Translation of a Newspaper article by Morten Nøhr Mortensen, B.T., of December 27, 2001
Victims of Abuse Stand Together against Jehovah
Jehovah’s Witnesses conceal pedophilia, but the victims are now appearing on the internet.
As disclosed by this newspaper recently, the worldwide denomination Jehovah’s Witnesses try to hush down internal cases of child abuse. But the victims of the horrible crimes keep emerging anyway.
On the website "silentlambs.org" one horrible story after another can be read. 99 victims in all have told their stories of sexual abuse - the vast majority within the strongly religious denomination. And in nearly all the contributions victims tell about the complete lack of help from the denomination.
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I was in the "organization" for 31 years and was molested by 2 different elders (one was my father). The brothers refused to do anything about it and still have my father in a congregation "unmarked". This is the wording of one of the typical contributions.
Help is being made impossible
The website also focuses on a controversial article in the denomination’s magazine "The Watchtower" which is distributed to six million members worldwide, including the 15,000 witnesses in Denmark.
As described earlier in B.T., a careful scrutiny of the article discloses that the denomination makes it almost impossible for incest victims to get any help.
For instance, Jehovah’s Witnesses demands that the victim attends a meeting with the abuser BEFORE going to the police. The Watchtower article also says that even if there are two persons who remember being abused by the same person, this does not constitute a sufficiently solid basis for taking further action in the case.
"In time you may accept that the matter is consigned to oblivion", says the article in which, however, Jehovah’s Witnesses also take sharp issue with the abuse of children though they still seem to do everything to hush down the events.
Events are hushed down
Poul Dal from the Danish town Skive was a Jehovah’s Witness for 35 years until he voluntarily disassociated himself from the denomination years back. He thinks that Jehovah’s Witnesses have a serious problem with pedophiles in the congregations.
"But the abuse of children is no more widespread within Jehovah’s Witnesses than in the rest of the society. The problem is that they are trying to hush down the cases. Thereby Jehovah’s Witnesses protect the pedophiles and allow them to go on molesting children without any consequences", he says.
Poul Dal was an elder of the Skive congregation for ten years. The attitude of the denomination to incest victims was one of the things that made him break his bond to the Witnesses .
That also goes for another former elder, William Bowen, the American initiator of the website "silentlambs".
In the Elder School of Jehovah’s Witnesses the instruction was clear. If an incest victim told the congregation of an abuse in an attempt to get help, nothing could be done if it was the word of one person against that of another. In that case the victim was told not to tell anyone about the case. If the victim decided to talk about the problem anyway or to warn others, the victim would risk being disfellowshipped. And that would mean complete isolation from friends and family.
Can just deny everything
This very policy was later reproduced in the controversial article in the Watchtower in November 1995. On his website William Bowen writes:
"For myself, I feel I can trust no one within the Watchtower organization with my children. If my children were to accuse a pedophile of molestation, all he would have to do is deny it and as a father I would be silenced with the threat of disfellowshiping if I were to try to say something (slander of a perceived innocent man) in a way of warning to protect others who may be in harms way."
A case from the Danish province of Northern Jutland shows that the threat to keep silent also applies in Denmark. In this case a 72-year old Witness is accused of having abused two daughters and a grandchild. The brother of the incest victims has told B.T., that Jehovah’s Witnesses ordered both him and his two sisters to keep silent about the matter.
The victims say………
A large number of incest victims from Jehovah’s Witnesses tell their stories on the website
www.silentlambs.org . Here are some of them:
My sister's step son was sexually abused by a male babysitter, (a JW), their first action was to go to the Elders, who discouraged them from going to the police and even telling their families.
I
talked to my son about the whole thing and he wants me to send out his story. Inside he is still mad about everything, even though he was only three, he remembers it all.
My family is inactive, not disfellowshipped. However, the molester that has preyed on our family is active and in good standing, now in the xxxxxx area. He has molested many children.
I have a friend who is still suffering terribly due to being sexually abused. Her molester still attends meetings, goes out door to door and has his little grandchildren sit with him during meetings.
I have a daughter that was continually exposed to a molester, but never molested. No family member told us, and no elder told us. Now this person is remarried, lives with a young stepdaughter, and is in good standing with the congregation.
I was molested by my elder & PO for approximately 9 months when I was 15 years old. The elders told me NOT to tell the police or anyone else or I would be immediately disfellowshipped.
xxxx was raised a JW for 16 years, molested by her step-grandfather, disfellowshipped at 16. He was a JW, elders did nothing. She says many others in congregation besides her were molested, including xxxxx's siblings.
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