Jehovah's Witnesses destroying evidence of child sex abuse "because Satan is coming."

[DetlefK]

https://www.philly.com/philly/news/jehovahs-witnesses-child-sexual-abuse-records-destroy-satan-video-20180709.html

A Jehovah’s Witnesses official delivered an urgent message to a group of elders at a 2017 seminar in Britain: The time had come to rethink the record-keeping policies of the organization, which has come under fire for its handling of child sex abuse complaints.

Shawn Bartlett, the Witnesses’ record management overseer, explained that handwritten notes and drafts of internal documents needed to be destroyed because of the potential legal harm they posed to the organization, which has eight million followers worldwide and more than a dozen congregations in the Philadelphia area.

...

“Well, we know that the scene of this world is changing, and we know Satan’s coming after us, and he’s going to go for us legally. We can see by the way things are shaping up. So the organization has said, ‘We’ve run into difficulties in the past because of the records we have.'”

A judge in California fined the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, the Witnesses’ corporate nonprofit, more than $2 million last year for refusing to turn over a secretly compiled list of 775 suspected child molesters within the organization.

The Watchtower also has settled multiple lawsuits filed by former members across the country, many of whom claimed that they were sexually abused as children — and that their abusers were protected by elders who enforced the millenarian religion’s rules, like one that requires sexual assault victims to find two eyewitnesses to support their allegations.

[safeinOhio]

1. Thank God(Yahweh)

Some Jehovah's Witnesses do actually vote, although they are estimated to be in the minority.

[MineralMan]

2. Oh, noes! Lying for the Lord?

That seems to be endemic in many religious denominations. That must be proof of something, I'm sure.

[DetlefK]

3. They are not lying.

It's just that Jehovah's Witnesses are dealing internally with child abuse instead of going to the police. And Satan is using their notes as evidence that child abuse happened.

[MineralMan]

4. That's their claim. I see lies.

There's no Satan, of course, but the concept of that entity is at work within that religious denomination, certainly. In many others, as well.

[Pope George Ringo II]

5. Child sex abuse is not something you get to deal with internally.

Joe Paterno learned that one the hard way. Not going to the police is a lie by omission.

[MineralMan]

6. Well, the Roman Catholic Church did it for decades.

I guess the JWs were just following that lead.

[Pope George Ringo II]

13. Aren't all the spin-off churches?

But at least Australia gave us a conviction recently, even if the sentence is a joke.

[Tom Harley]

9. Joe

Joe did what he was legally required to do and reported an inspecific allegation to his superior. Having done that, he likely forgot all about it.

If it is so crucial to "go beyond the law," then why does that not BECOME the law?

[Pope George Ringo II]

12. Paterno was a moral failure by any yardstick, and it cost him.

The official Penn State story is that Paterno did indeed do the bare minimum to comply with Pennsylvania law by just following orders. They handled it in house. And the result was three convictions (not counting Sandusky), seventy three million in fines, another sixty or so million in settlements, and the utter destruction of the Paterno/PSU image. Considering the findings of the Freeh report, it's highly likely Paterno only escaped the courtroom himself by dying. It was an unmitigated disaster by any definition.

And that's about all the derailing of the OP I'm really keen on.

[Tom Harley]

16. Going Beyond the Law

Again, it is easily solvable by changing the law so that "going beyond the law" IS the law. Why is this not done? Given the uproar over child sexual abuse, it seemingly should be the easiest thing in the world to accomplish.

The present muddle simply enables third parties to assign motives, invariably bad ones, to parties that they don't like.

[Andy823]

20. Oh yes they are

The only way they "deal" with it in the congregation is to cover it up. The reason they don't call the police is that they have been told by their leaders not to. If the police were brought in then it would be in the news and make the society look bad, and above all else keeping the society from looking "bad" is the goal.

They are just a guilty of hiding the truth about child abuse as any other group who doe so.

[Tom Harley]

10. They investigated and in doing so left a 'paper trail'

Others did not investigate. Are we to believe therefore that it never happened anywhere else? InvisibleChildren.org states that 1 of 6 boys and 1 of 6 girls are sexually abused before they reach age 18.

Likely, the JW rate is significantly less due to the values they teach and try to live.

[backtoblue]

11. I'm confused on your point

Should the police not be notified of purported child abuse? Or condoning the Jehovah Witnesses way of internal-only investigations?


If there are abuse allegations in their internal documents, and those with knowledge of it did not notify DHS or the police, they are complicit imo.

For clarification, not Jehovah Witnesses as a group, but the elders whom reportedly had knowledge.

[Tom Harley]

17. reporting abuse allegations

Most of the cases reported on are from the 80s or 90s, and the 'crime' alleged is failing 'to go beyond the law' with regard to reporting. If it is so imperative to go 'beyond the law' then surely that should BECOME the law. Why does it not? Three times before the Australian Royal Commission, the Witness representative pleaded for mandatory, across the board, reporting laws. "It would make our job so much easier," he said. Then it wouldn't matter if any family declined to potentially go public for whatever reason. Any allegation would be reported and it would be a win-win for all.

Articles as the one starting this thread generally do not mention the Witnesses downloadable child abuse policy. This these are easily available and are obviously relevant, putting many allegations to rest, Witnesses can be forgiven if they sometime question the overall intent of such articles.

https://www.jw.org/en/news/legal/legal-resources/information/packet-jw-scripturally-based-position-child-protection/

Most here assume we are speaking of child rape. In fact, it is usually child abuse allegations of some lesser degree. Richard Dawkins has written that such things have been over-hyped. Regardless of whether I agree with him or not, it was the common perception of that time period. Many percieve as dishonest, possibly even he himself, the rush to judge yesterday's lapses by today's standards.

[Andy823]

21. NO you are wrong

It still happens and they do lie about it, and that's a fact.

[MineralMan]

14. There are JWs in my family.

Your last statement is not supported by evidence. One of my cousins was sexually molested at age 12 by a trusted JW leader. It was covered up, even by her parents. At age 18, she took her own life. She shared her story with me that year.

I saw this horror in action.

[Tom Harley]

18. horror

InvisibleChildren.org states that 1 of 4 girls and 1 of 6 boys will be sexually abused before age 18 (even after 30 years of strenuously going after abusers). It is a plague that does not speak well for humanity.

A case of child sexual abuse 'properly handled' does not mean that it did not occur, and the child is only somewhat less damaged then if it was properly handled. It is rather like sending in the grief counselors after a school shooting. Of course, it is good to send them in, but it would be far better were they not needed in the first place. Jehovah's Witnesses press towards prevention and have reason to believe such efforts overall pay off.

That said, your family ended up needing prompt reporting AND grief counseling. It is a horrible thing. Nobody says otherwise.

[Major Nikon]

7. Good thing Satan has a lower tolerance for child rapists than the JW

[Tom Harley]

8. How is Satan Not Coming After Them?

The reason the Witnesses have whatever child abuse records they do is that they sought to investigate this evil in their midst at a time that others did not. Should they destroy anything, it merely puts them on par with everyone else, who never left a ‘paper trail’ in the first place because they never were proactive. Seen in this light, it does indeed seem that Satan is ‘coming after them.’ It is the quintessential example of the cynical phrase: ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’

On the other side of the world, the Jehovah’s Witness organization during the same year was banned in Russia. Government and media have partnered to whip the public into a froth, hurling many virulent accusations about the faith. Yet, child sexual abuse allegations have played no part whatsoever. Nobody has heard of it there. Only after the ban did the Russian Embassy, in response to one of my tweets, respond with a Western headline of pedophile charges.

In other words, they found a completely separate reason to ban Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Keep in mind that we are speaking of the faith whose members are universally recognized as ‘pacifist’ – who will on no account resort to violence or support war efforts. It is highly unusual for a large group of people to have absolutely no blood on their hands in this regard, but they do not. Is it so crazy for the Witness spokesman to say: ‘Satan is coming after us?” Given the foregoing, it would almost be crazy for him not to.

Among the most heated charges in Russia are those of Jehovah’s Witnesses refusing blood transfusions, stemming from their interpretation of scripture. It is an issue that has largely been put to bed in the West because of the success of bloodless medicine and the growing recognition that transfusion therapy poses many risks. Still, it does happen from time to time that such refusal costs a Witness his or her life. Russian media rages over this, labeling leaders of the religion murderers.

Surely, somewhere along the line it should be acknowledged that Jehovah’s Witnesses have absolutely no deaths at all attributed to illicit drug abuse, overdrinking, and tobacco use, save only for when someone is slipping into old habits. Witnesses could multiply transfusion deaths 1000-fold and still not not come close to the mortality record of the overall world. Far and away, they are the ‘safest’ religion out there. Yet they are said to be the murderers.

And we are to laugh when they say: ‘Satan is coming after us?’ One thing we know about opposers: they will always overplay their hand, giving honest-hearted persons a heads-up. How can it not be getting near to crunch time?

It is in the free ebook (soon to be in print), ‘Dear Mr. Putin – Jehovah’s Witnesses Write Russia,’ with chapter 12 devoted to pedophile accusations. I had no idea when I wrote it that the book would so quickly become so relevant.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/815620

[Pope George Ringo II]

15. Always with the persecution complex

Any organization which thinks it's above the law, forms conspiracies to avoid reporting crimes, and puts their own priorities above both a child's welfare and the justice system is going to receive the same treatment. Ask the mafia.

[Andy823]

22. Exactly

Jw's claim to be so much better than any other religion, but the are not. They avoid the police so they don't have to report which would cause the public to see just how bad they really are. The elders cover it up, but most people in the congregations know about it, they just don't say anything. The society as put out information that the elders will handle "any"problems, including child abuse of any kind, and the congregation simply accepts that the elders will do the right thing, no matter what. JW's are no better than any other religions that hides the truth, they just get away with it because the congregation is brainwashed into believing everything the society tells them.

[Tom Harley]

19. Reply to first articel

It does not perfectly fit here, but here is my reply to the first article by the same reporter, which the paper declined to acknowledge, much less print.

It is for another perspective, that's all.

Note that it does not deny anyone's experience.

http://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2018/07/an-open-letter-to-the-philadelphia-inquirer-because-they-did-not-acknowlege-much-less-print-the-sent.html