https://youtu.be/LkFLR6SgyfM?si=j4GoPNYFPY3wxNXs
In what can only be described as a win for truth, justice, and religious freedom (depending on who you ask ofcourse), the Paris Administrative Court has come to the defense of Jehovah’s Witnesses. On June 14, 2024, the court ruled that MIVILUDES, France’s government agency for monitoring cult-like behavior, had committed the heinous crime of defamation against Jehovah’s Witnesses.France unlike most other countries has an agency that monitors destructive cults and gets who is in their list: Jehovah’s Witnesses, I wonder why that is. So,how dare they accuse such a squeaky-clean group organisation! After all, it’s not like anyone has ever raised concerns about their handling of child abuse or their approach to education, right?
MIVILUDES, in its misguided attempt to protect society, dared to publish reports between 2018 and 2020 that suggested Jehovah’s Witnesses might discourage child abuse reporting to secular authorities. They even had the audacity to claim that the group didn’t exactly encourage its younger members to pursue higher education. Clearly, MIVILUDES forgot who they were dealing with: an organization that insists they are always right, regardless of what the rest of the world might think.
Naturally, Jehovah’s Witnesses were outraged at the mere suggestion that they might be anything less than paragons of virtue. So, they did what any wrongfully accused group would do – they sued for defamation. Because nothing says “we’re innocent” like dragging people to court.
In a stunning twist of logic, the Paris Administrative Court agreed with Jehovah’s Witnesses, declaring that MIVILUDES’ claims were defamatory. According to the court, the agency relied on flimsy evidence, like reports from the Australian Royal Commission and cases in the U.S. Apparently, the fact that these issues were highlighted on other continents was irrelevant because, as we all know, child abuse and educational manipulation never cross borders.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, of course, had their own pristine documents ready to prove they were law-abiding citizens. The court was impressed by their 2008 letter to the French Minister of Justice, where they so kindly reminded their members to report abuse in accordance with French law. So, that settles it. If they said they follow the law in a letter, it must be true. Case closed.
MIVILUDES, clearly overstepping its bounds, claimed that Jehovah’s Witnesses encouraged members to handle serious offenses like child abuse internally. But according to the court, MIVILUDES failed to present enough “credible” evidence to support these claims in France. Apparently, three testimonies and a press article weren’t enough to prove that such a revered group would ever turn a blind eye to abuse. The fact that similar concerns have popped up in other countries is completely irrelevant.
MIVILUDES also had the nerve to accuse Jehovah’s Witnesses of discouraging their young followers from pursuing long-term studies. The court, however, quickly dismissed this as outdated nonsense, citing that MIVILUDES’ evidence was based on publications from 1975 and beyond. Why should we pay attention to decades of past teachings when we can just pretend they never existed?
Clearly, the court was not interested in holding Jehovah’s Witnesses accountable for anything that didn’t happen in the immediate past. After all, if no one has said anything recently about kids not going to college, it’s obviously not a problem.
The Paris court was quick to remind MIVILUDES that, as a governmental body, it must adhere to “balance, impartiality, and neutrality” – something it apparently failed at spectacularly. In what seems like an enormous leap of faith, the court ruled that MIVILUDES had spread “erroneous” and “misleading” information about Jehovah’s Witnesses. As a result, the agency was ordered to delete the defamatory statements within 15 days. That’ll teach them for trying to protect vulnerable people!
This legal triumph for Jehovah’s Witnesses will surely be celebrated as yet another example of Jehovah’s protection. How dare anyone suggest that their internal handling of abuse cases or their historical stance on education could be questionable? MIVILUDES, on the other hand, has been left with a harsh reminder that protecting people from potential harm must be done with airtight evidence — none of that “global pattern of behavior” nonsense, thank you very much.
In the end, the ruling simply reaffirms that if you want to accuse a high-control religious group of wrongdoing, you’d better come prepared with something more solid than international reports and outdated concerns. Otherwise, you might just find yourself on the losing end of a defamation case. Because, of course, Jehovah’s Witnesses have never done anything wrong – at least not in the past few years in France.