Jehovah’s Witnesses Leader Says Two-Witness Rule on Child Abuse Will Not Change

Leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses instruct elders not to take action against a member accused of child sexual abuse unless there is a confession or at least two witnesses to the crime. Gary Breaux, a senior official at the religion’s global headquarters in New York, known as the Watchtower, said the policy will not change. “We will never change our Scriptural position on that subject,” he said.

Breaux made the statement this month on JW Broadcasting, the religion’s official internet video channel. He read from Deuteronomy 19:15, which states that no single witness can convict another for any error or sin, and that a matter should be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

According to the source, when a Jehovah’s Witness commits a serious sin, such as child abuse, local leaders can form a judicial committee to decide whether the offender should be removed from the congregation. Without a confession or the testimony of two witnesses to corroborate the allegations, elders are instructed to leave the matter to God’s judgment. The source notes that most child sexual abuse occurs in secret, so eyewitnesses are often absent. It also reports that some allegations in Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations are dismissed even when local leaders suspect they are true, because the burden of proof is so high.

The source says prosecutors face similar difficulties, since many cases rest mainly on a minor’s allegations. It adds that such cases are filed every day in courts across the country and often result in guilty pleas or convictions.

Legal scrutiny of the group’s child abuse policies is increasing in several countries. The source reports that in September, current and former Jehovah’s Witnesses in Canada filed two class-action lawsuits against the Watchtower, claiming the organization protects sexual predators in its congregations. Attorneys in the United States have filed dozens of lawsuits against the Watchtower on behalf of alleged victims of sexual abuse. The commission that regulates charities in England is investigating whether the Watchtower’s child abuse policies violate charity laws. In 2015, a government commission in Australia reviewed internal Watchtower documents indicating that officials there had knowledge of 1,006 alleged child sexual abusers, and none had been reported to law enforcement.

An investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting found that Watchtower policies dating back to at least 1989 direct elders to keep child abuse secret from law enforcement and from members of their congregations. The investigation focused on former Jehovah’s Witnesses who claim they were sexually abused as children by a leader in their rural Oklahoma congregation. This is a reported allegation, not a finding by a court. According to documents cited by the source, other leaders there had suspected the leader, Ronald Lawrence, of sexual misconduct “over a period of years in the past.” Protecting children from such harm is a responsibility that the source’s account places at the center of these cases (Psalm 82:3).

In a letter to headquarters in New York, the Oklahoma congregation’s leaders explained that because no one had witnessed the abuse and Lawrence had not confessed, no action would be taken.

Source: Read the original report