Reveal- Trey Bundy: New documents about Jehovah’s Witnesses’ sex abuse begin to leak out

by AndersonsInfo 27 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  AndersonsInfo

  New Jehovah's Witnesses document dump provides a grim play-by-play of how the religion deals with sexual abuse.

  https://www.revealnews.org/blog/new-documents-about-jehovahs-witnesses-sex-abuse-begin-to-leak-out/

  By Trey Bundy / January 10, 2018

  Dozens of confidential documents apparently leaked from Jehovah’s Witnesses archives appeared online Tuesday, providing a rare window into how the religion’s child abuse policies favor accused sexual predators at the expense of the victims.

  FaithLeaks, a group pushing for more transparency in religious organizations, posted the documents in tandem with a story published by Gizmodo.

  The documents detail the accusations of two sisters who say they were sexually assaulted by their father when they were growing up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion. One says her father tied her down and molested her. The other says her father raped her repeatedly over a period of years.

  Most of the 33 documents are letters between local leaders and the religion’s global headquarters in New York — The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. They show how the alleged perpetrator was able to attend a congregation with one of his alleged victims, in violation of a restraining order, while leaders admonished a member for reporting the violation to police.

  The Watchtower’s written policies direct leaders to keep sexual abuse allegations away from authorities and handle them internally, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

  While Reveal could not independently verify the new documents immediately, the details found in them are consistent with dozens of other documented cases. For example:

  Face your accuser: Jehovah’s Witnesses elders establish their own tribunals to determine whether members accused of wrongdoing are guilty. Historically, accusers — even those who were still kids – had to confront their abusers face-to-face or else the elders would drop the matter. After being admonished in public hearings into their child abuse policies in Australia in 2015, Jehovah’s Witnesses officials say they have changed that policy. The new letters, which span the late 1990s and 2000s, indicate that elders held off disciplinary proceedings with the alleged abuser because one of his accusers did not want to face him.

  The “two-witness rule”: Watchtower policy dictates that without a confession by the abuser or two witnesses to the crime, the elders in the congregation can not take action against the accused. The FaithLeaks documents show that the congregation’s response to the accusations against the alleged abuser was stalled because the accusers did not have two witnesses to the crimes against them.

  Child abuse is a confidential matter: The Watchtower does not instruct elders to report child sexual abuse to police. A 2014 memo to elders in all U.S. congregations directs elders to maintain “strict confidentiality” and “avoid unnecessary entanglement with secular authorities” in matters of assault, rape, child abuse, and murder. The new documents provide no indication that the Watchtower reported abuse to police.

  Repentance goes a long way: According to internal Watchtower documents obtained by Reveal, if a confessed child sexual abuser convinces elders that he feels remorse, he can remain in the congregation, even if that means weekly contact with his victim.

  READ MORE: https://www.revealnews.org/blog/new-documents-about-jehovahs-witnesses-sex-abuse-begin-to-leak-out/
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  Simon

  Even "knowing" about all this stuff, it's still incredibly shocking that they behave this way and have these policies. It's hard to imagine what their thought process is behind it even.
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  cha ching

  My husband has been talking to the CART people, telling them, "you are going to hear disturbing news regarding the WT that were hidden from me also" and "I just want to let you know, when you find these things out, there is life beyond Jehovah's Witnesses" Now, just a few days later, here it is!

  The way the WT's brain works is being "Revealed " once again.

  Thank the brave people who had a conscience, and could no longer permit these atrocities to continue.
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  steve2

  I suppose it is as yet unknown who the source of the leak is.

  I’d like to think it is from a still-in source from a “higher up” level who nonetheless secretly feels disgust at the organization’s double-talk on its child-sex abuse practices and policies.
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  stuckinarut2

  Yes, it is very comforting to see that someone within the inner circle at Bethel must have leaked these documents!!

  May they continue to follow the promptings of their conscience and bring these things to light! The GB has shown callous disregard for doing the right thing, but someone in Bethel however is showing their humanity and honesty!

  Bravo whoever you are! Keep it up!
  
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  Still Totally ADD

  All I can say is unbelievable. I so happy I am no part of this stuff any more. Still Totally ADD
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  LV101

  Too good to be true! WOW -- it's unbelievable. It can't be someone presently inside -- maybe they downloaded the docs previously and are no longer there?

  Thanks, Barbara.
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  Pistoff

  Hard to know why this thread is not blowing up.

  I read all of the documents; what stands out to me is that after having their flawed methods and policy exposed by Barb Anderson and Bill Bowen in 2002, they didn't change a thing.

  -NY Bethel/service desk (hiding as 'CCJW') STILL makes judgement calls from afar, even though the info they have is filtered through elders, CO's and 'watchmen' elders.

  -They encourage elders to investigate the validity of child sexual abuse cases. With no training other than what is provided by Bethel, and despite knowing the accusers and accused, they investigate and make decisions that affect the lives of the families involved.

  That is the takeaway for me: untrained and biased 'investigators' doing their best to keep the abuse claims out of the hands of the police.

  And note that nowhere in any of the many letters does it say that Brother Perp has to be accompanied by another person when he goes in the ministry.

  This seems like a fact that the public should be made aware of: though the congregation took all of his 'privileges' away due to his admission of guilt, he still was allowed to go from door to door.
  
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  flipper

  Thanks for bringing this out Barbara. I notice on another thread Newsweek has put forth this information as well. It's so important to get this exposure of the WT Society's criminal negligence out into mainstream media again so the public will be informed. It's high time for WT Society to pay for it's crimes against children that the leaders enable
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  John Davis

  There is a problem though when people just dump documents with no context or research behind the posting of these kinds of documents.

  First, there are questions related to privacy that both the victims and third parties and even the suspected perpetrator has. Even though the names have been redacted it is easy for people to surmise who these people are and can cause additional emotional pain and distress for all those parties. Look at the ARC they only released the documents that were part of one case because they had communicated with the harmed woman, she gave them testimony and I would assume they communicated with her before releasing those documents. This would grant the victim an opportunity to decide if they want people to know the story or not. And yes even the accused perpetrator has rights not for certain information to be let out that he doesn’t want out or that is not put out through legal means.

  Second, these documents have not been authenticated nor is it possible to know if these are all of the documents or contains all the facts known by all the parties. In court a lawyer cannot just introduce documents into evidence no matter how accurate or damning they maybe. Evidence can only be introduced after it is presented to witnesses for that information to be authenticated and for context to be given. Even in this case there is no documents as to communication with the legal department which would be the department that would give legal advice on if and when communication needs to be reported to the authorities.

  Third, I understand that people have a problem with the fact that he was reinstated and allowed to go door to door, but that is his right to practice his religion. Just because someone has committed a vial act doesn’t mean that they have given up their rights as a human. Yes, he may reoffend in the future but we as a society don’t punish people for future crimes, we can only punish people for things that they have actually committed.

  Fourth, is this thought that the authorities were never notified when it is certainly possible for one to surmise that authorities were notified. In the documents it speaks to a restraining order that was granted to one of the victims against the perpetrator. In order to receive a restraining order from a judge the victim of the abuse would need to explain to why that person is in potential harm and that the court would be required to curtail another person’s rights. The victim would have to explain what happened to her and why she feels that her father is still a danger to herself and her husband. Also it is impractical for anyone to expect a private organization to enforce a restraining order, it is up to the person who has the restraining order along with the police to enforce it, not for other people too.

  I know I am going to take a lot of flak for my thoughts and certainly this should have been handled better by Watchtower, but it is also looking at the different sides of this matter.