Moving On | Choose your lifeMoving On | Choose your life
Safe Passage Foundation - Support to youth raised in high demand organizations


Saturday, January 31, 2009    

Home | New Content | Statistics | Games | FAQs

Getting Out : Seeking Justice

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.

Reader's comments on this article

Add a new comment on this article

from
Thursday, February 10, 2005 - 23:09

Average visitor agreement is 5 out of 5Average visitor agreement is 5 out of 5Average visitor agreement is 5 out of 5Average visitor agreement is 5 out of 5Average visitor agreement is 5 out of 5(Agree/Disagree?)

Why not report abuse? Well, what is the abuse is carried out by the people in power who presumably you'd be reporting it to? And the single biggest obstacle is: what if the abuses you suffered are practices that are laid out in the Mo Letters or GNs? What kind of reception would you get for going against the Lord and his "moves" for The Family?

In the frightening days when I left the group, it would take a masochist to draw attention to yourself by saying "hey wait a minute, I not only don't like what you're doing to me here, but by golly, I think it's abusive! Instead of having to go through what Mene/Teen James [insert latest scapegoat] is discussed as enduring, I'd like to have it stop being done to me AND I'd like an apology AND appropriate discipline handed out to shepherds Larry, Curly and Moe who propose to keep doing this to me and my friends."

I was never listened to growing up in The Family, and as I grew up and had more "interesting" thoughts about their 3 ring circus, I was listened to less and in trouble for what I was saying more. How in the sam hill am I supposed to deduce that despite every single failed attempt to be heard at anything, they would listen if it came to real censure of their own actions?

(reply to this comment)

From Jaded
Friday, February 11, 2005, 00:05

(Agree/Disagree?)
Yeah, reporting abuse in the family would be like going to the police station to report police brutality. "yeah, just fill out this form; oh and be sure to put down your full address..." and we'll come pay you a little visit...(reply to this comment
From
Friday, February 11, 2005, 09:55

(
Agree/Disagree?)
Yeah or telling off a Jew for getting on the train. (reply to this comment

My Stuff


log in here
to post or update your articles

Community

70 user/s currently online

Web Site User Directory
5047 registered users

log out of chatroom

Happy Birthday to demerit   Benz   tammysoprano  

Weekly Poll

What should the weekly poll be changed to?

 The every so often poll.

 The semi-anual poll.

 Whenever the editor gets to it poll.

 The poll you never heard about because you have never looked at previous polls which really means the polls that never got posted.

 The out dated poll.

 The who really gives a crap poll.

View Poll Results

Poll Submitted by cheeks,
September 16, 2008

See Previous Polls

Online Stores


I think, therefore I left


Check out the Official
Moving On Merchandise
. Send in your product ideas


Free Poster: 100 Reasons Why It's Great to be a Systemite

copyright © 2001 - 2009 MovingOn.org

[terms of use] [privacy policy] [disclaimer] [The Family / Children of God] [contact: admin@movingon.org] [free speech on the Internet blue ribbon] [About the Trailer Park] [Who Links Here]