The Tullahoma News and Guardian (Tennessee) Newspaper -- Wednesday, September 11th 2002:
http://www.tullahomanews.com
Couple plans to march against church denomination's policy
By: BRIAN JUSTICE, Staff Writer September 11, 2002
Barbara and Joe Anderson of Tullahoma claim sexual child abuse has been widespread among the Jehovah Witnesses denomination, and say they plan to do something about it.
The Andersons plan to participate in a nationwide march at the organization's headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sept. 27.
The Andersons are members of the Silentlambs which was organized to stop what they say has been repeated sexual abuse permitted because of Jehovah Witness bylaws.
Mrs. Anderson said the denomination has a policy that does not require pedophile incidences to be reported to law enforcement authorities. She added that Jehovah Witnesses say they handle such matters in house.
However, Mrs. Anderson said what in effect happens is pedophiles end up being protected by a cover-up which allows them to continue their illegal actions. She added they are often moved about through the denomination's many locations, which allows them to continue their actions.
She said child sexual abuse cases have occurred in Coffee County.
Mrs. Anderson summed up the reason why she and her husband plan to march in Brooklyn.
"We want them to change the policy that protects pedophiles," she said.
Mrs. Anderson said her and her husband's efforts to help change the system have resulted in retaliation from the denomination.
The Andersons have been disfellowshipped by the Kingdom Hall in Tullahoma where they attended. Disfellowshipping, the equivalent of excommunication, is the harshest punishment handed down by the organization against members. Shunning is included as part of the punishment, which separates families.
Mrs. Anderson said she is no longer able to see or communicate with her son or his family who live in Mishawaka, Ind. She added that he is a practicing Jehovah Witness and is bound by the denomination's rules.
"They have shunned us," she said, referring to the church, then her son's family. "We'll never see them again."
Her husband agreed.
"You just can't imagine what this has been like for us. We can't see our grandchild any more. Our son and daughter-in-law won't allow it," he said.
Mr. and Mrs. Anderson attended a Nashville news conference last week to explain their situation along with other Jehovah Witnesses who have spoken out against the alleged sexual child abuse.
Two Nashville women were quoted in the media about their specific circumstances. They said they were abused as girls by members of their respective Kingdom Halls.
"We're speaking out now, as young women in our 20s, because we realize that what happened to us was wrong and that we are not alone. There are many of us who are suffering," one woman said.
A spokesman for the New York-based Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the umbrella organization that is headquarters for Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide, said they were aware of the planned march later this month.
A man who answered the phone in the press office at Watchtower headquarters was quoted in the media as saying that press statements would not be issued until the day of the march. He had asked that any statements be attributed to the organization's spokesman, J.R. Brown.
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Toronto Sun Newspaper - September 10th 2002:
Tuesday, September 10, 2002
Abuse case opens
Church, elders sued over alleged coverup
By IAN MCDOUGALL, TORONTO SUN
http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/ts.ts-09-10-0027.html
A New Brunswick woman who claims the Jehovah's Witness church hid the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father took the stand yesterday as a civil trial of her case began.
The 31-year-old woman, whom the Sun is not identifying, is suing the church and its elders for $700,000, alleging they did not report the abuse she suffered to the Children's Aid Society.
Instead, she alleges, they tried to hide the abuse, discouraged her from getting counselling and made her confront her father and relive the abuse.
Under questioning from her lawyer, Charles Mark, she testified yesterday that she suffered guilt and was ostracized by her friends and family in her congregation in Shelburne after she revealed the abuse she suffered from age 11 to 15 in the late 1980s.
"I felt so guilty because it was wrong," she said yesterday. "I was scared of him."
She eventually told her mother of the abuse and her father confronted her, she said.
'YOU ENJOYED IT'
"The conversation started off, 'I know you've told your mother, but come on, you enjoyed it. You were a willing participant,'" she said her father said. From that point, she said, her mother blamed her for tensions at home and in the community.
Still suffering from guilt over the abuse, the woman reluctantly took her case to two church elders, Brian Cairns and Steve Brown, who are also named as defendants in the suit, which was filed in 1998.
Brown and Cairns forced a meeting with the woman and her family in late December 1989, at which her father confessed he violated her.
Mark opened his case by arguing the church had never notified the province's CAS office once it became aware of the abuse.
"The statute says on suspicion of sexual molestation it must be reported to the Children's Aid Society. That never happens," he said.
But defence lawyer Colin Stevenson said the church fulfilled its obligations and in fact forced the woman's father to turn himself in to CAS officials in February 1990. No charges were laid.
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Globe and Mail Canadian Newspaper -- September 10th 2002:
Church made her cover up sexual abuse, woman says
By JANE GADD, COURTS REPORTER
Tuesday, September 10, 2002, Page A18
http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20020910/UJEHOOQ/national/
A former Jehovah's Witness who says her church forced her to cover up years of sexual abuse by her father told Ontario Superior Court yesterday that church elders use the fear of Armageddon to silence her and other abuse victims.
Victoria Boer, 31, testifying at the trial of her $700,000 lawsuit against the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Canada, said she was driven to the brink of suicide when society elders told her to pray, to preach and to forgive her father for the abuse -- but not to report it to the Children's Aid Society or doctors.
"I was told if Armageddon came and my father went down for the abuse I would likely go down with him," Ms. Boer told the court.
In fact, the entire Jehovah's Witness community where she lived in Shelburne, Ont., could be exposed to God's wrath if she handled the matter by "worldly" means, Ms. Boer said she was told.
The defendants -- the Watchtower Society and elders Brian Cairns, Steve Brown and John Didur -- deny preventing Ms. Boer from going to the authorities and argue they owed her no special duty of care as alleged in the suit.
They accused Ms. Boer of "asking the church to pay for the sins of the father."
Ms. Boer testified that her father, whom she is not suing and who was never criminally charged, touched her sexually on numerous occasions from the time she was 11 until she was 15.
The abuse stopped after Ms. Boer told her mother, who criticized her for dressing immodestly but agreed to confront the father, Ms. Boer told the court.
She told no one until four years later, she said, when she was plagued by memories of the abuse and suffering symptoms of severe depression and anxiety. "I just kept crying and crying."
Then 19, she went to local elders Mr. Cairns and Mr. Brown, and they in turn asked for advice from Mr. Didur, an elder with the national Watchtower organization, she said.
The men made her repeat her story over and over, she said, then insisted she not go to authorities but instead confront her father in the presence of Mr. Cairns and Mr. Brown and give him the chance to repent.
"I told them I couldn't do it," she wept yesterday. "They said I had to."
In two confrontations at his home, Ms. Boer's father accused her of exaggerating, she said.
He did acknowledge some sexual impropriety, apologized to her and agreed to do some extra service for the Watchtower Society, she said.
The elders then declared the matter closed.
"They said they felt my father had shown signs of repentance, that he was a changed man," she said.
They told her if she went to the CAS the family would be investigated, her father would lose his job and her mother would be left destitute, she said.
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Canadian Press News -- September 10th 2002:
Woman scarred by sex abuse, not life as a Jehovah's Witness, lawyer suggests
By JAMES MCCARTEN
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020910/6/ouzc.html
TORONTO (CP) - It was a childhood of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, not the ways of her church, that sent a former Jehovah's Witness down a rocky path of job insecurity, sexual dalliances and emotional turmoil, a lawyer suggested Tuesday.
Colin Stevenson, who represents the defendants in a $700,000 lawsuit against the church and three of its elders, confronted 31-year-old Vicky Boer with a list of problems that have plagued her in the years since leaving the family she says abandoned her.
None of them - sexual harassment on the job, being ostracized by friends and her mother, a nervous breakdown and marital troubles, including a variety of extra-marital affairs - are the fault of the church elders whom she alleges failed to deal properly with the abuse, Stevenson argued.
But Boer stood her ground, wiping away tears as she insisted none of it would have happened had she been allowed at 18 by the church to get psychiatric and medical help.
With her military husband overseas, she had a nervous breakdown "because my husband was gone and because my family had disowned me; I was being blamed, and everything I knew in my life was gone," Boer sobbed.
The alleged efforts of the three elders to cover up the abuse, led to her being shunned by other Witnesses who believed she had lied.
"If I had had the support of people I had known my entire life ...I wouldn't have suffered the things I did," she said.
"If things were done properly, none of this would have happened. My mother wouldn't have hated me and I wouldn't have been left alone."
Boer is suing the three elders along with the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Canada, the religion's governing body, for failing to allow her adequate treatment for the abuse she says she suffered between the ages of 11 and 14 in the family home in Shelburne, Ont., about 100 kilometres northwest of Toronto.
Rather than inform the Children's Aid Society and permit Boer to seek counselling outside the church, she was forced to confront her father and give him a chance to repent his alleged "sins," court has been told.
Church elders also allegedly refused to allow her to see a psychologist, warning her that it would lead to an investigation and might cost her father his job and her mother her only source of financial support.
While victims of sexual abuse normally aren't identified in public, Boer has agreed to allow her name to be publicized as part of her effort to promote what she alleges is abuse within the confines of the church's congregations.
As part of their beliefs in a strict interpretation of Bible teachings, Jehovah's Witnesses reject anything political or "worldly" that distracts from their focus on Christ and the second coming, which they consider imminent.
Birthdays, secular holidays and Christmas are not celebrated; children are often required to leave class during the Lord's Prayer and the national anthem, Boer said.
And anyone who runs afoul of the religion's strictest tenets will find themselves ex-communicated, often to such an extent that they're shunned by their own family, she said.
Boer testified Tuesday that when she was finally allowed to see her doctor, she chose not to tell him about the abuse for fear the elders would find out.
The Watchtower has not yet had the chance to defend itself in court, although in a statement of defence it says it has "no knowledge of the allegations" that Boer was abused and that the abuse was never reported to church elders in Shelburne or to the Children's Aid Society.
The defendants also deny that two of the elders named in the suit prevented Boer from reporting her allegations or from seeking psychological help.
"If the plaintiff chose not to seek advice from a psychiatrist or psychologist, it was solely of her own volition and because she believed such advice was unnecessary," says the statement of defence.
Boer's 58-year-old father, Gower Palmer, continues to live in Shelburne and has never been criminally charged.
It's not the first time that the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses have made headlines. The most recent example is the case of a 17-year-old girl in Alberta who died last week after a lengthy and unsuccessful court battle to avoid blood transfusions to treat her leukemia.
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Canadian Press News -- September 10th 2002:
Woman scarred by sex abuse, not life as a Jehovah's Witness, lawyer suggests (UPDATE WITH MORE INFORMATION)
http://www.canoe.ca/NationalTicker/CANOE-wire.Jehovah-Lawsuit.html
TORONTO (CP) -- It was a childhood of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, not the ways of her church, that sent a former Jehovah's Witness down a rocky path of job insecurity, sexual dalliances and emotional turmoil, a lawyer suggested Tuesday.
Colin Stevenson, who represents the defendants in a $700,000 lawsuit against the church and three of its elders, confronted 31-year-old Vicky Boer with a list of problems that have plagued her in the years since leaving the family she says abandoned her.
None of them -- sexual harassment on the job, being ostracized by friends and her mother, a nervous breakdown and marital troubles, including a variety of extra-marital affairs -- are the fault of the church elders whom she alleges failed to deal properly with the abuse, Stevenson argued.
But Boer stood her ground, wiping away tears as she insisted none of it would have happened had she been allowed at age 18 by the church to get psychiatric and medical help.
With her military husband overseas, she had a nervous breakdown "because my husband was gone and because my family had disowned me; I was being blamed, and everything I knew in my life was gone,"
Boer sobbed. The alleged efforts of the three elders to cover up the abuse, led to her being shunned by other Witnesses who believed she had lied. "If I had had the support of people I had known my entire life ...I wouldn't have suffered the things I did," she said. "If things were done properly, none of this would have happened. My mother wouldn't have hated me and I wouldn't have been left alone." Boer is suing the three elders along with the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Canada, the religion's governing body, for failing to allow her adequate treatment for the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of her father, Gower Palmer, between the ages of 11 and 14 in the family home in Shelburne, Ont., about 100 kilometres northwest of Toronto.
Rather than inform the Children's Aid Society and permit Boer to seek counselling outside the church, she was forced to confront her father and give him a chance to repent his alleged "sins," court has been told.
Church elders also allegedly refused to allow her to see a psychologist, warning her that it would lead to an investigation and might cost her father his job and her mother her only source of financial support.
While victims of sexual abuse normally aren't identified in public, Boer has agreed to allow her name to be publicized as part of her effort to promote what she alleges is abuse within the confines of the church's congregations.
As part of their beliefs in a strict interpretation of Bible teachings, Jehovah's Witnesses reject anything political or "worldly" that distracts from their focus on Christ and the second coming, which they consider imminent.
Birthdays, secular holidays and Christmas are not celebrated; children are often required to leave class during the Lord's Prayer and the national anthem, Boer said.
And anyone who runs afoul of the religion's strictest tenets will find themselves ex-communicated, often to such an extent that they're shunned by their own family, she said.
Boer testified Tuesday that when she was finally allowed to see her doctor, she chose not to tell him about the abuse for fear the elders would find out.
During afternoon testimony, elder Frank Mott-Trille, 72, whose 36-year-old son Jonathan remains one of Boer's best friends, described how angry he and his son became when they learned of how the church was handling Boer's case.
Mott-Trille, convinced the elders were trying to protect Boer's father, looked close to tears as he described a congregation meeting that took place several months after Boer met with her father, Palmer.
Her father had been invited to deliver a prayer to the congregation, an honour usually reserved for senior members who are held in high esteem by the elders for their spirituality, Mott-Trille said. Jonathan stormed out of the meeting and his father followed.
"I found him with his hands on the front of the car, and he was being sick," Mott-Trille testified. "He turned to me and said, 'Frank, how can you possibly say this is Christian?' I've never been able to answer him."
Mott-Trille, an Oxford-schooled lawyer and Rhode scholar, is involved in separate litigation against the church, Stevenson noted earlier in the day.
The Watchtower has not yet had the chance to defend itself in court, although in a statement of defence it says it has "no knowledge of the allegations" that Boer was abused and that the abuse was never reported to church elders in Shelburne or to the Children's Aid Society. The defendants also deny that two of the elders named in the suit prevented Boer from reporting her allegations or from seeking psychological help.
"If the plaintiff chose not to seek advice from a psychiatrist or psychologist, it was solely of her own volition and because she believed such advice was unnecessary," says the statement of defence.
Gower Palmer, 58, continues to live in Shelburne and has never been criminally charged.
It's not the first time that the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses have made headlines. The most recent example is the case of a 17-year-old girl in Alberta who died last week after a lengthy and unsuccessful court battle to avoid blood transfusions to treat her leukemia.
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Canadian Press News -- September 9th 2002:
Former Jehovah's Witness weeps as she describes abuse at hands of father
By JAMES MCCARTEN
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020909/6/ou8m.html
TORONTO (CP) - A former Jehovah's Witness told a harrowing tale of alleged sexual abuse Monday on the first day of a civil suit that is expected to bring the church under scrutiny. Vicky Boer, 31, wept on the witness stand as she described the three years of fondling and abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of her father, the patriarch of a devoted family of Witnesses.
Boer, who is suing three church elders and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Canada, the religion's governing body, was 11 years old when the abuse allegedly began in the early 1980s, she said.
But it was how the church to which she had devoted her young life treated her when she came forward with the allegations that prompted her to launch the legal action that began Monday in a Toronto courtroom.
"When you grow up as a Jehovah's Witness, that is your life, and outside of that you don't have a life," Boer told the court during an emotional day of testimony.
"If you dare to leave the organization, you're basically left with nothing."
Three years after the abuse ended, Boer told her mother her story, and church elders within their congregation in Shelburne, Ont., about 100 kilometres northwest of Toronto, were notified.
But rather than inform the Children's Aid Society and permit Boer to seek counselling outside the church, she was forced to confront her father and give him a chance to repent his alleged "sins," court was told.
At that meeting, she testified, her mother insisted the abuse was in the past and that it had already been dealt with. The elders agreed, saying the father "is really showing signs of spiritual repentance," she said.
They also allegedly refused to allow her to see a psychologist, warning her that it would lead to an investigation and might cost her father his job and her mother her only source of financial support.
"They said there's going to be consequences of that," she testified.
"My father would lose her job, the family would be investigated and my mother would be destitute."
While victims of sexual abuse normally aren't identified in public, Boer has agreed to allow her name to be publicized as part of her effort to promote what she alleges is widespread abuse within the confines of the church's congregations.
As part of their beliefs in a strict interpretation of Bible teachings, Jehovah's Witnesses reject anything political or "worldly" that distracts from their focus on Christ and the second coming, which they consider imminent.
Birthdays, secular holidays and Christmas are not celebrated; children are often required to leave class during the Lord's Prayer and the national anthem, Boer said.
The Watchtower has not yet had the chance to defend itself in court, although in a statement of defence it says it has "no knowledge of the allegations" that Boer was abused and that the abuse was never reported to church elders in Shelburne or to the Children's Aid Society.
The defendants also deny that two elders, Brian Cairns and Steve Brown, prevented Boer from reporting her allegations to the society or from seeking psychological help.
"The defendants deny they prevented the reporting of the subject matter to the proper authorities," the statement says.
"To the contrary, the defendants Brown and Cairns were instrumental in ensuring the matter was reported ...if the plaintiff chose not to seek advice from a psychiatrist or psychologist, it was solely of her own volition and because she believed such advice was unnecessary."
They go on to argue Boer never "mitigated her losses" by seeking such help in the eight years between her original allegations and the filing of the suit.
The suit alleges that the church failed in its fiduciary duty to the victim for waiting nearly two months to report the abuse to the "secular authorities," and was negligent in forcing the father and daughter to settle their differences in a face-to-face meeting.
Boer's 58-year-old father, Gower Palmer, continues to live in Shelburne and has never been criminally charged.
It's not the first time that the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses have made headlines. The most recent example is the case of a 17-year-old girl in Alberta who died last week after a lengthy and unsuccessful court battle to avoid blood transfusions to treat her leukemia.
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Letter Sent to the Editor of the Toronto Sun Newspaper
This was Published in the Sunday, September 8th, 2002 Toronto Sun Newspaper:
As one of Jehovah's Witnesses in the area for nearly 30 years I can honestly say it was disturbing to read in your article ("Storm in the Hall," by Brodie Fenlon, Sunday Sun) - the allegations of the Jehovah's Witness organization covering up allegations of child abuse. While the outcome of this case remains to be seen, with all of the recent exposure in the media it is hoped that the church leaders will recognize that their elders are simply not qualified to investigate crimes of this nature and bring all allegations of crimes to the authorities without exception. I also hope that if errors have been made in the past that the church will do the honorable thing and acknowledge the harm they have caused and do what they can to help these ones recover from what happened.
-Randy J. Bigham
Brampton
Newspaper Editor's Comments: We should expect nothing less of any church.
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The Daily Independant Kentucky State News Briefs - September 7th 2002:
Group alleging JW abuse plans march
LOUISVILLE A group that contends widespread child molestation has occurred in the Jehovah's Witnesses church said it will have a national march for alleged victims in Louisville and other cities.
Silentlambs, a victims' support group, will have the march at the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sept. 27, said William H. Bowen of Benton, Ky., co-founder of the group.
"Abuse survivors and supporters will come from around the world to let the Jehovah's Witnesses leadership ... know we will no longer be ignored," Bowen said in a statement.
Bowen, a former elder, was recently "disfellowshipped," or excommunicated, for causing divisions in the church. He alleges that Jehovah's Witnesses keep incidents of child molestation secret, won't allow victims to warn other members of abusers in their congregations, and require alleged victims to produce a witness. Those who speak out are cut off from the church and shunned, he said.
J.R. Brown, the director of the media office at the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters, declined to comment through an employee who would not give his name.
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Couple to protest Jehovah's Witnesses
By LEON ALLIGOOD, Staff Writer
Barbara Anderson, a former Jehovah's Witness, places a toy lamb on the front doors of the Kingdom Hall on Bell Road as part of a national protest by ex-Witnesses who say the denomination has covered up child sexual abuse by members.
Placing a symbolic stuffed lamb on the steps of a suburban Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall, a Coffee County couple yesterday said they will help lead a protest march Sept. 27 at the headquarters of the denomination in Brooklyn, N.Y.
''We are going to let the whole nation know what is going on behind closed doors. There is a massive coverup under way, and we're not going to stand for it,'' said Barbara Anderson of Manchester, Tenn.
Anderson and her husband, Joe, made the announcement yesterday at a Kingdom Hall on Bell Road. The Coffee County couple have received national attention since May for questioning how Jehovah's Witnesses have responded to allegations of child sexual abuse.
Yesterday's news conference was one of 16 held in major cities across the country to announce the Sept. 27 march, which is expected to attract a hundred or more supporters. The meetings were arranged by ''Silentlambs,'' a support group for Jehovah's Witnesses who say they have been abuse victims.
The Andersons have been disfellowshipped by the Kingdom Hall in Tullahoma, Tenn., where they attended. Disfellowshipping, the equivalent of excommunication, is the harshest punishment handed down by the organization against members. Shunning is included as part of the punishment, which separates families.
''You just can't imagine what this has been like for us. We can't see our grandchild any more. Our son and daughter-in-law won't allow it,'' Joe Anderson said.
Attending the Nashville news conference yesterday were two local women who said they were abused as girls by members of their respective Kingdom Halls.
''We're speaking out now, as young women in our 20s, because we realize that what happened to us was wrong and that we are not alone. There are many of us who are suffering,'' one woman said. The Tennessean does not reveal identities of reported victims of sex crimes without consent.
A spokesman for the New York-based Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the umbrella organization that is headquarters for Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide, said they were aware of the planned march later this month.
''But we won't issue a statement until that day,'' said a man who answered the phone in the press office at Watchtower headquarters. He asked that any statements be attributed to the organization's spokesman, J.R. Brown.
Leon Alligood covers Tennessee for The Tennessean. Contact him at (615) 259-8279 or by e-mail at
[email protected].
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The Courier-Journal Newspaper - September 6th 2002:
Group to march for molested children
Jehovah's Witnesses want church to alter its policy, apologize
By Darla Carter,
[email protected]http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2002/09/06/ke090602s271650.htmWilliam H. Bowen of silentlambs, a group for abuse victims in the Jehovah's Witnesses church, left a stuffed lamb and a flier at Kingdom Hall on Lower River Road protesting church policies.
Stuffed lambs, here at Kingdom Hall in southern Jefferson County, were left at Jehovah's Witnesses churches across the country yesterday.
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL HAYMAN
An event being billed as the first national march for victims of child molestation within the Jehovah's Witnesses church was announced yesterday in Louisville and other cities around the country.
Silentlambs, a victims' support group, will hold the march at the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sept. 27, said William H. Bowen of Benton, Ky., cofounder of the group.
''Abuse survivors and supporters will come from around the world to let the Jehovah's Witnesses leadership . . . know we will no longer be ignored,'' Bowen said in a statement.
He left a pink stuffed animal in the shape of a lamb on the door of a Jehovah's Witnesses church in southern Jefferson County as a symbol of victims everywhere that his group says have been silenced by church policy. The gesture was repeated in every city where the march was announced, from Los Angeles to Orlando, Fla.
Bowen, a former elder who was recently ''disfellowshipped,'' or excommunicated, for causing divisions in the church, alleges that Jehovah's Witnesses keep incidents of child molestation secret, won't allow victims to warn other members of abusers in their congregations, and require alleged victims to produce a witness. Those who speak out are cut off from the church and shunned, he said.
''The Jehovah's Witnesses leadership (Governing Body) must change their policy and must apologize to the victims whose lives their policies have destroyed,'' Bowen said in the statement. ''On September 27th we arrive in good faith to make testimony to the public and testify before Jehovah's Witnesses Governing Body to give closure to victims and protect our children.''
Bowen, who helped found silentlambs in spring 2001, said his group has been contacted by 5,000 alleged victims, many of whom have said, ''I thought I was all alone.'' The group, which has a hot line and a Web site -- (877) 982-2873 and
www.silentlambs.org -- provides emotional support, advice and a sense that someone believes them, Bowen said.
J.R. Brown, the director of the media office at the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters, declined to comment through an employee who would not give his name.
In the past, officials with the Jehovah's Witnesses have said they abhor child molestation, report cases to authorities in states that require such reports and allow members to report fellow members to police.
Bowen said he plans to push for legislation in Kentucky that would require clergy to report alleged abuse to police.
''I would like for every single child molester in the church to be turned in,'' he said.
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Seattle Times Newspaper - September 6th 2002:
'Silentlambs' speak out about sex abuse
By Christine Clarridge, Seattle Times staff reporter
Several former Jehovah's Witnesses stood outside a Kingdom Hall church near Green Lake yesterday with a tiny toy lamb whose mouth was covered with black electrician's tape.
The symbolically silenced lamb delivered to the door of the fellowship hall represented the 5,000 members of the 6 million-member church who claim to have been sexually abused by leaders or others in the church. They further claim to have been silenced or ignored when they sought the church's guidance and protection.
The news conference was one of about 16 across the country called to bring attention to "silentlambs," an organization planning a march on church headquarters in New York on Sept. 27.
Started by a former church member who said he was dismayed by the way the church covered up allegations of abuse, silentlambs is calling for changes in church policies.
"We want to open the doors, " said Bruce Baker, a former Jehovah's Witness leader in Oregon. "We want Watchtower headquarters to turn cases of abuse within the church over to the police and let the police handle it.''
National church leaders could not be reached for comment, but a spokesman recently told The New York Times that the church's policies on sexual abuse were based on the Bible and were exemplary.
"We're not trying to say we handled everybody in the right way and our elders are all-knowing, all-perfect. But we say, if you take what our policy is for keeping our organization clean morally, it far outpaces anybody else's," spokesman J.R. Brown said.
Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that emphasizes biblical literalism and the imminent end of the world. Members are best-known in the secular world for giving out religious tracts and for not celebrating holidays and birthdays or allowing blood transfusions.
Former members said the church's policies and culture conspire to conceal abuse.
The small group of activists in Seattle included several ex-church members who have been "disfellowshipped" or excommunicated, as well as one woman who claimed the church did nothing to protect her and her sister when they came forward with claims of abuse.
She said she went to her church leaders to ask for help because her stepfather, who had also sexually abused her, was abusing her younger sister.
Her stepfather, who has since been disfellowshipped by the church, never paid a legal price for what she said were years of abuse.
The scope of abuse within the denomination is a matter of debate. The church has recently been sued by eight people in four lawsuits around the country including one filed in Spokane alleging abuse.
According to Bill Bowen, founder of silentlambs, there have been more than 5,000 current or former members nationwide who say that the church mishandled allegations of child sexual abuse.
Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or
[email protected].
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Tucson, Arizona News - September 6th 2002:
WE'VE BEEN HEARING THE PAST FEW MONTHS ABOUT CONCERNS OVER COVER-UPS OF CHILD MOLESTATION IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
TODAY, MEMBERS OF ANOTHER RELIGION ARE COMING FORWARD WITH SIMILAR ALLEGATIONS. THEY TALKED TO US DURING A DEMONSTRATION AT ONE OF SEVERAL JEHOVAH'S WITNESS KINGDOM HALLS NATIONWIDE
KINDRA HAS BEEN A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS FOR DECADES. SHE SAYS AS A CHILD, A FAMILY MEMBER MOLESTED HER. SHE TOLD HER PARENTS, AND HER PARENTS WENT TO THE ELDERS AT THEIR KINGDOM HALL. SHE SAYS JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE TOLD NOT TO GO TO THE POLICE WITH ACCUSATIONS AGAINST A FELLOW MEMBER.
"I was told not to do that I was supposed to leave it in the elders hands that they would pray and they did prayer when I was there and that Jehovah would take care of it, and it kept happening, so as a child you only do what you're told."
TODAY, KINDRA AND ANOTHER JEHOVAH'S WITNESS CAME TO THE KINGDOM HALL AT 29TH AND ROSEMONT TO DELIVER A SYMBOLIC LAMB - REPRESENTING THE MANY CHILDREN THEY SAY ARE SILENCED BY JEHOVAH'S WITNESS POLICY. THE SAME THING HAPPENED IN NEARLY A DOZEN CITIES NATIONWIDE.
"I have nothing against the religion - I still want to attend. I want to do this for the children and change policies so that someone doesn't have to go through what I went through."
JOHN BROWN SAYS THE RELIGION FORBIDS PUNISHMENT OF AN ACCUSED MOLESTER WHO DENIES ALLEGATIONS UNLESS THERE IS ANOTHER EYEWITNESS TO THE ABUSE.
"But there never is unless somebody walks in on accident, a parent, while the perpetrator is committing the act."
THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS REPRESENTATIVES WE TALKED TO DID NOT WANT TO GO ON CAMERA. BUT ONE TOLD US THE ALLEGATIONS ARE RIDICULOUS. HE SAYS JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE ONE OF THE MOST LAW-ABIDING GROUPS IN THE WORLD. HE ALSO MAINTAINS THEY DO NOT HAVE A POLICY OF SILENCING VICTIMS.
KINDRA AND JOHN TELL US THEY CAN BE DISFELLOWSHIPPED, WHICH IS LIKE BEING EXCOMMUNICATED, FOR SPEAKING OUT - BUT THEY THINK IT'S WORTH IT. THEY ANNOUNCED A MARCH FOR VICTIMS, COMING UP SEPTEMBER 27TH IN BROOKLYN, NY, WHERE THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS HEADQUARTERS IS LOCATED.
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Seattle, Washington News - September 6th 2002:
New Allegations Of A Church Keeping Quiet About Child Sexual Abuse
By Tracy Vedder
http://www.komotv.com/stories/20208.htmThere are new allegations of a Church keeping quiet about child sexual abuse. But this time, it's a different church -- the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Members from and across the country are beginning a campaign to put pressure on Church elders to change.
They call themselves silent lambs -- Jehovah's Witnesses who say they were sexually molested and then forced by Church elders to keep silent.
"Both my sister and I were abused by my stepfather," says Betty, who only wants us to use her first name.
Jehovah's Witnesses require two witnesses to any alleged crime or sin. So as a child, Betty never told anyone. She kept quiet until she found out her little sister was also being molested.
"I knew that if I didn't speak up, nobody was going to help her," says Betty. "I kept having nightmares that she was being molested and I couldn't move, I couldn't help her so I had to do something."
But Betty says when she told church elders she was going to the police, they forced her to stay silent. Although that incident took place in another state, she says now that she is talking about it here in western , she will be kicked out and shunned by her friends and family.
"And it hurts," sobs Betty, "because I really believed in it."
Members of the Ravenna Kingdom Hall, where members of Silent Lambs gathered to protest, did not return phone calls. The Jehovah's Witnesses' headquarters says it is reviewing the situation. A spokesman referred us to their Web site, which says it is a victim's right to report abuse to police.
But former elder Bruce Baker says church attorneys pressured him not to report child molestation. He is now part of a national movement trying to force Jehovah's Witnesses to change.
"They basically, in a sense, have protected pedophiles within the group," says Baker. He says Jehovah's Witnesses simply excommunicate members who have molested, rather than turning them over to police and, he says, "they continue to molest children. They should have been reported years ago and they weren't."
The Silent Lambs group hopes Jehovah's Witnesses will take a lesson from the Catholic Church and deal with the issue of sexual abuse openly.
Silent Lambs announced plans Thursday for a nationwide march on Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters to protest policies on child rape cases. The march is scheduled for Sept. 27 in Brooklyn, NY.
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koin.com Portland News Television Station - September 6th 2002:
Alleged Victim Speaks Out Against Abuse In Church
March Planned In New York
http://www.KOIN.com/webnews/20022/20020906_jwabuse.shtmlPORTLAND -- Child sex abuse victims are launching a national campaign against the Jehovah's Witness church.
Protest Demonstrations were staged Thursday in 16 cities, including Portland.
A former member of a Portland-area church claims she was abused. She told KOIN 6 News that church policies make it very difficult to report.
"Pedophiles know they can be hidden in this organization because of the privacy they have," Pat Garza said.
Victims are formally requesting an investigation into abuse allegations.
They ask all victims to come forward and join in a national march later this month in New York to raise awareness.
Posted: Sept. 6, 2002
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WKRN Nashville, Tennessee News Channel 2 - September 5th 2002:
Sexual Abuse Allegations Within Jehovah's Witness Denomination
Reporter: Wisdom Martin
There are new allegations that a religious denomination is turning a blind eye to sexual abuse. This time, it is the Jehovah's Witnesses who stand accused.
"For me, it took away any concept of trust in religious figures, authority figures, and parental figures."
The woman who spoke to News 2 does not wish to be identified. She is a former Jehovah's Witness who claims she was abused when she was just 8-years-old by a congregation member. But when she spoke out, she said nothing was done. The women said she was also abused by a member of her congregation.
"They act like they are the law, they can take care of it. Something like this, it's abuse, and they shouldn't be the ones taking care of it."
Now, women like Barbara Anderson are ready to fight for change in their religion, so they've formed a victim's rights group called Silent Lambs. They believe the Jehovah's Witness sexual abuse polices are inadequate and harm children.
"We believe they are responsible for policies that make it possible for perverted people to come into this organization to get at Jehovah's witness children," Barbara said.
"We should of all persons, being Christians going by the Bible, we should do the right thing for these abuse victims," said Joe Anderson.
Joe Anderson was a Jehovah's Witness elder for over 50 years.
"In the organization, you have to have two witnesses, and of course it's almost impossible to have two witnesses to a child molestation. So if a parent comes with their daughter to the elder, they ask and he says, no, I didn't do it, then that's the end of the matter."
"I would like to see them recognize it, take it to the civil authorities and professionals that are capable and qualified to help the victims."
News 2 contacted the Jehovah's Witness national office in New York, but they did not return our calls. The Silent Lambs organization will hold a march to bring awareness to their cause September 27th in Brooklyn, New York.
News 2 at 5
09.05.02
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WSMV Nashville, Tennessee NBC Affiliate News Channel 4 - September 5th 2002:
Former church members march in protest
People say they were molested as a child by a Jehovah's Witness
By James Lewis
Sex and religion make for a potent mix. And Thursday, some Jehovah's Witnesses are being targeted by former members about charges of child sexual abuse. They claim elders are covering it up. The worst part is that women say it's been going on for years.
The best part is that it is now public, and they have hope that the problem may be addressed publicly by Jehovah's Witnesses. At the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall in Antioch, former member Barbara Anderson left a small stuffed lamb. It's her symbol of innocence lost. As a writer for the organization in New York, Anderson says she discovered multiple charges of sexual abuse being hushed up.
"They're kind of isolated in their ivory tower and they do believe that all the world is controlled by Satan, that theirs is God's organization. They can make the rules," said Barbara Anderson.
Nationwide Thursday in 16 major cities, demonstrations like this called for change within the religious organization.
"It was from another member who was there," said "Lisa", who was abused when she was young.
Lisa, not her real name, says as a 9-year-old child she was molested by a Jehovah's Witness. Despite telling the church - no one within the organization reported it to police.
"Now that you're an adult, Lisa, what would you like to say to your attacker?" asked Channel 4 Reporter James Lewis.
"I really feel sorry for him because as an adult I feel sorry that he has went through them because of his own way of trying to cover it up," said "Lisa".
Former member Joe Anderson grieves for his former friends, but he sees hope that recent exposures will correct some wrongs.
"Something is going to be done about it. And something has been done about it to a certain degree. But certainly more needs to be done but yeah I am happy to see them coming out with this," said Joe Anderson.
Channel 4 News attempted to contact the presiding elders at the Jehovah's Witnesses, but none of them returned our calls.
For more information about this cause, visit the Silent Lambs Web Site.
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"Dances With Cactus" Web Blog on Salon.com - September 4th 2002:
Wednesday, September 04, 2002
How Many More?
By Michael Morris (Mike Pence)
How many more times must children of Jehovah's Witnesses suffer the humiliation and agony of sexual abuse before church leaders decide to change their policies? How many more lives must be broken?
It is not a question of whether charges of such abuse in the group have reached the ears of the leaders of the 6 million-member sect, which includes a million members in the US. One of those magazines in the hand of the earnest Jehovah's Witness at your door on a Saturday morning, Awake!, in the October 8, 1991 issue, featured a cover series on the problem of child sexual abuse in modern society. The series was in response to an influx of letters from members, recounting their tales of abuse and their concerns about its handling in the church.
Barbara Anderson, 62, of Tullahoma, Tennessee, was a staff member for Awake! at that time. She recalled in a recent interview that this October 8 issue seemed to give voice to a newfound tolerance toward psychotherapy, and displayed a previously unheard-of willingness to consider the validity of repressed memories in assessing charges of abuse. It was a ray of hope, a glimmer of progressive thinking in an insular and secretive group.
Nowhere did such thinking find more opposition than in the very building that published it. The governing body member who administered the writing department, Lloyd Barry, now deceased, and the governing body member who oversaw the Service Department, in charge of the congregations, Ted Jaracz, were entrenched in battle. When elders, lay ministers in the congregations, called in confusion to the service department, they were told, according to Anderson, that the magazine was a mistake.
Mistake or not, Awake! opened the floodgates and a torrent of correspondence came into the groups Brooklyn Heights headquarters. J. R. Brown, now spokesman for the group, was working in the writing department at that time, and personally passed on information to the governing body concerning this influx of response. In a recent interview, he acknowledged that these letters included claims that cases of child sexual abuse brought to the elders were not handled properly and that members were told that they should not make this known.
By early 1992, just months after the publication of the October 8, 1991 Awake!, the accusations of mishandled cases of child sexual abuse had reached a new level. According to Anderson, some of the governing body were aware in 1992 that there were confessed or convicted pedophiles, who claimed repentance, holding positions of authority in the organization. Meanwhile, abuse survivors who were able to muster the courage to come forward were being met with skepticism or downright hostility.
Ten years ago, if not earlier, church leaders knew that widespread allegations of child sexual abuse were coming in from their own members.
It is also not a question of whether the groups policies in handling allegations of abuse internally could lead to an abuser finding protection instead of accountability. The Witnesses live under the simple delusion that all outsiders are co-conspirators with Satan, so when faced with a serious problem members turn to their untrained lay ministers: the congregation elders. These men, appointed by Holy Spirit (by way of headquarters), wield the Holy Scriptures, rendering them completely equipped (1 Timothy 3:15, 16) for whatever problems members may have to bring to them, including child sexual abuse. The criterion for evaluating any charge is likewise simple and scriptural, if daunting (Deuteronomy 19:15): there must be two eyewitnesses.
The elders cross-examine the alleged victim -- often still a minor -- about the intimate details of the act. The intent is to identify what level of sin the charge entails, and whether the victim was somehow complicit in the act, by wearing seductive clothing or failing to scream while being raped. They may even require the accuser to face the accused and repeat the charge. When the accused denies wrongdoing, the elders then must ask for the nearly impossible burden of proof of two eyewitnesses to be met. Failing that, they declare the accused innocent before God. They also remind the accuser that malicious gossip like spreading accusations of abuse against someone whom God has declared innocent could result in their expulsion from the congregation, and subsequent shunning by family, friends and God himself. Then, they close with prayer.
The governing body codified such procedures in the secret elders manual Pay Attention to Yourselves and All the Flock, though it is obvious that such a burden of proof could provide a de factoshelter for secretive child sex abusers. The result for many is that victims are silenced while abusers are exonerated. The abuse continues.
Witness leaders also cannot feign ignorance to the dangers of having known child sex abusers in positions of authority in the group, or having them preaching in their emblematic door-to-door ministry. Instead, the seemed to move in a direction of excluding penitent pedophiles from leadership privileges, though explicitly prescribing evangelism as a token of faith even for convicted child sex offenders.
Both issues were addressed in the other journal published by the group, The Watchtower of January 1, 1997. It stated, for the first time, that a known molester would not qualify for congregation privileges, such as becoming an elder or ministerial servant (deacon). However, a secret letter to all bodies of elders three months later, on March 14, 1997, quietly backpedaled: An individual known to be a former child molester has reference to the perception of that one in the community and in the Christian congregation. As for determining whether those already in a position of authority had a history of molestation, the letter directed that the body of elders should not query individuals.
Unknown to the faithful, who would have taken the Watchtower as gospel, molesters could remain in positions of authority at all levels of the organization. The contents of that letter, though leaked on the Internet, remain a secret to the lay members of the group. It was explained to the elders, said Brown, and it is not a part of our standard way of handling things to always inform every detail of matters to the congregation in general. What is stated there [in the January 1, 1997 Watchtower] and the way its stated there, without the clarification, is certainly what happens most of the time.
The same issue of The Watchtower insured that not even a history of criminal child sexual abuse would exclude a penitent member from being required to engage in the Witnesses public preaching activity. Speaking of a molester who may have recently been released from prison, it states, if he seems to be repentant, he will be encouraged to make spiritual progress [and] share in the field ministry.
Brown reassured that a penitent predatory pedophile might be offered alternatives to going door-to-door, at the discretion of the local elders. "We consider just as valid if he sits on a bench in a mall with magazines and offers them to people there. Or, if he calls up on a telephone."
As a matter of policy, the governing body stipulated that known child molesters may hold positions of authority in the church and that even criminal child sex offenders must engage in public preaching.
Underscoring all of this is the refusal of church leaders to simply instruct their members to call civil authorities when allegations of child sexual abuse arise. Instead, a February 15, 2002 letter to all bodies of elders in the United States proffers the advice to immediately call the groups Legal Department whenever facing allegations of child sexual abuse in the congregation. The letter clarifies that the elders should never suggest to anyone that they should not report an allegation of child abuse to the police or other authorities. The simple advice that it may be the parents legal obligation to notify authorities, as caretakers of the minor, is never mentioned. Nor is a list of states that mandate reporting of abuse by clerics provided to the elders by their leaders, even though the US government maintains such information, and published it at the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information ( http://www.calib.com/nccanch/).
Why not encourage psychotherapy, take child sexual abuse out of the hands of untrained elders, refuse to allow know molesters to be in positions of authority, exclude them from public ministry, and inform parents of their obligation to notify authorities of allegations of abuse? Why not adopt a policy of informing authorities of possible child endangerment regardless of local statute? Why not take the moral high ground on child sexual abuse, when you presume to take Gods name as your own?
The leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses knows that today -- maybe even right now -- there is a child trembling beneath the hands of a child sex abuser among their members. They know that maybe a change in their policies could put an end to that, but they refuse to act in a way that consistently places child sexual abuse under those who are trained to deal with it. What do they have to hide? How many more victims, and how many more unspeakable acts will it take for them to see the need to change? How many more little children have to die inside to try to escape the horrid plague that their moral leaders are afraid to confront?
One child is too many. Two survivors of child sexual abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses already dwell under my roof. How many more will it take?
Copyright 2002 Mike Pence.
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"Toasted Cheese" E-Zine Story - September 3rd 2002:
An Unlikely David: Barbara Anderson's struggle to stop predatory pedophiles in the cloistered world of Jehovah's Witnesses
By Michael Morris (Mike Pence)
While the Catholic Church is forced to publicly wrestle its demons of pedophilia, Jehovahs Witnesses refuse to acknowledge any similar problems in their midst. Barbara Anderson, a former insider from the uppermost echelons of the secretive sect, has stepped forward to reveal that such problems have been a source of denial, debate and division at the highest levels of the organization for at least a decade. While Witness leaders insist that sexual abuse of children is not tolerated or concealed in their congregations, as a former Jehovah's Witness, and as a parent who recently discovered my own childrens molestation within the group, I strongly disagree.
In the patriarchal world of Jehovah's Witnesses, Barbara Anderson of Normandy, Tenn., a sharp-witted lady from New York, rose to a level of influence that was unheard of for a woman. She assisted in compiling the official history of the group, and wrote articles that serve to instruct the 6 million Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide, including the 1 million in the United States (though her gender, under Witness rules, would not allow her to read aloud in a Kingdom Hall the very words that she wrote). She regularly rubbed shoulders with members of the Witnesses' elite governing body, a committee that currently consists of 11 men, charged with overseeing the group.
Anderson was also privy to the many letters and phone calls coming into the group's Brooklyn Heights headquarters from members of the faith, responding to published articles, or inquiring about various topics that had not been addressed in print. This feedback was reviewed in meetings among the writers to shape the content of future publications. For Jehovah's Witnesses, the printed word from headquarters provides a pharisaical canon, an ever-shifting lens through which to see more clearly the word, and will, of God.
The formerly taboo subject of child sexual abuse was entering the public discourse in the late 1980s and early 90s, and the correspondence coming into headquarters reflected the angst of those who now felt comfortable coming forward with their own recollections of abuse in the insular communities of the Witnesses. These abuse survivors were turning to their congregation elders for guidance, and these elders, too, were writing to headquarters, seeking guidance.
Parents of most denominations would not hesitate to call police first when sexual abuse of their child is reported. But to the Witnesses, all outsiders - even police and social workers -- are co-conspirators with Satan, part of the condemned world soon to be destroyed by God. As a Witness, when dealing with any wrongdoing "you go to elders first, and then elders make the decision for where you go [from there]. To bypass the organization would be treason," said Anderson.
But these same elders "volunteer, and are essentially untrained clergy," according to a Jehovah's Witness spokesman in the Paducah Sun. They attend no seminary, and have no minimum education requirements, beyond basic literacy. They are equipped for nothing more than enforcing organizational guidelines, delivering biblical platitudes and offering a moment of prayer. When encountering a case of child sexual abuse for the first time, their instructions are first to "call the Legal Department" at the group's headquarters.
The list of mandated reporters of suspected child abuse varies by state. Church spokesmen assert that in those jurisdictions that include clerics as mandatory reporters, the elders are instructed by the Legal Department to make such reports. A recent fax to the BBC in response to a program exposing sexual abuse among the Witnesses noted that "it can be quite a challenge to keep abreast of the reporting requirements, but our Legal Department makes every effort to do so." It should relieve their lawyers to know that The National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information is funded by the US government and tasked with maintaining a web site with just such information, which shows that only 16 states require reporting by clerics. The hand of divine justice apparently is cut short by a lack of supporting legislation in other jurisdictions.
The assertion that such reports are made by elders when called for by the law has been called into question. Two lawsuits recently lodged against the Witnesses claim that mandatory reporting laws were disregarded, and the abuse continued. In one case, a member is said to have been expelled for making such a report against the advice of the elders, after the elders failed to act. A taped telephone conversation from early 2001, between an elder reporting sexual abuse and headquarters, featured on a recent episode of NBC's Dateline, documented an official from the group advising the elder to "walk away from it," and to "leave it for Jehovah," even though the elder was calling from a state that mandates reporting by clerics.
Some particularly conscientious elders sought to step outside their restrictive bounds as spiritual counselors in seeking to assist those traumatized by abuse. They were holding sessions that amounted to group therapy with victims of abuse, but this was quickly ended by a March 23, 1992 letter to all bodies of elders in the United States, stating that elders are not to hold such sessions nor "spend time reading secular publications dealing with worldly psychology or psychiatry."
"Jehovahs Witnesses are a government that operates within all of the governments of the world. I believe that is the big issue here. They want to decide who is guilty or not guilty," said Barbara Anderson. Witnesses are well known for their defiance of secular governments. The Encarta World English Dictionary includes in its definition of Jehovah's Witnesses that the group "rejects secular law where it appears to conflict with the divine."
So, the investigation of the alleged abuse and the deciding who is guilty or not guilty, falls on the local elders. The burden of proof, barring a confession, is that there must be two members of the faith who can serve as eyewitnesses to the crime, no matter what the infraction. Otherwise, the accused is exonerated and the abused is admonished to treat the accused as innocent in God's eyes and not to repeat the charge to anyone else - even other potential victims, like younger siblings -- or face expulsion from the congregation and shunning by fellow members, including friends and family. Needless to say, child molesters don't usually seek an audience. So the cycle of abuse continues, while the victim, who summoned the monumental courage to come forward, is now forced back into silence by their spiritual leaders.
All members are guided by the two principal publications of the group, the Watchtower and Awake! journals. Each had different editors, with differing opinions, in the 90s, which can be problematic for a group that points to its unity of belief as a sign of exclusive divine favor. Awake!, on whose staff Anderson served, often presented the group's softer side, while the Watchtower delivered stern doctrinal dissertations. "They would sometimes contradict each other, especially on societal issues," said Anderson.
Barbara Anderson and other senior staffers knew that the age and cloistered lives of the governing body gave them no frame of reference to empathize with the plight of the abused and their families. Something more than arbitrary application of ancient edicts was required.
Stories of the disastrous results of similar policies awaited Anderson on her summer vacation in 1991. The Witnesses choose to apply certain Old Testament rules literally, such as the command that a woman who does not scream during a rape should be considered a fornicator. "I was gravely disturbed hearing accounts of Witness women who were disfellowshipped (expelled and shunned) for not screaming while being raped. To illustrate: A Jehovah's Witness came back to his house unexpectedly while his house was being cleaned by a woman who also was a Witness. The trauma of his raping her at that time was so severe that she completely blocked out the experience until she discovered she was pregnant. It was then she faced what had happened and went to the congregation elders. She accused her spiritual brother of raping her; however, he denied it until tests confirmed he was the father of the child. Then he said it was consensual sex. She denied it. Nonetheless, she was disfellowshipped because she couldn't remember if she screamed during the rape and her attacker said she didn't. So, when I came back from vacation, I went in to see the man in the Writing Department who I was working with and told him what I had heard. To me it was horrendous that this girl was disfellowshipped. She was victimized twice."
The implications of such policies were clear to Anderson. "I began to see how pedophiles could act easily within the congregations and get away with it," she said.
Members of the Writing Department began pushing for change. When the October 8, 1991 Awake! on child abuse seemed to reverse earlier feelings against psychotherapy and against "repressed memories," there was widespread confusion. When congregation elders called headquarters for clarification "they [the Service Department, in charge of the elders] did not go along with that," said Anderson. "That article was viewed as a mistake. There was a battle going on at Bethel [headquarters] between these two factions. The man who was the head of the Service Department and the man who was head of the Writing Department -- both members of the governing body -- didn't agree on these things." said Anderson.
An avalanche of phone calls and letters came in response to the October 8, 1991 Awake!. Even the cloistered governing body became aware of the widespread claims of abuse, not only abuse being perpetrated by lay members, but by church leaders as well. "The governing body knew in 92 that this was a very real problem, that men in authority were molesters, and they were molesting children. The accusations that were coming to them were not merely against average attendees, but against men in authority, and you couldnt get the Service Department to recognize that. They were having a terrible time," recalls Anderson.
Barbara Anderson and her husband would leave headquarters at the end of '92, after serving there for ten and a half years. She continued to support the writing staff as an outside researcher until '97. "It was during my last year at headquarters while doing research for a senior Awake! writer that I learned to my horror that the organization had severe problems with sexual child abuse. I knew when I left that it was understood that I would continue to send information in on child abuse. This was to try to influence the governing body to change their policies."
Anderson was also aware of the implications of such policies for those outside of the organization. Accusations of child molestation, even a known history of criminal child rape, would not preclude a member from engaging in the Witnesses door to door preaching work. "I begged [governing body member and friend] Lloyd Barry, begged him by letter in July of 1993, not to allow molesters to go door to door." said Anderson. Lloyd Barry, now deceased, never responded. Instead, some three and a half years later, speaking of a molester who may have recently been released from prison, the Watchtower of January 1, 1997 states "If he seems to be repentant [to the untrained elders], he will be encouraged to make spiritual progress [and] share in the field ministry [door to door preaching]."
Neither would a history of child molestation disqualify a member from being appointed as an elder, a leader and exemplar in the congregation. Although the January 1, 1997 Watchtower stated that a "known" molester "would not qualify for congregation privileges," such as becoming an elder or ministerial servant (deacon), a secret letter to all bodies of elders three months later, on March 14, 1997, quietly backpedaled: "An individual known to be a former child molester has reference to the perception of that one in the community [emphasis ours] and in the Christian congregation." And as for determining whether those already in a position of authority had a history of molestation, the letter directed that "The body of elders should not query individuals." Unknown to the faithful, who had taken the January 1st Watchtower at its word, pedophiles could remain in positions of authority, under this don't-ask don't-tell policy, at all levels of the organization. One is left to wonder who pushed for such a change, what they had to hide, and why the contents of that letter, leaked on the Internet, remain, to this day, a secret to the rank and file.
"I cant go to my grave knowing what I know." Anderson's struggle for change from within the group ended when a letter from a member of the headquarters staff in early '97 indicated to her that such symbolic changes were in response to a rising tide of litigation, not out of concern for the welfare of children. "I couldnt go to the Kingdom Hall and hear all of the bragging about how wonderful this organization was from the platform, and sit there and listen. I thought "I cant go to my grave knowing what I know." She resolved to continue to push for change from outside the walls of the Kingdom Hall.
Barbara Anderson came to be among five members disfellowshipped from the group in recent months, following a spate of media attention, for speaking out about rampant sexual abuse and cover-ups among Jehovah's Witnesses. "I had a very, very interesting life as a Jehovahs Witness. My husband and I brought eighty people into this organization," she remembers. While she takes exception to the policies of the leadership that harm children, she holds out hope that the voices that pushed for change in the mid-'90s may prevail. Among those voices are the group's powerful Legal Department, which pushed for a uniform reporting policy among congregations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia - perhaps to be relieved of the arduous task of keeping track of all those laws -- only to be shot down by the governing body. Anderson also cites a group of elders in Dallas, Texas, which worked with a local mental health facility to tailor care for Jehovah's Witnesses, only to be removed from their positions en masse by the leadership. And there were those elders who sought to bring a little therapy into their shepherding. To be sure, there were kindhearted people easily found in the group. "They are good people. I am not going to say they werent and they arent dear people to us," she said.
Perhaps if these people had succeeded in moving the organization to adopt a call-police-first policy in handling cases of child sexual abuse, just as they advise members to seek the help of a physician when ill, or of a fireman during a fire, there would not have been the chance for children, such as mine, to have been abused, their lives forever changed. Instead, we, like so many others, are left to fight a difficult and emotionally painful legal battle against a coy perpetrator in a position of authority, with the backing of his church.
In our case, the alleged abuser continues, to this day, to beam piously from the platform and to hold children on his lap during the services at our former suburban Philadelphia congregation, even as criminal and civil actions are pending, to the full knowledge of the local body of elders.
But it seems the short-sighted preservation of the image of the group has been the priority of the governing body, over the welfare of their flock. Better, they seem to think, to silence the victims, shun the whistle blowers, deny, deny, deny. I recall that Jehovahs Witnesses are expert in itemizing the sins of the Catholic Church, including the harboring of pedophiles. Perhaps now they will have the humility to turn that scrutiny inward, protect the victims in their midst, adopt a call-police-first policy everywhere, and stop allowing a de facto conspiracy of silence to protect pedophiles in their congregations, and on our doorsteps.
Michael Morris grew up a Jehovah's Witness punk rocker in the suburbs of Philadelphia in the 1980s. He spent several years serving as a full-time preacher in the Witnesses' door-to-door preaching work, unwittingly learning much about life and faith from those whom he presumed to teach. E-mail.
Michael posts at Toasted Cheese as Dances with Cactus. "An Unlikely David" was first posted at What I Tell You Three Times Is True, our non-fiction critique forum.
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Here are Web Pages where you can hear the Audio Recording of an Interview with Carl and Barbara Pandelo:
"Carl and Barbara Pandelo: A Conspiracy of Silence" Interview with Michael Morris (Mike Pence) in mp3 Format (89 Minutes in 4 Parts):
Part 1:
http://www.randytv.com/pandelo1.mp3Part 2:
http://www.randytv.com/pandelo2.mp3Part 3:
http://www.randytv.com/pandelo3.mp3Part 4:
http://www.randytv.com/pandelo4.mp3
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Here is the Web Page where you can hear the Audio Recording of an Interview with J. R. Brown (Watchtower Society's Media Spokesman) regarding the Watchtower's Pedophile Policy (by Michael Morris - mikepence)
Title: "A Fairly Consistent Policy of Abuse":
www.exjws.net/JR Brown.mp3
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Evangelicals Now News Article - September 2nd 2002:
JW silent lambs protest
September 27 2002 is a day the Watchtower Society is likely to remember.
Protest marchers are due to walk just seven city blocks in Brooklyn, New York to 25 Colombia Heights, the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses, now considered one of the world's wealthiest religions.
Compared with most protest marches the participants will be few in number. Some will be JWs or ex-JWs, other people may have no religious affiliation at all. Yet the marchers will be united by a common theme: they will all have experienced or been eye-witnesses of the machinations of the secretive Governing Body running the cult, which, it seems, has allowed Watchtower policy to physically harm and emotionally ruin children.
Woolly lambs
Outside the headquarters individuals will speak briefly about the hurt they have either witnessed or personally experienced. It is intended that each individual should carry a small toy woolly lamb, to represent themselves or another person. The event will be unique as, although protest marches among JWs are very rare, protest marches against the Governing Body are totally unheard of.
The lambs are not just for ornament. They have become a symbol for a rapidly-growing group of people who have suffered at the hands of the Watchtower Society. This group, calling itself 'Silentlambs', was begun by Bill Bowen, a JW of 43 years' standing, 20 of them as an elder. While an elder Bill had become aware that a fellow-elder had abused a child several times. Bill wanted to notify the police, but found the matter was being covered-up in his local Kingdom Hall. Eventually he telephoned the legal desk at the Watchtower headquarters, and was told not to get involved. Stunned and profoundly shocked, he resigned from his eldership and went public. But how to reach out and help those abused ones?
Bill had no idea where they were or how many might be suffering. So was born the website 'Silentlambs'. Bill may have expected a trickle of emails, but he suddenly found himself inundated. Many months later he still gets emails every day, and has had over 27,000 visitors to the site.
Silentlambs became for so many hurt souls their first chance to write and tell of their personal grief and pent-up guilt and anger. Some, incapable of speaking openly of their ordeals in the cult, chose to write poems. Again and again the themes were played out in the emails, as abusers were often believed, but the children were branded as liars by disbelieving elders. The correspondence confirmed to Bill that the cover-up mentality was not just a local one, it was endemic in the entire cult. As he expressed it, the movement was a 'paradise for paedophiles'. Since the group began Bill Bowen estimates that he has received around 1,000 stories while another 5,000 people have emailed or contacted him via the internet or by telephone. In May members staged a candle-lit vigil outside the Kingdom Hall in Benton, Kentucky.
BBC Panorama
When the BBC's Panorama investigated the problem in mid-July it dealt with cases in the UK and the USA. Following the programme the Silentlambs website logged around 200 emails in the first 24 hours. By the end of July around 50 new cases of abuse had been reported over the net. Interest in the programme can be gauged by the email response of over 1,000 letters to the BBC, the second highest the Panorama programme has ever received.
The responses to the programme were split 50/50, with JWs in the main stressing there were no serious problems, but others telling a rather different story. Viewing figures indicate this was the most-watched Panorama of the past ten productions.
Sara Poisson
Particularly tragic was the story of Sara Poisson. A battered wife, with daughters whom she suspected were being abused by her JW husband, she went to the elders at her Kingdom Hall for help. Rather than dealing with the problem they told her to go home, pray more and be a better wife. As time passed and the evidence of ongoing abuse continued to mount, Sara went again and again to plead for help and protection. Still she was turned away - with the same instructions. As she was totally dominated by the eldership it never occurred to her to seek outside help.
Eventually, when the school reported substantial bruising on her children, social workers stepped in. The ultimatum was clear: leave your husband or your children go into care. Knowing that to leave him would see her cast out of the local congregation she did just that. This left her homeless, penniless and shunned by all her former JW friends.
Some time later, Holly, one of the abused daughters, went to the police and told them all that had happened at the hands of her father. It was another four years before the father, Paul Berry, was charged with 17 charges of aggravated sexual assault. Even then, after the testimony of the family to the court, some two dozen JWs came forward to offer character witness for the accused.
Phone-in
Following the Panorama presentation the BBC ran a phone-in programme on Radio 5. Again and again individuals called in (often using assumed names) to relate their own experiences of child abuse in the Watchtower cult. Running through the narratives was a theme of guilt and pain combined with an eldership that often seemed not to believe or did not want to believe the facts presented to them.
The response of the JW movement is that for someone to be found guilty of anything there must have been two witnesses present. This may be well and good, but it must be admitted that paedophiles do not usually operate with bystanders about, unless they are fellow paedophiles.
It goes without saying that the vast majority of JW parents are loving, kind people who cherish their children and the idea of abuse is total anathema to them. The Watchtower movement is not unique in having this problem. Yet it is also very plain that something is seriously wrong with any organisation that cannot face the reality of what is going on inside it. The Panorama programme noted the reticence of some elders to co-operate with police even when individuals were reported by their victims.
One officer spoke of elders as being 'criminally negligent' when they failed to pass information to the police. In some cases recorded on the Silentlambs website, Jehovah's Witnesses who reported abusers to the police have been excommunicated from the cult.
Sorry?
One thing was very noticeable in the Panorama presentation: the lack of the simple word, 'sorry'. No one from the movement expressed any regrets to the poor traumatised individuals who painfully told their experiences. If we take the material on the Silentlambs website, there are many hundreds of people whose lives have been wrecked and defiled at the hands of evil individuals. What of those elders who have disbelieved suffering children? Can we expect apologies from them? Or does an external sanitised version of the cult come before truth and justice?
Is it possible that when that little band of sufferers stand outside the Brooklyn headquarters in late September at least someone will come out to them and say 'sorry'. It would be a kindness to do so but the Watchtower has a very long history of not apologising for its errors. It is doubtful if it will do so now.
Richard E. Cotton
[email protected]
http://info@silentlambs.org
Copyright Evangelicals Now - September 2002
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The Toronto Sun Newspaper - September 1st 2002:
www.torontosun.com REPORTER'S EMAIL:
[email protected]Woman sues church
Claims Jehovah's Witnesses hid sex abuse
By BRODIE FENLON -- Toronto Sun
A New Brunswick woman claims two Jehovah's Witness elders and the Canadian church hid the sexual abuse she says she suffered at the hands of her father.
The woman, whose trial begins next Monday in Toronto, is suing the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Canada and two elders of her former congregation in Shelburne, just north of Orangeville, for $700,000.
The church and elders Brian Cairns and Steve Brown deny any wrongdoing and plan to fight the action in court.
The 31-year-old stay-at-home mom, whom The Sun won't name, says in her statement of claim that she was sexually abused by her father from age 11 to 14. The abuse was never reported.
Years later, while working in Toronto as a live-in nanny, the woman claims she suffered from guilt and severe depression.
She approached the elders in her Jehovah's Witness congregation, who turned for advice to church headquarters in Georgetown.
INTERNAL HANDLING
She says in her statement of claim that the main branch advised the case be dealt with internally by the Shelburne congregation and "advised the Toronto congregation three times not to report the abuse to the Children's Aid Society (CAS)."
In her claim, the woman says that Cairns, Brown and the Watchtower Society:
# Refused to report suspicions of child sex abuse to the CAS as required by Ontario law.
# Conspired to hide or bury the charge internally.
# Told the woman she didn't need psychiatric or psychological counselling as "God's way alone would be beneficial."
# Forced the woman to confront her abuser and relive the abuse through repeated interrogation that caused her "permanent emotional injury."
Church spokesman Clive Thomas said that while the church has sympathy for her case, the lawsuit is misdirected.
"The elders were trying to provide her with spiritual help during a difficult time and the elders feel that she is basically biting the helping hand," he said.
In their statement of defence, the defendants insist the elders "were instrumental in ensuring the matter was reported" to CAS by the father. No charges were ever laid.
No one hindered the woman from seeking help from psychologists or psychiatrists, the statement of defence says.
As well, the church argues the woman never sued her father, and never complained to the elders or church about how her case was handled until the lawsuit was filed in 1998.
None of the allegations in either the claim or defence have been proven in court.
'READY TO FIGHT THEM'
"I have so much anger ... that I'm ready to fight them until the end," the woman said in an interview with The Sun.
"They don't realize the damage that they have done to people and to myself," she said. "I don't care if you want to be a Jehovah's Witness. All I'm saying is that the way they deal with child abuse is wrong and it has to be stopped."
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The Toronto Sun Newspaper - September 1st 2002:
Storm in the hall
Jehovah's Witnesses deny secrecy in dealing with family sexual abusers
By Brodie Fenlon -- Toronto Sun
Jehovah's Witnesses vehemently condemn child abuse. But several victims from within the sect have gone public in recent months claiming that "monsters" are hiding behind the church's policy on handling child abuse.
Critics say the policy favours secrecy and the redemption of the sinner at the expense of victims.
The policy creates "a pedophile paradise," said Bill Bowen, of Kentucky, a former senior minister with the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society, who left in protest after 43 years.
"There's a sly, devious evil that's happening ... and Witnesses are not even aware of it," said Bowen, who launched a victim support group in 2000 called Silent Lambs.
Clive Thomas, spokesman for the Canadian church, said the accusations are unfair. While the church is concerned about the spiritual well-being of abusers, he said, "We care about children. We do not condone or take a soft view of child sexual abuse or any other abuse."
Bowen said he's already heard from more than 5,000 victims of abuse since he set up his Web site (www.silentlambs.org/).
The church keeps a database of all members accused of abuse at its world headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y. Bowen said church sources have told him the database holds more than 23,700 names from the U.S., Canada and Europe. The church admits the database exists, but won't give a specific tally, saying only that the number is much lower.
Some of the victims' stories -- of betrayal and coverups at the hands of church leaders -- have grabbed headlines in the U.S. and Britain. Bowen said the American church is facing seven lawsuits over the handling of claims of abuse.
As The Toronto Sun has learned, the Canadian church is not immune to the growing scandal.
A New Brunswick woman is scheduled to take the stand in a Toronto court next week in her lawsuit against the Canadian branch and two elders over allegations they concealed abuse she suffered when she approached them years later as an adult. The church denies the allegations.
The Canadian church also keeps a database. Though Thomas wouldn't say how many are on it, he confirmed 12 abusers have been identified in Ontario in the last two years.
In his book, Father's Touch, Donald D'Haene describes how he was repeatedly sodomized, fondled and abused in what his father called "a game."
In 1973, a family member shared the secret with an elder in the family's Jehovah's Witness congregation in Aylmer. Following church protocol, elders investigated and spoke to the D'Haene children. The questions they asked were "cold, blunt, and matter of fact," D'Haene, 41, recalls in the book.
His father confessed. The elders announced to the congregation that he was "disfellowshipped," or excommunicated from the church, but no reason was given. D'Haene's mom was also publicly rebuked for failing to come to church leaders.
No one called police or Children's Aid.
Donald D'Haene went to police several years later. In 1982, his father was convicted of three counts of gross indecency for what the judge called "indescribably vile acts."
"Religion doesn't create monsters," D'Haene said. "Monsters use religion."
Winnipeg's Shirley Hardiman was 11 in 1963 when she says her mom's boyfriend sexually abused her. Her mom reported it to elders of their Montreal congregation.
"They told my mother to keep it quiet, to send me away," she says.
Hardiman spent the next five years in foster care until she was reunited with her mother at age 16. Her abuser, who died 10 years ago, was never reprimanded by the church, she said.
"There's this really strong belief that you can not do or say anything that brings shame on the organization," said Hardiman, 50, who now works as an abuse counsellor.
Times have changed. Church elders in Canada are required by law to report allegations of sexual abuse to authorities and were ordered by the church in 1988 to comply with the law.
"We abhor the molestation of children," the church says in a press release. "It is not just a terrible sin but also a crime ... We do not protect any perpetrator of such repugnant acts."
While secular authorities are notified of allegations, the abuse is also investigated internally by elders, who are considered administrators of God's law.
Elders are required first to contact church headquarters in Georgetown, where a lawyer instructs them on how to handle the allegations. Two elders are then appointed to investigate. Family members, the victim and the accused are interviewed, sometimes together, and explicit detail is sought.
If the accused denies the abuse happened, the charge is dropped unless another witness can corroborate the story.
That rule is based on the Biblical book of Deuteronomy: "No single witness should rise up against a man respecting any error or any sin."
In effect, the child's accusation is dismissed unless another person saw the abuse or another child comes forward with an allegation against the same church member.
"We are bound by the scriptures," Thomas said. "But we would still report it to the authorities with only one witness" so the victim gets "the protection of the secular authorities."
But abuse is seldom reported in jurisdictions where there is no mandatory reporting requirement, Bowen said.
If the pedophile confesses the sin, he is punished, often by disfellowship. A permanent confidential record is kept by the elders and the Georgetown office is notified. But the congregation is never told of the crime -- only the punishment.
Family members and the victim are also forbidden from talking about abuse to other congregation members.
Disfellowship, or excommunication, involves being shunned by the community and family for at least a year. The shunned member is still expected to attend meetings.
Should a pedophile move to another congregation, elders there are notified and records transferred.
Thomas said elders must protect the privacy of an accused, especially if he has repented, but are instructed to carefully monitor him and prevent him from being alone with kids.
Bowen, who was excommunicated last month after being found guilty of "causing divisions," decried the process, noting the cloak of secrecy allows pedophiles to go door to door "witnessing" without anyone but the elders in the know. The requirement of two witnesses is ridiculous in cases of sex abuse, he said. And though elders may be well-meaning, they aren't trained to question or handle victims, he said.
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
# A Christian sect with 6 million members (110,000 in Canada).
# Founded in the 1870s as a Bible study group by Pastor Charles Taze Russell.
# Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas or Easter. They believe Armageddon is imminent and that they will survive.
# Witnesses believe taking blood into the body through the mouth or veins violates God's law, and thus they shun blood transfusions.
# They will not swear allegiance to any organization or nation. As a result, Witnesses will not join the armed forces, sing the national anthem, vote in elections or run for public office.
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