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Jehovah's Witness: Child abuse claims can go unreported
11 February 2001
By Kimberly Hefling
Associated Press <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
BENTON -- As a boy, William Bowen sat quietly in his
seat while his classmates recited the Pledge of
Allegiance.
As a member of Jehovah's Witnesses, he spent years
going door-to-door evangelizing and serving the
denomination. In time, he became an elder, a position
of authority, in his western Kentucky congregation.
But as an elder, he was privy to information that
caused him to question the Jehovah's Witnesses faith
-- and to question it publicly, an ultimate
transgression in the denomination.
In a letter dated Dec. 31, Bowen resigned as an elder,
in protest of how the denomination, a society that
shuns the outside world, handles accusations of child
molestation. His claim is that in such a culture,
accusations of child sex abuse can go unreported to
secular authorities by Jehovah's Witnesses members who
don't want to go against their faith. The claims of
abuse victims are discredited, he said.
"They want to act like pedophilia doesn't exist. Shame
on them," Bowen, 43, said in an interview from his
Draffenville home where he runs a candlemaking
business with his wife, Sheila.
Though Bowen expects to be kicked out of Jehovah's
Witnesses -- or disfellowshipped -- for speaking out,
no disciplinary action has been taken by his
congregation. Still, some members refuse to shake his
hand or associate with him outside the church.
"They treat us like we have the plague," Sheila Bowen
said. "You don't go against God, and they think the
organization is God."
Bowen's decision to resign has made him a hero among
the denomination's dissidents.
"People have been intimidated into not saying
anything. There are pieces of this all over the
country where one person has a piece of evidence and
another has a piece of evidence, but they're scared to
bring it up because they'll be disfellowshipped,"
Bowen said. "So these people stay silent and they
think, 'I'm the only one.' "
A person who is disfellowshipped is considered
invisible by denomination members and may even be
shunned by members of his own family.
"It's not just being out of a health club," said Steve
Hassan, a former Unification Church member who is now
a therapist and author. "It's losing your connection
to God and members of your family inside the group."
Bowen chose to speak out anyway, and his story has
appeared in religious publications and the secular
media. In Kentucky, The Paducah Sun and WPSD-TV
covered it. The (Louisville) Courier-Journal published
a story in which it examined court records in seven
child molestation cases around the nation involving
members of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Bowen said a Jehovah's Witnesses policy requiring two
people to witness wrongdoing before it is acknowledged
by leaders makes it nearly impossible to prove child
molestation occurs. Victims who do come forward
confident they will receive help from church leaders
are often left feeling betrayed, Bowen said.
Bowen said he became interested a couple of years ago
after reading a confidential file alleging a member
had molested a child in the early 1980s. He said he
disapproved of the way the case was handled by church
officials even after he spoke up about it.
J.R. Brown, spokesman at the Jehovah's Witnesses'
headquarters in the New York City borough of Brooklyn,
said he believes Bowen does not have a full
understanding of church policies.
Members are free at all times to report abuse to
secular authorities, Brown said. "This is a personal
decision on how you want to handle this," he said.
What is revealed to church leaders is generally kept
confidential unless state law requires that
allegations of abuse be turned over to police, he
said.
"We deal with sin, and law enforcement deals with
crime," Brown said.
In some cases, however, the matter is turned over to
secular authorities regardless of the law, Brown said.
Of Bowen, he said: "He's concerned about victims of
child abuse, and we are, too."
Brown said the faith does require at least two
witnesses to prove any kind of wrongdoing -- including
child molestation -- because that is what is taught in
the Bible. But corroborating evidence can be used
instead of a second witness to prove wrongdoing, Brown
said.
James Bonnell, an elder in Bowen's congregation, said
the faith reaches out and helps people in need. It is
not controlling, he said.
"It's a free choice," said Bonnell, of nearby
Gilbertsville. "Everything you do is based on love of
God and your neighbor."
'An identity thing'
The Jehovah's Witnesses denomination has 89,985
congregations and 5.5 million members worldwide,
according to its Web site. It was founded in
Pittsburgh in 1872 by Charles Taze Russell, a former
Congregationalist layman.
Members refuse to bear arms, salute the flag or
participate in secular government. They also refuse to
accept blood transfusions. They reject a number of
doctrines taught by traditional Christianity,
including the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that the faith is the
authority and the only way to salvation. They are to
bring all problems to their religious leaders first.
Members attend numerous meetings, do Bible lessons and
go door-to-door to evangelize, and some who have left
the faith say that schedule leaves little time to
think individually.
"It's like an identity thing," said Marilyn Zweifel,
an ex-Jehovah's Witness in New Berlin, Wis., who runs
a telephone helpline for current members. "Somewhere
along the way, you lose your identity."
Debbie Shard, an ex-member who also operates a
helpline from Ocoee, Fla., said members are told going
outside the religion could hurt the faith's image and
make it difficult to recruit and retain new members.
"If there's a fire, you'd call the fire department,"
Shard said. "If it's something that's not a
life-threatening emergency, then the elders would be
the first line of defense."
She agreed with Bowen, saying: "If you go to the
elders, they will generally discourage you from going
to (secular) authorities because it will bring
reproach on the organization."
A former elder agreed. "Denial and secrecy are
elemental to the way the society operates," said Mike
Terry, of Conway, Ark.
Raymond Franz, a high-ranking Jehovah's Witness who
was disfellowshipped and then wrote two books about
the inner workings of the faith, said he doesn't
believe cases of pedophilia are any more prevalent in
the denomination than in others. But the religion's
insularity leads to problems, he said.
"The thing is to keep everything within the system,"
Franz said. "That's a natural reaction for Witnesses
because they are essentially a closed community..."