are lofty in this decision, yet still enforce the two witness rule for any sexual misconduct, whether it's egregious crimes against minors or not. Why? Because if the JWs started stoning wrongdoers, they would be put into prison for murder. It's that plain and simple. [Not counting some countries that uphold severe penalties relating to sexual misconduct and rules about women being virgins upon marriage.]
You see, the JW leadership of men are cowards. They want zero responsibility for taking action against anyone in the congregation who commits sexual abuse or misconduct and places the responsibility on the victims to seek any justice. Even the no-blood policy is not the responsibility of the JW leadership of cowards, no, that is a decision of the person rejecting the blood for medical purposes for themselves or their family. Each individual refusing a potentially life-saving blood transfusion for themselves or a loved one is blood guilty, not the JW leadership who made up the policy and enforce it by shunning or disfellowshipping the flock for disobeying this edict. Yet when cornered by the press, they say it's a conscience matter on the part of the membership and their no-blood policy is Biblical, etc., yet if you kill yourself, you are at fault, your family can take no legal action against the JW leadership. I think you get the message here. The JW leadership of cowards run and hide from responsibility even if it involves crimes against children and it's extended to their no-blood policy where they mandate genocide of their own membership.
However, what the JW leadership fail to reveal is that any Judicial Committee ruling does not mean justice is done in any matters brought before that committee. Yes, they follow instructions given in their "Shepherding the Flock of God" book, which is an Elders' manual on how to handle problems brought before the committee; however, it does not mean justice will be done. A side point is that any alleged misconduct by Elders themselves are always handled privately, where no public announcement will be made to the congregation, nothing happens basically, if it involves an Elder and his own family. I know this, my father was an Elder for almost my entire life until he finally stepped down from that position due to age-related health problems. So there are nuances to the JWs' two-witness ruling no matter if it's stealing petty cash to molesting a child.
The general public may not be aware that the JWs view crimes against a person as "sins". However, if an Elder comes home to find his home has been broken into and he's been robbed, does he form a fact-finding committee of two Elders to handle the problem? No, he immediately calls the police.
However, if a woman reveals to an Elder she had been attacked and violated, what happens? A two man fact-finding committee is formed and they determine if the matter should proceed to a three-member Judicial Committee [all men] to determine her measure of guilt in the attack and formally charge the victim and decide her fate. Does she have at least one witness to her attack [as she can be the second person as the witness in the two-witness rule]? No? Then she will be put on trial for her sin and most likely will be disfellowshipped [expelled from the congregation and shunned] or at the very least, put on public reproof where her crime will be of conduct unbecoming of a Christian and she will be shunned. If by chance her attacker confesses, he will again face the same outcome. But both the attacker and the victim can work their way back into the good graces of the congregation by sitting in the back of the Kingdom Hall and the membership will treat them as invisible for at least one year. By that time the gossip mill is in full force and they will be humiliated into leaving the congregation and then they have to try and find a congregation that doesn't know them and be reinstated back into the flock and most likely will be damaged goods and marked anyway and they will fade away from the JW religion. Again, this is a general overview as it matters if the male involved has a lot of friends who will welcome him back to the flock and he will say the woman was at fault, etc., but the female in any case is the one who will shoulder the blame. Same with a child, they shoulder the blame as a victim of a crime that happens against them.
So, why would an Elder immediately call the police if his own home were robbed? Why not handle it within the congregation as they do with sins of the flesh? Because it's all about establishing guilt. The Elder has to prove someone robbed his house, he calls the police, they gather evidence and he hopes to get his stuff back. If a fellow JW robbed his house, same scenario, even though a brother is not supposed to bring another brother into court, somehow that is lost on the membership when it involves money and possessions. In crimes of the flesh, well, too bad, but the victim is responsible for the "sin" [not a crime] first, then the attacker comes second.
The JW leadership claim that if there are reporting laws in their region about any crimes against persons under legal age, then they will immediately contact law enforcement authorities. In most cases I can assure you, this is a fallacy. They say they will inform the authorities when it's up to the victims to do this. Again, how do I know? My father was an Elder and as I have stated before on this blog, I read his notes from his Judicial Committee meetings and my mother shared information with me of her private conversations with my dad about everyone in the congregation, especially what goes on in the committee meetings. Not once was law enforcement involved when dealing with molestation against anyone, whether they were adults or children. It was deemed a family problem and they needed to deal with it. There are also countless testimonies on the Internet from JWs involved in these matters that can tell you that it's up to the victims to seek out law enforcement, not the congregation Elders; they will not help you, you are on your own.
One time in one of the congregations where we were assigned, a Judicial Committee matter involved an Elder and his daughter, the Elder simply said his sin against his daughter happened many years prior, and she was dredging up old stories that had nothing to with his life now and that she is emotionally unstable. End of story. The gossip, however, got around in the congregation forcing the Elder to move out of our area and transferred to another congregation miles away from us so hopefully no one knew of his past "sins" with his daughter, and yes he remained as an Elder. No sanctions were taken against that Elder, it was swept under the carpet. He eventually divorced his wife and he never saw his wife and daughter again until many years later when the daughter re-united with her abuser [her father] as an adult and forgave him. Such is the sick warped view of a person whose father molested her, sometimes the victim somehow becomes dependent on the abuser and tries to reconcile. But maybe that is just my viewpoint.
But what if the victim is male? There is a buddy system in each congregation and it depends on the clout of the victim. If it's a random child, then the mother deals with the incident and will be marked and ousted from the congregation if she dares bring the alleged abuser to court. If it involves men, sometimes the men take action and have the alleged abuser arrested and have the governmental authorities deal with him. If the alleged abuser is friends of the Elders, well, the victim is out of luck. Again, the same scenario as described above. The victim and the family will be marked and shunned, and will have to move out of the congregation and keep silent if they want to remain a JW. Otherwise, they will need to handle matters with law enforcement, but either way, they will be shunned and ousted from the JW organization.
One time in one of the congregations where we were assigned, a Judicial Committee matter involved an Elder and his daughter, the Elder simply said his sin against his daughter happened many years prior, and she was dredging up old stories that had nothing to with his life now and that she is emotionally unstable. End of story. The gossip, however, got around in the congregation forcing the Elder to move out of our area and transferred to another congregation miles away from us so hopefully no one knew of his past "sins" with his daughter, and yes he remained as an Elder. No sanctions were taken against that Elder, it was swept under the carpet. He eventually divorced his wife and he never saw his wife and daughter again until many years later when the daughter re-united with her abuser [her father] as an adult and forgave him. Such is the sick warped view of a person whose father molested her, sometimes the victim somehow becomes dependent on the abuser and tries to reconcile. But maybe that is just my viewpoint.
But what if the victim is male? There is a buddy system in each congregation and it depends on the clout of the victim. If it's a random child, then the mother deals with the incident and will be marked and ousted from the congregation if she dares bring the alleged abuser to court. If it involves men, sometimes the men take action and have the alleged abuser arrested and have the governmental authorities deal with him. If the alleged abuser is friends of the Elders, well, the victim is out of luck. Again, the same scenario as described above. The victim and the family will be marked and shunned, and will have to move out of the congregation and keep silent if they want to remain a JW. Otherwise, they will need to handle matters with law enforcement, but either way, they will be shunned and ousted from the JW organization.
If you feel trapped, lonely and depressed for being ignored by the Elders in your congregation because of suffering abuse, you must first seek help from a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist. They can guide you on how to heal yourself first, and then help you to bring the abuser to justice if that's what you wish to do; some victims do not want to proceed in that direction, but that's a personal decision. Do not bring the matter before a group of men in your own JW congregation. They are not on your side. They are protecting the congregation from getting a bad image, protecting themselves from lawsuits, and they don't want bad publicity either by word of mouth or if the matter would actually get into the news because the victim decided to take her abuser to court to seek justice.
Will adding women on the JW Judicial committees make things better? Not really, since they would have to follow the rule book published by the JW leadership on how to handle all matters brought before the committee. Change starts with the top ruling class of this organization and that is not a likely scenario. They are protecting their global wealth and want to sweep problems under the rug. If an individual wants to seek justice, they need to go to the "worldly" authorities and they will be marked and shunned by the JW Society and will be forced to leave.
So the solution to all this is to recognize a victim will get nowhere inside the JW society unless they have some clout in the congregation. Are you wealthy? Do they have high level business ties with the Elders or within your community? Do you have Elders who are relatives? If you answer no to all of these questions, you are isolated and will be alone in your battle. The solution is to leave the JW male-dominated organization that cares little about your well-being and a lot about their bank accounts.
Not all religious orders, even though many are male dominated, treat victims as responsible for being attacked or abused, it is truly all about the people you are dealing with inside of any organization. In contrast, the JWs are very vocal about being a male dominated society and are proud of it, where women and children are to be seen and not heard and can serve the male leadership as they see fit. The JWs are very vocal about their policies that protect abusers and not victims. They are vocal about their mass genocidal policy on refusing medical blood transfusions. So it is very plain that the first step you can take to not be victimized is to walk out of those prison camps called Kingdom Halls of JWs.
So as stated, seek help for yourself first from licensed professionals, then decide on how you want to proceed to feel empowered and to move forward with your decision. If you are in any religious group that tells you to keep quiet because there are no witnesses to your assault, to feel guilty for being a victim, then walk away from those people, they are not there to help but to place blame on you and victimize you further.
There are no easy answers, but the first step is to realize there is a way out, there are medical professionals to help, and you are not alone with whatever decisions you make in your life but a good start is to realize you have been victimized first by the JW leadership of cowards and that my friend, is a big first step. The rest is easy, it gets better once you get out and start exploring your options in life, and the best time to start is right now.
Will adding women on the JW Judicial committees make things better? Not really, since they would have to follow the rule book published by the JW leadership on how to handle all matters brought before the committee. Change starts with the top ruling class of this organization and that is not a likely scenario. They are protecting their global wealth and want to sweep problems under the rug. If an individual wants to seek justice, they need to go to the "worldly" authorities and they will be marked and shunned by the JW Society and will be forced to leave.So the solution to all this is to recognize a victim will get nowhere inside the JW society unless they have some clout in the congregation. Are you wealthy? Do they have high level business ties with the Elders or within your community? Do you have Elders who are relatives? If you answer no to all of these questions, you are isolated and will be alone in your battle. The solution is to leave the JW male-dominated organization that cares little about your well-being and a lot about their bank accounts.
Not all religious orders, even though many are male dominated, treat victims as responsible for being attacked or abused, it is truly all about the people you are dealing with inside of any organization. In contrast, the JWs are very vocal about being a male dominated society and are proud of it, where women and children are to be seen and not heard and can serve the male leadership as they see fit. The JWs are very vocal about their policies that protect abusers and not victims. They are vocal about their mass genocidal policy on refusing medical blood transfusions. So it is very plain that the first step you can take to not be victimized is to walk out of those prison camps called Kingdom Halls of JWs.
So as stated, seek help for yourself first from licensed professionals, then decide on how you want to proceed to feel empowered and to move forward with your decision. If you are in any religious group that tells you to keep quiet because there are no witnesses to your assault, to feel guilty for being a victim, then walk away from those people, they are not there to help but to place blame on you and victimize you further.
There are no easy answers, but the first step is to realize there is a way out, there are medical professionals to help, and you are not alone with whatever decisions you make in your life but a good start is to realize you have been victimized first by the JW leadership of cowards and that my friend, is a big first step. The rest is easy, it gets better once you get out and start exploring your options in life, and the best time to start is right now.
#jwactivism #jwbloodpolicy #shunningpolicy
#exjw
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