AUSTRALIA
news.com.au
Rohan Smith
news.com.au
@ro_smith
CHILD sexual assault is a secret crime carried out by men and women who do everything they can to avoid detection.
Which is why one passage in the Bible is a Get Out of Jail Free card for offenders, particularly when adhered to so strictly by those within religious organisations.
Timothy 5:19: demands followers “do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses”.
It’s a message echoed in Matthew 18:16: that reads, among other things, “ … at the mouth of two or three witnesses every matter may be established”.
The two passages became the focus this week of a royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witness church in Australia, of which there are 65,000 followers.
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