Let’s not forget the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They suck too.
A schoolgirl who left the Jehovah’s Witnesses after learning of its alleged failure to protect vulnerable women has blasted the organisation in a powerful speech to her classmates.
Holding back tears, she recalled her personal experiences as a member of the church and how she was taught everyone outside the religion, including her father, would be sent to Armageddon.
Which is false, and a cruel thing to tell anyone, but especially children, since they tend to believe what adults tell them.
She also highlighted women’s lowly position in the hierarchy of the organisation and how they are viewed as inferior to men.
“They cannot teach men. They cannot even speak at a podium in front of men as I am doing now,” she said. “They are not to question any decision made by a men. That is slander.”
Most religions are like that, especially most monotheistic religions. If you’re going to have just one god, you’re not going to waste it on a gurrrul, are you.
The most shocking allegations relate to women the girl spoke to, who were members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and wished to remain anonymous.
One, she called Jane, was allegedly interrogated by the church elders after she was raped, while at work as insurance salesperson.
The elders apparently said she tempted men by the way she dressed and that men were “only human”.
In order to be forgiven and not be excommunicated, or “disfellowshipped,” Jane was forced to dress more conservatively, quit her job and worst of all drop the charges against her attacker.
That’s interesting. A man who rapes a woman is only human, but a woman who is raped is punished for being raped. Heads they win, tails you lose.
The church has battled with previous allegations of silencing victims of sexual abuse, to avoid embarrassing the church, but have always vigorously denied any wrongdoing.
In 2015 a Californian court ordered the Watch Tower Society, the company which runs the Jehovah’s Witnesses, to pay $2.8m in damages after failing to disclosure the past abuse of a congregation member, which led to the sexual abuse of a nine-year-old girl.
Some witnesses.
Shakespeare: “The devil can quote scripture”
1 Tim 2:9 women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array
1 Tim 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
Yup, david, I couldn’t agree more – there certainly is a lot of nasty misogynist crap in the bible, and a lot of people who use it as pseudo-justification for the nasty misogynist bullshit they favour in their own lifestyles.
This isn’t related to the main part of the article but this
‘Holding back tears, she recalled her personal experiences as a member of the church and how she was taught everyone outside the religion, including her father, would be sent to Armageddon.’
really hit home. I was reminded of the time when my mother (not fully in the church, but JW-inclined) told me that I’d be going straight to hell because heaven was already full. I was 7.