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By LEON ALLIGOOD
Staff Writer
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.