several days ago our beloved barbara anderson, watchdog of watchtower-abused children, posted our forum’s thread, “slate article: a new “wikileaks for religion” publishes its first trove of documents”.
the new faithleaks web site began hosting document submissions aimed at whistleblowers of a religious bent.
it must’ve caught the eye of some watchtower insider.. “faithleaks, like mormonleaks, is founded on the belief that increased transparency results in fewer untruths, less corruption, and less abuse in any organization.
I was acquainted with a JW yrs. ago who told me her mother examined her older sisters after their dates
Until exploring this set of documents I never realized such bizarre behavior could possibly have taken place. Is it possible that certain pages of Watchtower encourage parents to do this?
several days ago our beloved barbara anderson, watchdog of watchtower-abused children, posted our forum’s thread, “slate article: a new “wikileaks for religion” publishes its first trove of documents”.
the new faithleaks web site began hosting document submissions aimed at whistleblowers of a religious bent.
it must’ve caught the eye of some watchtower insider.. “faithleaks, like mormonleaks, is founded on the belief that increased transparency results in fewer untruths, less corruption, and less abuse in any organization.
Judicial procedures would prevent the mother from being a part of any of the investigation.
Many years ago I was an elder but was never involved in judicial committee duties. It sounds as if you were. My question to you: why wouldn't the committee want to interview her to see if his alibi, weak as it was, were true?
several days ago our beloved barbara anderson, watchdog of watchtower-abused children, posted our forum’s thread, “slate article: a new “wikileaks for religion” publishes its first trove of documents”.
the new faithleaks web site began hosting document submissions aimed at whistleblowers of a religious bent.
it must’ve caught the eye of some watchtower insider.. “faithleaks, like mormonleaks, is founded on the belief that increased transparency results in fewer untruths, less corruption, and less abuse in any organization.
Thirteen congregations are named within those documents.
Palmer, 131 Old Palmer Rd, Brimfield, Ma
Warehouse Point, Ct
West Hartford, Ct
Fort Kent, Me
Machias, Me
Springfield, Ma
Enfield, Ct
W. Springfield, Ma
Windsor Locks, Ct
Houlton, Me
Westfield, Ma
Wales, Ma
Ware, Ma
several days ago our beloved barbara anderson, watchdog of watchtower-abused children, posted our forum’s thread, “slate article: a new “wikileaks for religion” publishes its first trove of documents”.
the new faithleaks web site began hosting document submissions aimed at whistleblowers of a religious bent.
it must’ve caught the eye of some watchtower insider.. “faithleaks, like mormonleaks, is founded on the belief that increased transparency results in fewer untruths, less corruption, and less abuse in any organization.
Here is the link to the PDF.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hf1FGKLQk0cV7lN2wvAhQLFNxFAnoByq/view?usp=sharing
Len
several days ago our beloved barbara anderson, watchdog of watchtower-abused children, posted our forum’s thread, “slate article: a new “wikileaks for religion” publishes its first trove of documents”.
the new faithleaks web site began hosting document submissions aimed at whistleblowers of a religious bent.
it must’ve caught the eye of some watchtower insider.. “faithleaks, like mormonleaks, is founded on the belief that increased transparency results in fewer untruths, less corruption, and less abuse in any organization.
Sorry, but the color coding and tables did not work on the original post or this one. Perhaps I'll attach a link to a PDF.
Len
several days ago our beloved barbara anderson, watchdog of watchtower-abused children, posted our forum’s thread, “slate article: a new “wikileaks for religion” publishes its first trove of documents”.
the new faithleaks web site began hosting document submissions aimed at whistleblowers of a religious bent.
it must’ve caught the eye of some watchtower insider.. “faithleaks, like mormonleaks, is founded on the belief that increased transparency results in fewer untruths, less corruption, and less abuse in any organization.
Several days ago our beloved Barbara Anderson, watchdog of Watchtower-abused children, posted our forum’s thread, “SLATE Article: A New “Wikileaks for Religion” Publishes Its First Trove of Documents”. The new Faithleaks web site began hosting document submissions aimed at whistleblowers of a religious bent. It must’ve caught the eye of some Watchtower insider.
“FaithLeaks, like MormonLeaks, is founded on the belief that increased transparency results in fewer untruths, less corruption, and less abuse in any organization. It provides the same service of anonymizing sources from all religions, religious nonprofits, cults, and creeds with documented information they believe deserves to be made public.”
With this first submission, a disgruntled JW (yes, I’m guessing) with access to confidential congregation files did a bunch of copying, collating, and transmitting.
You can find the posting here, https://faithleaks.org/newsroom/
This submission includes 33 individually hyperlinked PDF files available at a click for download. However, I found that to be quite laborious to navigate back and forth to various pieces of information. I decided, then, to place them all into one document, however large (nearly 8 Mbytes).
using a single click,
You may find it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KNaDEN7cGinS2zftJ59eBNTciwY_n9bW/view?usp=sharing
The 33 files contain redacted names of the principals involved, doing so by covering them with opaque coded colors. For the sake of clarity, I have created fictitious names of the principals involved as placeholders in order to make this summary more readable.
Mary Johnson tells of her father, James Smith, tying her arms to the bed in order to prevent her from performing masturbation. Smith “tied her hands and feet to the four corners of the top level of a bunk bed that Johnson and her sister Patricia Williams shared. In the morning he would check Johnson by opening the lips of her vagina and checking for redness. If it didn’t look right, he would beat her.”
The documents tell the story of a father who admitted to a congregation judicial committee the sexual molestation of the younger of two daughters when she was 6 years old. The older sister apparently joins forces, conceding that she too was molested. The father gets disfellowshipped because of those “two witnesses”.
The father atones his way back into good standing within the congregation.
The youngest daughter remains troubled that her abuser remains free from the arms of law enforcement and sees that he is warmly welcomed inside the walls of the kingdom hall. The daughter apparently talks to others about her feelings and the father does not like that.
The father appeals to the elders, claiming slander on her part.
The Patterson, New York, ivory tower guys (anonymously signing their proclamation as Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses) resolved the issue by placing the father on restricted congregation assignments.
The daughter’s account, however, details far more atrocities – regular episodes of rape, even sharing his daughter with other men for monetary gains -- that were never addressed by the committee and obviously not revealed to law enforcement authorities.
It is entirely possible that these added atrocities are responsible for this 20 year-old episode to fester into an extremely complicated fiasco, one that undoubtedly nurtured seeds of discontent among congregations in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
It is entirely possible – and by all means understandable, that Mary Johnson would feel that real justice had never been served and it is possible that she would even embellish such claims to serve her agenda. Only she, her older sister, Patricia Williams, and their father, James Smith, know the truth of all the details. We as empathetic bystanders should be thankful if we’ve never been sexually abused.
The father was disfellowshipped in the 1980’s for admitting that his wife of the time told him to check his six-year-old daughter’s vagina, which he did. He then beat his daughter if her vagina didn’t look right. One has to wonder whether or not these admissions were ever revealed to law enforcement. I doubt they have and herein lies an issue that seems close to the heart of thousands of Watchtower cover-ups – shielding under the guise of pastor-parishioner confidentiality in order for Watchtower (JW.ORG) to keep its precious reputation from getting soiled.
Finally, consider the father’s claims of slander by them because of their persistent gossip – even posting flyers of his picture accompanied by the text,
“a minister in this community has raped and sexually molested children in our family. Due to statute of limitations, he remains free.”
It is appalling to me that committees of non-professional people – janitors, window-washers, shoe salesmen – sit as judges of their peers in matters that would be best relegated to ones that society, imperfect as it may be, provides -- paid professionals who have been trained in the growing midst of abundant technical resources.
I hope that somehow law enforcement can wade through such files despite their redactions and piece together facts enough to launch some type of investigation of their own.
I hope that Watchtower officials and its appointed representatives, Circuit Overseers – along with congregation elders who serve on committees, will now see these public revelations as notification that they may be held accountable as being complicit in crimes toward children. They should finally realize that U. S. officials are not lenient toward sex offenders and anyone on their side. https://www.centralmaine.com/2017/07/18/child-pornographer-wade-hoover-loses-bid-to-lower-60-year-sentence-for-sexually-assaulting-boys/
I realize I have nothing personally vested in this conflict and I will never face this monster of a father in a courtroom. If perchance I did, this is what I would tell him.
James Smith (not real name): You escaped major incarceration for what you admitted, that of repeatedly touching your daughter’s most private parts at the tender age of 6. Egregious is a word I seldom use but it’s the worst kind of evil that I know and the most accurate way I can envision your behavior toward one of your own flesh and blood. If I were responsible for your sentencing within the scope of a modern U. S. courtroom, the alibi you presented to that local judicial committee – aka kangaroo court, perhaps comprised of a couple window washers and a janitor – that your wife asked you to do what you did, would fall on deaf ears.
I also find that local tribunal deplorable in that they did not immediately call law enforcement. It is not surprising that Watchtower headquarters trained you in this behavior and continues to virtually endorse such a haven for monsters.
so...while chatting with my ultra "spiritual elder" father on the phone this afternoon, i couldn't resist using that line!.
i had sent him that video of the recent convention showing brothers and sisters dancing to the "kingdom song" and waving their illuminated phones and arms in the air like some sort of revival church concert.
(perhaps someone can post that link to that thread again here?).
You must understand that Jehovah is going thru a learning curve -- wink, wink.
so last weekend, the jw's ring the bell and my wife answers.
we live in a heavily spanish neighborhood but don't really speak spanish.
i thought my wife was quite clear that she is a "sister" to them, but maybe the one in charge of the group didn't get the message.
OTWO -- great anti-witness.
a couple of times at the meetings this year we've been told that in the future we might get some strange directions from the society that might not make any sense to us.
then they've said will we show our loyalty to jehovah by still obeying?
seems a rather unusual thing to say.
Should we have our empty glasses ready?
nightmare on elm street.
mother to elder: tiffany, my daughter, shocked me last night.
she told me she was fondled by our hispanic neighbor after she babysat for their children.. elder: that is terrible to hear, sister.
Nightmare on Elm Street
Mother to elder: Tiffany, my daughter, shocked me last night. She told me she was fondled by our Hispanic neighbor after she babysat for their children.
Elder: that is terrible to hear, sister. How is she doing? Have you been able to comfort her?
Mother: Thanks for asking. I think I’m going to take her to one of those agencies that offer emotional assistance. I also think that I need to let the police know about it in case they want to investigate.
Elder: It sounds like you’ve got your daughter’s best interest at heart. Let me know how that all works out. By the way, I know your distant neighborhood fairly well – is the perpetrator someone I may know? We elders may want to alert the congregation as to his house number just in case we happen to do field service around those homes. We’d do that as a matter of precaution – you can understand that, can’t you, sister?
Mother: Oh, yes, I certainly can understand. And, yes, you may know that perpetrator since he tends the microphones in that nearby Spanish congregation.
Elder: Wait, sister. I was under the impression that the man is a worldly person and not one of our own. First of all, were there any witnesses to this dastardly act?
Mother: Well, no. His wife and children had all gone upstairs to bed and he did this bad thing in their hallway as she was leaving his home. But I’m now a bit puzzled. Till you learned he is a JW, you seemed okay with my strategy to get my daughter some help and reporting him to the police. Exactly how does the fact that he carries a microphone change my daughter’s need for assistance?
Elder: You really need to take hold of your emotions, sister. Anger won’t help this situation and besides, we first need to think about Jehovah and His organization, and how his supreme name could be soiled if one of his people gets accused of alleged wrongdoing. The first thing we need to do is …..
***********
Okay, I concede this was just a nightmare I had recently. But the more I think about it, the more I suspect that it’s probably already happened – somewhere, and more than a few times.
