Analysis of reported abuses and apology poll

from porceleindoll - Thursday, February 10, 2005
accessed 1670 times

Analysis of the poll:

The Family keeps claiming it has apologized for abuses, which is why I conducted this poll to find out how many people did receive apologies for abuses they reported. I realize this doesn’t reflect every person who was ever abused in the group, as many people may not have seen the poll or voted.

125 people responded to the poll.

Out of 125 people:

7 (5.6%) people reported abuse and received not only a personal and sincere apology, but the offender(s) were punished. Exactly what that punishment was, we don’t know, excommunication, prayer and fasting, demotion, etc…

0 people reported abuse to WS and received an apology. Does this mean no one reported abuse, or that they did and didn’t receive an apology. As the below statistics show, abuses were reported, but it seems that WS did not issue any apologies to the individuals who responded.

8 (6.4%) persons reported abuses and were told to 'take it to the Lord--Romans 8:28'. Whether this was by their shepherds, leaders or parents, it’s obvious that in at least these 8 cases steps were not taken to insure the safety of these young people nor anyone else who came in contact with those who abused them.

9 (7.2%) persons reported abuses and never heard back from either WS or the perp. Either their emails were lost, or ignored. In any case, again, proper steps were not taken to handle the situation as it should have been.

32 (25.6%) told their parents/shepherds and were told they were lying or mistaken. Not only was nothing done to handle the situation properly, they were also condemned themselves. A reaction like this from parents/those in authority leads to emotional distress and confusion.

Close to 13 (10.4%) persons reported abuses, but were not informed that they could go to the authorities about it. Once again, in 13 cases the situation was not properly handled.

16 (12.8%) reported abuse and were corrected and told it was their own fault. This is serious as it lays the direct blame of the incident on the lap of the person who was abused. It lays the actions of an adult’s misdeeds on the shoulders of a child or minor. Obviously this is NOT a proper handling of the situation.

The highest percentage (32%--40 people) never reported any abuses. This question doesn’t specify the reasons they didn’t report abuses (please see a coming soon poll on this subject). They may not have reported abuses cause there was nothing to report, or because they were abused but had reasons for not reporting them—some of those may include wanting to protect their family, protect themselves from retribution or blame, confusion as to what was being ‘done in love’ was right or wrong, they may have been quite young when it happened and years later didn’t feel it necessary to report, I can’t presume to know why, these are just a few opinions.

So, out of 125 people who responded to the poll, 85 were abused in some way. Of those 85, only 7 received adequate apology and saw some form of punishment for their abuser. The remaining 78 persons either received no comment, or were made to be the guilty ones, or told to ‘trust the Lord’.

Although I didn’t include the question “What sort of punishment did the offender receive?”, I somehow doubt that the punishment was adequate to the crime. From past stories I’ve heard, these punishments have included a one day excommunication or demotion to babe’s status, a temporary excommunication then the ability to rejoin at babe’s status. I have never heard of one situation that was reported to the local authorities for proper attention.

40 people didn’t report any abuse, but again, this doesn’t mean they weren’t abused, just that they may have chosen not to report it.

If any of you who received apologies from the offender, WS, leaders, would like to post them here, I would be interested to read them. This issue of apologies from the cult interests me as I have yet to see one that is personal and sincere, or even just personal. The cult keeps reiterating that it has apologized, and I’d like to see where and when it happened.