Some commenters claim that Elizabeth Williams is being victim shamed. What they fail to understand is that Elizabeth is both victim and perpetrator. This blog and hundreds of commenters expose Elizabeth's intentional coverup of her husband's sexual abuse of her goddaughter 20 years prior to current events. When confronted with this fact, the commenters neither confirm nor deny the rape of the 15-year-old Stephens girl by Matthew Williams and Elizabeth refuses to comment. Insults and misdirection are the commenter's most common tactics. We are told to "rot in hell" and that it is we and not Elizabeth who are causing harm to the children. This is classic blame shifting.
Blame-shifting. This involves blaming someone else for the unwanted outcome that they caused or contributed to.
JTO has called on Elizabeth Willams to confirm or deny that she knew of Matthew's sexual abuse of the Stephen's girl 20 years ago. Her silence on this matter for 20 years is not acceptable and will continue to be the catalyst for others to refuse to see her as a victim in the current situation. Meanwhile her apologists and defenders continue their futile campaign to malign the reputation and character of those who have exposed her 20-year cover-up of her husband's crimes.
Nobody owes you any answers.
ReplyDeleteAnother Red Herring! How about Carole Stephens? Does anyone owe Carole Stephens any answers?
DeleteYes. Not you.
DeleteSo no one can advocate for her? Talk about victim shaming
DeleteWonderful! When can Carole expect those answers?
DeleteAnon 1:21 : You are engaging in a Straw Man argument. No one is advocating for not advocating for Elizabeth. The post clearly says she is both victim and perpetrator, but you know that. The argument here is that she cannot present herself to others as a victim until she confesses to her participation in victimizing the Stephens...but actually, "nobody owes YOU any answers" either.
ReplyDeleteFor all your advocacy, you did nothing to get Matthew imprisoned. The woman you hate so much did that instead. You failed.
ReplyDeleteDid Elizabeth call police as soon as she was certain and believed her daughters? Or did she wait months to do so only after the information she could be held liable as negligent in reporting and after other people had called the authorities soon after the news came? This needs clarification.
DeleteAs soon as she knew.
DeleteSo in September? Or December as some people close to her have claimed? This contradicts some other information.
Delete@2:17 But did she do the same thing for Carole’s daughter? Really, what is her version of this?
DeleteAnon 2:17 Straw Man argument again. It is love for Carole and her daughter that compels many to exhort Elizabeth to account for her actions. No one hates Elizabeth but Carol has suffered great persecution and had her character maligned because Elizabeth hid her husband's sexual crime against her daughter. She must account now. If YOU don't hate Elizabeth, then encourage her to confess that she knew of FMW's 20-year-old crime. She will only fully heal when that occurs, and Carole and her daughter can only begin to fully heal. This truth will come out. It should come from Elizabeth voluntarily rather than in a deposition or open court questioning. As for JTO, I will continue to press this matter as an advocate for truth and justice for all involved, including Elizabeth. Your seemingly incessant and vitriolic resistance to this may indicate you already know the truth and have deemed it too damaging to admit.
DeleteHas the Stephens girl gone to the police? I believe that's the first step in these sorts of things. They can't do anything without the victim. If I recall from other JTO articles, the girl told her confessor? I might be mistaken, but they have obviously failed her. For earthly justice, she needs to involve civil authorities!
DeleteIf Matthew is to be held accountable for his actions then so must everyone involved.
ReplyDeleteUp to and including the Metropolitan!!
Delete“According to law enforcement again: it is a reasonable expectation to be able to make a single report (including to trusted church officials), minimizing the number of times that a victim must relive the trauma of abuse.”
ReplyDeleteNo, she did not do all she needed to do.
Yes, she still had a personal responsibility to report directly to the authorities.
Blaming/deferring to ROCOR seems like an attempt to deflect or minimize what should have been an independent action
Christ’s command to protect the “least of these” applies here. The law is slow enough but it makes so much sense to hand a serious allegation like this to an internal system that is even slower. Was this placing institutional reputation above a soul’s well-being?
https://synod.com/synod/pdf/AbusePolicySYNOD.pdf
DeleteIf ROCOR had followed their own rules...
Yes let’s continually blame ROCOR to shift the view from the failings of the adult in charge of the children. We know they are corrupted which institution isn’t? Parents are the first line of defense in protecting children, not some church.
DeleteReporting only to ROCOR, the very same institution known to ordain abusers and unstable individuals, such as Matthew, is not only inadequate, it’s counterintuitive. Entrusting them alone to act is like handing a matchbook to a forest fire. The real duty lies with the adult who was present, who had a legal and moral obligation to protect those children, and who chose instead to pass the responsibility to an institution with a documented history of failure.
DeleteAnd yet she has put him in jail.
DeleteThe fact that he ended up there doesn’t erase the fact that the required steps weren’t followed when they mattered most.
DeleteBut would she have ever called the police had the dirty little secret not been leaked, and he not been confronted by a woman in the church, exposing his sins to everyone. I do not think so. So there is plenty of blame to go around.
DeleteThe original act of keeping the allegations against FMW within the Church seems a self-serving act by the accuser. Now that a trial is likely, the accuser will need to testify under oath. Based on reporting of JTO the accuser's reliability may be brought into question. For all those who have accepted the allegations against FMW, you should consider this as well.
ReplyDeleteThe accuser is a child, who has said absolutely nothing to anyone
DeleteThe unfortunate reality is that children are often manipulated by parents. The mother's reliabilithy could be an issue. If FMW is guilty, I pray he will plead guilty, take his punishment and repent so a trial would not be needed.
DeleteHow do you know the accuser is a child and not JTO's contact's wife (a grown daughter of FMW)?
DeleteChild sexual abuse can be reported by the alleged victim for some years after the victim reaches an age of majority, according to the law in most states (at least as of recently, after "Me Too").
If that’s the case at 8:41, is he only being charged for the adult daughter? If he molested 3 of his daughters per the son in laws website and is only being charged for one, that is a gross miscarriage of justice and a failure of underreporting.
DeleteMiscarriage of justice, or reality of the justice system? Also we don't know the levels of abuse and the jurisdictions in which they took place. Old events are very hard to charge.
DeleteWhile the justice system is indeed broken, ROCOR actively suppresses sex abuse cases and protects predators. Why would you go to ROCOR as a first thought, which is even more broken, over the law?
DeleteBeing hard to charge doesn’t make it any less of a miscarriage of justice.
One of those daughters he allegedly molested is still a minor and he’s only being charged for the older daughter? Why not the more recent molestation on the still minor child?
DeleteYou people clearly have no clue what is going on, who the victim is that he is being charged with molesting. Just stop! She is a child and has some rights to privacy. Remember Carol's daughter still has not come forward, but this CHILD has, so just stop. He is where he needs to be. Let this CHILD grieve, and stop just making up stuff. This is exactly why so many kids can not and will not come forward. My goodness,.
DeleteAnon at 1:24 Your strong exhortation is merited. Speculation in these matters are sinking sand. I would like to ask you to help to "just stop" some misinformation regarding Carole's daughter. I am going to shout now: SHE (THE DAUGHTER) DID COME FORWARD! SHE REPORTED TO A PRIEST WITHIN HOURS OF BEING SEXUALLY ASSAULTED! CAROLE CAME FORWARD AS SOON AS SHE LEARNED OF THE ASSAULT (A FEW YEARS LATER). SHE REPORTED TO THE GEORGIA POLICE AND THE ORTHODOX HEARCHY, THEN TO A MASS MAILING WHEN NO ONE WOULD LISTEN. "JUST STOP" SAYING THEY DID NOT COME FORWARD! Please re-read Rape and the Holy Man.
DeleteShe reported to the church that had just abused her. It's her fault for not contacting law enforcement immediately. Every other victim is her fault.
DeleteOh so now reporting to church authorities is enough?
DeleteI thought that not calling the cops instantly meant that you were "in on it"
Delete1:45, 1:46, 1:47
DeleteThere’s a serious difference being ignored here. A traumatized child reporting to a priest within hours of being assaulted is not the same as a grown woman with a documented history of silencing past allegations choosing only to go to the church. One acted in shock and innocence; the other had the benefit of hindsight, maturity, and the awareness of institutional patterns and still chose silence until it served her.
Stop conflating the two. It’s not just intellectually dishonest and immature, it’s deeply unfair to the actual victims who tried to be heard from the beginning.
I pray for your spouse if this is how you try to have a discussion.
12:19 You are leveraging the usual tactics to try and silence people who are calling long overdue attention to abuse that exists within ROCOR and other jurisidictions.
ReplyDeleteAnon 6:20 There seems to be a team devoted to silencing JTO. JTO and its readers see right through their tactics. They say no one reads JTO and that it is inconsequential, yet they attempt to silence voices such as yours. Keep the faith, and don't be weary in well-doing.
DeleteMake no mistake Nathan.
DeleteI know people in Jordanville. The Monks are very much reading this
Anon 11:14 Every monk started as a newborn child of God. May they return to their first love- The Father. Who among them will act? https://journeytoorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-there-not-one-rocor-bishop-who-will.html
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