Disturbing Passages in Holy Books

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Yeah, JFC.

I vividly remember reading that article when I was young. It was weird to see that it still isn’t hard to find at all - I wasn’t even searching for it in particular - and is likely still being read by a lot of people.

JWs believe that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) except for their organization, so they are trained to place the Watchtower above everything else - even above the work of real experts. If I had a daughter, there’s no way in Hell I’d want her to grow up with a lot of the stuff I was raised with, not that I’ve wanted my son to, either. It’s chilling to me how people can be led into believing that clearly harmful and abusive BS is good.

Maybe I should start a Words of Wisdom from the Watchtower thread. I just read an article titled “Do Not Be Depriving Each Other of It.” Geez, the dudes in the writing department were horny bastards.

Along with a few other scriptures that have been cited in this thread, what Jesus says here at Matthew 10:37 used to freak me out, especially when I became a mother:

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

I couldn’t and can’t imagine loving anyone more than my own my son. It just seems very wrong to me. The cognitive dissonance I experienced on this topic as a new mom was palpable.

Jesus demanding love is problematic. Love isn’t something to be demanded. It’s freely given (or not).

To be honest, I never loved Jesus or God. Sometimes I do get attached to characters in books, but I don’t think I ever felt as much for Jesus as I did for Frodo, Sam, David Copperfield, or Huckleberry Finn. Bible writers weren’t so good at creating fully formed characters although I must admit that I always had an affinity for Peter. He was the most well-developed character in the New Testament IMO. Still, did I like him more than other fictional characters? No.

Stoning

In addition to the Bible encouraging the use of corporal punishment on children and allowing slave owners to beat their slaves, flogging is promoted as a reasonable punishment at Deuteronomy 25:1-3:

“Suppose two persons have a dispute and enter into litigation, and the judges decide between them, declaring one to be in the right and the other to be in the wrong. 2 If the one in the wrong deserves to be flogged, the judge shall make that person lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of lashes proportionate to the offense. 3 Forty lashes may be given but not more; if more lashes than these are given, your neighbor will be degraded in your sight.”

Can one call for a second to stand in for your flogging?

Probably not.

In comparison to most other scriptures in this thread, the following passage is more silly than disturbing. The gist is that when a married man dies his brother, if he has one, is supposed to marry his widow. I underlined the punishment he’s to receive if he refuses:

I suppose that’s much better than being flogged, stoned, or burned alive.

Here’s a punishment from God involving excrement at Ezekiel 4:9-15 (I feel like I’ve not talked enough about excrement in this thread considering how often it comes up in the Bible):

“And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel and make bread for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred ninety days, you shall eat it. 10 The food that you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; at fixed times you shall eat it. 11 And you shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; at fixed times you shall drink. 12 You shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” 13 The Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread, unclean, among the nations to which I will drive them.” 14 Then I said, “Ah Lord God! I have never defiled myself; from my youth up until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has carrion flesh come into my mouth.” 15 Then he said to me, “See, I will let you have cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.”

On the topic of gross food, I always found the verses about Eucharist/Communion disturbing. An observance consisting of symbolically eating Jesus’s flesh and blood is weird AF although, to be fair, the practice was likely rooted in earlier traditions. For example, Greco-Roman mystery cults had similar ceremonies.

Here’s the passage at John 6:52-58:

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day, 55 for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Speaking of cannibalism, I don’t think 2 Kings 6:24-29 has been cited yet:

Some time later King Ben-hadad of Aram mustered his entire army; he marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. 25 As the siege continued, famine in Samaria became so great that a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver and one-fourth of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. 26 Now as the king of Israel was walking on the city wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help, my lord king!” 27 He said, “If the Lord does not help you, where would my help come from? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?” 28 But then the king asked her, “What is your complaint?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son; we will eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.”

Once again in the interest of fairness, it’s not presented as a positive thing, but it’s a very strange passage in a book that’s purportedly inspired by a just and loving deity.

Child Sexual Abuse in the Jehovah’s Witness Organization

After exploring the Watchtower’s views on rape, I decided that I wanted to get “God’s thoughts” on the topic of child sexual abuse, so once again, I consulted the Watchtower. The second result that came up in the search engine was from a 1993 Awake! article titled: “Child Sexual Abuse — Prevention Begins in the Home.” It’s filled with extremely…interesting information. In this post, I’ll explore that as well as some of their other material on the subject.

I want to preface this by saying that in 1993 the organization’s problems with CSA were not known by rank and file members. Most knew people who experienced it even if they didn’t experience it themselves. Back then, we didn’t know that it was a widespread issue; we thought the instances of abuse we experienced or heard about were isolated events. At this time, CSA was most often not reported because JWs didn’t want to “bring reproach on Jehovah’s name.” [See the second quote at the top of this post.] It could hinder people from joining the Truth - the only means to salvation. I know a woman who told the elders about the CSA she experienced. They told her not to report. At any rate, unlike rank and file members, the leadership was well aware of what was occurring. The organization maintains a secret database containing allegations of child molestation across multiple decades, and most allegations have not been shared with law enforcement.

The Bible never talks about CSA. It does talk about bestiality, circumcision, and excrement ad nauseam. One would think God could’ve spared a few scriptures to talk about CSA. Maybe he was too absorbed in his favorite pastime - slaughtering children - to bother. JWs often cite scriptures in their articles on CSA, which I linked in quotes, but it amounts to little more than cherrypicking and taking things out of context. That’s how their theology often works.

Without further ado, let’s get to the Awake! article:
Yes, so reading and discussing the Bible together can keep parents from committing incest. Maybe I should share this valuable information with law enforcement and mental health professionals.

We also could instruct our children on the perils of CSA by having them read about rape (presumably committed against adults) that occurs in the Bible. (They even go this route in their book for young children My Book of Bible Stories.)
^ Only if the parent is a child molester. There are many benefits to co-sleeping. My son and I did it for years.

Drinking can lead to CSA:As a single mother, this is the most vile thing I may have read:Here they say that child molesters can change. I’m not saying that change is impossible, but the way they focus on that point often reads tone-deaf. Believing that the Bible/God is the solution to ALL problems is a central tenet of their theology.In an article from the same Awake! magazine titled: “Your Child is in Danger!”, homophobia rears its ugly head which is interesting considering the fact that the organization’s own problems with abuse most often involve men abusing girls, perhaps even more than is typical due to their marked power imbalance between men and women that’s rooted in scripture. In my experience, entitlement flourished in that environment. (Boys and girls are brought up with different goals in mind. Men are to be leaders; women are to be obedient followers. On the topic of gender, girls and women who disclose abuse must do so to male elders which can be traumatic in and of itself. Due to the Watchtower’s handling of this issue, elders’ default most often is to err on the side of disbelief even though false reports are quite rare. Elders have no formal training on these issues and very few have been to college or even taken a psychology class. There’s often a boys’ club vibe going on, too. “My buddy Gus would never do that!”) Effects of CSA according to the Watchtower:In yet another article from the same magazine titled: “How Can We Protect Our Children,” the organization decided to cite the Catholic Church’s issues with CSA which they very often did until their own problems were made public:^ Pot calling the kettle black.

A possible scenario if you remember being sexually abused by your parents as a child and decide to confront them about it in this 1991 Awake! titled: “A Time To Heal”:
CSA is almost normalized in some of their articles. It’s treated as a sin like their view of adultery, fornication, etc., not a crime.

The 1995 Watchtower article “Comfort for Those With a ‘Stricken Spirit’” outlines what one should do if they have flashbacks/recover memories of abuse:Telling victims to confront their abusers could be dangerous and lead to serious ramifications although, to be fair, this specific policy changed in 2019, but it has led to a lot of harm and trauma over the years. Secondary wounding can be as traumatic as the abuse itself. Suggesting that a confession could lead to the “blessing” of a reconciliation demonstrates, yet again, their tone-deaf ignorance on the topic.

They do nothing about abuse in their own congregations unless the abuser confesses, there is a witness, or if a second victim comes forward. If the abuser confesses and professes repentance, he may face little to no repercussions in the congregation. The child protection policies within the organisation are so lacking that some estranged members describe it as “a paedophile’s paradise”. We certainly speak of it that way in exJW circles.

They require less evidence and no witnesses when it comes to the issue of fornication. Off-topic but mildly interesting:


The organization has struggled doctrinally with the issue of statutory rape which has led to teenagers being disfellowshipped and shunned after being groomed and sexually abused by an adult, which I alluded to at the bottom of my post on rape. Since Satan is ruling the world (1 John 5:19) and one must “obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29), widely accepted values centered on child abuse aren’t as straightforward to them as they should be. The Bible does not address age of consent for obvious reasons.

They were investigated by the Australian Royal Commission (ARC) in 2015 because it was disclosed that the Australia Branch of Jehovah's Witnesses had records of 1,006 alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse, relating to more than 1,800 victims since 1950, none of which were reported to police.

Here’s a ~3 minute clip from the ARC featuring an interview with an elder. It’s pretty cringey although the intellectualism on display is fairly representative. Basically, if a child molester is not repentant or is a repeat offender, they will be shunned but won’t be reported unless there’s a legal requirement to do so (and not always then). They often get out of it for legal reasons in locales where there is some idiotic clergy privilege loophole.



In certain, situations a child molester can reach out for positions of authority in the congregation. It can happen if the “sin” was committed many years ago and is not well-known. They care more about their reputation than the safety of children. Those who sexually abused children in the past are still supposed to preach if they were deemed repentant and are in current good-standing in the organization.

It’s not particularly difficult to convince elders that you are repentant even when you aren’t. I managed to do it when I committed the “sin” of fornication. I lied so I could have contact with my brother and parents which I desperately needed at the time. The elders were fully convinced of my repentance and praised my meekness, cooperation, and humility. I was publicly chastised, since my “sin” was known, but not disfellowshipped. My point is that it’s not difficult to see how pedophiles could lie so as to have access to children with fewer risks of repercussions than is typical. Of course, some may believe they’ve changed, but child abusers often reoffend, especially when circumstances are conducive for it.

JWs are urged to avoid news reports about child abuse in their organization. The leadership claims that they are often lies or half-truths stemming from Satan who wants to turn people away from the Truth.

The following short clip features Governing Body member Stephen Lett:



A mention of CSA and the statement that we need to be careful about what we hear in the media regarding reports is in this ~4 minute video:



This post is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a huge topic that’s hard to appropriately address because of the complexity of their policies and beliefs. I needed to make this long because one weird quote won’t easily demonstrate the extent of the problem. (I’ll also use it as a resource for a project I’m working on, so I’m still glad I posted it even if no one reads it due to its length.) While reporting child abuse is vitally important, I understand why some rank and file members have chosen not to do it. There are the feelings of shame, embarrassment, and guilt that often come with being a victim of these sorts of crimes but also fear and guilt at the thought of making the organization look bad - the fear of leading others astray which could possibly bar them from everlasting life. That’s a huge weight for a victim to carry. Yeah, it sounds wacky, but if you’re raised with those beliefs, it seems perfectly normal. When victims come forward, there are often repercussions for them in the congregation - even soft shunning or worse, and these are people who need support the most. Most often, members don’t have close friends or family outside of the religion because they are discouraged from associating with outsiders. Fear of being misled is regularly instilled into believers (1 Corinthians 15:33).

There’s more good information on the topic of CSA among JWs at this site:

https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/paedophilia.php

With all that being said, the Watchtower is NOT an anomaly. Fundamentalist religions often struggle with CSA and for some of the same reasons. Given widespread Christian nationalism and the piece of s**t who’s currently in Office, I’m concerned about what that could mean for current victims and survivors in the coming years.

For a bit of background, in the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul is upset that the people in Galatia are listening to other ideas instead of continuing to blindly follow him. Some were pushing the idea of salvation through following the Mosaic Law, including that pertaining to circumcision.

The following violent passage is figuratively talking about Israel.Back to Hosea and Gomer:

What's he got against raisin cakes?

I think the problem is that they were enjoying themselves. The nerve of those people!!

it was a fun time to be alive

Now I want to get really wild and make some raisin bread even though I don’t like raisin bread.