OREGON
Freethinker
Two people who say that they were sexually abused as children by a leader in a Hillsboro Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation have filed a $10.5 million lawsuit against the cult.
According to this report, attorneys for Velicia Alston, 39, above, and an unnamed man said the Jehovah’s Witnesses leadership continues to cover up sexual abuse against children by leaders. They say it is more than a decade behind other organisations, such as the Catholic Church, that have been forced to address their problems through many years of civil litigation.
Said Irwin Zalkin, one of several attorneys representing Alston and the man:
There is a crisis of silence in the Jehovah’s Witness organisation.
Zalkin described the religious organization as:
More concerned about protecting its reputation than it is about protecting its children.
For example, Zalkin said the seven men who make up the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Governing Body have a policy requiring a confession from the perpetrator or two eye witnesses to the abuse before leaders will take any action.
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