Reconsidering this topic, and trying to keep it 'on forum', made me ask the following question;
- ... "what is the BK Brahmin way to deal with pedophiles and child sex abuse?" That could, of course, be developed to ask, "what is the BKWSU way to deal with any serious crime?" (Except, of course, financial fraud to which the answer would be, in my opinion, "engage in it").
leela wrote:OF COURSE pedophiles need to be taken off the streets. They rarely change and usually re-offend. Taking them out of circulation protects all children. (Incidentally, the US is looking seriously at some form of castration as a treatment). When people wave this flag of punishing the perpetrator as if it were on my behalf, well, thank you, but it does not feel helpful to me personally. To me, it is a separate issue. It is just very unfortunate that there needs to be a victim in order to prosecute.
In the case of child sex abuse, now we have example not just of it but also the organizational, and individuals' responses to it. I think it is fair to say that it is the BK Brahmin way to, not look, not speak, not discuss ... deny, cover up and pretend it did not happen. And if the victim of any abuse persists ... censor them by telling them, "it was your karma". Am I right or wrong? We have Dadi Janki Kripalani stating that if one saw or heard a crime, a BK should just walk away and not report it. Don't get involved ... it was the victims karma.
There is the typical, conformist "spiritual" response, speaks to "the power of forgivenness" and so on. I am not entirely sure how many individuals would be able to carry that one right through to include rape and sexual abuse of children. I can see from, the victim's points, the value in it. Or at least "the power of forgetfulness" and letting go as futile the thought of retribution.
For me, personally, I do not think there can, or should, be forgiveness without repentance at the other end. It strikes me that life is full of abusers and their accomplices, walking away laughing or demanding to be forgiven. So what should the BK Brahmin way to deal with child sex abuse and other serious crimes?" To which standards do we fall back on ... should BK Brahmins become engaged in the discussion and development of societies mores and laws? The establishment position on that seems to be, "no, it is all going to be destroyed ... have more Yoga ... do more proscelyting for us".
In India, and other traditional soceities, the female body is very largely the property of the partiarchal society. Less than a property, it is a burden, a cost ... a deficit to the family accounts. To marry off a daughter requires to pay someone to take her (even the BKWSU requires paying to take a young daughter away).
In such communties, it would seeem a sexually abused, or even naturally precocious sexually female, are dirty, damaged or unwanted "goods"; probably unmarriable, an "object" of shame ... and as such very often abused again by the family, or society, especially if she is to speak out against her male abusers. (I was thinking of a Jewish young girl just recently in London who accused a Hasidic Rabbi of sexually abuse her, which he did, and yet the society turned on her, stoning her house and aiming to stone her because 'she' had brought shame on the community by speaking out). The tendency is not to speak out, to hide and, ultimately, to save face for the power structure.
In the developed nations, sex has become a shameless and pleasurable right for all. An equal view of women and female rights has emerged; in theory at least, if not entirely in practise. Yet still most rapes and child abuse go unreported, most abusers are male, the police and legal system are largely the final bastion of patriarchy and the crimes are a notoriously difficult and traumatic charge to prove but some high profile precedents have been set, such as the numerous cases held up against the Roman Catholic Church. In cases of abuse, our sympathies are clearly with the vulnerable or victims ... but we have the problem or what to do with the abuser.
In Hinduism, Krishna - unlike Christ - did not forgive. He killed. That was his royal fashion. And, in India, there is nothing more they like better than a good riot ending in a lynching, dismemberment or human bonfire. Should the Brahma Kumaris have a position or take a position about all this? Do they do enough for the rights and protection of other females? How should the BKWSU deal with their own abusers (apart from promoting them as usual)? What opinion do or should BK followers have about such cases? Should a BK NOT have the right to suggest castration or the death penalty?
My answer and that of recent surveys is, no, the Brahma Kuamris do not do enough. My impression is that, number one, the Brahma Kumaris are about the acquisition of power and influence and are NOT a specifically feminist or womanist movement. It is more of a 'caste-ist' movement and about caste ascendancy. Internal victims, vulnerable adherents including the young, are shameful liabilities to be swept under the carpet or toughened up and made into Shaktis, as they have invested £1,000,000s in a front the Brahma Kumaris think will gain them power. The cover up of the sex abuse cases was about saving face to outsiders and maintaining position internally.
God forbid the BK followers start to discuss the BK leadership's suitability to lead.
So, yes, I think you are right on a couple of counts, leela. The events and the discussion and significance of the events are two separate things. It may well be a 'second rape' for the victims to be used as such and I apologise for that. But, at the same time, it is still a discussion a society must have ... surely?
I propose a new poll;
Do the Brahma Kumaris do enough for women's and children's rights in situations where they are traditionally abused?