Open letter to Daro Weilburg

[Baruq JW]

Open letter to Daro Weilburg

Dear Daro,

I must ask you first of all to forgive my boldness, since, although almost fifteen years younger than you, I have to reproach you. Do not think I mean to disrespect. But having as a predecessor Elihu, who, in spite of his youth, did not refrain from rebuking the venerable Job I believe that I can in good conscience follow the example of this wise figure of antiquity.

I watched some of your videos on the internet. I answer here because you have blocked all comments on your page, so it is impossible to reach you. I have no doubt that you are a sincere person, but beware! in the darkest days of modern history, sincere men have exterminated hundreds of thousands of others. Sincerity does not imply being right or excusable for any of our actions or statements.

With this preamble in mind, I hope you will understand that I may have found two of your videos that you have posted online shocking, videos in which you discuss the topic of child abuse within the Jehovah's Witnesses Organisation, taking as a basis the highly publicised case of Candace Conti.

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You find it unlikely that a woman could have waited years before revealing the aggression she was the victim of and you call her a liar. But what do you know about the feelings of a girl-child who has complete confidence in adults and who can not imagine that one of them can hurt her, especially if he is a relative, a close family member, a brother of the congregation, or even an elder? These young girls probably had no idea what was happening to them. Some were threatened or blackmailed if they said anything. That's the way things work with paedophiles. Within the Catholic Church, as well as within the Jehovah's Witnesses organisation, or within all institutions where adults are in contact with children.

You will notice that the Watchtower of May 2019, although it does not provide any solutions to the victims, does not say anything else:

It is all too easy for devious abusers to deceive children. Abusers teach children dangerous lies, such as the idea that the child is to blame, that the abuse must be kept secret, that no one will listen or care if the child reports the abuse, or that sexual acts between an adult and a child are actually normal expressions of sincere love. Such lies can distort a child’s thinking ability and perception of truth for many years. Such a child may grow up thinking of herself or himself as damaged, defiled, and unworthy of love or comfort.

And you would you like to condemn these innocent lives? You would like to deny them the right to justice, because many years have passed? You support the two witnesses rule imposed by the Governing Body, when it is the very nature of the paedophiles to act in secret? You are talking about forensics when it is already difficult for a woman to gain recognition of a rape she just suffered as an adult? How can this be inflicted on a child? How cruel you are!

From what you're saying, it seems that Candace Conti woke up one fine day and that she went on the internet, found a picture of a man she did not even know and decided to accuse him, all this for personal gain. Does this seem plausible to you? For me, it seems difficult. Given that you have experienced it, you can understand the feelings of a person facing a court and his lot of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, usually men, often incredulous, perplexed or skeptical, sometimes hostile. In your case, it was your own mistakes that led you in the dock. But you can not put yourself in the shoes of a woman who humbles herself by confessing that she has been raped while feeling the shame for what she suffered, constantly repeating, again and again, the same story. One would need to have a surprising strength of character to build such a lie. I can believe that some have done it, perfidy is not the prerogative of either sex, but here we are speaking of thousands of cases. Thousands of liars?

You claimed:

That doesn’t happen in any Kingdom Hall. Anywhere in the world. There is no way that an elder or a parent of a child would allow a man to take a small young child out in the ministry alone. That’s a lie. It’s not gonna happen. Not in any Kingdom Hall, 120,000 in the entire world, it’s not gonna happen. It’s a lie. (“Is Candace Conti lying about being molested by A JW elder at 9?” on Youtube)

Dear Daro, please let me tell you that you are absolutely wrong, because here is the reality: in more than fifty years, I attended about a dozen congregations in three different lands. I can therefore confirm that leaving a child alone with an adult is a common thing in all congregations! After all, are we not supposed to live in a spiritual paradise in which everyone is beautiful and kind? Who can hurt us? Because, if that's the case, then where is the paradise? For some, it would rather be hell.

Perhaps things have changed recently, as the Governing Body has revised its policy to protect themselves from the ever-increasing claims for having done nothing to protect the weakest among its flock, preferring to put responsibility on the parents and the elders if something should happen to a child in the congregation. But the harm that has been done in the past cannot be changed.

Finally, the words you use about Barbara Anderson are not worthy of someone who calls himself a disciple and a member of the self-proclaimed only true religion gathering the people of God (you will notice that I avoided using the term “Christian”, the latter being able to qualify only the one who follows Christ and not an organisation). This woman has been the voice of thousands of silent victims who have found, thanks to her, the courage to emerge from their mess. So out of respect for a person who has given years of her life to this fight and paid a heavy price, I think you should measure your words.

Dear Daro, I know you will have a hard time accepting my comments, but it is a matter between God and you. As for me, I think I have done my duty.

With Christian love,

Baruq

https://www.baruq.uk/open_letter_to_daro_weilburg_en.html

[Anna]

2 hours ago, Baruq JW said:

From what you're saying, it seems that Candace Conti woke up one fine day and that she went on the internet, found a picture of a man she did not even know and decided to accuse him, all this for personal gain.

Well no, Candace Conti was in her early 20's when she was browsing a sexual predator registry and found a picture of a man who had molested her when she was about 9 years old. She had found out that he had molested another little girl some years after her. Candace had been living in a dysfunctional family with a mother and father who were emotionally absent and who had little time for her. No one in the congregation was aware that the perpetrator had been molesting her.

Forward wind more than a decade, she had long left the JW's. Had she been an active JW she would have most probably gone about this completely differently. Instead, she claims she had a pang of conscience because she hadn't told anyone what had happened to her, and consequently another child had been molested. So she goes to ex- Witness and silentlambs founder William Bowen who urges her to follow the #metoo route, and jump on the litigation band wagon, apparently because she didn't want the perpetrator to molest anymore children (despite the fact that he had already served a prison sentence for that crime, and therefor was on the sexual predator registry as a warning for everyone in the community).

How did the perpetrator end up on that registry? Obviously because he had been reported to the police, was tried, and found guilty. What more did Candace want to do, but to get monetary compensation for her traumatic experience. It's understandable since she no longer had any ties to the JWs, and the organization had money, so why cloak it in anything else?

 

 

[Baruq JW]

Do you want to say that she should not have complained about being raped?

[JJJ-AUSTRALIA]

Lol this reminds me of a comment during this weekend meeting where a sister is so obiblious of all the child sex abuse within JW organization that she made the comment that all so Christians religions are full of problems and specially regarding child sex abuses where that would never happen within our lovely Christian organization of brothers and sisters.... Yeah right in what world she lives in and that's how many millions of other JWs have no idea. Obviously she didn't watch our Australian Royal Commission.... 

[JJJ-AUSTRALIA]

3 minutes ago, Baruq JW said:

Do you want to say that she should not have complained about being raped?

That's how I understood the comment too...

[Baruq JW]

Yes, some spoke to me about abuse in catholicism to prove that JW have the truth. You need to grit your teeth to stay silent and not responding violently.

My brother (an elder) told me that we couldn't trust the Royal Commission in Australia because they don't have God's spirit.

Well, does the governing body have God's spirit?

[Anna]

22 minutes ago, Baruq JW said:

Do you want to say that she should not have complained about being raped?

I don't know where you get that idea.  In fact I said it's understandable that she was seeking financial compensation for the trauma she suffered. 

[Baruq JW]

Sorry, I did not understand well. You must excuse me, because English is not my language.

[JJJ-AUSTRALIA]

Baruq Apparently is only "understandable" because she is fighting to get compensated as she is not a JWs. What about all JWs that were abused and are still in the organisation they should get compensated too... but hard as we are not supposed to talk about it or to know anything about it...

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

Monetary compensation is the only "Justice" one can hope for under the current secular laws for civil injuries.   I would be quite happy if a person so convicted would be surgically modified to be considerably shorter, or that dueling was allowed.  It used to be that Fathers, relatives or even the victims would shoot the criminals, and juries would show extreme leeway in considering the justifiably of it.

Under the current system monetary awards are the ONLY way to get justice in a civil lawsuit for injuries suffered.

Unfortunately .... torture is not allowed.

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

Wouldn't it be interesting if the REAL reason Jeffrey Epstein died in jail was that one of his victims had a relative that worked as a jailer in the New York Department of Corrections?

Bill Clinton's criminal mistreatment of scores of women were all made to go away with monetary settlements.

Somehow, its just not the same.

I have a feeling that will change in the next year, as more information is uncovered in the Epstein case, if there are any survivors left to testify.

Some people do work outside the "system" where money equals justice.

 

 

[JayDubya]

@Anna I’m glad she sued watchtower.  I’m glad it’s public.  You are right, she probably would have been like many of us has she still had ties to the .org.   

 

She would have been another silent victim.    What would you prefer to have happened?

This org is much too permissive of pedophiles.  Won’t even let the congregation know- yet will give a local needs part about turning in field service time.