UNITED STATES
Watchtower Documents
Introduction by Barbara Anderson
One thing for sure, unlike celebrities who believe “all publicity is good publicity” even if it’s negative, religious organizations do not want to be in the public eye – except when they can appear in a good light. This is especially true for proselytizers like Jehovah’s Witnesses (who believe that a good image attracts converts) and their corporate head, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
In the past, it has been a policy of Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders to not reply to negative media reports. They understand that in time the public will have forgotten the information and everything will be back to “business as usual” for them. However, during the last fifteen years, a growing number of reports have surfaced about the problem of molestation of Witness children by other Witnesses that were not reported to the authorities. These kinds of stories continue to be revealed.
As a specialist child abuse lawyer, Richard Scorer points out in his article (and rightly so) about the recent increase of news reports regarding the “significant number of abuse cases that…are raising public awareness…of the issue of child abuse in the Jehovah’s Witnesses…”
Rather than remain quiet, in recent years Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders have gone on the offensive. They’ve taken a hard-line, uncompromising and litigious attitude by endeavouring to stop governmental or judicial inquiries. They’ve fought charges of cover-ups of molestation by claiming “religious exemptions” from scrutiny. This approach doesn’t help their reputation – nor does it dampen the suspicions held by many that they are trying to cover up serious organizational flaws.
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