Among the Jehovah’s, the Group Comes before the Individual
The way Jehovah’s Witnesses handle abuse is traumatic for the victims, according to the Trouw investigation. Perpetrators are protected. Does the closed culture of the Jehovah’s promote abuse?
She read books, researched and surfed the net about everything to do with sects, manipulation and group pressure. After Frances Peters (58) in 2004 was disfellowshipped, she wanted to understand how she could have been influenced all those years ago. How did she come to be a faithful Witness?
Slowly, she began to understand the pressure a religious group like Jehovah’s Witnesses exercises, and she followed a course as a coach. In her own practice, Free Choice, Peters uses her own experiences and knowledge to help people that were members of these kinds of groups and sects.
The investigation of Trouw into the sexual abuse of the Watchtower Society—the official name of the Jehovah’s Witnesses—showed that the way abuse cases are handled, with traumatic consequences for the victims. In the past few days, this newspaper has published several articles.
The victims, members and ex-members, who spoke to Trouw admitted there is little regard for the victims, and the accused are often protected. This creates a very unsafe situation for children. Peters recognizes this from her own practice. She knows no other the culture like that of the Jehovah’s.
How does a religious group like the Jehovah’s Witnesses bind its members?
An important factor is the preference of the group above your own preferences, thoughts and ideas. The oneness between the brothers and sisters is more important than your hobbies and wishes. This causes your own identity to be suppressed. Children that grow up in such a high demand group, as it is called, learn not to trust their own intuition. They are often confused regarding their own feelings and needs. Besides that there is a very strong hierarchy. If God is the Father, than the organization is the Mother. This makes the believers like children who should just obey. Your age does not matter.
How do they get believers to acknowledge godly direction?
They use bible scriptures out of context. “The heart is treacherous”, says prophet Jeremiah. This scripture is used to state: “Do not trust yourself, trust us. Our interpretation is the only right one. Do you think you know better than the organization, God’s communication channel on earth?”
This is impressed on you, so it sticks in your mind. Thinking is punishable. The worst punishment is disfellowshipping, all contact with the organization and members is stopped. A person becomes completely dependent on the organization. If you are bombarded as a child with this type of Bible interpretation, what chance do you have to grow up as a mature adult with critical thinking abilities? Hearing opinions opposite to what is taught are hard to correctly assess. You were not taught to think critically and you do not have time for that either.
Why no time?
The daily routine is very intense. It’s hard to keep up besides work or school. There are meetings at the Kingdom Hall (the name of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ churches) twice a week, preparing for the meetings, studying the literature, and also going door to door. You do all this because your reputation is important for acceptance in the group. You have very little time and energy to think about what you are doing.
The articles Trouw published show clearly that disfellowshipping is the toughest discipline the organization administers. Why is it so terrible for Jehovah’s Witnesses?
When you leave the group, you are considered a child of Satan. The ones left behind are not allowed to have any contact with you. After all, you’ve left God and that is their biggest nightmare. Many Witnesses have hardly any contacts outside of the organization. Disfellowshipping is a method of very heavy emotional blackmail and hangs like Damocles’ sword above your head. I wonder if many people would stay if disfellowshipping did not exist.
But members can leave, can’t they?
It angers me when people state this as it shows what little insight they have in understanding how a group dynamic works. Look at “the big racism experiment” broadcast by BNN in 2013. A group of young critical thinking individuals was so influenced within 3 hours, they considered people inferior based on their eye colour. And they knew they were participants in an experiment. There were only 2 participants that left. One of them came back when they spoke to her convincingly. The situation you’re in influences the choices you make. Jehovah’s Witnesses are convinced that the world belongs to Satan, or that they will get God’s adverse judgment if they attend university. The organization has a passive aggressive way of reasonableness.
They say: It’s in the bible, so we have to comply. We can’t change it; this is God’s will. The problem is not that they think, it’s their use of influencing techniques to force their will on other people. They say, ‘members are free to do whatever they like’. But if this is how they think about personal choice, are you really free?
What roll does this mechanism play in the handling of abuse?
The authority of the organization is superior to the “satanic” society as a whole according to Witnesses. They have their own judicial system, where three elders judge sin. They have not had any education regarding this, but they have God’s Spirit, so what more do you want? The victim, often a child has to relate to these three men the terrible details of the abuse, without professional support. The elders are only interested in whether or not someone is guilty, not the mental or physical damage to the victim. Besides that, in cases with just one Witness, the accused can victimize repeatedly, because according to the rules, they can only judge someone if there are at least two witnesses. Until such time, they cannot openly warn parents that someone is accused of child abuse. That would be defamation and you can be disfellowshipped for that offence.
Why does the victim often think they are at fault?
The elders do not take responsibility for the way a case is handled. They say, “This is what the Bible states: there has to be two Witnesses.” The victim believes this is God’s will and the elders can’t do any better than that. They do not know any better and think this is the correct interpretation of the Bible. Often they are also told: ‘This is a very serious accusation. Do you know what this means? Your dad could go to jail, so think carefully about what you say.’
One of the victims Trouw spoke with, stated that this community is a paradise for pedofiles. Do you recognize that?
I agree with the statement. Because of the two Witness rule and no police report is made regarding the accused. It’s a matter of neglectfulness by the organization.
Archived Comments
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Comment by Joseph Anton on 2017-08-06 10:18:52
There's a quote from this article that reinforces something I noticed many years ago: "The oneness between the brothers and sisters is more important than your hobbies and wishes. This causes your own identity to be suppressed."
The overwhelming effort to scrub the individual away in exchange for a more appealing group identity. Special days in an individuals honor are not allowed - no birthdays, mother's days, father's days. Even acts of charity must be through the effort and sanction of the group. This drive to abate personality has only grown more concerted now that all nearly talks in the congregation come from rigid outlines with video cues, the ministry school now demonstrations of rigorous script reading. In Australia they call this 'Tall poppy syndrome.' It's a method to enforce that any needs of the individual - in the case of these articles on sexual abuse, that need would be justice - are immediately outweighed by the needs of the group. In this case the appearance of cleanliness. Witnesses though are still human beings, they still desire recognition for personal achievements. Which is why, at least here in the United States, you see a ton of effort and planning going into graduation (high school - never college) parties and, in some cases, baptism parties.
Comment by Robert-6512 on 2017-08-06 11:40:25
When I read articles like this and the accounts that came out of the Australian hearings, I feel saddened beyond words to express. To me, this alone is sufficient grounds to disband this religion, leaving it in tatters and disgrace. It is vastly more damning than any doctrinal disputes or disagreements about organizational style.
By allowing this to go on, by allowing the lives of children to be destroyed to protect the reputations of men in positions of authority, they have invalidated any and all claims to being "Christian" or the "true religion". The very idea that these high-placed individuals (the GB, the elders and everyone in between) continue to paint themselves as if pious and righteous, and using an army of lawyers to dismiss and cover up all the pain and suffering they have allowed to go on, is utterly repulsive.
Revelation depicts the sins of Babylon the Great as having piled up to reach the heavens. Does WT really believe their acts of injustice will not be called to mind in the eyes of God? If only they had a conscience and the presence of mind to answer that.
Comment by Ifionlyhadabrain on 2017-08-07 01:26:32
An awful lot of the problems are a consequence of misapplication of Scripture ,firstly that Christ returned in 1914 , and declared the religion as his restored congregation , gives the impression that all members are genuine christians ,and to be trusted , putting many off guard and open to exploitation and abuse , secondly identifying the faithful slave as the hierarchy of the religion , who must be obeyed , takes away an individual's ability to make wise choices to protect and benefit ones family , and has lead to serious misapplication of Scripture , like romans 13 v1 to 5 and 1 corinthians 6 v 1 to 7 , where we don't recognise the authority of our government to handle criminal cases and try to go it alone , leading to serious miscarriages of justice , another one is this feeling that gods name "jehovah" must be protected above all else , perhaps based on a skewed understanding of matthew 6 v 9 "let your name be sanctified " has led to the effect of doctrine over person , as we don't want to bring "reproach " on the name , we then have the tendency to keep it confidential , not only from the police , but even from other members of the congregation , leading to an open playground for those who want to abuse and exploit us , where as the what we should be doing is taking it to the congregation matthew 18 v 17 to put others on guard , in some ways even worse when people like me and many others like Barbara anderson tried to highlight these misapplications of Scripture , you get told your an apostate and disfellowshipped ,
Comment by Rynda on 2017-08-22 20:13:53
As a retired preschool teacher, this turns my stomach!!! I spent 37 years making sure that my students were provided with a safe, nurturing environment, that they were safe to explore the classroom and any adults entering my classroom were checked and double-checked to ensure that my students were safe. How a religious organization can subject vulnerable children to such questions, embarrassment, and emotional blackmail is morally repugnant to me and flys in the face of all that is decent and right!!! Two witnesses indeed!!!! As if a child molester is going to do something to a child in front of witnesses!?! If I had my way, I'd throw them ALL in jail, starting with the Governing Body right on through the perp and the local elders who assist in hiding these atrocities!!!