Does this need to be reworked??
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Tuesday, 24 September 2002
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Dear XXXXXXXXXX,
I would just like to bring to your attention a particularly serious and distressing situation that is happening at the moment in the religion called the Jehovah's Witnesses.
As reported on Channel 9's Sunday program on the morning of 22nd of September 2002, Jehovah's Witnesses have church policies in place that favour paedophiles and victimise child abuse victims. I personally encourage you to get a copy of this program or a copy of the segments transcript.
The situation is this: if a Jehovah's Witness brings an accusation of wrongdoing (such as being a child abuse victim) against another church member, a judicial committee is formed (this is the way the church deals with all breaches of its code of behaviour) with 3 elders sitting on it. But for that to happen there has to be 2 or 3 witnesses (taken from Deut 19:15, Matt 18:16, John 8:17, 2 Cor 13:1, 1 Tim 5:19, Heb 10:28) to the wrongdoing (which is a virtual impossibility for child abuse). If there are no second or third witnesses to the alleged incident(s) no further action is taken. Even if multiple witnesses are found and the accusation(s) are found to have substance to them, Jehovah's Witnesses do not report the abuse accusations to the proper secular authorities (e.g. Child Welfare or the Police) as they believe it would "give a bad witness" and to protect the public image of the religion.
As reported on the Sunday Program, those that have been abused are specifically instructed by church elders and overseers not to go to the police with their complaints or seek proper help from psychiatrists or psychologists (Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they are worldly, hence Satanic). Instead of getting help they are instructed to pray more and wait on Jehovah and leave it to him and he will sort it out.
Also, all Jehovah's Witness elders (one congregation usually has 4 to 6 of them) have been given detailed instructions by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (the corporation that runs Jehovah's Witnesses) to obstruct police investigations into child abuse. Elders are told not to reveal to the authorities if a particular child abuser had confessed to his crimes and to do everything possible to prevent police from gaining access to church files.
As Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they are the only true representatives of God on earth. They live in what they call "the truth". The rest of us live in "the world" - a world they believe is governed by Satan. Thus they believe that this gives them the divine authority to impede police investigations and pervert the course of justice even by lying in front of a court. They call this 'Theocratic Warfare', which is the belief that they can lie to any unbelievers (such as Police or the Courts) and still have a clean conscience. (See last page of letter for quotes from their literature).
Also, abuse victims are unwilling to speak out, not because of their abusers, but because of the church. If they go to the authorities they are excommunicated. The church calls it "keeping the congregation clean" (anyone that is excommunicated from the religion is shunned. This means that the persons friends or family no longer have ANY contact with the person). Keeping the congregation clean not of paedophiles, but of anything that damages the Watchtower's reputation.
(Continued - Page 2)
As you can hopefully see, all this secretive legalistic backroom shenanigans just creates a paedophiles paradise in the congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses. A paedophile can molest one child then move onto another one (and so on), safe in the knowledge that as long as there is only one witness (the abuse victim) he can get away with it.
This story has been given considerable coverage overseas. It has been featured on the 'Dateline' program on NBC in the U.S. and it has been shown on BBC's 'Panorama' program in the U.K. It has also featured on numerous news websites and on information websites.
I am a former member of this religion (I resigned in March this year) and I am fairly well versed in the laws of Jehovah's Witnesses. I never personally witnessed any incidents of child abuse during my 3 years as a Jehovah's Witness but this is probably due to the fact that I was only a "rank & file" member. I think that although the numbers of paedophiles in the Jehovah's Witness religion is probably small (one paedophile is too much!), the rules that the Watchtower Society creates provide fertile ground for any paedophiles.
Finally, I like to finish this letter with a quote from Judge John Goldring of the Wollongong District Court, who had this to say about the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in his sentencing of a Jehovah's Witness paedophile:
"The church authorities took it upon themselves to act as if they were the civil authorities which they had no right to do. This matter was not reported to the police, as it should have been and I am surprised that the police have not taken any action against the church authorities. I hope they will do so. The State has responsibility of protecting young people and all citizens have a serious moral responsibility to assist it in doing so. I cannot criticise the church sufficiently seriously for not having reported this matter".
I feel that it is definitely high-time that governments lift the lit on this behaviour and crack down on it. As you are a member of the XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX parliament, I call on your help (as well as your XXXXXXXX colleagues) to legislate to make it compulsory for all religions to report any child abuse allegations (whether there are witnesses or not) to the proper authorities such as the Police and to punish any religion severely that doesn't report child abuse or any that wilfully and deliberately tries cover up this heinous crime. I hate to think how many Jehovah's Witness children have been sexually abused through the years while in this religion. This madness has to stop.
Yours sincerely,
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P.S. Further information on this matter can be found at:
< http://www.ninemsn.com.au > See the Sunday program website on NineMSN (a brief summary of the story is located there as well as transcripts of the full story) (Scroll thru the blue menu bar that is located on the left of the page. From memory the link is located under the 'News and Current Affairs' directory.
< http://www.silentlambs.org > U.S. based non-profit organization dedicated to helping child sexual abuse victims from the Jehovah's Witnesses. They may provide counselling, legal, financial and other assistance. A former Jehovah's Witness elder runs this site.
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These are quotes from various Watchtower literature in regards to 'Theocratic Warfare'.
"...While malicious lying is wrong in Jehovah's eyes, a person is not obligated to divulge truthful information to people who are not entitled to it..." (Watchtower 15/12/93 p.22-5)
"...As a soldier of Christ he is in theocratic warfare and he must exercise added caution when dealing with God's foes...for the purpose of protecting the interests of God's cause, it is proper to hide the truth from God's enemies..." (Watchtower 1/6/60 p.351-2)
"...This would come under the term "war strategy"...When faced with the alternative of speaking and betraying his brothers or not speaking and being held in contempt of court, the mature Christian will put the welfare of his brothers ahead of his own..." (Watchtower 1/6/60 p.351-2)
"...when a Christian is placed on a witness stand he is obligated to speak the truth if he speaks at all. At times he may prefer to refuse to speak and suffer the consequences rather than betray his brothers or the interests of God's work..." (Watchtower 1/5/57 p.285-6)
"...But hiding the truth, which he is not entitled to know, from an enemy does not harm him, especially when he would use such information to harm others who are innocent..." (Watchtower 1/5/57 p.285-6)
"...So in time of spiritual warfare it is proper to misdirect the enemy by hiding the truth. It is done unselfishly; it does not harm anyone; on the contrary, it does much good..." (Watchtower 1/5/57 p.285-6)
"...At all times they must be very careful not to divulge any information to the enemy that he could use to hamper the preaching work..." (Watchtower 1/5/57 p.285-6)
Finally here are a few quotes from the Jehovah's Witness theological dictionary (this is shown and read from in the Sunday programs report) under the heading 'Lie'.
"...The opposite of truth. Lying generally involves saying something false to a person who is entitled to know the truth and doing so with the intent to deceive or to injure him or another person..." (Insight on the Scriptures Volume 2 p.244-5)
"...People have told lies to escape deserved punishment, to profit at the expense of others, and to gain or maintain certain advantages, material rewards, or the praise of men..." (Insight on the Scriptures Volume 2 p.244-5)
"...Jehovah God cannot lie...and he hates "a false tongue."...Those desiring to gain his approval cannot engage in the practice of lying..." (Insight on the Scriptures Volume 2 p.244-5)
"...While malicious lying is definitely condemned in the Bible, this does not mean that a person is under obligation to divulge truthful information to people who are not entitled to it...[such as]...nonworshipers of Jehovah..." (Insight on the Scriptures Volume 2 p.244-5)
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