The Australian Royal Commission has issued its report on the Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) and the practices, policies and rules of the Governing Body (GB) that issue edicts for the membership of their religious order that is simply operating as a corporation, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
Oh, yes, a corporation that is permissive towards any sort of bad behavior as long as you either deny it or confess but say you are "working on it" [insert your particular problem] and all is well with any bad publicity avoided and the newly built resort headquarters of JWs in New York is free from responsibility. Only the highest ranking JWs are allowed to live there at the headquarters permanently with an array of young volunteers coming and going at the whims of the leadership. You know, they get tired of the same ol' tight pants seated at the breakfast tables each morning, worn by men who have no business wearing them, and have to shuttle them out and have new, young and innocent people at their beck and call as they critique their dress and grooming ad nauseam and keep only the best ones for themselves sending the rest back home to mom and dad.
Specifically, the Royal Commission's report on the JWs stated that the leadership are adhering to rules that were instituted 2,000 years ago in a book called The Bible, about how there must be two witnesses to a crime before the JWs will take any action to stop the perpetrator, even in cases of child abuse. The Royal Commission stated that the JW's internal disciplinary system for addressing complaints of child sexual abuse was not child or survivor focused. Survivors are offered little or no choice in how their complaint is addressed, sanctions are weak with little regard to the risk of the perpetrator re-offending.
Last year, GB member Geoffrey Jackson testified at the Australian Royal Commission in defense of the JW corporation and stated that they are adhering to Bible principles, and that families of victims are free to pursue whatever legal course they wish, but just don't involve the JW leadership or the local congregations in your problems. Other JWs who testified on behalf of the corporation have further stated that they would report instances of child molestation only if it were required by law established in whatever county or region they live in, but absent any laws, then the JWs are silent and deal with all such egregious problems "in house" among its own membership, keeping all cases secret and confidential. It is and will be a massive secret if any man or woman in the organization is accused of abusing and molesting children, and will be handled on a case by case basis by the Elders in that particular congregation, meaning, no reporting to local police and having the person arrested and handling the matter through the legal court system. No, all cases are handled in secret by each congregation and the practice will never be changed since the JWs believe it's scriptural, to house wrongdoers and protect them at all costs with victims having to suffer in silence. The actual testimony by JWs at the Royal Commission hearings is freely available on the Internet with a simple Google search.
The Australian Royal Commissions' report and findings on the JW organization, can be found here:
The JW corporation has damaged countless lives in many ways, financial, spiritual, emotional, and probably the most egregious crime is the physical and emotional abuse of children. How do I know? Aside from countless news articles freely available for research across the Internet of JWs convicted of child molestation, I have personal knowledge of such atrocities being born-in and raised in the JW religion. My father for many years was an Elder in the congregations we were assigned and yes dear reader, I read his Elder's notes from his confidential judicial hearings of the membership of those congregations. My father held many leadership positions in the JW organization during those long years trapped inside those prison camps called Kingdom Halls (KHs). At various times, he served as the congregation Secretary, Watchtower conductor on Sundays, head of the former ministry school where both brothers and sisters would prepare talks and be graded on their presentations in front of an audience during one of the weekday meetings, he was a Treasurer, and gave talks at assemblies and public talks in the KHs on countless occasions.
Why did I read my dad's notes from those Elders' meetings? Because everything was a secret in the congregations. My dear sweet mother frequently ordered my father to punish me with a belt strap [when I was very young] then I was sequestered to my room and grounded after school when I would rebel and wanted friends other than her to spend time with, yes, those worldly people that we were brought up to avoid. However, she was desperate to know the gossip of the congregation. So sometimes, we would work together to find out gossip. Yes, it was a sick relationship I had with my mother, this hatred and fighting and then we'd call a truce and I'd read dad's notes from the judicial committee meetings and we'd get some sort of delight out of other people's problems. My father would only give my mother briefings of the judicial proceedings with all the juicy details left out.
So, what about those congregation members? When I was a teenager, I knew these people in the congregation that were subject to judicial committee meetings. One in particular was a young girl who pioneered, meaning, she was required to get a certain amount of hours in the door to door ministry each month. Pioneers can sometimes make up their time during the year, so it was not a big deal if you didn't make the quota for a particular month, but you had to be regular in the field ministry or risk losing that status of being a regular pioneer. Anyway, she was around 16 years old at the time and she was crying during the Saturday morning meeting at the KH for field service. I asked her what was wrong and she said my dad informed her she was removed as a regular pioneer.
After much whispering at home, I asked my mother what happened. She only said that the young girl wasn't getting her time in to remain a regular pioneer, and she just got emotional in the KH that day. Okay, let's go to the notes. Before dad got home from work was my usual time to sit at his computer playing harmless video games and I opened the desk drawer to find his notepad. I read about the judicial meeting where they discussed her problem of not getting her time in the field ministry to stay in the "regular pioneer" ranks. The girl stated in defense that her father [also an Elder] had become abusive towards her "again". Abusive? Did he beat her like I had been beaten when I was much younger, I wondered? Well, this time yes, he started literally hitting her "again". Oh, but it went further, the young girl also revealed a secret she had kept about her father [remember he had been an Elder since she was born], that he had repeatedly sexually molested her from about ages five to ten, with her mother looking the other way. She was fearful the beatings would progress to molestation and she couldn't take the emotional and physical abuse and her hours in the field ministry suffered for it.
So what happened. The family left our congregation since the girl was getting talkative, and before long, everyone started gossiping that this Elder had not only molested his daughter, but had started being abusive, actually hitting her now when his temper raged. So they moved. Not one word was spoken in our congregation, no disfellowshipping of the Elder, no public or private reproof, no benign announcement from the platform that he had stepped down from his Elder position in the KH, nothing, and to my knowledge he is still an Elder in good standing to this day. However, he did get divorced, so this young girl and her mom moved to yet another congregation and I lost touch with them. The abusive Elder dad remarried and I have no idea if that woman had children or not or knew anything about his temper or his abusive behavior.
Oh, there are countless stories. A father was literally sleeping [not wanting to be too explicit, but yes, sleeping and doing a bit more] with his own daughter who was about four years old at the time. The wife complained to the Elders in our congregation. What happened. Nothing. It was what is called a private reproof, the father was told to sleep in a separate room away from his wife and kids [they had a boy and a girl] until the marital problems could be solved. Enough said. On to the next case.
What can be done about this? Please do not suffer in silence. If you are a victim or personally know of someone being victimized, go to your local authorities and ask for advice. Sometimes it is not a family member, but you have knowledge of a situation and don't know what to do; seek help, go to a teacher, a therapist, a counselor, ask what to do and discuss the problem. If you are the victim, seek help from a person of authority outside of the JW organization, maybe a non-JW relative can help. Sadly, sometimes a horrendous experience will be the only thing to wake a person up, that the JW organization only wants a healthy membership roster, made up of people who give money to the Watchtower corporation religiously each month while keeping their mouths shut. They are only interested in taking your money, nothing else. Once you acknowledge that, you are on your way to finding that narrow road leading OUT of the JW organization. Don't suffer in silence. It won't be easy, but you are worth it, and your loved ones are worth it to be free of an archaic, abusive cult like the JWs.
Be happy you are living in a time when finally the court systems and leadership are waking up to the cult of JWs and this Royal Pain is not likely to just merely go away if ignored. No, the Watchtower corporation is on a downhill spiral into oblivion. Don't let them take you with them.
#exJW #australianroyalcommission
#jehovahswitnesses #activism
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