|
 A few years ago, a Jehovah's Witness congregation not far from me was sued for aiding and abetting child abuse. The story was on the national media radar and I read about the case several times in my local newspaper. I didn't think much of it, until I realized that my father could possibly be involved in the case. I can't even begin to tell you how ironic that was, to know that my own father could have any level of participation in this case as it unfolded in the courts.
But in order for this story to make sense, I have to digress a bit and explain where I come from. Or more accurately, I must explain where I ran away from. I left home at the age of sixteen. My sister had also left home, but four years earlier at her age of fourteen. It would require a very long story to explain why we left...a story that will soon be out in book form. It's a long book with a longer story of growing up as a Witness and knowing I was gay, but this blog can't handle a long story, so I will tell a short one.
When I was seven, my grandmother called the elders in our congregation to report my bruises. She was a Witness in a different congregation, so she would never have called the police. As a dutiful member of The Truth, she called the elders and expected them to take care of things. Shortly after, my father moved us to a new town in a different county.
When I was twelve, my sister's gym teacher called the police to report her bruises. We moved out of state not long after that.
Throughout my entire childhood, my sister and I were not allowed in our house if our parents weren't home. So when I was a teenager in Wyoming, I often crawled inside the tack compartment of our horse trailer to stay warm when I was locked outside in the snow.
So that's the short story, but when I was sixteen, I ran away from home. I eventually asked the police for help, and I somehow mentioned that my family belonged to The Truth. My father was pissed. That's what I remember most about our conversation after the police sent me back to him. He was just pissed. In his words, I had "brought reproach on Jehovah's name" for disclosing the fact that I was a Witness. He couldn't imagine anything worse that I could have done.
As I mentioned in my previous blogs, my sister went back to The Truth after she had children. Like me, she doesn't talk to our father. He isn't part of our lives anymore, but my sister and I are very close and often talk about our past, and a couple of years ago I mentioned the abuse case that our father was likely to be involved in. Actually, I should mention that my father is not likely to be a "participant" in the case, but as the Presiding Overseer for his congregation, I would imagine that he has some input in defending the congregation from the claims of child abuse.
I called my sister and mentioned that our father could possibly be involved in the lawsuit, but she couldn't see the parallel. She walked the Witness line and defended their belief that the police and the courts should never be notified. Witnesses believe in self-discipline, and more importantly, if there are not at least two adult members of The Truth who are eyewitnesses to the supposed abuse, the claims are dismissed by the elders as unlikely.
So it's deja vu all over again for me. I can imagine my father wanting to disfellowship the family who brought the lawsuit, and berating them with accusations of bringing reproach on Jehovah's name.
There's only one conclusion to this story for me. The Truth is not the truth. It just isn't. I am completely incapable of accepting the possibility that the religion who claims ownership of the sole path to God could allow my father to lead. God just wouldn't allow that. He wouldn't.
Trackback(0)
 |
People 
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed