Articles focusing on the child abuse scandal among Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses has boldly defied court orders to turn over the names and whereabouts of alleged child sexual abusers across the United States. Since 2014, courts have slapped the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent corporation – the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York – with multimillion-dollar judgments and sanctions for violating [...]
KINGDOM BULLETIN #12 Over the course of the past 15 years the Watchtower has come under increasing scrutiny regarding child sexual abuse among Jehovah’s Witnesses. There have been numerous high profile lawsuits brought against elders and the Watchtower corporation, multi-million dollar judgments, capped in 2015 with the Royal Australian Commission holding a public inquiry and [...]
Wednesday, July 27 You guide me with your advice.—Ps. 73:24. Whenever we need guidance, we can “take notice of” Jehovah by consulting his Word to find out his view of matters and by seeking to apply Bible principles. Sometimes, though, a trialsome situation lingers. You may have a grievous personality conflict with someone in the congregation. [...]
The Watchtower has produced a brief melodramatic video of a child abuse victim telling her story. It is a slickly produced public relations movie. It even has some drone footage shot over the beach as happy families frolic. At first glance one might assume that the Society is trying to help the many victims of [...]
Allegations of abuse involving two members of the Jehovah's Witness religious movement in Newfoundland have emerged, though details of the charges are protected by a court-ordered publication ban. CBC News has learned that a former volunteer church elder and his son are facing charges. The former elder is charged with sexual assault and sexual exploitation relating to [...]
The leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses have been getting a lot of press coverage lately, for all the wrong reasons. This is not really "news" to readers of this site, but it is noteworthy that the Watchtower's secret doings are being exposed more and more. And what did Jesus say? - "There is nothing covered over [...]
QUESTION: Dear Robert, how is it that that sex offenders out in the world have to go on a sex registry that lets parents know of child molesters living in their neighborhood, that secular law prohibits sex offenders from living within range of a school or park... and yet a sex offender could be sitting [...]
One of the most senior members of the Jehovah's Witness Church worldwide said compensation could be made to people allegedly sexually abused within its ranks if there was a Biblical basis for a redress scheme. . Geoffrey Jackson is one of seven men on the church's New York-based Governing Body, which oversees decisions regarding the [...]
More than 1,000 members of the Jehovah's Witnesses (in Australia) have been identified by the church as perpetrators of child sexual abuse since 1950, but not one was reported to police, an inquiry has heard. The Sydney hearing was told the church adopted a scriptural response to abuse, which it abhorred, and had files relating [...]
Church leaders refused to co-operate with a police investigation into a sex attack by one of their congregation on a teenage girl. Jehovah’s witness Paul Atkin has now been jailed for five years after admitting to sexual activity with a 15-year-old. A court heard the South Shields branch of the church carried out their own [...]
This article is listed under the Bulletins category An Open Letter to Phillip Brumley [...]
SHIELDS GAZETTE - DAILY MAIL ONLINE - THE JOURNAL - THE SUNDERLAND ECHO "CHURCH officials hushed up a child sex scandal in their ranks and refused to co-operate with police." Over the years the Watchtower Society has been accused over and over by hundreds of child abuse victims and their advocates of enforcing policies upon congregation elders that result [...]
Over the past 10 years the Watch Tower Society has been rocked by allegations of covering up child sexual abuse among Jehovah’s Witnesses. After paying out millions in low-profile out-of-court settlements, in 2012 the Watchtower lost a widely publicized lawsuit in what has amounted to the largest dollar judgment in any case of this kind – being socked for a staggering $28 million. A jury found that the leadership of the organization instituted policies that provided cover for a known sex offender.
In the aftermath of that massive judgment against them one would imagine that Bethel would change their policies and try to be more proactive in preventing these horrific crimes from being committed against the children of Jehovah's Witnesses under their watch. But according to the latest communiqué with the elders in the United States, not much has changed. Here is an excerpt from the attached PDF:
My wife’s sister is an active Jehovah’s Witness. The two spoke recently and my dear sister-in-law, intent on encouraging us to "come back," related that the Watchtower has cleaned up its act lately, at least as regards its child abuse policy. Unfortunately, she has had first hand experience in dealing with the Watchtower on this [...]
Since the rebellion in Eden God’s purpose has been to produce a seed. Because of his faith Abraham was chosen as the one through whom the seed would eventually come. Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel, had twelve sons that produced the twelve tribes of Israel. For that reason in later centuries God referred to the nation as “Jacob” and more commonly “Israel.”
Eventually, Judah produced the Christ and after that others were anointed to become part of the seed along with Jesus. Because they are to be the actual seed of blessing God promised would come through Abraham, the Christian seed is the real Israel of God. Paul explained these things in his letter to the Galatians.
At any rate, the Christian Israel of God became corrupt too, just like Israel had before it – even as the founding apostles foretold would occur. But before the conclusion of the system a new generation of anointed persons would appear in the world, thus constituting the Israel of God in modern times. Since its inception the Watchtower Society has been the seedbed for anointed Christians (and consequently the weed patch as well) first called the International Bible Students and since 1931, Jehovah's Witnesses; making Bethel a sort of capital city for the spiritual nation that has formed.
It is being called an unprecedented ruling. And it has gone against the Watchtower Society.
A California jury has ruled against the Fremont North congregation elders, and also against the Watchtower in New York, and awarded damages totaling $28 million to Candace Conti, who was sexually abused by a congregation member when she was nine years old.
Jim McCabe, the losing attorney for Jehovah’s Witnesses, said he was stunned and called the ruling “outrageous” - vowing to appeal. However, in a press release Bill Bowen, the founder of Silentlambs, called it “a watershed moment for children’s safety in the Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
An open letter entitled A Conspiracy of Silence, Soon to End is now (2006) being widely publicized on the Internet and mailed directly to hundreds of Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s Witnesses, informing them the Watchtower Society’s attorneys are arguing before the court that Bethel-appointed elders have no fiduciary duty towards members of the congregation. But what does [...]
As of May the 10th the mainstream media is beginning to cover the Silentlambs’ press release publicizing the Watchtower’s recent million-dollar payout to 16 victims of child sexual abuse. Evidently the legal department felt that they did not have a very strong case going into court, and so as shrewd lawyers often do they advised [...]
This is an open letter to Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower Society. It was originally published in May, 2006, and mailed directly to thousands of congregations in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. It was a senseless and brutal crime. A young bride was viciously gang-raped and left to die – murdered. An [...]
