Most Wanted Watchtower Leaders - For Crimes Against Humanity

Written by Randall Watters

Sunday, 26 April 2009 08:54

UPDATE: Theodore ("Ted") Jaracz died Tuesday, June 9, 2010

UPDATE: Jack Barr died Saturday Dec. 4, 2010 at age 97

These men are desired alive and to be subject to an international court of judgment for their gross negligence in the leadership of over 7 million human souls, under the guise of being "faithful and discreet slaves" and corporate lackies of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. As yet there is no indication of any form of outright dissent within Bethel or the current leadership, but rumors are that GB member Ted Jaracz was the hard-line boss squelching all positive reform. He was in charge of the organization's "storm troopers," the Service Dept.

Ted Jaracz' Influence On The Rest Of The Governing Body

One dissenter writes:

There is a big philosophical split between the Writing Dept. and the Service Dept. - liberals versus conservatives. The Writing Dept. (was) headed by GB member Lloyd Barry, who I've heard mixed reviews about. I've been told by people who know him that he's fairly hard-line or fairly soft-line. I suppose it depends on one's point of view. Ted Jaracz heads up the Service Dept. and those who have commented about him are unanimous that he's a hard-line (omitted). The other GB members call him "The Boss" and they aren't just making fun. Barry and Jaracz, and of course their respective departments, have major disagreements about how JWs should behave and how the JW organization should be run. The nasty, hard-line approach of the last 20 years is due almost entirely to Jaracz' dominance.

A couple of weeks ago when I was in New York I took some time and took the Bethel tours. While there I contacted the author of the Creation book. Naturally, I took him to task for the misrepresentations in his book, but was able to keep him talking for 1 1/2 hours. At the end, he told me that he (presumably this reflects the attitude of the Writing Dept. generally) was quite unhappy with how the elders in general don't follow the advice given in The Watchtower. It was surprising that he would admit this but no surprise that the Writing Dept. feels this way. It also shows the great gulf between the liberal and conservative camps, because the elders don't act just on what's in The Watchtower but on what they get from COs and in private letters from the WTS directly to elders. This all comes from the Service Dept. So whenever there are conflicting directions from the Writing Dept. in The Watchtower and from the Service Dept. via the CO and direct letter channels, naturally the elders will follow the privately-given instructions. This is how the elders have ended up with the extreme nastiness and conservatism of Ted Jaracz. The amazing thing is that the Bethel people like this author don't seem to understand this. They seem to think, in the usual JW fashion, that God will fix everything in due time. So this lunatic attitude on the part of the leading WTS "thinkers" filters down to the JW community and sets the tone... In my opinion we're going to see some big cracks open up within 2-3 years after 2000, with increasing unrest until then.

Jaracz, however, is one of the youngest of the GB members. Perhaps before his light fades away his rule will be toppled, much as happened to Knorr in 1975. All it really takes is a change of assignment, a tactic used at Bethel to move people in and out of key positions. Sometimes your greatest danger is from those you work alongside.

Ted Jaracz v Jack Barr - Governing Body Showdown

Barbara Anderson describes:

And Jack Barr, whom we considered a personal friend, was a kindly man but walked in Barry’s shadow and did his bidding. Unfortunately, he was weak—not the proverbial “iron fist in a velvet glove,” but a “limp fist ...”. Barr’s dispositional weakness became evident during a time when Lloyd Barry was out of town and it took three senior writers to put enough pressure on Barr, as next in command, to keep the factory press room from capitulating to Ted Jaracz’s orders not to print the April 8, 1992 Awake!, which contained material Jaracz did not support, although he was out of line by making such a demand. The job assignment of each Governing Body member was clearly delineated and Writing Department editorial decisions were not Jaracz’s business, just like decisions of the Service Department, under Jaracz’s command, were not the affair of Barry, Barr or Klein.

Ted Jaracz And Mental Health Counselors

Barbara Anderson describes

Another topic discussed in that Awake! was a strange occurrence commonly known as “repressed memories” and that subject did not sit well with many influential Witnesses. From what Lee said, and corroborated by personal letters from survivors of abuse and from their therapists, many Witness victims reported having memories of events of abuse which happened years before when they were children. The dependability of these “memories” became a center of debate and controversy among mental-health professionals, and, also, within the Watchtower organization. At headquarters, the congregations are supervised by the Service Department. It was men from this department, directed by Governing Body member, Ted Jaracz, who generally spoke in negative terms to elders who asked about the repressed memories anomaly. In fact, I was told Jaracz was a proponent for the Against Repressed Memories organization. It was not until Harry proved the Against Memories organization had been discredited by investigators that no more was said on the topic.

Ted Jaracz And the United Nations Scandal

Barbara Anderson describes:

It used to take about seven months, counting from the time a WT staff writer received a magazine article assignment until the printing of the actual WT or Awake!. Accordingly, we can assume that this UN/NGO matter was in the works from the beginning of 1991 or before. Whose idea it was, I have no way of knowing, but I will say that there had to be many people at the very top of the organization who were deeply involved. Although only the Governing Body Writing Committee (at that time made up of GB members, Barry, Barr and Klein), was required to authorize the writing of the articles on the UN, Ted Jaracz also had to know about this UN/NGO business, because one of the signatures on the UN/NGO agreement was Robert Johnson, who was in the Service Department, which department Ted Jaracz directs. Bob was and still is a very important man in the Service Department, and Bob Johnson takes his marching orders from Ted Jaracz.

Ted Jaracz And Child Abuse Policy

Barbara Anderson describes the day the helpers to the Governing Body were announced:

Later, I came to call that day ‘Black Wednesday’ because, if you will, just imagine the disappointment of the men who were not chosen! From the moment all the “mature overseers from the great crowd who have gained a wealth of ability and experience” in Bethel read that Watchtower in their rooms, they were anxiously awaiting the announcement to see if they were going to be one of the ‘selected few’ assistants to the Governing Body, and no more so than the senior writers in the Writing Department where I was assigned to work at that time.

On that special day in April, Joseph Eames, Robert Pevy, and Gene Smalley were appointed to be assistants to the Governing Body Writing Committee. Later on when I arrived at work, many of us were saddened by the behavior of some of the men who were not asked to be part of this privileged group. As an example, John Wischuck, senior writer, who held one of the most important assignments in the Writing Department as a Watchtower magazine compiler, was so upset he didn’t do a lick of work. He spent his day going from office to office with coffee cup in hand lamenting over his rejection and receiving soothing words from his peers.

Harry Peloyan was visibly upset because he wasn’t chosen. He went to Lloyd Barry and asked him face-to-face why he wasn’t appointed. Lloyd said that Ted Jaracz blocked Harry’s appointment. And Harry knew why. It was because of his doggedness to get the Society’s sexual child abuse policies changed.

Ted Jaracz On The Secret Child Abuser Database

BBC Panorama devoted an entire program to the problem of child abuse in Jehovah's Witnesses. This section of the transcript is Jaracz being 'doorstepped' by the program producer Betsan Powys:

BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): It was a long conversation and we asked if he'd be prepared to answer the same questions on camera. He refused. So it was back to America and back to a Jehovah's Witness convention in Tulsa. We'd been told we'd find a member of the Governing Body here. Ted JARACZ is one of the men responsible for the church's child protection policy. For more than two months we've been asking them for an interview. We want answers to some simple questions. Why do they keep their database of suspected pedophiles secret? Why don't they report all allegations of abuse to the police? Why do they send children back to the arms of their abusers? They refused to talk to us. But here at last we had our chance. Mister JARACZ, tell me about the database. How do you justify keeping a list of people, men in some cases who have confessed to pedophilia, but you have not reported them to the authorities. What justification is there for you to keep that list?

TED JARACZ (MEMBER OF THE SUPREME GOVERNING BODY OF THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES): You know, you're from Britain. You have a privacy law. You have a directive from the European Union. You observe that, don't you?

BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): So when allegations of abuse are made, is it alright to keep them private?

TED JARACZ (LEADING MEMBER OF THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES): I think you were answered. That question was answered strictly to your satisfaction.

BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Can you answer it now?

TED JARACZ (LEADING MEMBER OF THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES): I'm not going to repeat. I'll just tell you exactly and you will see it in writing. It is all in print. You know the Bible says "Do not go beyond the things that are written."? We don't go beyond the things that are written.

BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): And that was that. No doubt, no second thoughts. Just a simple belief that Jehovah will sort it out, a belief for which others, younger and more vulnerable, may continue to pay a price.

Dissent:

BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): They're living in denial, denial of what's happening to their children, and it's not a matter.. you see, if they accept that, then they accept that there is a problem. So rather than admit that there's a problem, they will just let children go on and continue to be molested and not do anything about it. Silentlambs.org

Gene Smalley And Blood Policy

Although not on the Governing Body, Smalley is the Watchtower expert on blood and dictates what medical treatment is permissible for over 7 million people.

http://www.freeminds.org/doctrine/medicine/gene-smalley-and-the-watchtower-s-blood-transfusion-doctrine.html

The Jehovah's Witness blood policy dictates that any of the so-called four primary components are banned. Read why one Medical Doctor thinks this is arbitrary nonsense and not in line with current medical science:

http://www.ajwrb.org/6-15-04.shtml

The author Dr Muramoto is a staff neurologist, lead physician, and a member of the Regional Ethics Council, Kaiser Permanente Northwest Division, Portland, Oregon.

Kerry Louderback-Wood, an attorney who lost her Jehovah's Witness mother as a consequence of Gene Smalley's policy writes here on the little known fact that Jehovah's Witnesses DO accept blood therapy in certain circumstances.

http://www.freeminds.org/doctrine/medicine/jehovahs-witness-accept-blood-–-a-little-known-fact.html

Join the discussion online about Gene Smalley and the Watchtower blood policy that has killed thousands here:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/131789/1/Gene-Smalley-and-the-Watchtowers-Blood-Transfusion-Doctrine

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The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society:The Critical Years 1975-1997

The Governing Body's Famous Sayings of the 80s

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Fred Franz Discredited the Concept of a "Governing Body"

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