I'll take a stab at it.
Danger At Your Door
You probably have seen Jehovah's Witnesses at your door on Saturday morning, or have a relative or co-worker that belongs to the religion. You may know they don't celebrate Christmas or Birthdays and don't accept blood transfusions. They might seem nice, clean cut and very earnest in sharing their faith. Would it surprise you to learn that the person knocking on your door could very well be known to be a pedophile?
The Watchtower Bible and TractSociety, the legal entity that controls the religion, does not have paid clergy. Instead, they have a group of congregation leaders, called elders, who are receive just a few weeks of training, have no education beyond high school and are not given a background check. These men are required to investigate accusations of child abuse, which is treated the same as any other sexual transgression. If the person accused denies it, they must have two witnesses to take any action. Since child abusers seldom have witnesses to their actions, many child abuse claims go nowhere.
Even when the abuser admits the offense, if the elders decide he is "repentant" (seems to be sorry) no action is taken except bible counsel and possible removal of congregation duties. Even if disfellowshipped (removed and shunned by the congregation) they can be easily reinstated if they are later deemed repentant, they may even later become elders themselves. If the law requires it, the elders may notify the law, otherwise they do not. It is reported that many elders even discourage this so as not to "bring reproach on Jehovah's name"
As you can imagine, this allows many child predators to go free. Elders with no training in psychology or child abuse are not really qualified to judge if someone is likely to reoffend. The Watchtower maintains a list of potential child molesters, but others in the church are never made aware there is a predator among them. Jehovah's Witnesses are discouraged from developing friendships with non believers and tend to be quite trusting of each other, so it really is a pedophile paradise. Members may be reprimanded for talking about it, even disfellowshipped and shunned themselves, thus being victimized twice. They are counseled to "wait on Jehovah". Abuse victims have even been disfellowshipped themselve for not fighting off the abuse in the first place. These are children who have been taught to respect and obey adults, especially elders.
Admitted child molestors (unless disfellowshipped) are not only allowed to engage in the door to door work, they are required to, just as any other Jehovah's Witness. Since child sex abusers have a high rate of recidivism, this is not just foolish, but dangerous to the public. For years the Watchtower has hidden this problem by secretly paying millions to child abuse victims and requiring non disclosure agreements. Fortunately more and more victims are refusing to do so and many cases have come before the courts. In one recent case the Watchtower had a multi million dollar judgement; in another they were fined millions for refusing to provide discovery documentation and legally required testimony. What organization does that if they have nothing to hide?
Sadly, many rank and file Jehovah's Witnesses are still ignorant of these facts. Now that these cases are getting media attention they are even told that Satan is persecuting them by causing people to make up these allegations. Be aware that when a Jehovah's Witness asks for donations to the worldwide preaching work, the money may actually going for lawyers, judgements and hiding child molesters. The Watchtower refuses to consider changes to their policies, other than to become even more secretive. The next time a Jehovah's Witness come to your door, tell them you will not contribute to an organization that ignores victims and hides pedophiles.
