As reported on this blog site, the Australian Royal Commission (ARC) issued its findings on the internal practices of the Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) organization and found that its policies fail to protect victims of molestation and abuse suffered inside the organization. [See blog entry: Royal Pain, dated 11-28-16].The ARC were back in session on March 10, 2017, to further investigate the JW practices and to find a solution to the thousands of cases of child abuse allegations covered up by the JW organization in Australia, with only a few of the cases actually resulting in the punishment of the perpetrators. In its prior investigation, the ARC outlined the areas that needed to be changed, specifically the JW internal rule that there must be two witnesses to any crime of sexual abuse. This was the most egregious and horrific policy that needed to be changed by the JW leadership, and that their shunning practices of members who leave the organization were deemed to be cruel by the ARC.
However, the JW leadership [the Governing Body (GB) headquartered in New York and their enforcers, the Body of Elders assigned in each congregation around the globe] believe that sexual molestation and abuse are sins not crimes, when the general population and the criminal court system believes otherwise. These are crimes punishable by fines and imprisonment. According to the JW's internal rules, there must be at least two witnesses to a sexual assault, something that rarely if ever happens. Normally, abusers are manipulative and threatening to their victims, and operate in secrecy.
The ARC addressed moral and criminal issues within the organization and how the JWs basically do nothing to protect victims. The JWs refused to back down on that two witness rule for allegations of sexual abuse and their practices of shunning those who simply walk away from the organization, whether from being traumatized and nothing done to the perpetrator or they just decided to walk away. The JWs have the nerve to say the person who leaves is shunning the organization which is an outright lie. No indoctrinated and baptized JW will speak to a person, including their own children, who simply choose to walk away from the organization without doing anything wrong but simply decide they don't want to be a JW, that person will be shunned. It's not the person leaving who shuns their own friends and family who stay within the organization.
The JW leadership also fail to completely divorce themselves from such egregious matters of child abuse by mandating the victim and their family to immediately report the crime to the local officials and let the trained professionals handle the matter. The JW Body of Elders go beyond the scriptures and do not simply provide spiritual advice, they take the law into their own hands by hushing up crimes against minors. Even adult victims of abuse are left to fend for themselves with many having to go to safe houses in their city resulting in "Satan's world" having to care for victims of abuse, with the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society doing zero to help their own flock. All the Watchtower corporation cares about is money flowing into their so-called holy mountain with zero leaving by way of a small stream of cash trickling down that mountain to the rank and file membership.
Inside the congregation, nothing is done to protect the flock. Any abuse allegations are kept secret and confidential, with no announcement made to warn members. I know this first hand by being born into the organization and raised in it. As I have already related some of my experiences on this blog site, I read my father's notes [an Elder in the congregations where we were assigned] from the numerous judicial committees where he was one of the judges of the person accused of wrongdoing and their victims. Yes, pedophiles were kept hidden and secret in the congregation, two I knew of, that abused their own children. Oh, they were praying about it and trying to stop, oh, just sleep in another room at night away from the wife and kids. Nothing was done and the congregation never knew of these confessed pedophiles in the congregation. This is normal practice within the JW church.
On March 10, the ARC queried two representatives from the Branch Office of the JWs located in Australia to go over their internal policies and procedures, Mr. Terrence O'Brien, Australian Branch Committee member and current director of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia and Mr. Rodney Spinks, member of the Service Department, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia. These two JWs testifying in this case maintained that their policies and procedures are based on scriptures, specifically, the most contentious of their policies is that a victim needs at least two witnesses to their molestation and abuse before the JW Elders will take any action against the perpetrator(s). This leaves victims and their families with nothing. They will be jettisoned from the so-called loving cocoon of their own congregation and left to their own devices on how to proceed. Do they go to the police to report the crime, especially if the victim was a minor? If it was an adult victim of abuse, then what? They have to seek help from the secular authorities, commonly called Satan's world by the JW leadership. They will be driven out of their home congregation since they will have to face their abuser at each and every meeting at the Kingdom Hall who will remain in good standing and still be allowed to participate in the door-to-door ministry work that is a requirement for being a member in good standing, you must engage in the weekly recruitment work to gain more followers of a false god named Jehovah [a name used in our common era by both Jews and Protestants with a Catholic Monk being the first to use it. It does not originate from scriptural records or ancient writings].
How do you move a mountain like the JW organization? A mountain that has been immovable for a hundred years? You start at removing the top first. The ARC are starting at the top. GB member Geoffrey Jackson was subpoenaed at the first hearing in 2015 since he was already in Australia. No one from the GB appeared for this second hearing on March 10 and no representative from the society's headquarters in New York bothered to attend either. They let the local JW Elders handle the matter in Australia and they defended their cruel policies of the two witness rule to abuse allegations and their shunning practices if the victim decides to leave the organization due to their trauma of being abused, while their abuser sits in that Kingdom Hall unscathed and in good standing. To add insult to injury, if a perpetrator admits to sexually abusing a person in the Kingdom Hall but repents, he may or may not be put on probation or expelled from the congregation. Either way, nothing is reported to local authorities.
However, the entire world is now witness to the fact the JWs hide persons accused of being pedophiles inside their organization and do not turn the matter over to authorities. IF there is a local reporting law, then they tell victims to handle the matter on their own and abandon the sheep to fend for themselves. But, to bring down this destructive society it starts at the top, then working down to the local leadership in each congregation, then down to the lost flock of sheep who are skinned and thrown about since they will be sheep without a shepherd and will be in shock when the veil of lies is removed from their faces placed there by the GB, the ruling class of the organization and the Elder leadership in each congregation.
Yes, the ARC is attempting to move that mountain from the top down. They will succeed since more people will see that the mountain can be removed, a bit at a time. But it is worth it. It may mean the life of a child within the organization that has no voice and has to suffer abuse within the organization with a leadership that does nothing since they are terrified of being sued by the perpetrator. So it ends in a stalemate with nothing being done with a victim being forced to leave and subsequently shunned by those still inside the organization.
The JWs leadership are terrified to take a stand for a child and hand the matter over to the authorities trained to ferret out the truth of these kinds of cases because they are afraid of being involved in litigation from the perpetrator. Is the victim lying? Why? What prompted the whole situation? What history does the alleged perpetrator have with children and young persons? These kinds of questions can and will be handled by the proper authorities, not by untrained dads sitting in a Kingdom Hall set up in the position of power, dads who do nothing but sit at a desk all week and in front of a TV all weekend. These people are not trained to handle anything of a serious matter inside a congregation. They are barely trained in the scriptures, just looking up a scripture here and there on their iPad and counting their time as is required for membership in the organization and doing what's called shepherding work, which is useless conversation so the Elders and their helpers, called Ministerial Servants, don't have to trod door to door for hours but can count their time sitting in people's homes drinking coffee and having a snack for an afternoon.
I hope you will take the time to listen to the full hearings of the ARC. It is extremely interesting for both current and active JWs and those who are not familiar with the society. The hearings and related information are readily available with a quick YouTube search. You can access the original Case Study 29 and the new Case Study 54 at the ARC website:
https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/case-studies
However, the entire world is now witness to the fact the JWs hide persons accused of being pedophiles inside their organization and do not turn the matter over to authorities. IF there is a local reporting law, then they tell victims to handle the matter on their own and abandon the sheep to fend for themselves. But, to bring down this destructive society it starts at the top, then working down to the local leadership in each congregation, then down to the lost flock of sheep who are skinned and thrown about since they will be sheep without a shepherd and will be in shock when the veil of lies is removed from their faces placed there by the GB, the ruling class of the organization and the Elder leadership in each congregation.
Yes, the ARC is attempting to move that mountain from the top down. They will succeed since more people will see that the mountain can be removed, a bit at a time. But it is worth it. It may mean the life of a child within the organization that has no voice and has to suffer abuse within the organization with a leadership that does nothing since they are terrified of being sued by the perpetrator. So it ends in a stalemate with nothing being done with a victim being forced to leave and subsequently shunned by those still inside the organization.The JWs leadership are terrified to take a stand for a child and hand the matter over to the authorities trained to ferret out the truth of these kinds of cases because they are afraid of being involved in litigation from the perpetrator. Is the victim lying? Why? What prompted the whole situation? What history does the alleged perpetrator have with children and young persons? These kinds of questions can and will be handled by the proper authorities, not by untrained dads sitting in a Kingdom Hall set up in the position of power, dads who do nothing but sit at a desk all week and in front of a TV all weekend. These people are not trained to handle anything of a serious matter inside a congregation. They are barely trained in the scriptures, just looking up a scripture here and there on their iPad and counting their time as is required for membership in the organization and doing what's called shepherding work, which is useless conversation so the Elders and their helpers, called Ministerial Servants, don't have to trod door to door for hours but can count their time sitting in people's homes drinking coffee and having a snack for an afternoon.
I hope you will take the time to listen to the full hearings of the ARC. It is extremely interesting for both current and active JWs and those who are not familiar with the society. The hearings and related information are readily available with a quick YouTube search. You can access the original Case Study 29 and the new Case Study 54 at the ARC website:
https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/public-hearings/case-studies
If we join together, we can move a mountain like the JW society that's resting on a foundation of lies, deceit, misdirection and misinterpretation of the scriptures that make up the Holy Bible. The great crowd of exJWs is growing and getting stronger with each passing day, week, month and year. Don't be afraid to walk away from your abusers whether they be emotional, physical, mental or verbal, since that is the definition of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, an abusive organization that protects wrongdoers and let's them operate freely without repercussions, while victims suffer in silence.
Don't suffer in silence. Seek help from a licensed counselor, physician, therapist, or psychiatrist and get that help you need. Don't be afraid to enlist help from caring professionals who will bring down that person who harmed you inside the destructive and cruel JW society.
#australianroyalcommission
#jehovahswitnesses
#watchtower
Don't suffer in silence. Seek help from a licensed counselor, physician, therapist, or psychiatrist and get that help you need. Don't be afraid to enlist help from caring professionals who will bring down that person who harmed you inside the destructive and cruel JW society.
#australianroyalcommission
#jehovahswitnesses
#watchtower
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