I think many of us who have never been JWs tend to think of them as a harmless group of folks with slightly odd beliefs about blood transfusions and Christmas. However, this is a really appalling example of what happens when a group of seven old guys in Brooklyn (“the governing body” of the JWs) have convinced people that they have the absolute truth straight from God and cannot be questioned.
I am not seeing the debate, here. Perhaps you intended this for The BBQ Pit?
What is it to debate here?
I think this thread will fit more comfortably in The BBQ Pit.
The RCC admitted errors and didn’t demonize victims?
This is not even remotely surprising. “A harmless group of folks with slightly odd beliefs” is exactly what they want the outside world to think, because “manipulative money-grubbing abusers” doesn’t sound as nice. I had one ex-JW parent and have scads of current and former JW relatives, and the amount of damage they do to their families is absolutely criminal.
As a general rule, they prefer psychological abuse to sexual abuse, but I would not be surprised if the kind of people that rise to power in an organization built on unhealthy and dysfunctional relationships are also the kind of people who commit other types of abuse against those over whom they have power.
Anyway, good for Lopez. I wonder if there’s a statue of limitations—I sure know scads of people who deserve some restitution.
Edit to address the OP: the government of the JWs is expressly designed to perpetuate a cycle of psychological control, which is a kind of abuse. The sentence bolded is absolutely consistent with everything I know about them from ex-members’ reports.
It’s in the nature of cults to become less dangerous over time. I’m kinda sad that the JW’s are still run like that: I’d hoped they’d become more mainstream.
Well, eventually.