Escaping Jehovah's Witnesses: Inside the dangerous world of a brutal religion | Four Corners

This program contains content that may disturb some viewers, so the events unfolding around us make it clearer than ever that we are living in the final part of the last days, without a doubt, the final part of the last days, shortly before the last day. In the last days, eight million Jehovah's Witnesses around the

world

believe that the end is near for a

world

controlled by Satan and that only they will be saved. He can use hail of undisclosed size to destroy those evil humans. Now during that time we will need They are not at all afraid of the natural elements that they were raised in this kind of bubble of fear where they are constantly told that the end of the world is near.

Jehovah God is going to murder people who are not believers. You will be judged, but those. those who managed to escape from the organization say the real danger comes from this group of ultra-conservative biblical literalists former Jehovah's Witnesses have come forward to expose practices they say have destroyed lives everyone thinks Jehovah's Witnesses are just lovely people, Friendly, attractive people who may be a little quirky door knockers and it is very difficult to help people understand how

dangerous

this group is and what a harrowing experience people who experience it have to go through. They will destroy you.

They will destroy your reputation. They will destroy you. as a person, I mean it even breaks me as a mother, spending 50 years as a Jehovah's Witness, especially once you realize it's not the truth, has a devastating effect on you, a royal commission exposed the treatment of victims of child abuse within Jehovah's organization.

witnesses

, well, that's a pretty cruel way to deal with someone who has suffered sexual abuse, isn't it? Having eighteen hundred victims over a thousand perpetrators and not a single case being reported to the authorities to the police. It was shocking, I couldn't. I think in the years since the royal commission, little has changed if you refuse to accept that there is a problem then nothing can ever be done about it.

Now in Australia, those marked by this group are fighting back. It's worse than Catholics. What has this organization taken away from you? you 33 years of my life I will not let you take more of me you will not take another part of my life tonight in the

four

corners

we investigate the secret world of Jehovah's Witnesses we expose the practices that continue to harm a new generation of children we show how uses psychological warfare against former members and we reveal how her bitter fight to protect her reputation and assets re-traumatizes those who dare to confront her.

In 2019, Jehovah's Witnesses from around the world came to Melbourne to celebrate their resilience, love for God and the rest an ingenious three day program of prayer songs and preaching put on love because it has a perfect bond of union really what other group of people on earth are interested in discussing love that does not fail except for some former

witnesses

of

jehovah

this love has failed you we are here at the protest this protest was a defining moment in the life of a former

jehovah

's witness renee pickles and we are also installed here wow that is trying to stop the protest from being seen but it is simply amazing what an impact I'm so proud I see this and I just say that's just fantastic so proud and those killed by Jehovah on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth.

They will not be mourned nor will they be collected nor will they be buried they will be like dung on the surface of the earth Jehovah's Witnesses had been Renée's world from her birth until her early twenties the organization controlled every aspect of her life until it expelled her, separating her from everyone I was around most of the time I was a very happy kid because I honestly believed I was going to survive Armageddon. You know we were doing everything right, we were going to inherit the land and many people. A lot of people would be dying and there would be millions of bodies strewn about when Armageddon came, but I was pretty sure it was going to pull through and once those bodies had decomposed or we buried them, you know we would take over. the land and and and enjoy all the loot john and jane heyman have been roaming the streets of the suburbs since they were baptized as witnesses in the mid-60s jehovah's witnesses have long been spreading the word about the impending apocalypse we don't know about I don't want to stop you, my husband and I are two of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The anticipated doomsdays came and went in 1914, 1925 and 1975. To some, Jehovah's Witnesses seem like gullible fundamentalists, even comical, to a few, their last hope for prophetic and man's salvation, who despite everything Whatever one thinks of their message, one can't help but admire the sheer persistence of members like John and Jane Heyman as they try to warn the two-stage housewives about the end of the world, well, I'm sorry right now. children having lunch the pandemic has ended door knocking and temporarily closed the organization's kingdom halls now the words coronavirus and covet 19 but Jehovah's Witnesses believe that covert is a sign of imminent doom the spread of this Illness is distressing, no doubt, but we are not really surprised to see the world in the grip of such a pestilence if Jesus made it clear in Luke 21 11 that the pestilence would be part of the sign of the last days.

The organization's in-house production studio emits slick instructional videos that deliver its message unchanged The end is coming for everyone except them Jehovah is protecting the lives of his loyalists Witnesses are told they are being persecuted by worldly institutions and are teaches them to distrust everyone outside the group they are terrified by the idea of ​​what the world will be like it is as if they are told that the world is scary, go out and get them they are told that governments will soon attack them welcome to this month's program It will help us show love and respect in marriage Jehovah's Witnesses promote the idea of ​​being male headship women are not allowed leadership roles Jehovah placed women under the headship of men and as such their role is to be subject to he.

The rules are established by a United States-based governing body of eight men who sit at the top of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization called the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. All witnesses are expected to obey its instructions and doctrines that influence each aspect of life jehovah's witnesses believe that these men are anointed as the voice of god on earth there is no other means by which jehovah god communicates with the world, so it is through that channel of the governing body that Jehovah speaks, so everything they say must be accepted as the word of God and must not be confused with the opinion of men, they are absolute. leaders with absolute power over the organization the basic premise of their belief system is that the outside world the world outside of what they call the truth the belief of jehovah's witnesses has been corrupted by satan and is evil outside of having to live in the real world world they work in the real world they go to school in the real world they isolate themselves they see that associating with people in what they call worldly people is bad associations governing body they live in a compound they called betel or the house of god in New York State This world headquarters is a 100-acre site that replaced a sprawling Brooklyn campus sold in recent years for more than $1 billion.

The governing body oversees a vast global portfolio of real estate in regional headquarters and kingdom halls built by congregations around the world. a big business of multi-million dollar assets sold their assets in New York and moved to New York State and built a new headquarters there and are building other large buildings. The Australian branch owns at least 440 properties. and last year reported income of more than $32 million as a religious charity. Receive important tax exemptions. A charity does not have to pay income taxes on its profits. You may also have recipient status for deductible donations, which is where the donor obtains tax eligibility.

There may be other taxes, including state taxes, that are forgiven for charities. I think it's really ironic that an organization has predicted that the end of the world is imminent and has predicted the end

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times (the last time in 1975) would create a long-term investment. portfolio with real estate that they carefully maintained and earned a large amount of money with whoever retains his rod hates his son but whoever loves him disciplines him diligently bill hahn was the treasurer of his congregation known as the account server in which organization was born and raised his children as witnesses, what did you miss about football?

That was the most important thing when I was a kid. He just asked every year if I can play football and he said no, he cuts him off. You know we have. go to testify we have to you know meetings birthdays we never celebrated birthdays school Christmas activities you never involved grew up feeling like a foreigner foreigner in your own country and yet you did the same thing to your own children they probably were around 10 or 12 at that time moment and we knocked on a door and he was a good guy and he said to the boys, oh boys, wouldn't you rather be outside playing football in the morning and my dear little Oliver said oh no, that's not it.

It's okay, we like to meet people and talk to them and I felt so sorry for him that it really brought back to me all that loss that I felt as a child and then there is the fear told by so many former Jehovah's Witnesses. what would get me was the little children in the world as they called it, you know, because they were worldly people, the idea of ​​them dying that used to bother me because we were taught that only Jehovah's people in the organization would survive Armageddon, all the others in the world. outside he would die, so it was our job to go out and witness to try to bring as many people as we could and if you didn't take the opportunity to witness, you had his blood on your hand, in my opinion the environment of Jehovah's Witnesses can be very harmful to children who are raised in this kind of bubble of fear where they are constantly told that the end of the world is near jehovah god is going to murder unbelieving people you will be judged and there will be this pressure to save people so that go and go from door to door to proselytize and at the same time without birthdays or holidays it is really abysmal children are taught from a young age that homosexual relationships are unacceptable, Carrie drew two mothers, she told them I are married my teacher says that the only thing that matters is that people love each other and are happy hmm well, people have their own ideas about what is right and what is wrong, but what matters is how you feel Jehovah leviticus 18 22 You should not sleep with a man in the same way you sleep with a woman, it is a detestable act.

Adam van Wordum left Jehovah's Witnesses in 2019. It has a massive effect when you are forever told that you can pray to the gay. away and you can make a lot of effort and with God's blessing you can become heterosexual basically from a young age. I knew I was gay but I never expressed it and I was terrified of expressing it because of the hostility in congregations. It is quite extreme for homosexuals to reject higher education and have independent thought and analysis, just like higher education, higher education often instills a sense of superiority and self-sufficiency that is in direct opposition to the Christian personality, we will not need doctors or lawyers.

After Armageddon, but we will need carpenters, plumbers and similar construction trades. In year 12 I was given the opportunity to go to university. I was one of six kids at school who chose early entry and I remember showing it to Mom when I got home. and we laughed and threw it away, why would we get an education from satan's system when we had the best education from jehovah's organization? I was actually a PhD in science at school and I did a BSc at the university of Sydney, but I never did it because In my opinion it was totally a waste of time, they put people off because in higher education they encourage people to critically analyze things, to look at historical facts objectively, to look at the evidence, and Jehovah's Witnesses see this as a threat because much of their history and their beliefs are not based on things that are fundamentally sound, no witness can condemn another for any error or sin he may commit based on the testimony of two witnesses or the testimony of three witnesses, the matter must be established the moral rules of Jehovah's Witnesses are strictly applied by all witnesses. male panels called judicial committees.

They are set out in a manual called Shepherding God's Flock, so you could almost say it is the elders' Bible. They comply with everythingwhat is written there, even if some things may be questionable. the elders still have to defend what is in that guide peter gutos was an elder for 15 years and was part of hundreds of these committees most of the cases would have been fornication adultery not many cases about impurity acts of smoking or drinking for each individual it is quite humiliating because they had to reveal these personal things, the most embarrassing and private things that they had to reveal between three men, quite intimidating and especially for young women to confront three men about private issues like that and these men would interrogate them. to really find out if they were really sorry, so the questions were really exhausting and humiliating for the victim, yes what kind of questions would they ask each other, like if you touched their private parts and how often did you touch their private parts if they were satisfied with you touching their private parts these are the type of questions that each person would face yes, the experience can be unbearable for those who face these panels like Renee Pickles to whom I was subjected to a judicial commission and it was one of the worst experiences of my life.

I think it's the main reason for a lot of my trauma. It was basically three men who were on an interview panel with me. They did not allow me to bring a support person and they interviewed me or I would say interrogated me for several sessions and the questions became extremely intimate and personal about what I had done so that they could then use the holy spirit to determine if I would still be worthy enough and clean. to remain in the congregation, could you give me an example of the type of questions you were asked? They kissed?

Did they caress each other? Did they touch each other and um on their genitals? Did you have an ejaculation? ejaculation touches your skin at only 21 years old renee was considered unrepentant and was issued a removal notice she was expelled into a world she was completely unprepared for i had no one to turn to and then i lost my entire family in the community , so it was like I had landed on a different planet and it was an extremely lonely period of time. It was incredible. Expulsion is accompanied by total social exclusion known as rejection. It's supposed to be loving discipline.

In fact, for me it is inhuman to the point of completely rejecting others. not having anyone in your life talking to anyone, everyone you have ever met is completely removed from your life, especially when you were born and raised in an organization and all that is taken away from you, that is inhumane, it is not loving. american brandy schmiedle who lives in colorado is the niece of governing body member stephen lett she avoided her brother stephen camp when he came out as gay i knew his family meant everything to him it was one of the most important things for stephen to face this decision was probably one of the most important things he would have to face after five agonizing years.

Brandy privately resumed contact with her brother, but the rest of the family continued to shun him. In 2020, he committed suicide leaving these instructions for his funeral things, I don't want

religion

mentioned or what JW talked about when I passed away, they were the source of where all this started, it was one of the most important things in his life , it was his family and his friends, and he soon lost both. After Stephen's death, his uncle Stephen Lett gave this speech about the impending apocalypse. There will be many others who will return and have to abandon their previous way of life.

I was thinking of a homosexual as an example. Now this former homosexual returns in the resurrection. and he really thought and was taught and came to believe that God accepted him with that lifestyle, but now he is going to learn about Jehovah's moral standards. It was extraordinarily insensitive, especially this is just a few months after my brother died. the courage to talk about this because this must stop because it is hurting too many people. I have had hundreds, if not thousands, of people reach out to me to tell me that they have experienced almost exactly what Stephen went through or that they know someone who has and the vast majority of them have tried it or know that someone has committed suicide for the same reasons that the closed world of Jehovah's Witnesses was exposed in 2015 by the Australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse. an astonishing process perhaps we were contrary to what the public believed a fairly small team of lawyers there were three of us three or four working on this case james pinder was part of the team that discovered a vast cache of internal files compiled by the office of jehovah's witnesses More than 60 years, everything is written down, so the survivors' accusations, what was said and what was done, are recorded and then those records are given to the branch in Australia and kept in the archives, the accusations and documented confessions to the abuse of more than eighteen hundred children from more than one thousand alleged perpetrators, we reviewed these five thousand files and created a spreadsheet detailing a perpetrator's accusations and recording the number of victims, the age of the victims, and their location. , whether the perpetrator was a ministerial elder or a servant at the time. the positions of the people who knew about it and all the relevant details, so it was a very forensic process and in retrospect I think it was quite traumatic - the royal commission found no evidence that the Australian branch had alerted the authorities about any of the abuses documented in your files.

It was the scale of what was recorded, the strangeness of what was recorded, the intimacy of what was recorded, and the fact that none of it had been reported. It was surprising to have eighteen hundred victims among a thousand perpetrators and not a single case reported to the authorities to the police was shocking, I could not believe that if someone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him in your homes or say hello because whoever says hello is part of his evil works, the scale of the abuse astonished to Kevin Dean, who was a Jehovah's Witness elder in the U.S.

When you look at the numbers in Australia for Jehovah's Witnesses and then you look at the numbers in the United States, we have over a million witnesses. Well, I knew it. that the situation is probably much worse in the United States than in Australia when an accusation of misconduct is made within Jehovah's Witnesses. Internal action against the alleged offender is taken by a judicial committee of elders only if there is a confession or two. witnesses, so if there is no second witness, then it is likely that the accusation will not be considered justified and therefore the sin has not been committed and therefore the congregation will not take any action regarding that accusation of abuse.

What we know about Child sexual abuse does not happen in front of people, it is secret and often only the perpetrator and the victim are present, so it is a very

dangerous

practice that they will not accept that an accusation has occurred without two witnesses , Jehovah's Witnesses. have challenged the royal commission's findings and continue to question whether the organization has a problem with its handling of child abuse, commissioned a 2018 report that argued the royal commission had inherent injustice and that the organization should not be held responsible for abuse that occurs within the families of the witnesses the argument that Jehovah's Witnesses, unlike other religious organizations, do not have custody of children, so they do not have schools, they do not have after-school programs, they do not have catechisms or that type of things. types of programs in which they have custodial care of children and therefore cannot be held to the same standards as other religious institutions that do have custodial care.

That is a lie, the opinion of the commission was that because the Jehovah's Witness rules and regulations determine how all aspects of a member of the Jehovah's Witness should live in their life that in reality there was no distinction between family life and the institutional context of the church and that the institutional context actually included the families that the royal commission criticized. Jehovah's Witnesses for not reporting child sexual abuse to the police and made three key recommendations: it should involve women in its judicial committees; abandon the two-witness rule in abuse cases and stop turning away people who leave because of abuse that witnesses say they won't implement. the recommendations because their practices are based on the bible the policies and practices themselves are based on biblical scriptures are outdated and simply inappropriate for the way child sexual abuse tends to occur and the way sexual abuse is responded to child abuse must occur elders of jehovah's witnesses are subject to the rules established in their most important guide shepherd the flock of god establishes that child sexual abuse is a serious sin advises that when an accusation is made two elders of jehovah's witnesses should call immediately to the authority legal department and await instructions the book does not give any direction on how to report something to the authorities it is more about dealing with the jehovah's witnesses branch legal department nothing about the authorities at all in a statement at four

corners

Jehovah's Witnesses say they will report an allegation of abuse to authorities when required by law or if the child is in danger, regardless of whether there are two witnesses, the organization has also updated its global guidelines on child abuse to say that Victims and their parents have the right to report child abuse to authorities.

I think language is important there, you have the right to go and report it to the police, but they are not telling you to do it, certainly, if an elder told someone to go and report to the police the way the police work organization, then I would do that, all you need is one sentence that says: if you hear about child abuse, report it to the police and I think that is the best thing that could happen to Jehovah's Witnesses in that organization. Just one sentence if you hear about child abuse. I called the police until last year.

Kevin Dean was an elder in the US. After receiving a report of child abuse in 2019, he referred it to the legal department. He was told to fill out a form that would be used to defend the organization from litigation, etc. As I fill this out, I don't understand why I'm doing this and what kind of litigation, what kind of legal problem we would have, why I would need a lawyer and when I read the legal verbiage that's when They realized it wasn't about protecting children . They were concerned about protecting the organization. What happened after? Kevin Dean was amazed a couple of weeks after I had these conversations with the legal department.

I got a phone call and the brother said, "Brother Dean, we want you to destroy." all your British and electronic notes, I think you are afraid that there is some kind of contradiction between the seniors' notes and that questionnaire, so since we had already completed the questionnaire, they didn't want anything to conflict with that. decided to leave Jehovah's Witnesses and testify against them in the US investigation. Do you think it was about protecting the organization absolutely? I think they were very concerned about protecting their assets, the watchtower, they care about money and they don't want any type of litigation.

This will mean they will have to pay money two years after elders on the royal commission investigating the sins of parishioners in Australia were advised against taking notes of conversations, if a member's so-called wild conversations are recorded in detail, they may not be recorded accurately. evaluated when reviewed out of context and any personal notes must be destroyed once a hearing summary has been prepared to knowingly destroy documents related to a child sexual abuse case that would be crucial and critical evidence either for a criminal prosecution or a civil case would be against the law in many of the jurisdictions, in many of our cases, those have been the critical documents, what is kept in a confidential file are forms with minimal information, but in practice, in many congregations , the elders would put their notes in those files and their notes would have the details the notes would tell the real story that signature is uh notoriously true American lawyer Erwin Zalkin has seven lawsuits pending against the governing body for alleged crimes of child sexual abuse within the congregation we have called this press conference today to announce that we filed another lawsuit against jehovah's witnesses he wants to hold the leaders accountable and have them testify publicly in the united states for the first time they will do everything possible to prevent what they call bringing rebuke against Jehovah and that includes keeping In-house lawyers who have fought against Jehovah's Witnesses in the US and the UK say the organization has a global problem with both child abuse and how it responds to victims.

Kathleen Halsey brought the first successful civil case in the UK against Jehovah's Witnesses, it is called In A v Watchtower, the abuser actually admitted to the abuse,but it was never reported to the authorities and they supposedly took steps to protect other children in the organization, but obviously that is a difficult thing for them and therefore he continued to abuse many. others, and this is not the first case I have seen in which foreign lawyers say the organization drags out cases until the last possible moment and then settles to avoid judicial scrutiny of its practices. Their attitude towards these cases is that they don't really want to seek to resolve the claim without protracted legal proceedings, they are certainly taking the position of denying the defense, delaying these claims, there have been difficulties in ensuring that they provide all the documentation that they need and all those things that They continue to deny the continued delays.

It certainly has a significant impact on our clients. A law firm represents 10 former Jehovah's Witnesses. There are a number of cases that have been brought as brave survivors come forward and speak out about abuse within this organization and these matters are only now coming to court. I think it won't be long until there is legal consideration of the duties of Jehovah's Witness organizations towards members of their congregations, says Amy Whitby, an 11-year-old girl growing up in the remote town of Mount Isa, Queensland. , in Queensland.She was sexually abused inside the home her family shared with another Jehovah's Witness family.

The job of an elder is to shepherd the congregation to care for the flock and keep them safe. That is their job because we are Jehovah's people and It's their job to keep her safe and they failed Amy's mother says she complained about the alleged abuse to an elderly witness there were meetings with the elders at my friend's house but they never believed me they told me I was mental they used my illness against me because I had that breakdown and suffered a lot of depression and that's why they use that against me as part of Amy's case.

She claims that the elders must have known that the alleged abuser had been convicted the previous year for crimes against an eight-year-old boy, so there would simply be no way for those elders not to know that the police charged him, arrested him and They charged him and then he went to court. There's just no way they wouldn't know. It just doesn't happen in that

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. You know, people spy. each other is yours they tell you it's your responsibility to hear something about someone you should report them jehovah's witnesses say the local elders were unaware of the previous conviction and yet the organization is not responsible for the actions of its members inside the family home, despite Teresa's complaints, the man remained in the congregation and even gave Bible readings and speeches from the stage, I got so angry that I got up and left and he just walked and I walked and he just went around and around and around and just this anger because all he wanted to do was run up there and yell at them that he shouldn't be allowed up there, why?

He allowed my room to be completely dark after 30 years of suffering the consequences. Amy is now suing the local Jehovah's Witnesses congregation and the Australian head office. Our job is to hold them accountable in terms of I feel like what happened had a bit of a domino effect. effect on the rest of my life, with things that happened to me afterwards, so yeah, you know, I just wonder sometimes what my life would have been like if that hadn't happened. Will my self-confidence, my self-esteem be after two years? of legal disputes the amy whitby case now heads to trial it would be the first time in australia that the jehovah's witnesses organization has defended sexual abuse allegations in court courts in foreign jurisdictions have determined that they have a duty of care towards children and have been found liable for breaching that duty of care and we believe that the Australian courts will make the same determination when asked to do so.

Most of the major religious groups named by the royal commission have apologized and taken steps to compensate. victims of abuse we are not seeing anything like that in terms of responses from Jehovah's Witnesses since the royal commission we ourselves have resolved over 900 cases successfully and for around $150 million in compensation none of those cases have been resolved with Success Against Jehovah's Witnesses Organization The organization says there is no evidence that Jehovah's Witnesses are guilty of institutional child sexual abuse and that it responds to compensation claims in a caring, fair and principled manner, but for a long time time resisted joining a reparations scheme designed to help victims agree to register alone after it was threatened with the loss of its charity status.

There are a number of benefits that this organization obtains because it is a religious entity, a charitable institution. There are tax benefits, so one way the government could ensure that this organization was safer for children. is to eliminate some of those benefits that you get from your status to eliminate them until they can prove that they are a safe organization for children people who separate from Jehovah's Witnesses pay a terrible price, they remain separated from their families and closest friends those who most love within the former jehovah's witnesses we do it once a year it's a memorial day I did it sometimes you take a bouquet of flowers on the card to mourn the loss of your family and you leave it at the door of a kingdom hall it's like a death and that's where I accepted that my mother died three weeks ago and I just received it.

I knew she was coming at some point and I just got a text from my brother saying "oh, by the way." mom died yesterday of stomach cancer he doesn't want a funeral he didn't want to fast and that's it jeff bill hahn also cries for his three oldest children who continue to shy away from him for the last 10 years since he became a reality that it's okay they see me as dead and you almost cry backwards. I just had to lament the fact that they watch until they wake up and leave and leave the religion, I basically have to see them as them.

I have passed away, which is not pleasant, but it is a way to cope. I knew my friends would definitely reject me, but I honestly didn't think my brothers would reject me because of what we had all been through together. A little grandson was with his dad and his dad let him talk to me and he said um I'm forgetting you babysitter and he said I'm sorry now and I said and I said tim well I'll never forget you I said I always want you to remember that. If the material discussed in this story has raised any concerns for you, you can contact one of these services.