Jehovah's Witnesses 'did not report 1,000 abusers

[MTL]

I'M STUNNED.......Oh wait, no I'm not.

[Tonus]

Maybe, like the Catholic Church, the JWs will get sued for huge dollars. I don't know if there is much blood coming from that turnip though.

There would be, if the courts didn't make decisions like this one:

Now, three years later, an appeals court has eroded her courtroom victory even further by ruling that the leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses had no duty to warn congregants that a confessed child molester was one of their own. As a result, judges eliminated the punitive damages in the case. Conti still stands to receive $2.8 million.

The decision by the California Court of Appeal is the latest ruling in a rash of lawsuits aimed at Jehovah’s Witnesses policies directing elders to keep child abuse secret from their congregations and secular authorities.

Conti, who is no longer a Jehovah’s Witness, had sued her abuser, her former congregation in Fremont and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York – the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent corporation – in 2011. She claimed that Watchtower policies allowed a Witness named Jonathan Kendrick to molest her repeatedly when she was 9 and 10 years old.

The JW membership won't know about these cases unless they stumble upon them in the press, and they're likely to accept whatever explanation is given for what is happening. They are taught to trust the leadership explicitly and to assume that any other source of information is tainted by the devil. Conti is correct in her claim that Watchtower policy protects abusers; until recently they applied the "two witnesses" rule to child molestation, so that even having multiple accusers would not be sufficient to take action against a person. And their strict insistence on keeping things 'in house' so as to 'not stain the name of Jehovah' meant that their version of taking action might not include contacting the authorities.

Basically, their approach was to make sure they were protected legally and then leave the rest of it in god's hands. In effect leaving children at the mercy of their abusers.

[Longhorn]

I'm out of words for this.

It's sick, disgusting and just so sad. How can anyone do this to a child?
Fucking scum.

[robvalue]

Ugh, this is absolutely sickening

An absolute disgrace. Those poor children. This horrific shit has to stop.

[pocaracas]

Shocker.... Being religious does not prevent you from being immoral... and the proportion of religious people who do immoral actions is consistent with every other group... regardless of religion or lack thereof.

It's almost as if it's all one big not-so-happy humanity and god's nowhere to be bothered.

[vorlon13]

[springing to the defense of the JWs]

Hey! At least with the JWs, molestation is not a sacrament like it is with the Catholics.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Child abuse is dreadful, horrible. Doing so from a position of "moral authority" is despicable.

By the fruit shall you know the tree. A good tree does not produce bad fruit.

[StuW]

I recently read that in order for the "internal law" to be upheld in regards to this type of filth required 2 witnesses to the alleged incident of which one is NOT the victim! not sure how correct this is?

[brewer]

Yes, it's pretty big news here. No one is really surprised, just disgusted.
I think another big can of worms has been opened.

Are any other of the victims coming forward? Does Aussie law allow for any recourse, criminal or civil? Is there a statute of limitations?

This should be interesting to follow. I hope victims (at least some) get some kind of justice.

[The Valkyrie]

That's yet another reason to seriously investigate and clamp down on the cult.

Unfortunately a good number of my relatives are involved in this cult, too.