Federal Investigation into JW procedures
by kenmayo1 11 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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kenmayo1
State Sen. Noel Frame, who introduced the bill, rejected the notion that the bill is targeting Catholics, pointing out, as she has repeatedly in legislative hearings, that she introduced the legislation after reading InvestigateWest’s coverage of the way Jehovah’s Witnesses hid sexual abuse for decades and how Washington was one of the few states that did not require clergy to report such allegations.
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joey jojo
JW leadership plays the victim by claiming persecution by authorities. The sad truth is that the 'persecution' is deserved and not just random acts of evil by the 'wild beast'.
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TonusOH
From the 2022 article:
Forty-three states list clergy as mandatory reporters, either explicitly or under a broader definition, according to a federal agency that tracked the state laws in 2019. But of those, 31 have what’s called clergy-penitent privilege, a loophole that exempts clergy from the requirement if the information was learned from someone seeking spiritual advice or during confession.
This means that twelve states have laws that require reporting of such crimes, while an additional 31 states have similar laws with a very big loophole.
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Anony Mous
JW elders are not covered by clergy penitent privilege.
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blondie
Anony Mous, that has not yet but found true in court, but court cases are exploring that. "JW elders are not covered by clergy penitent privilege."
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Anony Mous
There are various cases where it has held that elders are not covered because they do not have anything resembling a confession or secrecy. If you report to an elder, they start a committee and a written report, that is no longer clergy penitent privilege but business record.
The problem is that very few attorneys actually know how the JW org works and in most cases there is no claim of privilege, nor are elders sued directly.
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blondie
I agree with that, Anony Mous.
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Phizzy
" clergy penitent privilege " does not exist in Law in the U.K, where a Criminal Act is concerned, and has not done so since the Reformation.
Even where it does, it is Morally Wrong not to Report a Crime STARAIGHT AWAY to all the appropriate Authorities and Bodies who are trained and skilled in how to deal with the situation, the Elders are NOT !
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Nathan Natas
"JW elders are not covered by clergy penitent privilege."
WHY NOT?
A "penitent" is a person who is repents the wrongs they have done. Additionally, Clergy-penitent privilege, also known as priest-penitent privilege, is an evidentiary rule that protects confidential communications between a member of the clergy and a person seeking spiritual counseling from being disclosed in court or other legal proceedings.
Notice that it requires "a" member of the clergy, not three gossips. So if I tell the triumvirate about my murders, that is not a clergy-penitent confession, it's a chat with "the guys," or, as Anony Mous put it, a "business meeting."
Let's say I go to a Judicial Committee of three elders and tell them that I was mugged. I have not committed any wrong; I am not "confessing" anything.