Glad to oblige. Here is a lower case version. Little easier to read.
Evansville TV News,
. http://www.14wfie.com You can watch it here.
No word on how seriously. Now a story about a woman who lost a husband, her religion, and almost lost her daughter. The other players are two elders in the Jehovah’s Witnesses church....one who led a secret life that led to the breakup of the marriage....and another who turned whistleblower...only to find himself an outcast in his own church. Tonight...Stefanie Silvey investigates. (Bill Bowen: "I gave every fiber of my being to the church." It takes five to ten years to become an elder, but Bill Bowen did it. He was viewed by his congregation in Benton county, Kentucky...as a man of God...but now he faces being disfellowshipped, removed from his religion. According to Jehovah’s Witnesses theology. To be disfellowshipped means your soul is doomed to die Armageddon, the battle between good and evil at the end of time ...and anyone associated with you will die too. Once disfellowshipped, family and friends view you as being dead before god. If a Jehovah’s Witness listens to someone disfellowshipped.. Bill Bowen:"you are defying the church." so how did it all happen? Last fall. Bill Bowen was asked by church elders to sort through old church files and throw away any useless or dated papers when he came across a sealed envelope. Lexxus Lashley:"I didn't know him at all, to me it's a miracle, how my folder got into his hands and it was sealed up, but there was just something about it that made him open it..and when he opened it, it was like Pandora's box for him. His whole life has been changed." Lexxus Lashley's life as a Jehovah’s Witness was in that envelope. Lexxus is a new name and she lives a new life in Evansville after being disfellowshipped in the 80's. Lexxus Lashley: "Sometimes religion is to the soul what cement shoes are to the body. It will just drag you down." Lexxus married when she was just 17. Her marriage was difficult from the beginning. Lexxus Lashley: "I was always told, be a better wife and help him along.." but Lexxus soon learned she was in over her head. She says her husband was leading a double life. In front of the congregation, he shined but at home he was mentally and sexually abusive... Addicted to pornography and that wasn't all. She discovered other problems while cleaning her bathroom mirror one day. "I see this hole and so I go around to the other side of the room which was my daughter's room and there was a picture off the wall and there was a peep hole made ." Lexxus went to the elders. "They just wanted me to put the picture back on the wall and tell him to puddy it back up and stop doing that...and that's how they dealt with him...'don't do that.'" Lexxus says his problems were much more severe, and when she couldn't get help from the elders, she filed for divorce and was kicked out of the church for intentionally smoking. It meant losing her daughter. Lexxus Lashley: "People don't understand, i was willing to die, but I'm not going to take her life." Bill Bowen: "She subscribed to the theology of the church and she thought she was saving her daughter's life, so it was a measure of love on her part, in a twisted sort of way. "Twisted because what Lexxus didn't know was she was leaving her young daughter with an accused and later confessed child molester. A victim had come forward and accused Lexxus's husband of molesting her when she was just nine years old...but according to Jehovah’s Witness policy....if the molester denies the accusations...the child's family must produce a second eyewitness to the incident before anything can be done. Bill Bowen: "Child molesters don't molest children in front of people, so when the child can't produce an eye witness, the elder body than meets with the family and says look, you don't have two witnesses, the man denies the charge...he remains an innocent man in the congregation." and what Lexxus also didn't know was her husband's victim was her nine year old sister. Lexxus Lashley: "the things that i hear that went on after i went on and went to sleep , make me sick...makes me sick that she couldn't tell me." that little secret and others like the two way mirror, were tucked away in the file Bill Bowen found years later. By this time...the child molester was also an elder...a glorious one. When confronted by Bowen...the elder finally confessed. "They called for strict confidentiality, though the man had confessed. They told me that I couldn't even tell his own wife that he was a child molester. I call that hiding child molesters." the elder had remarried and had another daughter...a granddaughter..and custody of his daughter with Lexxus. Lexxus didn't know about the molestation of her sister because rather than having the molester disfellowshipped...the elders disfellowshipped lexxus's sister for alleged promiscious behavior years later. Bowen says that's common among victims. Bill Bowen:" well Jehovah’s Witnesses have a solution to that...they disfellowship them and that way they don't have to deal with the problem..and the victim is thus revictimized again. They are alienated from their family...their own parents will not help or assist them unless they are absolutely destitute and any other friend or family they have known outside their immediate family views them as dead." Bill Bowen went against orders of the church and went public with what he knew. He resigned as elder, and created a website called "silent lambs" where Jehovah’s Witnesses could speak out about being victimized. Thousands across the country di Bill Bowen:"who would have thought Kentucky would have been the start of an organization for child molestation." But his church wasn't so supportive. "I was demonized in our church..members were afraid to speak to me, because they considered me to be a man against god." while Bowen was shunned...the confessed child molester was embraced by the church and asked to give lectures and readings. "I confronted the elders about that. I said...it's offensive to the victim, as well as offensive to me that you would use a child molester as an example within the church...and I'll never forget one of the elders standing there said 'the most offensive people, take offense.' so I just sat there and thought to myself...me as a person that turned in a child molester and the victim, are more offensive to you than a child molester...well, in my opinion that supports pedophiles...and his comment...that was it for me." by the time Lexxus learned of her sister's abuse it was too late. Her sister is no longer disfellowshipped, and is back in good standing. She lives with her parents in Henderson. Lexxus remains disfellowshipped... So the two still can't communicate. Her daughter was a different story. Lexxus called her ex- husband and said their daughter wouldn't be returning home after a weekend visit. He threatened to take her to court. Lexxus Lashley:"so i said, let's go, i would love to stand in front of a judge with you and tell him, you are a pedophile...and it was just silence...and I haven't been bothered by these people anymore." Lexxus's daughter says at first she was angry with Bill Bowen. She felt he'd ruined her life..but that has changed. "I just think what he is doing is for the better, even though it affects my family. I really appreciate it, but it's kind of hard to say that when it's right against your father." he daughter says she can't remember if she was ever molested by her father and still loves him..but says people have a right to know. "I don't think it's right at all to keep it a secret." Bill Bowen: "Me, I will always be Satan. I don't ever think they will thank me for it, I don't need the religion to thank me, I know what I'm doing is right." Lexxus Lashley: "I think he saved my life.--long pause and crying-- he saved my life and he gave me the courage to get my child back..") Stefanie, what's going to happen to elder Bowen, the whistleblower in this case? Bill Bowen has a hearing tomorrow in Benton county before the elders to decide if he will be disfellowshipped for causing divisions within his church. He is fighting to remain in good standing because if he's disfellowshipped, victims of abuse can't come to him, or they too will face being disfellowshipped. Nbc dateline is doing an hour long story on this case and others in the Jehovah’s Witness church next week. What's the church say to charges of having a child molester as an elder? I talked to the head of a committee overseeing Bowen's hearing. He said he couldn't say anything specific about this case but he says Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child molestation and provide videos and other helpful tools to parents to educate their children on the subject. Anyone interested in seeing more about the Jehovah’s Witnesses policies or Bill Bowen's silent lambs website can log onto our website at 14wfie.com and click on Stefanie Silvey investigates.. What's the status of the confessed child molester in the church? Lexxus's ex-husband was later removed as an elder in the church but he remains in good standing. The congregation however, didn't know he was removed because it was announced in church he was stepping down after a job well done. He was praised within the church.
Trot
You can love and obey Christ without intervention from an organization.
