The problem. Many here are supporters of the movement to expose the WT Society's harmful policies that seem to shelter molesters and punish victims. A common scenario is there are not two witnesses or a confession to the sin and the "loyal" elders have told the victim and their parents that 'there is nothing more we can do'. Then if the victim, or those who have knowledge of the alleged molestation, tries to warn others in the congregation to protect their children they are threatened with judicial action for slandering the good name of the accused. There are cases where the threats became realities with the disfellowshipping of the victim of molestation or others who had knowledge of the charges. The two witness rule. This WT teaching has been singled out as the main cause of harm to 1000's of molestation victims. There has even been a witch hunt to identify the one responsible for this doctrine so as to demand accountability. BUT IS THE TWO WITNESS RULE THE REAL ISSUE? NO ! THE REAL PROBLEM WITH WT POLICY Any religion, in a society that guarantees freedom of religion, can make their own rules to apply within their limited community. It should not matter to us if the WT requires two witness to take congregation action. What is wrong with the WT policy is that they do not treat this criminal act as a crime. They do not send the alleged victim directly to the authorities. They may claim they are not required to do so in many states. But in most, if not all, states everyone who does not have Clerical Immunity is required to report knowledge or suspicion of a serious criminal act to the authorities. If they do not they may be charged with complicity to the very crime. About five years ago I was warned by one of the WT's consulting attorneys (local brother) that if a witness friend wants to inform me of a case of molestation, I needed to ask them first if they were informing me of this as a friend or as and elder? WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? As a friend I would be obligated to report the incident to authorities for investigation. Only as a elder would I be exempt of reporting. WT policy toward complying with the law. As stated above it is my understanding that in most if not all states anyone who has substantial evidence of a crime, including child molestation, that individual is required by law to report it. The WT society puts much emphasis on complying to local and national laws. We were made to feel guilty about exceeding the speed limit. Counsel was given to not steal from the government by avoiding taxes. It has been brought out here often that if the issue at hand would have been murder or rape of an adult nearly any elder or body of elders would encourage the victim or those with knowledge of the crime to go immediately to the police. Why do they comply in these crimes but not child molestation?
1 They do not consider it a crime of equal nature. This type of crime has only in the last few decades come to the surface of societal awareness as more than a family problem. Authorities now intervene when parents use violence in disciplining. You can no longer beat your child, whip your child or even spank your child without possibly facing legal consequences. I have no problem with this. But others still view this as an intrusion into family privacy. Child molestation too has become an issue of elevated consciousness of society . It was once a private family problem. Now it is clearly a criminal act. Some families, especially illiterate low lifes, have not kept up with the modern social awareness and legal involvement. The WT has truly fallen behind on this matter as well. They have gone to such measures to keep molestation a private mater, in the family and within the congregation, that many rightly question the motive for such antiquated and harmful backwardness. 2 They feel they are above the law, God's servant in a satanic world, able to handle internal problems without the help of the flawed worldly court system. "We will judge angels" results in dangerous arrogance that justifies defying and resisting the intrusion of authorities. Only recently is there evidence that they have begun to privately ENCOURAGE family members to report to authorities. If this is so, it is no doubt the result of presure in the last two years from the likes of peope on this board.
Bottom Line The two witness rule is an internal congregation law. Its relevance to the WT molestation problem is the confusion that congregation rules should be applied before and instead of turning over criminal acts to crime investigators. In my opinion they can KEEP their two witness rule and apply it in the CONGREGATION any way they want to. That is their right as much as the Catholic Church has the right to demand celebacy of it's priests. Both bad ideas but within their realm. The real problem is they should FIRST refer alleged crime to the authorities. FAILURE TO REPORT ALLEGATIONS OF CRIME TO CRIMINAL INVESTIGATORS is the major issue. The 'two witness rule' and how they apply it is a side issue that has caused much harm only because they do not consistently refer criminal acts to government agencies in place to handle them. Just thought I would challenge our focus. Jst2laws