UNITED STATES
Jezebel
Anna Merlan
A new investigation from the Center for Investigative Reporting shows that Jehovah’s Witness leaders explicitly discourage church elders from reporting child sexual abuse allegations to the police, or even to their own congregations. Candace Conti, who was repeatedly abused as a child, is now suing the church leadership, saying they failed to protect her from her abuser.
Trey Bundy is a reporter with Reveal, the CIR’s new magazine and website. His investigation found that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the Jehovah’s Witness parent company, has sent out detailed memos for 25 years directing congregations to deal with child sexual abuse allegations internally. That means not calling the police unless required to by state law, and not warning parents in the congregation about people convicted of child sexual abuse. At the same time, the church gathers detailed records on child abusers in their congregations.
That was the case with Jonathan Kendrick, a Fremont, California man who confessed in 1993 to his church to molesting his 3-year-old stepdaughter as she slept. Instead of calling the police, Bundy writes:
The elders, Michael Clarke and Gary Abrahamson, wrote to the Watchtower for guidance.
Two weeks later, a letter from the Watchtower advised the elders that Kendrick’s conduct constituted a “minor uncleanness” and that he could remain a member of the congregation. “However,” the letter said, “it would be appropriate for two elders to meet with him and provide him with strong Scriptural counsel.”
The Watchtower determined that Kendrick’s crime didn’t warrant police involvement, disfellowshipping or a warning to the congregation. Because the incident was known outside of the immediate family, it said Kendrick should lose his title of ministerial servant, which meant that he could no longer pass out Watchtower literature at the kingdom hall – the equivalent of a church for Jehovah’s Witnesses – or turn on the microphone at the start of meetings.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.