Theos-Talk Archives (June 1997 Message tl00469)

On Thu, 19 Jun 1997 03:31:44 -0400 (EDT) kymsmith@micron.net writes:
>Tom offered quotes:
>
>> Page 95: "The distraught Annie Besant, trapped between two
>>loyalties, decided in favour of the older and stronger.  On 26 February
>>1906, she answered Mrs. Dennis [who was accusing Leadbeater] from
>>Shanti Kunja, accepting Leadbeater’s explanation, and pointing out
>>how unfair it was to condemn a man unheard, on the accusations of >>two
confused boys."

>Now this is a cryptic paragraph!  Annie ". . .decided in favour of the
>older and stronger."  Older and stronger?  That's an interesting, and
>haunting, choice of words.

How is preferring an older and stronger loyalty haunting?


>And doesn't that preference continue to this day?

Huh?


>Annie referred to the children as "two confused boys."  Two confused
>boys! - most children who have been abused are confused.

What does that have to do with CWL?  Or are you reasoning that, since
children who have been abused are confused, therefore children who are
confused have been abused?


>And doubting the mental capacity of a victim of sexual abuse is a
>common, though faulty, reaction.

What does that have to do with CWL?


>Tom concluded:
>
>> What he did may have
>> lacked tact, but it was not child abuse.
>
>Really?  What you consider "lacked tact" may, to a child, seem like
>abuse.

Anything _may_ seem like abuse to a child.  Getting spanked may seem like
abuse to a child.


>Some boys are traumatized by having to be seen naked in a high
>school gym locker - now, let's have some of these same boys sitting in
>a circle with their peers, not only exposed, but possibly having to
>"perform" - do you think all boys would come out unscathed?  Woe to
>those who with a "puny penis" or something else schoolmates could
>forever mock you with.

What justification do you have to support your implication that CWL was
not sensitive to these possibilities with the boys who were in his care?


>CWL has just handed us a whopping amount of group karma to work off.

How?


>And I am disappointed with Annie - it does sound from your quotes that
>she chose to preserve the reputation of the Theosophical Society
>rather than taking the high road.  She may have sacrificed two (or more)
>children to preserve the Society.

How did she do that?


>I am sick at heart by what I have deduced from the quotes.

You didn't need the quotes to deduce what you deduced.  To you, an
accusation is proof enough.  You start with the assumption that CWL is
guilty of child abuse, and proceed from there.  You do the same thing
with sexism and anti-Semitism, helping to destroy the meaning of the
words.