How Many are there Really?




I was talking to an ex-Witness on Facebook yesterday and the subject of regression therapy came up which reminded me of a conversation I had with an elder (a particularly prominent elder in the UK) about fifteen years ago.  He talked about 'false memories' being implanted by Satan and the Demons in Witnesses.  This conversation was just before the start of the first media revelations of the extent of child abuse within the JW religion.

The elder said that they had been warned by Bethel that there were a number of Witnesses who claimed that they had been abused as children but there had never been any abuse, the accusations were as a result of demonic sources creating false memories.

Of course subsequent revelations have revealed very real abusers but I began to wonder how many of us who were brought up as JW's from childhood are suppressing bad things that happened.  I know that I was never sexually abused, in fact I know that in their own Borg like way my parents loved me. However that didn't stop my father from giving me regular beatings, even as a very young boy.  The thing is, though that sounds awful (and I am not defending him here just because he's my dad) but all kids were bashed around the head and walloped on the behind in the sixties and seventies - that was parenting whatever you religion.

Of course now that would not be acceptable and in fact it would be likely to get you a prison sentence but back then attitudes were different.  It was acceptable to pinch a woman's bum or make a crude remark to her in front of workmates.  Today those sort of attitudes are just unacceptable.  However child abuse has ALWAYS been unacceptable and the conversation with the elder has recently started to trouble me.

It's fairly obvious that the Governing Body were fully aware of the storm that was about to hit them and sent out the 'Satan's mind games' explanation to keep the elders on side, though why anyone, even brain-washed Witnesses, would believe that rubbish is beyond me.  

My new friend on Facebook is really struggling with the memories that have started to come to the surface and she is scared of what regressive therapy might reveal.  How many other Witnesses have similar repressed memories?  Yet just as important a question is; How many Witnesses have expressed their memories to congregation elders and have been told that they are not real, in fact they are Satanic?

What is the true extent of child abuse within the Organisation if the leaders have spread lies about the origin of these memories?

I don't know what to advise my ex-Witness friend other than to confide in someone she trusts.  The problem is the regression therapy might reveal things she really doesn't want to know or, maybe knowing will allow her to deal with it and move on.

Whatever she does I wish her the very best.  

Rydler Oct 26th 2016

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