by UnDisfellowshipped 17 Replies latest jw friends
New Article just rolled in from Silent Lambs:
LAMBS in EVANGELICALS NOW, September 2002 Issue, FRONT PAGE ARTICLE entitled:
JW silent lambs protest
September 27 2002
is a day the Watchtower Society is likely to remember.
Since I don't know what to make of nancee's remark, I will not put the entire article here. It's at a new thread here:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.aspx?id=35928&site=3
Thanks GRITS for Posting that Link!
Thanks also for your suggestion Nancee Park, I probably should get a Free Website and post all the News Articles there, however, it might be better to get one of the already-popular JW Websites to Post the Info, since they get a lot of visitors.
Here is the full text of the New Evangelicals Now News Article (September 2nd 2002):
JW silent lambs protest
September 27 2002 is a day the Watchtower Society is likely to remember.
Protest marchers are due to walk just seven city blocks in Brooklyn, New York to 25 Colombia Heights, the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses, now considered one of the world's wealthiest religions.
Compared with most protest marches the participants will be few in number. Some will be JWs or ex-JWs, other people may have no religious affiliation at all. Yet the marchers will be united by a common theme: they will all have experienced or been eye-witnesses of the machinations of the secretive Governing Body running the cult, which, it seems, has allowed Watchtower policy to physically harm and emotionally ruin children.
Woolly lambs
Outside the headquarters individuals will speak briefly about the hurt they have either witnessed or personally experienced. It is intended that each individual should carry a small toy woolly lamb, to represent themselves or another person. The event will be unique as, although protest marches among JWs are very rare, protest marches against the Governing Body are totally unheard of.
The lambs are not just for ornament. They have become a symbol for a rapidly-growing group of people who have suffered at the hands of the Watchtower Society. This group, calling itself 'Silentlambs', was begun by Bill Bowen, a JW of 43 years' standing, 20 of them as an elder. While an elder Bill had become aware that a fellow-elder had abused a child several times. Bill wanted to notify the police, but found the matter was being covered-up in his local Kingdom Hall. Eventually he telephoned the legal desk at the Watchtower headquarters, and was told not to get involved. Stunned and profoundly shocked, he resigned from his eldership and went public. But how to reach out and help those abused ones?
Bill had no idea where they were or how many might be suffering. So was born the website 'Silentlambs'. Bill may have expected a trickle of emails, but he suddenly found himself inundated. Many months later he still gets emails every day, and has had over 27,000 visitors to the site.
Silentlambs became for so many hurt souls their first chance to write and tell of their personal grief and pent-up guilt and anger. Some, incapable of speaking openly of their ordeals in the cult, chose to write poems. Again and again the themes were played out in the emails, as abusers were often believed, but the children were branded as liars by disbelieving elders. The correspondence confirmed to Bill that the cover-up mentality was not just a local one, it was endemic in the entire cult. As he expressed it, the movement was a 'paradise for paedophiles'. Since the group began Bill Bowen estimates that he has received around 1,000 stories while another 5,000 people have emailed or contacted him via the internet or by telephone. In May members staged a candle-lit vigil outside the Kingdom Hall in Benton, Kentucky.
BBC Panorama
When the BBC's Panorama investigated the problem in mid-July it dealt with cases in the UK and the USA. Following the programme the Silentlambs website logged around 200 emails in the first 24 hours. By the end of July around 50 new cases of abuse had been reported over the net. Interest in the programme can be gauged by the email response of over 1,000 letters to the BBC, the second highest the Panorama programme has ever received.
The responses to the programme were split 50/50, with JWs in the main stressing there were no serious problems, but others telling a rather different story. Viewing figures indicate this was the most-watched Panorama of the past ten productions.
Sara Poisson
Particularly tragic was the story of Sara Poisson. A battered wife, with daughters whom she suspected were being abused by her JW husband, she went to the elders at her Kingdom Hall for help. Rather than dealing with the problem they told her to go home, pray more and be a better wife. As time passed and the evidence of ongoing abuse continued to mount, Sara went again and again to plead for help and protection. Still she was turned away - with the same instructions. As she was totally dominated by the eldership it never occurred to her to seek outside help.
Eventually, when the school reported substantial bruising on her children, social workers stepped in. The ultimatum was clear: leave your husband or your children go into care. Knowing that to leave him would see her cast out of the local congregation she did just that. This left her homeless, penniless and shunned by all her former JW friends.
Some time later, Holly, one of the abused daughters, went to the police and told them all that had happened at the hands of her father. It was another four years before the father, Paul Berry, was charged with 17 charges of aggravated sexual assault. Even then, after the testimony of the family to the court, some two dozen JWs came forward to offer character witness for the accused.
Phone-in
Following the Panorama presentation the BBC ran a phone-in programme on Radio 5. Again and again individuals called in (often using assumed names) to relate their own experiences of child abuse in the Watchtower cult. Running through the narratives was a theme of guilt and pain combined with an eldership that often seemed not to believe or did not want to believe the facts presented to them.
The response of the JW movement is that for someone to be found guilty of anything there must have been two witnesses present. This may be well and good, but it must be admitted that paedophiles do not usually operate with bystanders about, unless they are fellow paedophiles.
It goes without saying that the vast majority of JW parents are loving, kind people who cherish their children and the idea of abuse is total anathema to them. The Watchtower movement is not unique in having this problem. Yet it is also very plain that something is seriously wrong with any organisation that cannot face the reality of what is going on inside it. The Panorama programme noted the reticence of some elders to co-operate with police even when individuals were reported by their victims.
One officer spoke of elders as being 'criminally negligent' when they failed to pass information to the police. In some cases recorded on the Silentlambs website, Jehovah's Witnesses who reported abusers to the police have been excommunicated from the cult.
Sorry?
One thing was very noticeable in the Panorama presentation: the lack of the simple word, 'sorry'. No one from the movement expressed any regrets to the poor traumatised individuals who painfully told their experiences. If we take the material on the Silentlambs website, there are many hundreds of people whose lives have been wrecked and defiled at the hands of evil individuals. What of those elders who have disbelieved suffering children? Can we expect apologies from them? Or does an external sanitised version of the cult come before truth and justice?
Is it possible that when that little band of sufferers stand outside the Brooklyn headquarters in late September at least someone will come out to them and say 'sorry'. It would be a kindness to do so but the Watchtower has a very long history of not apologising for its errors. It is doubtful if it will do so now.
Richard E. Cotton
[email protected]
http://info@silentlambs.org
Copyright Evangelicals Now - September 2002
HI Un! You're welcome again! Yes, a well known JW site like this gets mooocho visitors, so unless Simon Says Stop, I'd say keep up the comprehensive thread. Here's another article posted at this thread about Barbara Anderson, "An Unlikely David." GREAT STUFF! Grits http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.aspx?id=35937&page=1&site=3#483419
The original article can be found here: http://www.toasted-cheese.com/ezine/2-3/morris.htm
An Unlikely David:
Barbara Anderson's struggle to stop predatory pedophiles in the cloistered world of Jehovah's Witnesses
By Michael Morris
While the Catholic Church is forced to publicly wrestle its demons of pedophilia, Jehovahs Witnesses refuse to acknowledge any similar problems in their midst. Barbara Anderson, a former insider from the uppermost echelons of the secretive sect, has stepped forward to reveal that such problems have been a source of denial, debate and division at the highest levels of the organization for at least a decade. While Witness leaders insist that sexual abuse of children is not tolerated or concealed in their congregations, as a former Jehovah's Witness, and as a parent who recently discovered my own childrens molestation within the group, I strongly disagree.
In the patriarchal world of Jehovah's Witnesses, Barbara Anderson of Normandy, Tenn., a sharp-witted lady from New York, rose to a level of influence that was unheard of for a woman. She assisted in compiling the official history of the group, and wrote articles that serve to instruct the 6 million Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide, including the 1 million in the United States (though her gender, under Witness rules, would not allow her to read aloud in a Kingdom Hall the very words that she wrote). She regularly rubbed shoulders with members of the Witnesses' elite governing body, a committee that currently consists of 11 men, charged with overseeing the group.
Anderson was also privy to the many letters and phone calls coming into the group's Brooklyn Heights headquarters from members of the faith, responding to published articles, or inquiring about various topics that had not been addressed in print. This feedback was reviewed in meetings among the writers to shape the content of future publications. For Jehovah's Witnesses, the printed word from headquarters provides a pharisaical canon, an ever-shifting lens through which to see more clearly the word, and will, of God.
The formerly taboo subject of child sexual abuse was entering the public discourse in the late 1980s and early 90s, and the correspondence coming into headquarters reflected the angst of those who now felt comfortable coming forward with their own recollections of abuse in the insular communities of the Witnesses. These abuse survivors were turning to their congregation elders for guidance, and these elders, too, were writing to headquarters, seeking guidance.
Parents of most denominations would not hesitate to call police first when sexual abuse of their child is reported. But to the Witnesses, all outsiders - even police and social workers -- are co-conspirators with Satan, part of the condemned world soon to be destroyed by God. As a Witness, when dealing with any wrongdoing "you go to elders first, and then elders make the decision for where you go [from there]. To bypass the organization would be treason," said Anderson.
But these same elders "volunteer, and are essentially untrained clergy," according to a Jehovah's Witness spokesman in the Paducah Sun. They attend no seminary, and have no minimum education requirements, beyond basic literacy. They are equipped for nothing more than enforcing organizational guidelines, delivering biblical platitudes and offering a moment of prayer. When encountering a case of child sexual abuse for the first time, their instructions are first to "call the Legal Department" at the group's headquarters.
The list of mandated reporters of suspected child abuse varies by state. Church spokesmen assert that in those jurisdictions that include clerics as mandatory reporters, the elders are instructed by the Legal Department to make such reports. A recent fax to the BBC in response to a program exposing sexual abuse among the Witnesses noted that "it can be quite a challenge to keep abreast of the reporting requirements, but our Legal Department makes every effort to do so." It should relieve their lawyers to know that The National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information is funded by the US government and tasked with maintaining a web site with just such information, which shows that only 16 states require reporting by clerics. The hand of divine justice apparently is cut short by a lack of supporting legislation in other jurisdictions.
The assertion that such reports are made by elders when called for by the law has been called into question. Two lawsuits recently lodged against the Witnesses claim that mandatory reporting laws were disregarded, and the abuse continued. In one case, a member is said to have been expelled for making such a report against the advice of the elders, after the elders failed to act. A taped telephone conversation from early 2001, between an elder reporting sexual abuse and headquarters, featured on a recent episode of NBC's Dateline, documented an official from the group advising the elder to "walk away from it," and to "leave it for Jehovah," even though the elder was calling from a state that mandates reporting by clerics.
Some particularly conscientious elders sought to step outside their restrictive bounds as spiritual counselors in seeking to assist those traumatized by abuse. They were holding sessions that amounted to group therapy with victims of abuse, but this was quickly ended by a March 23, 1992 letter to all bodies of elders in the United States, stating that elders are not to hold such sessions nor "spend time reading secular publications dealing with worldly psychology or psychiatry."
"Jehovahs Witnesses are a government that operates within all of the governments of the world. I believe that is the big issue here. They want to decide who is guilty or not guilty," said Barbara Anderson. Witnesses are well known for their defiance of secular governments. The Encarta World English Dictionary includes in its definition of Jehovah's Witnesses that the group "rejects secular law where it appears to conflict with the divine."
So, the investigation of the alleged abuse and the deciding who is guilty or not guilty, falls on the local elders. The burden of proof, barring a confession, is that there must be two members of the faith who can serve as eyewitnesses to the crime, no matter what the infraction. Otherwise, the accused is exonerated and the abused is admonished to treat the accused as innocent in God's eyes and not to repeat the charge to anyone else - even other potential victims, like younger siblings -- or face expulsion from the congregation and shunning by fellow members, including friends and family. Needless to say, child molesters don't usually seek an audience. So the cycle of abuse continues, while the victim, who summoned the monumental courage to come forward, is now forced back into silence by their spiritual leaders.
All members are guided by the two principal publications of the group, the Watchtower and Awake! journals. Each had different editors, with differing opinions, in the 90s, which can be problematic for a group that points to its unity of belief as a sign of exclusive divine favor. Awake!, on whose staff Anderson served, often presented the group's softer side, while the Watchtower delivered stern doctrinal dissertations. "They would sometimes contradict each other, especially on societal issues," said Anderson.
Barbara Anderson and other senior staffers knew that the age and cloistered lives of the governing body gave them no frame of reference to empathize with the plight of the abused and their families. Something more than arbitrary application of ancient edicts was required.
Stories of the disastrous results of similar policies awaited Anderson on her summer vacation in 1991. The Witnesses choose to apply certain Old Testament rules literally, such as the command that a woman who does not scream during a rape should be considered a fornicator. "I was gravely disturbed hearing accounts of Witness women who were disfellowshipped (expelled and shunned) for not screaming while being raped. To illustrate: A Jehovah's Witness came back to his house unexpectedly while his house was being cleaned by a woman who also was a Witness. The trauma of his raping her at that time was so severe that she completely blocked out the experience until she discovered she was pregnant. It was then she faced what had happened and went to the congregation elders. She accused her spiritual brother of raping her; however, he denied it until tests confirmed he was the father of the child. Then he said it was consensual sex. She denied it. Nonetheless, she was disfellowshipped because she couldn't remember if she screamed during the rape and her attacker said she didn't. So, when I came back from vacation, I went in to see the man in the Writing Department who I was working with and told him what I had heard. To me it was horrendous that this girl was disfellowshipped. She was victimized twice."
The implications of such policies were clear to Anderson. "I began to see how pedophiles could act easily within the congregations and get away with it," she said.
Members of the Writing Department began pushing for change. When the October 8, 1991 Awake! on child abuse seemed to reverse earlier feelings against psychotherapy and against "repressed memories," there was widespread confusion. When congregation elders called headquarters for clarification "they [the Service Department, in charge of the elders] did not go along with that," said Anderson. "That article was viewed as a mistake. There was a battle going on at Bethel [headquarters] between these two factions. The man who was the head of the Service Department and the man who was head of the Writing Department -- both members of the governing body -- didn't agree on these things." said Anderson.
An avalanche of phone calls and letters came in response to the October 8, 1991 Awake!. Even the cloistered governing body became aware of the widespread claims of abuse, not only abuse being perpetrated by lay members, but by church leaders as well. "The governing body knew in 92 that this was a very real problem, that men in authority were molesters, and they were molesting children. The accusations that were coming to them were not merely against average attendees, but against men in authority, and you couldnt get the Service Department to recognize that. They were having a terrible time," recalls Anderson.
Barbara Anderson and her husband would leave headquarters at the end of '92, after serving there for ten and a half years. She continued to support the writing staff as an outside researcher until '97. "It was during my last year at headquarters while doing research for a senior Awake! writer that I learned to my horror that the organization had severe problems with sexual child abuse. I knew when I left that it was understood that I would continue to send information in on child abuse. This was to try to influence the governing body to change their policies."
Anderson was also aware of the implications of such policies for those outside of the organization. Accusations of child molestation, even a known history of criminal child rape, would not preclude a member from engaging in the Witnesses door to door preaching work. "I begged [governing body member and friend] Lloyd Barry, begged him by letter in July of 1993, not to allow molesters to go door to door." said Anderson. Lloyd Barry, now deceased, never responded. Instead, some three and a half years later, speaking of a molester who may have recently been released from prison, the Watchtower of January 1, 1997 states "If he seems to be repentant [to the untrained elders], he will be encouraged to make spiritual progress [and] share in the field ministry [door to door preaching]."
Neither would a history of child molestation disqualify a member from being appointed as an elder, a leader and exemplar in the congregation. Although the January 1, 1997 Watchtower stated that a "known" molester "would not qualify for congregation privileges," such as becoming an elder or ministerial servant (deacon), a secret letter to all bodies of elders three months later, on March 14, 1997, quietly backpedaled: "An individual known to be a former child molester has reference to the perception of that one in the community [emphasis ours] and in the Christian congregation." And as for determining whether those already in a position of authority had a history of molestation, the letter directed that "The body of elders should not query individuals." Unknown to the faithful, who had taken the January 1st Watchtower at its word, pedophiles could remain in positions of authority, under this don't-ask don't-tell policy, at all levels of the organization. One is left to wonder who pushed for such a change, what they had to hide, and why the contents of that letter, leaked on the Internet, remain, to this day, a secret to the rank and file.
"I cant go to my grave knowing what I know." Anderson's struggle for change from within the group ended when a letter from a member of the headquarters staff in early '97 indicated to her that such symbolic changes were in response to a rising tide of litigation, not out of concern for the welfare of children. "I couldnt go to the Kingdom Hall and hear all of the bragging about how wonderful this organization was from the platform, and sit there and listen. I thought "I cant go to my grave knowing what I know." She resolved to continue to push for change from outside the walls of the Kingdom Hall.
Barbara Anderson came to be among five members disfellowshipped from the group in recent months, following a spate of media attention, for speaking out about rampant sexual abuse and cover-ups among Jehovah's Witnesses. "I had a very, very interesting life as a Jehovahs Witness. My husband and I brought eighty people into this organization," she remembers. While she takes exception to the policies of the leadership that harm children, she holds out hope that the voices that pushed for change in the mid-'90s may prevail. Among those voices are the group's powerful Legal Department, which pushed for a uniform reporting policy among congregations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia - perhaps to be relieved of the arduous task of keeping track of all those laws -- only to be shot down by the governing body. Anderson also cites a group of elders in Dallas, Texas, which worked with a local mental health facility to tailor care for Jehovah's Witnesses, only to be removed from their positions en masse by the leadership. And there were those elders who sought to bring a little therapy into their shepherding. To be sure, there were kindhearted people easily found in the group. "They are good people. I am not going to say they werent and they arent dear people to us," she said.
Perhaps if these people had succeeded in moving the organization to adopt a call-police-first policy in handling cases of child sexual abuse, just as they advise members to seek the help of a physician when ill, or of a fireman during a fire, there would not have been the chance for children, such as mine, to have been abused, their lives forever changed. Instead, we, like so many others, are left to fight a difficult and emotionally painful legal battle against a coy perpetrator in a position of authority, with the backing of his church.
In our case, the alleged abuser continues, to this day, to beam piously from the platform and to hold children on his lap during the services at our former suburban Philadelphia congregation, even as criminal and civil actions are pending, to the full knowledge of the local body of elders.
But it seems the short-sighted preservation of the image of the group has been the priority of the governing body, over the welfare of their flock. Better, they seem to think, to silence the victims, shun the whistle blowers, deny, deny, deny. I recall that Jehovahs Witnesses are expert in itemizing the sins of the Catholic Church, including the harboring of pedophiles. Perhaps now they will have the humility to turn that scrutiny inward, protect the victims in their midst, adopt a call-police-first policy everywhere, and stop allowing a de facto conspiracy of silence to protect pedophiles in their congregations, and on our doorsteps.
Michael Morris grew up a Jehovah's Witness punk rocker in the suburbs of Philadelphia in the 1980s. He spent several years serving as a full-time preacher in the Witnesses' door-to-door preaching work, unwittingly learning much about life and faith from those whom he presumed to teach. E-mail Michael to comment on this article, here: [email protected]
Michael posts at Toasted Cheese as Dances with Cactus. "An Unlikely David" was first posted at What I Tell You Three Times Is True, our non-fiction critique forum.
WOW! That is an UNBELIEVABLE ARTICLE!
Probably THE BEST silentlambs Article yet!
MEGA-THANKS to mikepence and Barbara Anderson!
The Courier-Journal Newspaper - May 8th 2002:
Jehovah's Witnesses act against abuse-policy critics
By Peter Smith, [email protected]
Leaders of the Jehovah's Witnesses are taking steps to excommunicate a Western Kentucky man and three other church members who have publicly criticized what they say is their church's secretive handling of child-molestation cases.
Bill Bowen of Benton, Ky., said he was summoned to a judicial hearing to be held Friday at his Draffenville, Ky., church to answer allegations of ''causing divisions within the congregation and organization of Jehovah's Witnesses.''
Bowen resigned as an elder in the Marshall County congregation in December 2000
to protest the church's handling of a
local case and its policies on handling abuse allegations. He has since formed a support group for abuse victims.
Bowen figured prominently in a CourierJournal report in February 2001 on sexualabuse issues among Jehovah's Witnesses, as did a New Jersey couple who also say they are threatened with excommunication, Carl and Barbara Pandelo.
A former employee at church headquarters, Barbara Anderson of Normandy, Tenn., said she also faces excommunication.
The Jehovah's Witnesses Office of Public Information declined to comment specifically on the four cases, citing confidentiality policies.
The Courier-Journal report cited court cases in several states in which Jehovah's Witnesses officials were accused of keeping secret the allegations of abuse by their elders or members in two cases, allegedly in violation of state law.
Leaders of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, as the organization is formally known, have disputed these claims, saying they obey all laws requiring the reporting of child abuse and do not interfere with police investigations.
They say that in states that do not require reporting of abuse, they prefer taking steps to protect children while not breaching what they see as confidential communications between elders and members.
Church officials say they might advise elders to move victims out of abusive homes or refer them to counseling.
Bowen said he believes the action is being taken to deter Jehovah's Witnesses from listening to him, the Pandelos and Anderson in news reports or on the Web site of his ''silentlambs'' organization (www.silentlambs.org).
He said church members who listen to the words of ''apostates,'' or those who abandon the faith, are at risk of excommunication themselves.
Bowen said he has asked that his hearing be postponed from Friday because of plans for minor surgery.
In its statement, the Jehovah's Witnesses Office of Public Information quoted biblical references in saying elders must use church discipline to ''shepherd the flock of God in their care.''
''In fact, they are required by the Holy Scriptures to see to it that the congregation remains clean and unified,'' the statement said. ''No hasty decision is made in this process.''
The goal is not to expel a member, but to follow the Apostle Paul's injunction to ''try to readjust such a man in a spirit of mildness,'' the statement said.
The Pandelos, of Belmar, N.J., were summoned to a hearing Monday night at their local congregation concerning unspecified ''allegations of apostasy,'' according to a April 19 letter on Watchtower stationery.
Carl Pandelo said he and his wife stayed only five minutes, long enough to deliver letters of protest to the chairman of the disciplinary committee. They have not received a reply.
''It's not like we didn't expect it,'' he said. ''You're not allowed to talk against the church in any way.''
The pandelos, who no longer attend Jehovah's Witnesses services, have told The Courier-Journal that after Carl's father, Clement Pandelo, molested their daughter, the congregation acted more sympathetically to the molester than to his victim.
Elders did tell Clement Pandelo to turn himself in to police, and he pleaded guilty in 1989 to molesting three girls after admitting molesting children for 40 years.
An elder with the congregation told The Courier-Journal that church leaders did the best they could to mediate the situation.
Anderson said she has not seen the charges against her in writing but that her husband, an elder at a Manchester, Tenn., congregation, was told she was accused of ''causing divisions.''
''I categorically deny any of this,'' said Anderson, a former employee at Watchtower headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she said she first learned about the church's policies on handling abuse cases.
In the past year, two more lawsuits have been filed against Watchtower in New Hampshire and Washington state, accusing local church elders of failing to follow state laws on reporting suspected abuse to police.
In both cases, church members were convicted of sexual abuse.
One suit filed in January by Erica Rodriguez, who said she was repeatedly abused by a church member years ago, claims an elder at her former congregation in Washington state threatened her with excommunication if she reported her abuser to police.
A Watchtower statement denies this, saying that there are no sanctions against anyone who chooses to go to police, and that church elders and Watchtower did not know of the abuse until years after it had occurred.
In New Hampshire, two women are suing Watchtower, alleging elders failed to report suspicions of abuse. Their father was later convicted and sentenced to 56 years in prison for abuse.
Jehovah's Witnesses, founded in the 19th century, number about 1 million members in the United States and 6 million globally.
Best known for its door-to-door evangelism, the church views its teachings as authentic Christianity, though it parts company with other Christian bodies on some fundamental beliefs.
Like some other close-knit religious organizations, Jehovah's Witnesses practice church discipline within their congregations and sometimes ''disfellowship,'' or excommunicate, members who are believed to persist in their errors.
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NewsDay - May 8th 2002:
Jehovah's Witnesses Allege Sexual Abuse
By Ron Howell, STAFF WRITER
Some Jehovah's Witnesses say the group covers up widespread sexual abuse of children within the religion, which is headquartered in Brooklyn and known for sending adherents door-to-door to gain new members.
"Because of the closed community of Jehovah's Witnesses ... the whole issue of protecting sexual abuse among family members is very strong," said Barbara Pandelo, a Belmar, N.J., resident and a Jehovah's Witness.
Pandelo said that in 1988 her daughter was sexually molested by a relative who is also a Jehovah's Witness.
She is one of several critics from around the country who have been commanded by their local superiors to appear at special hearings. Pandelo and the others say they are being targeted because of their outspokenness, especially on sexual abuse of minors.
A national spokesman for Jehovah's Witnesses, which says it has 6 million members worldwide, categorically denied the allegations.
"You cannot be a known sex offender and hold any position of responsibility within the organization," said J.R. Brown, the spokesman. "We have a very strong and aggressive policy for handling any sexual molestation that might take place."
In Kentucky, William H. Bowen, a member, said Jehovah's Witnesses have created "a pedophile paradise" because of their tradition of secrecy and reluctance to seriously investigate abuse.
Bowen said that as an elder he tried to investigate a case of sexual abuse, but church leaders told him a year and a half ago "to leave it in God's hands."
Last year he started a Web site, www.silentlambs.org, on which he claims there are numerous cases of sexual abuse committed by members and covered up by officials.
"This is their way of getting rid of us," said Bowen, referring to the local hearings.
Bowen and Pandelo maintain that the tradition of ringing doors and proselytizing new members invites problems for the religion. .
"When Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door they talk to anybody," said Pandelo, a homemaker. "Many times people [who are recruited] bring these [sexually abusive] tendencies into the congregation."
Pandelo said that although she has not worshipped with her local congregation since 1998, she fears being excommunicated.
All practicing members, even her old friends and relatives, would be required to shun her, she said. "You're viewed as if you're dead."
At a Monday hearing, she and her husband, Carl, did not present a formal defense. "But we did draft a letter and presented them with it and left," she said.
Jehovah's Witnesses spokesman Brown said only one hearing has been held so far and no action has been taken yet against anyone.
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NEW YORK TIMES Newspaper - May 9th 2002:
National Briefing: Religion
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES SEX ACCUSATIONS Four Jehovah's Witnesses who have publicly criticized their church's handling of sexual abuse accusations have been summoned to church hearings that could result in their excommunication. The four assert that church elders did not immediately report to the authorities accusations of abuse by family or church members.
By Laurie Goodstein (NYT)
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New York Post Newspaper - May 9th 2002:
FOUR FACING JEHOVAH OUSTER
By DAN MANGAN
May 9, 2002 -- Jehovah's Witnesses leaders are moving to excommunicate four people who have spoken to a television show about child molestation within the church, the four say.
If that happens, they claim, other Jehovah's Witnesses will be barred - also under the threat of excommunication - from watching the upcoming NBC "Dateline" episode detailing alleged abuse in the church and criticism of how the church handles such cases.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn-based religion called that claim "absurd."
Both sides agree that all Witnesses - including relatives of the four - would risk excommunication by having contact with any excommunicated person, except under certain circumstances.
While the four believe the show's impending broadcast has spurred the church's actions, church spokesman J.R. Brown said that before Tuesday, church headquarters had no idea that these people would be on the show.
He also said local congregations decided to charge them with various spiritual violations.
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CNN News Website - May 9th 2002:
Four Jehovah's Witnesses fight church's handling of child abuse cases
Bowen stands in front of his former church in Marshall County near Louisville, Kentucky on January 12, 2001.
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) -- As a pillar of his church, William Bowen sat in judgment of fellow Jehovah's Witnesses who went astray. On a few occasions, Bowen supported the ultimate punishment -- expulsion from the tight-knit religious group.
But now the lifelong Jehovah's Witness awaits judgment himself from fellow members of the faith.
The 44-year-old former church elder is among four Jehovah's Witnesses threatened with excommunication -- or disfellowship, as the denomination calls it -- for sowing discord in the faith by speaking out against the church's handling of allegations of child molestation.
Bowen complains that child-sex allegations are generally not reported to secular authorities by the Jehovah's Witnesses because of the church's closed nature and its insistence on handling problems internally.
The Jehovah's Witnesses shun the outside world in many respects. They refuse to bear arms, salute the flag or participate in secular government. They also refuse blood transfusions.
Bowen is to appear before a judicial committee Friday at his church in Draffenville, a small town in far western Kentucky.
Two others, Carl and Barbara Pandelo of Belmar, New Jersey, had their hearing this week and are awaiting a decision.
Barbara Anderson of Normandy, Tennessee, has also been summoned to appear before a committee. Anderson has said she learned about the church's handling of abuse cases while she worked at its headquarters in New York City.
Like Bowen, the Pandelos say the real motivation is to silence them within the denomination, which claims about six million members worldwide, including about one million in the United States.
In a statement issued from their headquarters, the Jehovah's Witnesses said that church leaders are "required by the Holy Scriptures to see to it that the congregation remains clean and unified."
J.R. Brown, a spokesman for the denomination, said that parents are not punished by the church for going to the police first in cases of child molestation.
And he said that anyone found guilty of molestation by a church judicial committee is removed from all positions of responsibility and cannot evangelize door-to-door without being accompanied by a fellow Jehovah's Witness.
Bowen disputed that, saying he has heard of cases in which parents were punished for contacting the police first, and instances in which abusers were allowed to go door-to-door on their own.
Bowen, who spent two years working at the Brooklyn headquarters, said that he took up the cause a couple of years ago, when he read a confidential file alleging a member had molested a child in the early 1980s. He said he was frustrated in his efforts to try to bring the problem to the attention of the church hierarchy.
"They did not want to face child molestation issues," Bowen said. "They did not want typically to turn perpetrators in. And they used the control of the organization as more or less an undisclosed way to prevent that from happening."
Bowen resigned as a church elder in 2000 in protest, and has formed a support group for alleged abuse victims. He said he has heard from thousands of alleged victims in the past year. The allegations involve both rank-and-file members of the church and, like the scandal engulfing the Roman Catholic Church, leaders of the faith.
"I don't think we're trying to hurt the Jehovah's Witness organization," he said. "They claim they have higher moral standards than other religions and other groups. Well, this works to their advantage in every way to elevate their standards."
Bowen warned that the denomination could face a flurry of lawsuits unless it changes its ways. Two lawsuits already filed against the denomination in the past year in New Hampshire and Washington state accuse church elders of failing to follow state laws on reporting suspected abuse to police.
Steve Lyons, an elder at Bowen's Draffenville church of about 60 members, said Jehovah's Witnesses are responsive to allegations of child abuse.
"I think we do as well as we can do," he said. "We comply with all local laws when it comes to reporting. We do our best to protect children in cases where even there's just been an alleged abuse."
The Pandelos' dispute with the denomination dates to 1988, when their 12-year-old daughter said she was molested by her paternal grandfather, also a member of the faith. Carl Pandelo's father has returned to the denomination, while the Pandelos face possible excommunication.
"It's almost like a public stoning," Barbara Pandelo said.
For example, Jehovah's Witnesses caught having contact with the excommunicated can themselves be expelled, she said.
"Nobody talks to a disfellowshipped person," she said. "They'll look right through you as if you're invisible."
Similarly, Bowen said he has been shunned by family members and has seen his candle-selling business hurt.
"While I may have certain personal regrets, if I had it to do over again, I'd do it a thousand times," Bowen said.
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CNN News Website - May 11th 2002:
Jehovah's Witnesses expel parents of alleged abuse victim
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP) -- A woman said she and her husband have been excommunicated from the Jehovah's Witnesses after speaking out against the church's handling of their daughter's allegations of sex abuse by another member.
Barbara and Carl Pandelo of Belmar, New Jersey, had been awaiting a decision since Monday, when a judicial committee of the church met in New Jersey to consider ousting them, a practice which the denomination terms disfellowshipping.
"They've just made it official now," she said Friday night in a telephone interview.
They are among four Jehovah's Witnesses who were threatened with disfellowship for sowing discord in the faith by speaking out against the church.
One of them, William Bowen, a 44-year-old former church elder from Draffenville, Kentucky , has complained that child-sex allegations are generally not reported to secular authorities by the Jehovah's Witnesses because of the church's closed nature and insistence on handling problems internally.
Anthony Valenti, an elder in the Pandelos' church, did not immediately return phone calls Friday night.
But J.R. Brown, a spokesman for the denomination, said earlier this week that parents are not punished by the church for going to the police first in cases of child molestation. He said anyone found guilty of molestation by a church judicial committee is removed from all positions of responsibility.
The Pandelos' dispute with the denomination dates to 1988, when their 12-year-old daughter said she was molested by her paternal grandfather, also a member of the faith. The grandfather has returned to the denomination.
Carl and Barbara Pandelo have not been active in the church for some time, she said, but she regrets losing the friends they made.
"To take someone and shun and abandon them is the most psychologically damaging thing you can do," Pandelo said.
Barbara Anderson of Normandy, Tennessee, has also been summoned to appear before a committee. Anderson has said she learned about the church's handling of abuse cases while working at its headquarters in New York City.
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The Tullahoma News - May 11th 2002:
Whistleblower could lose her church, family
MARY REEVES, Special to The News May 11, 2002
When Barbara Anderson of Normandy walked into the Kingdom Hall of the Manchester Jehovah's Witnesses Friday afternoon, there was more than a religious affiliation at stake.
Her family, the children of the congregation, the children of Coffee County, and common sense and decency were her main concerns.
She has been a member of the religious group for decades, even working for The Watchtower at the Brooklyn homebase for more than 11 years.
But because of the denomination's policies toward pedophiles, she has not attended since 1997. Because of the church's attitude toward whistleblowers, she is afraid she will never be able to attend again.
"They've ordered me to a judicial (within the church) hearing," said Mrs. Anderson. "They say I'm being divisive in the congregation."
Jehovah's Witnesses, more than 100 years old and tallying more than 1 million members in the United States alone, has several sanctions to apply to members who act outside of the bounds of established church policy. The most drastic is "disfellowship", or excommunication. Members are disfellowshipped, or DF'd in their own terminology, are shunned by other members of the congregation. Even those who live with the DF'd member are forbidden to speak with her on spiritual matters.
Prior to the meeting with the church elders. Barbara was uncertain of the specific charges brought before her on which the proposed disfellowship would be based, but she feels she knows the true reason. It all deals with pedophiles, JW policy, NBC's Dateline television news magazine, and the actions she and others have taken against both.
While charges of child molestation rock the Catholic foundations, priests around the world are condemning the acts and condemning the church for protecting the perpetrators. According to Barbara, and Jehovah's Witness Bill Bowen of Kentucky, the Jehovah's Witnesses are doing something much worse.
According to Bowen, Barbara, and the Silent Lambs organization that Bowen established for abused Jehovah's Witness children, the denomination has protected confessed child abusers, even sending them back out into the field, going door-to-door to profess their faith.
And the victims?
At least two cases have been reported in which it was the victims who were disfellowshipped.
In one case, Erica Rodriguez approached the elders to tell them of another elder (the governing members of the church, always male) had been molesting her. She was told that if she notified the police, she would be the one disfellowshipped. She was shunned. Her abuser was convicted, disfellowshipped by the congregation, and was eventually reinstated.
In another case, the Pandelo family faces being excommunicated and has already been shunned for reporting their daughters' abuser - her own grandfather.
The Jehovah's Witness policy is such that members are encouraged to solve their problems within the church, according to Barbara.
"They say going to the police is a personal decision of the elders, if they know of a pedophile. Not everywhere. In some states, in Tennessee, they are required to report the abuse," she said.
JW policy also states that two witnesses or a confession are needed to prove the abuse occurred, but Anderson siad that even confession didn't protect the victims and futere victims of abuse.
"I know of two in this area - confessed molesters," she said.
Although the policy does indicate that those known molesters should only go door-to-door in the company of another Witness, Barbara stated that this was not always the case.
"The worst part is, I can't tell anyone. I can be disfelloshipped for slander, when he has confessed to being a molester and is not disfellowhipped," she said.
Barbara was not the only one to see the problem. Bowen, who also faces disfellowshipping this week, was outraged and established Silent Lambs. The organization not only serves as a support group for victims and their families, but as an advocate for change within the church.
It is that advocacy that now threatens Barbara's standing in the church. She, Bowen and the Pandelos were all interviewed for a Dateline segment about the issue, tentatively scheduled to air later this month. She, Bowen and the Pandelos all faced charges of "divisiveness" and other spiritual crimes in the same week.
In an interview with the New York Post, JW spokesperson J.R. Brown stated that the threatened exco0mmunications had nothing to do with the Dateline interview and that "church headquarters had no idea that these people would be on the show."
Yet research displayed more than six internet announcements on the program, updates and names, all linked to the Silent Lambs and the Watchtower sites.
Brown also said that local congregation decided to charge the members with various spiritual violations.
"That is not true," said Barbara, who considers the elders of the Manchester Kingdom Hall to be good friends. "That is a lie. They didn't know what it was about. Those orders came down from Brooklyn."
After the meeting , Barbara stated that the specific charges against her dealt with an article she had supposedly written for an apostate publication - apostate meaning one whose teachings were against the faith. Members can be disfelloshipped for visiting an apostate website, much less for writing for one. The article had been cobbled together from private emails she had sent to a friend, one who has since had a nervous breakdown. As for the charges of her being divisive within the Congregation, Barbara shook her head.
"They (the local elders) didn't even know about the pedophile cover-up," she said. "How can I be divisive if they didn't even know the work was doing on that?'
Apparently her leaders agreed, and told her they were sending a letter to the headquarters saying there was no proof of the charges levied against her. In bizarre Catch-22, she was asked if she could write to the apostate publication and request they explain the source of the article and remove it - and act that could get her disfellowshipped.
The real reason behind the charges she believes, is the Dateline program. If all the members scheduled to appear on the show are excommunicated before it airs, no practicing Jehovah's Witness will watch the program, shunning it - and the information it might supply.
Her status within the church is still in question. According to Barbara, she still faces the threat of excommunication, a result that would be devastating.
"This is my life," she said. Her husband of almost 45 years, Joe, is an elder, and her son, daughter-in-law and grandson are all members. If she is DF'd, her husband faces his own sanctions, and her son and his family would have to shun her. It is not a future Barbara wants at all, but it is a result she can live with if she must. The final result she said, must be a change in the church policy that protects pedophiles, so that it protects the victims instead.
"I'll lose my son to help Jehovah's Witness children," she said. "I'll lose my own grandson to help Jehovah's Witness children."
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The Tennessean Newspaper - May 16th 2002:
Jehovah's Witnesses downplay sex abuse, women say
By LEON ALLIGOOD, Staff Writer
Melissa Trice, 30, of Spring Hill says she was molested by a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization.
Two Middle Tennessee women said they have a full understanding of a Tullahoma woman's claim that the Jehovah's Witnesses organization has downplayed or ignored child sexual abuse for years.
''In fact, nothing happened to the man who molested me,'' said Melissa Trice, 30, of Spring Hill, about an incident she says occurred in Shelbyville 22 years ago.
''One of the elders asked me, 'What were you wearing?' like I had provoked it. I will never forget that. I was 8 years old, for God's sake.''
The other woman, who asked that her name not be used, alleged that a teen-ager in her Middle Tennessee congregation molested her repeatedly between the ages of 6 and 8.
''They prayed with him, but he didn't go away,'' said the 25-year-old woman who lives in the Nashville area.
The women were prompted to disclose their experiences after reading a story in Saturday's Tennessean about a Tullahoma woman who faced disfellowshipping, the equivalent of excommunication in the Jehovah's Witnesses faith. That woman, Barbara Anderson, risked shunning because she believed the organization repeatedly had ignored child sexual abuse by congregants.
Anderson was one of four Jehovah's Witnesses who told their stories to the NBC news show Dateline, which has been investigating the denomination for more than a year. A spokesman for the show said the segment is tentatively scheduled to be televised May 28. Two of the four were disfellowshipped last week, while Anderson awaits a decision. The fourth individual, a Kentucky man, is scheduled to have a meeting with local elders in a few weeks.
The Midstate women who said they had been abused were relieved to know someone was talking about the issue.
''Finally, I thought, 'Somebody is trying to do something about this,' '' said Trice, who identified the person she said abused her, now deceased, as a member of the congregation her family attended.
The man was at her home to do odd jobs for her father on the day of the molestation.
''He sent my sister into the front room and called me to him. The elders tried to pass him off as old and senile, but he called me by my name. I don't think he was senile,'' she said.
Henry Carr of Shelbyville, who was identified by Trice as an elder in the church at the time of her abuse, would not comment on the woman's allegations.
''I'm not free to say anything on it, I guess. I don't want to get into all that stuff,'' Carr said in a telephone interview.
After the molestation, Trice said, she ran to her room and waited for her parents.
''I told them he touched me,'' Trice remembered. ''They took the matter to the elders because that's what you do in Jehovah's Witnesses.''
''You don't have associations outside church,'' said the other woman, who said her abuser also went unpunished by law because the now 18-year-old case never was turned over for prosecution.
According to state law, the women's cases should have been reported to authorities.
Since 1972, Tennessee has required that child abuse be reported even if someone only suspects abuse and has no direct knowledge of the abuse, said Carla Aaron, spokeswoman for the Department of Children's Services. Under the law, people who suspect abuse but do not alert authorities can be charged with a misdemeanor.
Trice said church elders advised her parents to keep peace in the congregation by inviting the abuser to dinner.
''Can you imagine how I felt, sitting across the table from him in my own house?'' Trice said.
The allegations of abuses in the Jehovah's Witnesses organization, which has 1 million members in the United States, follows numerous press accounts of allegations of cover-up of pedophilia by Catholic priests nationwide.
Officials at the New York office of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the incorporated name of the Jehovah's Witnesses, deny that there is an organization-wide attempt to avoid prosecution of child molesters so the organization will not be held up to public inspection.
Elders, parents and victims are encouraged to report suspected abuse to authorities, according to church officials and literature.
On one section of the Watchtower's Web site, officials deal with the subject of child abuse through statements from church officials.
Trice and the unnamed woman said the sexual abuse they suffered still affects them.
''I'm in my 20s, and I'm still not over what happened. I suffer with security issues and self-confidence issues. There's a lot that can affect a child for years and years,'' said the woman who asked to remain nameless.
She hasn't been to a meeting at her local Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall since 1997, which she said has caused a rift between her and her parents, who are still active in the organization.
''My parents and I are not on speaking terms. They don't understand.''
Trice said she was left ''thoroughly confused'' by her abuse.
''Nobody explained to me that what happened wasn't my fault, and I thought that I was supposed to respond in a sexual way when a man took an interest in me,'' she said, saying her promiscuity led to disfellowship as a teen.
''It took me a long time to understand that I didn't do anything, but I'm still working through it all, but it's hard.''
Both of the women are mothers and said they have taken extra precautions to make sure their children are not sexually abused.
''This is not going to happen to my child. I don't want it to happen to anybody's child,'' Trice said.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.aspx?id=27235&site=3&page=4
http://www.watchtowernews.org/pedophilenews.htm
Edited by - UnDisfellowshipped on 4 September 2002 6:9:27
http://blogs.salon.com/0001138/2002/09/04.html
BELOW ARE MORE SILENTLAMBS NEWS STORIES ABOUT THE PRESS CONFERENCES AND THE MARCH!!!
Sexual Abuse Allegations Within Jehovah's Witness Denomination
Reporter: Wisdom Martin
There are new allegations that a religious denomination is turning a blind eye to sexual abuse. This time, it is the Jehovah's Witnesses who stand accused.
"For me, it took away any concept of trust in religious figures, authority figures, and parental figures."
The woman who spoke to News 2 does not wish to be identified. She is a former Jehovah's Witness who claims she was abused when she was just 8-years-old by a congregation member. But when she spoke out, she said nothing was done. The women said she was also abused by a member of her congregation.
"They act like they are the law, they can take care of it. Something like this, it's abuse, and they shouldn't be the ones taking care of it."
Now, women like Barbara Anderson are ready to fight for change in their religion, so they've formed a victim's rights group called Silent Lambs. They believe the Jehovah's Witness sexual abuse polices are inadequate and harm children.
"We believe they are responsible for policies that make it possible for perverted people to come into this organization to get at Jehovah's witness children," Barbara said.
"We should of all persons, being Christians going by the Bible, we should do the right thing for these abuse victims," said Joe Anderson.
Joe Anderson was a Jehovah's Witness elder for over 50 years.
"In the organization, you have to have two witnesses, and of course it's almost impossible to have two witnesses to a child molestation. So if a parent comes with their daughter to the elder, they ask and he says, no, I didn't do it, then that's the end of the matter."
"I would like to see them recognize it, take it to the civil authorities and professionals that are capable and qualified to help the victims."
News 2 contacted the Jehovah's Witness national office in New York, but they did not return our calls. The Silent Lambs organization will hold a march to bring awareness to their cause September 27th in Brooklyn, New York.
News 2 at 5
09.05.02
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Former church members march in protest
People say they were molested as a child by a Jehovah's Witness
By James Lewis
Sex and religion make for a potent mix. And Thursday, some Jehovah's Witnesses are being targeted by former members about charges of child sexual abuse. They claim elders are covering it up. The worst part is that women say it's been going on for years.
The best part is that it is now public, and they have hope that the problem may be addressed publicly by Jehovah's Witnesses. At the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall in Antioch, former member Barbara Anderson left a small stuffed lamb. It's her symbol of innocence lost. As a writer for the organization in New York, Anderson says she discovered multiple charges of sexual abuse being hushed up.
"They're kind of isolated in their ivory tower and they do believe that all the world is controlled by Satan, that theirs is God's organization. They can make the rules," said Barbara Anderson.
Nationwide Thursday in 16 major cities, demonstrations like this called for change within the religious organization.
"It was from another member who was there," said "Lisa", who was abused when she was young.
Lisa, not her real name, says as a 9-year-old child she was molested by a Jehovah's Witness. Despite telling the church - no one within the organization reported it to police.
"Now that you're an adult, Lisa, what would you like to say to your attacker?" asked Channel 4 Reporter James Lewis.
"I really feel sorry for him because as an adult I feel sorry that he has went through them because of his own way of trying to cover it up," said "Lisa".
Former member Joe Anderson grieves for his former friends, but he sees hope that recent exposures will correct some wrongs.
"Something is going to be done about it. And something has been done about it to a certain degree. But certainly more needs to be done but yeah I am happy to see them coming out with this," said Joe Anderson.
Channel 4 News attempted to contact the presiding elders at the Jehovah's Witnesses, but none of them returned our calls.
For more information about this cause, visit the Silent Lambs Web Site.
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Couple to protest Jehovah's Witnesses
By LEON ALLIGOOD, Staff Writer
(Photo of Barbara Anderson by BILL STEBER / STAFF)
Barbara Anderson, a former Jehovah's Witness, places a toy lamb on the front doors of the Kingdom Hall on Bell Road as part of a national protest by ex-Witnesses who say the denomination has covered up child sexual abuse by members.
Placing a symbolic stuffed lamb on the steps of a suburban Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall, a Coffee County couple yesterday said they will help lead a protest march Sept. 27 at the headquarters of the denomination in Brooklyn, N.Y.
''We are going to let the whole nation know what is going on behind closed doors. There is a massive coverup under way, and we're not going to stand for it,'' said Barbara Anderson of Manchester, Tenn.
Anderson and her husband, Joe, made the announcement yesterday at a Kingdom Hall on Bell Road. The Coffee County couple have received national attention since May for questioning how Jehovah's Witnesses have responded to allegations of child sexual abuse.
Yesterday's news conference was one of 16 held in major cities across the country to announce the Sept. 27 march, which is expected to attract a hundred or more supporters. The meetings were arranged by ''Silentlambs,'' a support group for Jehovah's Witnesses who say they have been abuse victims.
The Andersons have been disfellowshipped by the Kingdom Hall in Tullahoma, Tenn., where they attended. Disfellowshipping, the equivalent of excommunication, is the harshest punishment handed down by the organization against members. Shunning is included as part of the punishment, which separates families.
''You just can't imagine what this has been like for us. We can't see our grandchild any more. Our son and daughter-in-law won't allow it,'' Joe Anderson said.
Attending the Nashville news conference yesterday were two local women who said they were abused as girls by members of their respective Kingdom Halls.
''We're speaking out now, as young women in our 20s, because we realize that what happened to us was wrong and that we are not alone. There are many of us who are suffering,'' one woman said. The Tennessean does not reveal identities of reported victims of sex crimes without consent.
A spokesman for the New York-based Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the umbrella organization that is headquarters for Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide, said they were aware of the planned march later this month.
''But we won't issue a statement until that day,'' said a man who answered the phone in the press office at Watchtower headquarters. He asked that any statements be attributed to the organization's spokesman, J.R. Brown.
Leon Alligood covers Tennessee for The Tennessean. Contact him at (615) 259-8279 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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Group to march for molested children
Jehovah's Witnesses want church to alter its policy, apologize
By Darla Carter, [email protected]
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2002/09/06/ke090602s271650.htm
William H. Bowen of silentlambs, a group for abuse victims in the Jehovah's Witnesses church, left a stuffed lamb and a flier at Kingdom Hall on Lower River Road protesting church policies.
Stuffed lambs, here at Kingdom Hall in southern Jefferson County, were left at Jehovah's Witnesses churches across the country yesterday.
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL HAYMAN
An event being billed as the first national march for victims of child molestation within the Jehovah's Witnesses church was announced yesterday in Louisville and other cities around the country.
Silentlambs, a victims' support group, will hold the march at the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sept. 27, said William H. Bowen of Benton, Ky., cofounder of the group.
''Abuse survivors and supporters will come from around the world to let the Jehovah's Witnesses leadership . . . know we will no longer be ignored,'' Bowen said in a statement.
He left a pink stuffed animal in the shape of a lamb on the door of a Jehovah's Witnesses church in southern Jefferson County as a symbol of victims everywhere that his group says have been silenced by church policy. The gesture was repeated in every city where the march was announced, from Los Angeles to Orlando, Fla.
Bowen, a former elder who was recently ''disfellowshipped,'' or excommunicated, for causing divisions in the church, alleges that Jehovah's Witnesses keep incidents of child molestation secret, won't allow victims to warn other members of abusers in their congregations, and require alleged victims to produce a witness. Those who speak out are cut off from the church and shunned, he said.
''The Jehovah's Witnesses leadership (Governing Body) must change their policy and must apologize to the victims whose lives their policies have destroyed,'' Bowen said in the statement. ''On September 27th we arrive in good faith to make testimony to the public and testify before Jehovah's Witnesses Governing Body to give closure to victims and protect our children.''
Bowen, who helped found silentlambs in spring 2001, said his group has been contacted by 5,000 alleged victims, many of whom have said, ''I thought I was all alone.'' The group, which has a hot line and a Web site -- (877) 982-2873 and www.silentlambs.org -- provides emotional support, advice and a sense that someone believes them, Bowen said.
J.R. Brown, the director of the media office at the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters, declined to comment through an employee who would not give his name.
In the past, officials with the Jehovah's Witnesses have said they abhor child molestation, report cases to authorities in states that require such reports and allow members to report fellow members to police.
Bowen said he plans to push for legislation in Kentucky that would require clergy to report alleged abuse to police.
''I would like for every single child molester in the church to be turned in,'' he said.
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'Silentlambs' speak out about sex abuse
By Christine Clarridge, Seattle Times staff reporter
Several former Jehovah's Witnesses stood outside a Kingdom Hall church near Green Lake yesterday with a tiny toy lamb whose mouth was covered with black electrician's tape.
The symbolically silenced lamb delivered to the door of the fellowship hall represented the 5,000 members of the 6 million-member church who claim to have been sexually abused by leaders or others in the church. They further claim to have been silenced or ignored when they sought the church's guidance and protection.
The news conference was one of about 16 across the country called to bring attention to "silentlambs," an organization planning a march on church headquarters in New York on Sept. 27.
Started by a former church member who said he was dismayed by the way the church covered up allegations of abuse, silentlambs is calling for changes in church policies.
"We want to open the doors, " said Bruce Baker, a former Jehovah's Witness leader in Oregon. "We want Watchtower headquarters to turn cases of abuse within the church over to the police and let the police handle it.''
National church leaders could not be reached for comment, but a spokesman recently told The New York Times that the church's policies on sexual abuse were based on the Bible and were exemplary.
"We're not trying to say we handled everybody in the right way and our elders are all-knowing, all-perfect. But we say, if you take what our policy is for keeping our organization clean morally, it far outpaces anybody else's," spokesman J.R. Brown said.
Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that emphasizes biblical literalism and the imminent end of the world. Members are best-known in the secular world for giving out religious tracts and for not celebrating holidays and birthdays or allowing blood transfusions.
Former members said the church's policies and culture conspire to conceal abuse.
The small group of activists in Seattle included several ex-church members who have been "disfellowshipped" or excommunicated, as well as one woman who claimed the church did nothing to protect her and her sister when they came forward with claims of abuse.
She said she went to her church leaders to ask for help because her stepfather, who had also sexually abused her, was abusing her younger sister.
Her stepfather, who has since been disfellowshipped by the church, never paid a legal price for what she said were years of abuse.
The scope of abuse within the denomination is a matter of debate. The church has recently been sued by eight people in four lawsuits around the country including one filed in Spokane alleging abuse.
According to Bill Bowen, founder of silentlambs, there have been more than 5,000 current or former members nationwide who say that the church mishandled allegations of child sexual abuse.
Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or [email protected].
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WE'VE BEEN HEARING THE PAST FEW MONTHS ABOUT CONCERNS OVER COVER-UPS OF CHILD MOLESTATION IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
TODAY, MEMBERS OF ANOTHER RELIGION ARE COMING FORWARD WITH SIMILAR ALLEGATIONS. THEY TALKED TO US DURING A DEMONSTRATION AT ONE OF SEVERAL JEHOVAH'S WITNESS KINGDOM HALLS NATIONWIDE
KINDRA HAS BEEN A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS FOR DECADES. SHE SAYS AS A CHILD, A FAMILY MEMBER MOLESTED HER. SHE TOLD HER PARENTS, AND HER PARENTS WENT TO THE ELDERS AT THEIR KINGDOM HALL. SHE SAYS JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE TOLD NOT TO GO TO THE POLICE WITH ACCUSATIONS AGAINST A FELLOW MEMBER.
"I was told not to do that I was supposed to leave it in the elders hands that they would pray and they did prayer when I was there and that Jehovah would take care of it, and it kept happening, so as a child you only do what you're told."
TODAY, KINDRA AND ANOTHER JEHOVAH'S WITNESS CAME TO THE KINGDOM HALL AT 29TH AND ROSEMONT TO DELIVER A SYMBOLIC LAMB - REPRESENTING THE MANY CHILDREN THEY SAY ARE SILENCED BY JEHOVAH'S WITNESS POLICY. THE SAME THING HAPPENED IN NEARLY A DOZEN CITIES NATIONWIDE.
"I have nothing against the religion - I still want to attend. I want to do this for the children and change policies so that someone doesn't have to go through what I went through."
JOHN BROWN SAYS THE RELIGION FORBIDS PUNISHMENT OF AN ACCUSED MOLESTER WHO DENIES ALLEGATIONS UNLESS THERE IS ANOTHER EYEWITNESS TO THE ABUSE.
"But there never is unless somebody walks in on accident, a parent, while the perpetrator is committing the act."
THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS REPRESENTATIVES WE TALKED TO DID NOT WANT TO GO ON CAMERA. BUT ONE TOLD US THE ALLEGATIONS ARE RIDICULOUS. HE SAYS JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE ONE OF THE MOST LAW-ABIDING GROUPS IN THE WORLD. HE ALSO MAINTAINS THEY DO NOT HAVE A POLICY OF SILENCING VICTIMS.
KINDRA AND JOHN TELL US THEY CAN BE DISFELLOWSHIPPED, WHICH IS LIKE BEING EXCOMMUNICATED, FOR SPEAKING OUT - BUT THEY THINK IT'S WORTH IT. THEY ANNOUNCED A MARCH FOR VICTIMS, COMING UP SEPTEMBER 27TH IN BROOKLYN, NY, WHERE THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS HEADQUARTERS IS LOCATED.
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New Allegations Of A Church Keeping Quiet About Child Sexual Abuse
By Tracy Vedder
http://www.komotv.com/stories/20208.htm
There are new allegations of a Church keeping quiet about child sexual abuse. But this time, it's a different church -- the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Members from and across the country are beginning a campaign to put pressure on Church elders to change.
They call themselves silent lambs -- Jehovah's Witnesses who say they were sexually molested and then forced by Church elders to keep silent.
"Both my sister and I were abused by my stepfather," says Betty, who only wants us to use her first name.
Jehovah's Witnesses require two witnesses to any alleged crime or sin. So as a child, Betty never told anyone. She kept quiet until she found out her little sister was also being molested.
"I knew that if I didn't speak up, nobody was going to help her," says Betty. "I kept having nightmares that she was being molested and I couldn't move, I couldn't help her so I had to do something."
But Betty says when she told church elders she was going to the police, they forced her to stay silent. Although that incident took place in another state, she says now that she is talking about it here in western , she will be kicked out and shunned by her friends and family.
"And it hurts," sobs Betty, "because I really believed in it."
Members of the Ravenna Kingdom Hall, where members of Silent Lambs gathered to protest, did not return phone calls. The Jehovah's Witnesses' headquarters says it is reviewing the situation. A spokesman referred us to their Web site, which says it is a victim's right to report abuse to police.
But former elder Bruce Baker says church attorneys pressured him not to report child molestation. He is now part of a national movement trying to force Jehovah's Witnesses to change.
"They basically, in a sense, have protected pedophiles within the group," says Baker. He says Jehovah's Witnesses simply excommunicate members who have molested, rather than turning them over to police and, he says, "they continue to molest children. They should have been reported years ago and they weren't."
The Silent Lambs group hopes Jehovah's Witnesses will take a lesson from the Catholic Church and deal with the issue of sexual abuse openly.
Silent Lambs announced plans Thursday for a nationwide march on Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters to protest policies on child rape cases. The march is scheduled for Sept. 27 in Brooklyn, NY.
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I will try to Post the silentlambs PRESS RELEASES here soon.
Edited by - UnDisfellowshipped on 6 September 2002 23:21:45
Alleged Victim Speaks Out Against Abuse In Church
March Planned In New York
http://www.KOIN.com/webnews/20022/20020906_jwabuse.shtml
PORTLAND -- Child sex abuse victims are launching a national campaign against the Jehovah's Witness church.
Protest Demonstrations were staged Thursday in 16 cities, including Portland.
A former member of a Portland-area church claims she was abused. She told KOIN 6 News that church policies make it very difficult to report.
"Pedophiles know they can be hidden in this organization because of the privacy they have," Pat Garza said.
Victims are formally requesting an investigation into abuse allegations.
They ask all victims to come forward and join in a national march later this month in New York to raise awareness.
Posted: Sept. 6, 2002
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NEWS RELEASE
The upcoming September 9, 2002 Child Abuse Civil Court Trial of Victoria Boer v. the Canadian Jehovahs Witnesses Organization 10:00 AM, Courtroom 4-4, 361 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario as reported in the September 1, 2002 edition of The Toronto Sun
Silentlambs Inc. (www.silentlambs.org) accuses the Jehovahs Witnesses (JWs) organization of fostering an environment for child rape, ignoring abuse survivors, protecting child molesters and expelling Jehovahs Witnesses who have tried to support the victims and alert the public
Contacts
Silentlambs - William H. Bowen ###-###-###, cell ###-###-####
Advocates - Barb and Joe Anderson ###-###-####, Alan Feuerbacher ###-###-#### or ###-###-####
Can. Victims -Lxx Mxxxx ###-###-####, Rxxxx Dxxxxx ###-###-####, Dxxxxx Dxxxxxx ###-###-####
Counsel - Charles Mark 416-869-0929
Church Policy does not explain that JW parents must forthwith report abuse to the authorities as required under the law. Instead parents are taught to report the abuse to Church elders. Before February 2002, parents could have been subject to severe church discipline for going to the authorities with an abuse case (The Watchtower, November 15, 1973, page 703).
Church policy suggests in many cases that elders NOT report the abuse in jurisdictions where there are NO mandatory clergy reporting laws. There are presently 34 such states in the USA.
Delay or not properly reporting abuse apparently violates the forthwith intent found in Ontario law. The result could allow further abuse and the destruction of valuable evidence.
Based in its New York headquarters, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. is the Jehovah's Witnesses main corporation. Doctrine created by its Governing Body is published in magazines called The Watchtower, Awake! and Our Kingdom Ministry. Jehovah's Witnesses make it a goal to contact every citizen of Canada at least once a year. Unlike the Catholic Church's 2002 mea culpa, the Watchtower refuses even to acknowledge that there are problems with its sexual abuse policies.
Silentlambs Inc. September 6, 2002
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Group alleging JW abuse plans march
LOUISVILLE A group that contends widespread child molestation has occurred in the Jehovah's Witnesses church said it will have a national march for alleged victims in Louisville and other cities.
Silentlambs, a victims' support group, will have the march at the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sept. 27, said William H. Bowen of Benton, Ky., co-founder of the group.
"Abuse survivors and supporters will come from around the world to let the Jehovah's Witnesses leadership ... know we will no longer be ignored," Bowen said in a statement.
Bowen, a former elder, was recently "disfellowshipped," or excommunicated, for causing divisions in the church. He alleges that Jehovah's Witnesses keep incidents of child molestation secret, won't allow victims to warn other members of abusers in their congregations, and require alleged victims to produce a witness. Those who speak out are cut off from the church and shunned, he said.
J.R. Brown, the director of the media office at the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters, declined to comment through an employee who would not give his name.
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This was Published in the Sunday, September 8th, 2002 Toronto Sun Newspaper:
As one of Jehovah's Witnesses in the area for nearly 30 years I can honestly say it was disturbing to read in your article ("Storm in the Hall," by Brodie Fenlon, Sunday Sun) - the allegations of the Jehovah's Witness organization covering up allegations of child abuse. While the outcome of this case remains to be seen, with all of the recent exposure in the media it is hoped that the church leaders will recognize that their elders are simply not qualified to investigate crimes of this nature and bring all allegations of crimes to the authorities without exception. I also hope that if errors have been made in the past that the church will do the honorable thing and acknowledge the harm they have caused and do what they can to help these ones recover from what happened.
-Randy J. Bigham
Brampton
Newspaper Editor's Comments: We should expect nothing less of any church.
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Former Jehovah's Witness weeps as she describes abuse at hands of father
By JAMES MCCARTEN
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020909/6/ou8m.html
TORONTO (CP) - A former Jehovah's Witness told a harrowing tale of alleged sexual abuse Monday on the first day of a civil suit that is expected to bring the church under scrutiny. Vicky Boer, 31, wept on the witness stand as she described the three years of fondling and abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of her father, the patriarch of a devoted family of Witnesses.Boer, who is suing three church elders and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Canada, the religion's governing body, was 11 years old when the abuse allegedly began in the early 1980s, she said.But it was how the church to which she had devoted her young life treated her when she came forward with the allegations that prompted her to launch the legal action that began Monday in a Toronto courtroom."When you grow up as a Jehovah's Witness, that is your life, and outside of that you don't have a life," Boer told the court during an emotional day of testimony."If you dare to leave the organization, you're basically left with nothing."Three years after the abuse ended, Boer told her mother her story, and church elders within their congregation in Shelburne, Ont., about 100 kilometres northwest of Toronto, were notified.But rather than inform the Children's Aid Society and permit Boer to seek counselling outside the church, she was forced to confront her father and give him a chance to repent his alleged "sins," court was told.At that meeting, she testified, her mother insisted the abuse was in the past and that it had already been dealt with. The elders agreed, saying the father "is really showing signs of spiritual repentance," she said.They also allegedly refused to allow her to see a psychologist, warning her that it would lead to an investigation and might cost her father his job and her mother her only source of financial support."They said there's going to be consequences of that," she testified."My father would lose her job, the family would be investigated and my mother would be destitute."While victims of sexual abuse normally aren't identified in public, Boer has agreed to allow her name to be publicized as part of her effort to promote what she alleges is widespread abuse within the confines of the church's congregations.As part of their beliefs in a strict interpretation of Bible teachings, Jehovah's Witnesses reject anything political or "worldly" that distracts from their focus on Christ and the second coming, which they consider imminent.Birthdays, secular holidays and Christmas are not celebrated; children are often required to leave class during the Lord's Prayer and the national anthem, Boer said.The Watchtower has not yet had the chance to defend itself in court, although in a statement of defence it says it has "no knowledge of the allegations" that Boer was abused and that the abuse was never reported to church elders in Shelburne or to the Children's Aid Society.The defendants also deny that two elders, Brian Cairns and Steve Brown, prevented Boer from reporting her allegations to the society or from seeking psychological help."The defendants deny they prevented the reporting of the subject matter to the proper authorities," the statement says."To the contrary, the defendants Brown and Cairns were instrumental in ensuring the matter was reported ...if the plaintiff chose not to seek advice from a psychiatrist or psychologist, it was solely of her own volition and because she believed such advice was unnecessary."They go on to argue Boer never "mitigated her losses" by seeking such help in the eight years between her original allegations and the filing of the suit.The suit alleges that the church failed in its fiduciary duty to the victim for waiting nearly two months to report the abuse to the "secular authorities," and was negligent in forcing the father and daughter to settle their differences in a face-to-face meeting.Boer's 58-year-old father, Gower Palmer, continues to live in Shelburne and has never been criminally charged.It's not the first time that the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses have made headlines. The most recent example is the case of a 17-year-old girl in Alberta who died last week after a lengthy and unsuccessful court battle to avoid blood transfusions to treat her leukemia.
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Donald D'Haene talks about the writing of his book, sexual abuse in the church and his ongoing faith, his screenplay, the importance of catharsis, the "incest exception" clause, the sequel to Father's Touch, his other projects and more.
Magdalena (The Compulsive Reader Reporter): In many ways Father's Touch is quite timely, with a wide range of sexual abuse cases and coverups coming to light in the Catholic church, around the world. You mention in your book, "what should have been labelled a crime is instead called 'a sin'" The Church Leaders in your book are, to some extent culpable in your abuse. Do you feel that there is something inherent in organised religions, particular fundamental ones, that encourages this kind of abuse?Donald (Author of "Father's Touch" Book): Monsters use religion; religion doesn't create monsters. Consider just one of the three faiths my molester has professed at one time or another: Jehovah's Witnesses. This religion doesn't even believe in premarital sex -- there is no way they are responsible for my molester's actions. Unfortunately, society has this need to deflect responsibility from the perpetrator. History has shown, child abusers count on it. Nevertheless, the Elders handling our case did made the mistake of viewing our father's abuse of us as a sin and not as the crime it was! Yes, they personally failed us. But I long ago gave up the expectation that all in the world is true and just.Magdalena: Has religion failed us? Why do you think that is (or isn't) the case?Donald: I put it this way: I haven't got a problem with God. I'm just dissappointed in some of his disciples. It is man who twists His word to their advantage. Both of my parents belong to different faiths. Both of those faiths teach that I will die at God's hands; my mother's: that I share the same fate of my father; my father's: that he will go to heaven and I will go to hell. What a world we live in, if a victim's fate is worse than that of his molester's? I think I'd rather go to hell than join my father in heaven.Magdalena: And yet there is faith, and hope in your book. Have you personally found a viable alternative for spirituality in your life?Donald: I have faith in the power of truth and honesty. In a bizarre way, I probably am more Christlike today -- now that I belong to no organized religion, than I ever did professing to be a Christian. Isn't it better to be honest about doubts and a personal shipwreck of faith, than to be a hypocrit and profess a faith that isn't matched by works and deeds?Magdalena: You're working on a screenplay of the book. Is it a very different process for you from the actual writing? Equally painful?Donald: Actually, translating my own work for the screen is quite enjoyable. The creative process is wonderfully challenging. Even during the difficult times when I was writing my memoir, I kept reminding myself, 'I have survived. I'm travelling back for a worthwhile cause. I never have to live that same life again!' Again, there is comfort in the truth.Magdalena: Talk to me about the "incest exception" clause. Why do you think this clause exists?Donald: The "incest exception" is the special opportunity the law gives to certain sex offenders in most states. It allows offenders related to the victim by blood or marriage to be charged with "incest," instead of "child sexual abuse" or "rape of a child." This "charge bargaining" is a covert form of "plea bargaining," and it can allow predators who grow their own victims to escape prison. This clause exists to 'help' everyone but the victim. The "incest exception" flourishes because prosecutors are elected on the basis of their conviction rates, without regard to the actual sentences handed out to criminals. Worse yet, the intrafamilial abuser escapes prison time and reenters the community. Victims who are considering charging their perpertrators must educate themselves for this harsh reality: the benefits of asserting oneself don't necessarily depend on happy outcomes, legal or otherwise.Magdalena: Were you worried that this wasn't only your story to write. That you were also impacting on (and writing some parts of the stories of) your mother, your siblings, your partner Maurice, etc.Donald: My siblings wanted me to write our story more than I even did. My mother and Maurice were equally supportive. Other than accurately portraying their experiences, that was not my worry. I was more concerned with my portrayal of characters outside my family. That's why I changed almost all their names --even the court officals. I felt this is a universal story. Naming names would detract from my story. As well, I spent countless hours making sure I was fair in my portrayals of religious figures and faith in general.Magdalena: Have there been any negative repercussions.Donald: Not yet. Well, perhaps my father's response to my book: http://www.fatherstouch.com/molester.htmMagdalena: The reviews and acclaim for your book have been very positive. Are you surprised at the impact you are having? The support from readers?Donald: The response has been overwhelmingly supportive from every continent in the world. On the other hand, I think I've always had turbulent brilliance. After five years of hard work, people seem to think my book is outstanding. It was hell getting it there. Even at my most painful moments as a child, I'd step outside myself and wonder if there was some reason why I was going through all this. The response to my story is inevitable; to my writing very rewarding.Magdalena: You also mention on your web site that you are working on a second book. I note that you have published some fictional stories. Will your next book also be a memoir/sequel (the 'Tis to your Angelas Ashes)? Or are you planning to delve into fiction.Donald: Considering the fact that I view Angela's Ashes as my favourite book of all time, I appreciate the comparison. Yes, my second book will continue the journey where Father's Touch left off. The challenge will be to top myself. The good news is Part II is equally eventful.Magdalena: In what way is the writing process different in your second book from your first?Donald: The most difficult part of writing Father's Touch was developing the right structure. Once I have determined the structure of book II, I think I will work the same way.Magdalena: Do you feel that there is an important catharsis involved in telling, and facing a painful story like your own? Would you encourage other abuse victims to work through their own painful stories?Donald: Probably one of the most important things a victim needs to do is tell their story. I caution victims to be selective. Many people will say the wrong things -- count on it. Tell you story to a therapist or social worker if possible. If you don't feel comfortable with one, find another. Their experience and objectivity will save you much heartache.Magdalena: Tell me about your acting work. Is this a different Donald, or do you see some connection between Donald the actor and Donald the author?Donald: There definitely is a connection, but I confess the best acting job I've ever delivered is playing the main character in my life: me.Magdalena: What's next? Tell me about the most interesting projects you are currently working on.Donald: A production company will be producing a short film based on just the first chapter of my book. I will be writing the synopsis, playing myself and working as a consultant on the film. I also have been asked to review books for RebeccasReads.comEdited by - UnDisfellowshipped on 13 September 2002 1:52:41
Edited by - UnDisfellowshipped on 13 September 2002 5:12:21
bttt
