Religious groups in UK failing children over sex abuse

[zebo-the-fat]

Religious groups in UK failing children over sex abuse

There are "shocking failings" and "blatant hypocrisy" in the way major UK religious groups handle child sex abuse allegations, an inquiry has found.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said some religious organisations in England and Wales were "morally failing" children.
It examined evidence from 38 groups, including those from Christianity, Orthodox Judaism and Islam.
Leaders discouraged reporting abuse to protect reputations, the report found.
It said the religious leaders also blamed victims for their abuse, and relied on religious dogma when responding to allegations.

The report, which follows on from inquiries into the Catholic and Anglican Churches, comes after several weeks of public hearings held last year in which victims of abuse gave evidence.
It covers a series of religious groups including Jehovah's Witnesses, Baptists, Methodists, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and non-conformist Christian denominations.
The report said that many religious groups were putting children at risk by:

Victim blaming
Not openly discussing matters of sexuality
Abuse of power by religious leaders
Men dominating the leadership
Mistrust of non-religious agencies
Misusing the concept of "forgiveness"

The inquiry found that in some communities "the relationship between ideas of sexual 'purity' and social and familial standing are likely to make abuse markedly harder to report".
"The imperative not to speak is bound up with notions of honour, with consequences for an individual's ability to marry, for their family and for the 'honour' of their community. In extreme cases, being seen as dishonourable can lead to violence against that individual or their family," it said.
While the inquiry's press release was strongly worded, the report itself was more measured and Lloyd Evans, who campaigns against abuse in the Jehovah's Witnesses, told BBC News it was "wishy washy".
Mr Evans, a former elder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, suggested that IICSA did not look at as much data as it could have - and that part of the problem was that the inquiry was "under-funded".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58420270?a...gn=KARANGA

The question is, is anyone surprised??

[Rev. Rye]

I know Lloyd Evans. Not personally, of course, but I have seen quite a few of his Youtube videos. And this one in particular was an eye-opener:





If you thought the Catholic Church was bad with the whole issue of child abuse, just look at what the JWs have done. In their case, they have decided they need to follow a rule from the Bible days where anyone being accused of a serious sin needs to have two witnesses in order for them to do anything about it. And even then, they might still not give a shit about the perp. At most, they might keep their name on a database (with over 20,000 names on it), but they will not share that info with anyone unless the law forces them to. And the higher-ups are so wedded to the rule that not only are they willing to default on court case after court case, like a version of rope-a-dope done by someone without the necessary stamina, but the most senior member of the Governing Body once rejected a subpoena by claiming that he has zero affiliation with the organization he runs, and another member, when confronted with a loophole that would allow them to do away with the two-victim rule and still claim a scriptural basis, they prayed on it and decided it does not apply. Relevant texts are available in this PDF made by Evans, including the two statements by Governing Body members mentioned before, specifically pages 174-6, and 312-5.

If the Jehovah’s Witnesses had the same numbers as the RCC, there’d probably be zero question as to whether or not they were worse at protecting child molesters.