Friday, June 17

Happy is anyone who shows consideration to the lowly one.Ps. 41:1.

When we assist “the lowly one,” not only do we imitate Jehovah but we also gain his approval. Admittedly, though, a negative view of those in need may at times hold us back from assisting them. Or because we are not sure of what we should say, we may feel embarrassed and withdraw from some who are having a hard time. Cynthia, a sister whose husband abandoned her, comments: “If brothers avoid you or do not act the way you would expect close friends to act, it can hurt. When you are going through trials, you need people around you.” David of old knew the feeling of being avoided. We will likely be more empathetic if we remember that some of our dear brothers and sisters have been weakened by adverse circumstances—suffering from poor health, living in a divided household, or coping with depression. We might find ourselves in a similar situation one day.

COMMENTARY

None are as lowly as children. They literally and figuratively look up to adults. They depend on grownups to take care of them and protect them. When parents fail their children in that respect it is usually considered a crime.

While Jehovah places the primary responsibility for the welfare of children upon parents, he also requires elders to watch over lowly ones too. It is not optional. It is the very foundation of what the Watchtower calls “pure worship.” Here is what is stated in the opening chapter of the letter of James: “The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.”

Children are innocent and trusting. They know nothing about sex. For obvious reasons, children —whether orphaned, or with a single parent, or otherwise —are extremely vulnerable to child sexual predators. Especially is that so among Jehovah’s Witnesses, where adults and children freely mingle both in a congregational setting and field service, but also in relaxed social settings there are many opportunities for cunning pedophiles to groom their intended victims. And that is exactly what has taken place over many years.

The Watchtower, while repeating ad nauseam: “we abhor child abuse,” has been virtually silent when it comes to educating parents and others on how to better protect the children from the crimes of pedophilic Jehovah’s Witnesses. True, the Watchtower boasts that it has written articles on the subject, but they have never really talked straightforwardly about child sexual abuse within the congregation.

For example, an AWAKE! article from 2007 gives parents advice on how to protect their children. It even points out that most child molesters are known by the families of the victims. Here is what the AWAKE! states:

Naturally, you do not want to believe that an affable neighbor, teacher, health-care worker, coach, or relative could lust after your child. In truth, most people are not like that. There is no need to become suspicious of everybody around you. Still, you can protect your child by learning how the typical abuser operates.

The fact of the matter is, though, the many thousands of children of Jehovah’s Witnesses who have been abused were not assaulted by neighbors, teachers, health-care workers or coaches. They were victimized by men within the congregation. That’s the point. Some of the predators were even elders. Some were appointed ministerial servants. All were trusted brothers. 

Are parents really being better equipped by the Watchtower to protect their children when an article that is ostensibly written to educate them neglects to even mention the real source of danger their children are exposed to? 

Bethel is well aware of the jeopardy children are in due to the many known pedophiles among Jehovah’s Witnesses. That being undeniably true, why doesn’t the Governing Body alert parents to the real danger posed by men within the congregation? Is not their silence and obfuscation the real source of the problem? Surely it is.

And when cases of child abuse are reported to the Watchtower’s Legal Department, why doesn’t it demand that elders report such crimes to the police immediately and offer their unreserved cooperation to the relevant authorities who investigate crimes against children and prosecute the perpetrators? In this they have been obscenely negligent and must share the blame before God for the sexual abuse of thousands of lowly ones.

In another AWAKE! article Bethel deplores the laxity of the legal authorities in Australia: 

Sadly, though, most of such crimes go unpunished by authorities today. In Australia, for example, it has been estimated that only 10 percent of offenders are prosecuted, and few are convicted. Other lands have had a similar record. While governments may be able to do little to protect the Christian family, the application of Bible principles can do far more.

As was exposed in last year’s Australian Royal Commission inquiry into the Watchtower’s mishandling of child abuse it was legally established that of the 1,006 instances of child abuse that were reported to the Society in that country, not a single case was reported to the police. Not one! Zero percent! This means that the Watchtower had a policy of non-cooperation with the authorities in Australia, even while decrying the failure of the courts to prosecute and convict abusers. The Watchtower’s hypocrisy is positively nauseating .

But here is the question: If Jehovah declares “happy” the one who shows consideration to the lowly one, what about those whom he has placed in charge, who have a fiduciary duty to look after the lowly, but who not only fail to protect them but actively persecute them in a worldly legal arena? There is no need to speculate. Jehovah’s decree is: Woe to the one enacting harmful regulations.

Soon the modern form of child sacrifice that has been practiced upon the  Watchtower altar of “pure worship” will be crushed. Already Jehovah is mustering his powerful army to serve as his punishing agents. The Hebrew prophecy of Zephaniah gives us a preview of the judgment to come

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