Forgive me if this is already covered. This came from the NY Post via Watchtower Observer.
See if you can catch the Theocratic Warfare language at work ....
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Bowen fights excommunication for criticizing witnesses
A Jehovah's Witness who resigned as an elder will fight excommunication Friday.
"Children are being hurt by the policies of this organization. The typical Jehovah's Witness is
unaware of this unless their child is molested,"
Ernie Mitchell,
NewsChannel 6
Bill Bowen is former presiding overseer, or pastor, of Jehovah's Witnesses at Draffenville.
Bowen publicly denounces policies he says protect child molesters by refusing to reveal their
confessions to police.
Church officials have called Bowen to answer charges he is causing divisions within the congregation.
Bowen says he will fight to remain a member, so he can support child abuse victims within the church.
"I still consider myself to be a Jehovah's Witness in good standing," Bowen says.
Bowen says leaders want him "disfellowshipped," the group's term for excommunication, for starting
his Silent Lambs.Org computer site in March, 2001.
Bowen says the site produces 30 to 40 E-mails daily about sexual molestation within the membership.
He says witnesses have been kicked out for revealing members' admissions of child sexual abuse
made to panels of lay elders.
Members at Bowen's old Kingdom Hall in Draffenville say the church does not bar them from
reporting abuse. They say they may council abusers to report their actions to authorities.
But they admit discouraging members from telling just anybody.
"The difference between needless gossip, let's say, and withholding information from those who have a
right to know is two different things completely," says Jehovah's Witness Bruce Waite.
Bowen wants Silent Lambs.Org to break down a code of silence he says was instituted by his church.
"Children are being hurt by the policies of this organization. The typical Jehovah's Witness is unaware
of this unless their child is molested," Bowen says.
J.R. Brown, national Jehovah's Witness public information director, says proceedings against Bowen
are confidential.
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Yes, it's the ploy "withholding information from those that have the right to know". In the past, this has been used to support lying in court and a vast array of theocratic warfare tactics. The WTS determines who has and who doesn't have the right to know and when this right should or should not be exercized. So if they conclude (as they did) that a family who moves from a Sandy Oregon congregation to Estacada with a teenage son who had been caught touching up a 7 year-old girl and not telling anyone in Estacada, having that kid out in service and around other kids then I guess the Estacada congregation didn't need that "needless gossip".