The exceptionally brave BARBARA ANDERSON did her best to get the Governing Body to own up to their responsibility regarding pedophiles in the congregation. They repeatedly refused to do so. As a result of her efforts, she and her husband were disfellowshipped. Her entire story, together with all the court documents can be found on her website at watchtowerdocumentsllc.com. The court records reveal that:
Court records prove that the Watchtower HQ appointed men to positions of authority, as a matter of policy, who were known to have either confessed to or been accused of pedophilia, provided the three year waiting period had been met.
Even when a prominent District Overseer wrote to the Society (letter in court records) suggesting this policy be discontinued in 1994, the Society continued with the policy at least until 2000.
The Society has implemented a policy whereby any alleged victim of child abuse who either (a.) speaks to others of their experience, or (b.) goes to the authorities to report their experience, is routinely disfellowshipped if there were not two witnesses to the event.
The Society’s KHAA insurance fund, which is in place to provide insurance for Kingdom Halls, and for which each congregation is billed $4.50 per publisher per month (or is it year?), has been used for years to pay settlements to victims of abuse by those in authority in the congregations (elders and MSs), to the tune of millions of dollars.
The Society’s legal department deviously designated the Society’s service department as it’s client in order to take advantage of attorney/client privilege in keeping all communications between the two (obviously the most damning of evidence) out of the court’s jurisdiction.
The Society’s legal department, when dealing with cases where the jurisdiction required reporting all cases of child molestation to the Police, routinely instructed the elders in those cases to notify the Police anonymously from a pay phone booth. Of course, this made it very difficult for the Police to follow up in any investigation being unable to communicate further with the one making the report.
When giving advice to local elders in these cases, the Service Department would rountinely ask the elder inquiring, whether the alleged victim had been "somewhat at fault."
The Society has an extensive database containing records of all reports turned in by congregations with information on a large number of accused, confessed or convicted pedophiles. Requiring and maintaining this type of information brings responsibility upon the authority requiring and maintaining it. This information has never been used to notify authorities, who may have then acted to prevent further crimes. This information has never been shared with local congregations affected, so that parents could take actions to protect their children from pedophiles right in their congregations. As a consequence of these policies, there are cases where molestations continued for years, and in congregation after congregation as the pedophiles moved around the country.
In February of 2007, after four years of battling the courts and motions filed by Plaintiffs, the Society quietly settled 12 cases in California, the estimated cost being $13 million.
Unlike the Catholic Church, when settling these claims, the Society made it a requirement that the victims remain silent about their experiences for the rest of their lives, effectively "gagging" them.
15 comments:
It will be interesting to see how these particular ones try defend this.
Barbara Anderson is indeed a brave woman and she new the differance between right and wrong and she actually did something about it. Her eyes were wide open.
Read her story...it's quite good and heartwrenching at the same time.
Ah! But she committed a cardinal sin: Women trying to correct men.
It's so interesting how the Watchtower gives the example of Abraham being told by Jehovah to listen you your wife, Sarah. This is always directed to husbands (men).
But, the men leading the organization, don't see it applying to them. Barbara was too bright for her bridges in their eyes and they knew it.
Too too bad, unlike Abraham listening to Sarah, the GB didn't listen to Barbara Anderson!
They may have saved themselves from this explosion of truth about their pedophile coverup, but MORE IMPORTANTLY, they may have been able to save to many children from becoming sexual abuse victims.
It's just awful... makes you want to cry.
There's a Youtube member who was brought up as one of JW's and then started having real doubts. He has come up with a series of tough questions for JW's videos - I must say, rarely does he get any type of satisfying answer to some very logical questions.
Anyway, he has done a video on the pedophile problem and his questions should certainly raise some eye-brows from JW’s apologist – his video substantiates the issues raised by GBL. Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd_2HIWgdVk
{Cut and paste the above URL address into your Internet Browser’s address window.}
berty
Oh! I can´t see ronde around. What happened? He has swallowed his tongue? Or he has finally understood that he can´t frequent those apostates places and the devilish internet?
ronde is still brushing her teeth from the last post.
Well this is what one witness says....I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am so sorry. I am so ashamed. I am so very sorry. I hope Jehovah does what is necessary to bring justice to the responsible ones and comfort to the victims. Comfort to their families. Shame on who ever is involved. What a reproach. I am so sorry for the victims. I just want to cry. I did cry. I am sorry! Please try to do what you can to recover....whatever that is! I will never again question someone's rage against Jehovah's Witnesses because I might be meeting one of the victims and they are entitled to their rage. I will just say I am so very sorry. I know sorry does not do the job, but I want you to know there are lots of Jehovah's Witnesses just like me. Sorry!
Actually, Ronde has been called in to speak with his local Circuit Overseer. The C.O. asked questions about his visiting apostate sites. The answers that follow are direct quotes from Ronde (as found on this GBL site), the questions from the C.O are made-up (but as you’ll see, they prove the untruthful and ridiculous statements by Ronde on this apostate site):
[C.O.] Ronde, I understand that you’ve been putting in many hours pioneering. I also understand that you’ve been visiting apostate web sites. What’s up with that?
[Ronde] “Pioneering is not about the hours. It is about seeking out new life, and bible studies, going into territory that no one has gone before. That is why I am serving where the need is greater, i.e. the internet.”
[C.O.] Your zeal is commendable Ronde. However, do you realize that the Watchtower and Governing Body members have said that visiting these web sites is very dangerous and not recommended to any witness (no matter how strong they feel they are)?
[Ronde] “If you felt that the Watchtower is so important, you were misinformed.”
“What does the writings of the Watchtower Society have to do with the governing
body and Jehovah's Witnesses?”
[C.O.] {startled} Don’t you know that the Governing Body is behind the doctrines and teachings of the Watchtower and all the WTS literature? For instance, you can’t separate the Watchtower from our religion – we study it every Sunday. I’d like to read some quotes from the Watchtower about cautioning against visiting apostate Web sites.
[Ronde] (Interrupting the CO) “You can't just quote a few sentences from a few magazines and think that it’s what JW's religion is.”
[C.O] Oh, I think I can. We are always quoting the Watchtower. Look at the convention talks, we quote from it often.
[Ronde] (Adamantly) “As I stated, why are people basing matters on quotes from selected Watchtowers as if JWs base their beliefs on them?”
[C.O] Ronde, The Watchtower is the main vehicle for transmitting the information from the faithful slave to the other sheep.
[Ronde] (Belligerently) “I told you that I am not influenced by the Watchtower, like you are. You are the worshipper of it.”
[C.O.] Ronde, why won’t you let me quote from the Watchtower on this matter?
[Ronde] “Why don't you try and listen to the whole district convention or circuit assembly. Or several of them. Then take all of that information and apply it rather than quotes from magazines. Until you do that, you don't have credibility.”
[C.O.] Ronde, I think I know a little more than you on this subject. I’ve been loyally serving as a C.O. for two decades and have been faithfully serving in the truth for 59 year!
[Ronde] “Well, I am almost to 22 years. As to loyal and faithful, those are vague words as to how you and I use them. But I don't and never blindly followed along. I always had my eyes opened. In fact, the day before I was baptized, I read a Randall Watters book.”
[C.O.] You read one of the worse Apostate’s books known to Jehovah’s Witnesses the day before you were baptized? What motivated you to do that? Don’t you realize that you are associating with apostates and will share with them in their sins? I’m afraid I will have to speak with the elders responsible for shepherding and caring for your congregation. They will be responsible to follow up with you on this very serious matter.
[Ronde] “It is not the responsibility of the elders to do anything.”
[C.O.] If it’s not the responsibility of the elders, then who is?
[Ronde] “Yes, reporting things to the authorities and then the press does bring reproach on Jehovah and that is bad and should not be done. The press just wants dirty laundry and can not be trusted to get their story straight. The problem is not and has not been with the congregation, the problem is with parents not doing their job. It is not the elders' responsibility, it is the parents'. Blame the parents.”
[C.O.] I’m confused… are you blaming your parents for your rebellious attitude?
[Ronde] “Like I said, parents have neglected to train their children.”
The second Anonymous poster; I'm particularly struck by your sadness about this issue. I'm sorry you had to learn of this in this manner.
The WTS should have come clean and notified all JW's of the predicament that the leaders got themselves involved with. They showed no humility when Bill Bowen tried unsuccessfully to enlighten them on the problem.
Now, it would be way too late and way too little - I believe - for the WTS to apologize (although some may say better late than never).
What a shame. My wife was so disturbed about this. It's interesting, I noticed that women are much more sensitive about this issue then men - that's just what I have observed, so please don't hate me men.
Thank you Anonymous (second one) for that heartfelt response. It was beautiful.
Unfortunately, the GB still has policies that inadvertently protect pedophiles. They need to come up with a better way to handle this. They should be open to suggestions and not DF people who are only trying to help.
yea right keep yakee yak
the true is
the court dismissed the claims made by Anderson.
don't push me yakee yak
Not to belabor this, but I'm also disappointed that the GB (who knew of this problem for many decades!) found no problem in pointing to other religions about their pedophile problem in their literature.
I mean, that's the very definition of hypocrisy.
All those years taking literature to people's homes warning of the pedophile problem in other religions and JW's had this problem too, but no one ever notified the internal members.
It's so difficult to understand how this organization could have allowed their policies to inadvertently protect the pedophiles over the children. There is just NO EXCUSE. None.
Boy, how some JW's aplogists twist things... the Anderson's sued the WTS for DF'ing them on wrong grounds (which is exactly what the WTS did btw) ... they were railroaded out of the organization on trumped up (false) charges.
I believe the court couldn't or hasn't come to a decision on that matter. That (Frank) is something totally separate than the court cases that the WTS settled out of court for child molestation in Feb 2008. And,the WTS isn't out of the woods, more cases have been and are being filed as we speak. (So, your donations Frank go to the victims settlements... how to you feel about that?)
Get yourself educated Frank and enough with the "yakee yak", do you realize what a fool you sound like?
Goodness. Some JW's apologist can be so arrogant, rude and blind. They keep themselves in the dark so they won't have their conscience to deal with (should they expend time to find out the real truth on this subject and others.)
The attitude of the GB towards the victims of sexual abuse is downright disgusting. When a group of Silent Lambs went to Bethel to protest how victims of abuse are being treated, how did Bethel react? They locked the gates of Bethel on the Silent Lambs. Shameful!
Excerpt from Prepare to Meet Your God
In September of 2002, over one-hundred abuse victims and advocates showed up literally at the gates of the Bethel headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses in Brooklyn, to give witness to the Watchtower's injustice in these matters. Again, the Watchtower refused to listen. Instead of humbly receiving those who have legitimate complaints, the Watchtower locked the gates of Bethel and refused to even meet with its accusers, contrary to what Christ counseled us to do.
Through Amos, Jehovah perfectly describes the present situation. Amos 5:10 reads: "In the gate they have hated a reprover, and a speaker of perfect things they detest." Who can deny that anyone who dares to correct the Watchtower is held in contempt by its leadership?
GH was age 7 when her step-grandfather (an elder) started molesting her. He abused her for 4 years, forcing her to perform oral sex on him. She ended up in the hospital because she stopped eating. At first her parents thought they were just dealing with a case of anorexia. Eventually the real problem surfaced. GH stopped eating because she could no longer put food in her mouth.
The family of the victim was told that they were forbidden to mention the abuse to anyone in the congregation. How sick!
(Amos 3:13-15) . . .“‘HEAR and give witness in the house of Jacob,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, the God of the armies. 14 ‘For, in the day of my holding an accounting for the revolts of Israel against him, I will also hold an accounting against the altars of Beth′el; and the horns of the altar will certainly be cut off and must fall to the earth. 15 And I will strike down the winter house in addition to the summer house.’ “‘And the houses of ivory will have to perish, and many houses will have to come to their finish,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.”
since you ask for it
I got more for you Read on.
The Database of pedophiles is it really?
you heard that Jehovah Witnesses have a database of 23 thousands....of pedophiles, laugh out loud.
on May 9, 2002 the watchtower send a fax to Betsan Powys of the BBC
Read on:
this is the fax
"Dear Ms. Powys:
...You have been told that here in the United States we have compiled a list of 23,720 names of child abusers. That is false. First of all, the total number of names in our records is considerably lower than that. In addition, it is not meaningful to focus on the number of names we have in our records. This is because our figures include the names of many persons who have only been accused of child abuse whereas the charges have not been substantiated...
Also included on our list are allegations made on the basis of so-called "repressed memories," the validity of which many authorities challenge. Then there are the names of persons who have been accused of abusing children before becoming Jehovah’s Witnesses as well as individuals who have never been baptized Witnesses but whose names we are obliged to keep because of their association with the Witnesses. (An example of this would be a non-Witness father or step-father who is accused by his Witness children or stepchildren of abusing them.) To be safe, we also list the names of persons who may or may not be considered as child abusers, depending upon the jurisdiction where they live (for example, that 16-year-old boy who had sexual relations with the consenting 15-year-old girl). The name of an individual who was guilty of voyeurism or involved with child pornography, as further examples, would also be included on the list. And, to be sure, the list also includes names of persons who are actually guilty of child abuse. We do not apologize for keeping such records here in the United States . Apart from being legally needed, they have been very helpful to us in our efforts to protect the flock from harm. (Isaiah 32:2) Christian parents can rightly feel secure in the knowledge that SUCH EFFORTS ARE MADE TO SCREEN OUT possible child abusers FROM APPOINTMENT to responsible positions within the congregation."
There are a lot of false accusations against the witnesses.
Opposers and apostates often criticize the watchtower because those names have not been made public for all to see.
you probably know bill bowen the silentlamb guys he claimed he got a list of 7000 victims in a database. did he make the names public. read on you might learn something.
this is what he said: Regarding the posting of names of individual molesters we do not encourage that type of action.
For legal reasons I don't have the listing on the website; I keep that in private."
Just like the watchtower this guy has a secret database, Bowen does not make public his pedophile list. He keeps it 'private'. Why? You will note that Bowen 'after consulting with attorneys' and 'for legal reasons' reached that decision. And yet, Bowen this pride man is condemning the Watchtower Society for not making public the names in the database.
how do you call that? you know the word hypocrite.
more for you to come.
Anonymous
Your sorrow for the victims and not making excuses is very Christ like...Imagine if Christ was here now and what he would think about all of this. Jesus loved children and would what them protected from such evil. The wts has become so legalistic that they lose sight of what Christ would do or how he would handle such matters. I think the wts's legal dept guides the org more than anythig else.
Frank,
I would like to hear your heartfelt concern for the victims as the other JW here has. Do you feel for them...do you have sorrow and pity for them as Christ would?
"Not to belabor this, but I'm also disappointed that the GB (who knew of this problem for many decades!) found no problem in pointing to other religions about their pedophile problem in their literature."
And in some articles (Watching the World), they did this in the most crafty manner. They would point to the comments from other writers, and religious commentators or even the same religion.
However, by printing their comments, they are still drawing attention to it. And, if it was already printed in another publication, why did the WTS find it necessary to quote them and redraw attention to them?
I don't believe I've seen a meaningful and intelligent response to this point. (If someone did, could you re-state it because this site is getting very busy lately).
I mean, how can you point a finger at other religions (and btw this is done all the time in public talks) while keeping it secret from the members that they were dealing with the same problem!
Post a Comment