Religious Studies Professor Highlights Challenges Faced by Jehovah’s Witnesses Sexual Abuse Survivors

WORCHESTER (MA)
Holy Cross College

Nov. 11, 2019

It’s been months since the New York Child Victims Act was signed into law allowing adult survivors of child sexual abuse to sue an abuser or a negligent institution regardless of when the abuse took place, and hundreds of new cases are still flooding the courts, many of them targeting members of the Jehovah’s Witness organization.

In a recent VICE article, Mathew Schmalz, professor of religious studies at Holy Cross, comments on the unique challenges faced by sexual abuse survivors within the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith, especially given its controversial “two-witness rule.”

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