Instructions regarding how to handle these accusations is mostly found in the book, “Shepherd the Flock of God,” a super-secret handbook meant for the eyes of the elders only, as well as a letter that was sent to all elders worldwide on October 1, 2012.

However, on August 1, 2016, another letter went to all elders that was meant to replace that October 2012 letter, and it contained one very big change, and what I consider a victory for activists and victims.

How They Did Things Before

First, note how elders in congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses were instructed to handle accusations of any sort, including allegations of child sex abuse:

If the accused contends that he is innocent, the witnesses to the wrongdoing should be presented and their testimony should be given in the presence of the accused. It is best that the witnesses give their testimony in person, However, it may be that the witnesses live a great distance away or for some reason are not able to be physically present. If so, their testimony may be presented in the hearing of the accused by a secure phone call or perhaps submitted in writing and read to the accused.
~ Shepherd the Flock of God, pages 89-90

I’m all for an accused person having every opportunity to give an answer to accusations, but consider this in the setting of child sex abuse. A child rape victim needs to face their own [alleged] rapist and give an accounting of their accusations? They would do this with only elders present; the book also states clearly that observers should not be present for moral support during the internal judicial process. Note, elders are not trained in matters of child psychology, legal questioning, and so on.

Don’t underestimate what happens in those closed-door meetings at Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s Witnesses in these cases. You can read this post, about elders who insisted two child rape victims face their rapist even after the man had gone to jail for the crime; those victims were asked if they had “enjoyed it at all.” They were 5 and 10 at the time of their abuse. You can also read this post, of a man who had been accused of raping a young woman and who was allowed by elders to insist she demonstrate how far apart her legs were spread so that the man could somehow prove that he couldn’t have raped her in that position.

You can also note that post above for the Australian Royal Commission and see how one victim, whose father was raping her and her three sisters, was threatened by the man, who outright said that he would kill her, and who wasn’t stopped by the elders until he began to lunge across the table at her. Both victims questioned during the Inquiry said that being grilled in this fashion meant that they couldn’t disclose the full details of their abuse.

The Change

The change is now noted in the August 1, 2016, letter, one sentence of which reads as follows:

Elders should remember that during the investigation process and during the judicial committee process, a victim of child sexual abuse is not required to make her allegation in the presence of the alleged abuser.

Well, that’s quite the switch.

Note, it doesn’t say how exactly accusations would be handled, if elders would hear the allegations and the accused person would listen from another room, or elders would speak to each one individually, etc. I also don’t mind pointing out that Jehovah’s Witnesses still have a long way to go when it comes to the proper handling of child sex abuse allegations, but this, in of itself, is a victory for activists and those victims. These ones no longer need to sit across a table from someone who may have viciously raped and molested them for many years, and somehow find the strength to retell that abuse in front of them.

No doubt this change is the result of the information revealed during the Australian Royal Commission Inquiry, and the long legal battle fought by the UK Charity Commission to move forward with their Inquiry against Jehovah’s Witnesses. For those not up to speed, the UK Charity Commission decided to launch an Inquiry against the Witnesses after hearing of one of the cases mentioned above, where an actual ex-convict was allowed to question victims regarding his molestation of them. The UK Charity Commission fought Jehovah’s Witnesses in court for two years for their rights to move forward with this Inquiry, and the Witnesses lost their final appeal to the UK Supreme Court in July of 2016 (see this post). This practice of Jehovah’s Witnesses, of insisting that victims meet with their rapists in person, is what put them on the radar of the Charity Commission in the first place. Chances are, this is also one reason why JWs have decided to change this policy.

Forced to Change

Of course, this begs the question of why Jehovah’s Witnesses had this policy in the first place; if they’re directed by some sort of magic holy spirit from god, and they always base all their practices and beliefs on the bible, why do they need to change those practices yet again? Were they not being directed by holy spirit back then, or does this magic holy spirit that directs Jehovah’s Witnesses wait until a legal Inquiry begins before it decides to tap JWs on the shoulder and tell them the right way of handling things?

A crumbling Watchtower.

It also doesn’t let Jehovah’s Witnesses off the hook or excuse the damage done by this policy to this point; it doesn’t take a child psychologist or legal expert to know how horrific it is for a child rape victim to face their own rapist, and be asked if they enjoyed being raped at age 5 or 10, or to relive their rape all over again by demonstrating their physical position in front of anyone, much less the rapist himself. The obscenity of this practice, that it went on at all, is inexcusable.

Also, Jehovah’s Witnesses are still not outright instructed to call the police the minute they hear of such allegations and allow law enforcement experts to handle these things, and the letter still allows pedophiles to (eventually) be put in positions of authority over others.

However, this is a victory for activists and victims as it means there is at least one less trauma for those who are molested in the Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Of course, we still have much work to do in order to ensure that no child is ever harmed in this religion again, but activists and those evil “worldly” institutions outside of the religion went toe-to-toe with the great and holy Watchtower of God and made them blink, at least just a little. We got some protection for the victims from those nasty, obscene elders and the ones who actually enjoy questioning their victims. It’s not much, but brick by brick, dollar by dollar, body by body, I’ll take it.

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I am writing to ask for your help in progressing our inquiries into the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain. 

As you may already know, our work is divided into two parts.  One is an inquiry into the charity’s policy and practices on safeguarding children and adults who are vulnerable.  The other is an investigation of complaints we have received about other issues, including the charity’s policy and practices on domestic abuse and shunning.  The focus of both parts is how the trustees of the charity are discharging their duties and responsibilities under charity law.

We have made significant progress to date – with very great thanks to those of you who have sent us documents and who have shared their experiences with us, by email, by phone and more recently in person. 

As a result of our inquires to date, we are however now trying to locate documents and to identify case studies of domestic abuse and shunning.

Documents

We are trying to locate copies of the following documents:

• Our Kingdom Ministry, February 1975, Question Box
• Our Kingdom Ministry, October 1976, Question Box
• Awake!, November 15, 1991, p 23
• Awake!, October 8, 1994, pp 22-24
• The Watchtower, March 15, 1996, p 18

If anyone can point us in the right direction (or if you even have a copy you would be able to email), that would be very much appreciated. 

Case Studies of Domestic Abuse and Shunning

Many of you have contacted us to share your experiences of domestic abuse and shunning with us and we are very grateful to you for taking the time to do so.  We would now like to identify people who would be prepared to allow us to further share their experiences with the trustees of Watch Tower.  This is a big ask and we do recognise that it is not going to be right for everyone.  If you would like to discuss in more detail, please do get in touch – we are very happy to answer any questions.

Home Office Consultation      

You may be interested to know that the Home Office has just launched a consultation on potential changes to the law on safeguarding.  If you would like to know more, please check out the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reporting-and-acting-on-child-abuse-and-neglect

And finally …   

If you are in need of support, please don’t suffer in silence as there are lots of people and organisations out there who are there to help – we are very happy to put you in touch. 

I have already put Christian Freedom of the Facebook group “Resources for Exposing Watchtower and Jehovah’s Witnesses” on the hunt for the documentation requested; for others, however, note that Mr. Sanders is looking to speak to those who would share their story of domestic abuse and shunning. If you are in the UK and would be willing to speak to him about such cases, contact him directly at jonathan.sanders@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk.

Also note this post about the Charity Commission Inquiry overall, and I will update that page with this information above as quick as I can. Thank you!

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Good afternoon,

I am writing to give you a quick update about our ongoing statutory inquiries into safeguarding and charities linked to Jehovah’s Witnesses.

As you may know, one of our inquiries is into Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain.  We opened this inquiry in 2014.  Watch Tower then initiated what turned out to be protracted litigation against us.  We have robustly defended our position.  We were right to open the inquiry.  We have won our case in every court that has heard the matter, most recently in the Court of Appeal.  Watch Tower then decided to try to appeal to the Supreme Court.  I am pleased to tell you that I have learned today that the Supreme Court has rejected their application.  This means that there are no more domestic routes of appeal open to Watch Tower.  We are therefore going to be doing what we have been doing since 2014, which is continuing with our inquiries.

A huge thank you to those of you who have met with me, Nick and Chris over the past few months to share your stories with us in person; and thank you also to everyone who has emailed or who has spoken to us on the phone.  There is more work to do but the court ruling is an important milestone.

This is absolutely wonderful news for those of us watching the UK Charity Commission work closely; as Mr. Sanders notes, Watchtower has no more ways to appeal the work of the Charity Commission and now must simply comply with their inquiry.

Whether or not the Watchtower loses their charitable status in the UK is of course debatable; religions today still have tax-exempt status virtually everywhere, no matter the amount of actual “charity” they perform and no matter the scandals associated with them. However, no matter the outcome, the information that could be uncovered during this inquiry and the news media surrounding it may be absolutely invaluable to our activism, much like the Australian Royal Commission Inquiry. I personally would like to thank Mr. Sanders and everyone involved in the Commission for their hard work so far, and am encouraged to see that the Supreme Court did not even hear the Watchtower’s appeal but rejected their application for the appeal itself; this is good news alone, that courts are no longer tolerant of those who would fight for their “right” to hide those scandals and abuses.

I look forward to hearing more about the inquiry and will continue to update this site as much as possible. In the meantime, note this column about how to contact the Charity Commission and what they are looking for by way of information from those associated with the Watchtower.

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“Primary assets include Watch Tower House, a 103,334 sq ft mixed-use building on an eight-acre plot which includes 175 studio or one-bedroom flats for IBSA staff. The building is used to publish magazines The Watchtower and Awake! … IBSA House, a 201,285 sq ft building on a five-acre plot which serves as the religious group’s main offices, is also included. The site has planning approval for a further 34,445 sq ft of offices. The phasing of the sale is under review but is expected by 2021 at the latest as the organisation moves to its new purpose-built centre in Chelmsford, Essex. However, IBSA said offices could be quickly vacated if investors requested.”

While the story does bring out that the JW leaders are moving into a new complex in Chelmsford, it is interesting to note how they are suddenly interested in unloading all these properties while they still have their charitable status in the UK; “Steve Canning, of IBSA’s London Real Estate Team, said: ‘We have been contacted by various developers but as a charity we have to go to the market to decide how we can progress.'” (Bold added for emphasis.)

Anything is possible, and no doubt the slowed growth of the religion and their reliance on their new website for recruitment has resulted in less need for real estate to house personnel and print literature, but the timing is too suspect to overlook. Just last March, the Charity Commission in the UK received a favorable court decision to move forward with their Inquiry against the religion. If Jehovah’s Witnesses were to lose their charitable status because of this Inquiry, no doubt this would have huge financial implications for them; this might include having to start paying property taxes. The publicity surrounding the Inquiry may also result in more lawsuits being filed for how they mishandle child abuse cases.

For many ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses, this property sale is actually very good news. While the religion is good at cutting their costs, even if it means reducing their staff and sending older volunteers home after years of service, any damage that can be done financially will mean less money they can use to pay for attorneys to defend themselves against claims of mishandling child abuse accusations.

I can’t think of anything else that would convince the Watchtower to start caring about how their policies affect children; after thousands of victims have come forward and talked about the devastating effects of being demoralized by elders after making their claims, the Watchtower has simply dug in their heels and refused to take any responsibility for their actions, as was shown by the Australian Royal Commission Inquiry. Maybe if they lost their charitable status and need to start paying taxes on their donations and property so they have less to spend on attorneys, they might finally make some changes. Money does make the world go ’round, as they say.

Whatever the reason for this sudden fire sale of their properties, let’s be sure we’re giving our full cooperation to the Charity Commission and are offering them the evidence they need to carefully consider the charitable status of the Watchtower. Let’s also hope that this move means that the Watchtower sees the handwriting on the wall, and they know that the outside world sees it too.

Click this photo for the latest information about the Charity Commission Inquiry and instructions on how you can contact their investigator with your story.

This morning, lead investigator Jonathan Sanders sent out an email regarding the inquiry, as follows:

“Dear All,

I hope you are all well.  It is bright and sunny here in London so I hope the weather is good in your part of the world.

We are continuing to make good progress on our inquiries into safeguarding and charities linked to Jehovah’s Witnesses; I am also pleased to say that we are in addition making progress in addressing the complaints we have received regarding governance and the public benefit delivered by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain.  I am looking forward to being able to share further information with you on both counts in the very near future.

I would now like to ask people who have experience of the following to let me know if they would be prepared to make a formal written statement:

• Direct, first-hand experience
• Of safeguarding
• In charities linked to congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses
• In England and Wales
• After 2011
• And NOT currently being investigated by the police or going through the criminal or civil courts

I know that there are many people whose experience has been different.  I would like to assure you that I value the information you have shared with me to date.  I hope it will be all right for us to stay in touch so that we can communicate with each other about the way the inquiries are going; I in any case anticipate that I will be coming back in the not too distant future with further appeals for witnesses who have had different experiences.

I also recognise that there are many people who are not in a position to provide a statement.  Please do not feel under any pressure from me to do anything that is not right for you; and again please allow me to assure you that the information you have shared has been invaluable in helping us to develop our lines of inquiry.

Some of you have already contacted me either directly or indirectly with details of your experiences.  I am very thankful to you for doing this.  I am however mindful of the need to ensure that whatever steps we take are underpinned by best evidence, and so this is why I am now asking you to consider working with me to translate the emails and letters you have sent into formal statements. 

If your experiences are reflected above, I would be very grateful if you would consider contacting me so that I can give you more information about the next steps.  I would envisage meeting in person and taking a statement from you.  I would not ask any questions about the detail of the abuse but would rather ask about how the trustees of the congregational charities dealt with what happened.

I know this is a lot to think about so please let me know if you have any questions.  I would as ever be very pleased to field questions on any other aspect of our work or simply to catch-up!

Take care,

Jonathan. 

Jonathan Sanders

Senior Investigator

Investigations Monitoring & Enforcement

Charity Commission

jonathan.sanders@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk

0300 065 2075

www.charitycommission.gov.uk

Charity Commission | PO Box 211 | Bootle | L20 7YX”

Please note the conditions as mentioned; this applies to those in England and Wales, and he is looking for experiences that happened after the year 2011.

If these conditions apply to you, please contact Mr. Sanders directly at his email address above and discuss your concerns. As I bring out in my own post linked above, the Commission can only act against an organization when they have strong evidence to do so, which makes it all the more important for UK victims of the Watchtower to contact them.

I will add this information to the page linked above and please help to circulate this information, especially among UK ex-JW groups via social media. If you have questions about his email, contact Mr. Sanders directly as I am simply forwarding his information as I received it. Thank you.

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