Pedophilia Among Jehovah’s Witnesses: An Epidemic

About 99% of pedophiles are men and there are about 60 million pedophiles in the world. To give you an idea that’s about the size of Italy. Needless to say that pedophilia is not as rare as you may want to believe.

Along with my research, I’ve learned that pedophilia has many causes. It can be a twisted sexual orientation, a mental illness, and the result of sexual abuse, physical abuse, or sexual repression just to name a few of the reasons that are thrown out there.

The truth of the matter is that the reason why pedophilia exists is not fully known. Recent research suggests that neurodevelopmental problems and childhood sexual abuse play a role in the etiology of pedophilia, but the mechanisms that are involved are still unknown.

With those scary numbers in mind and the wide range of reasons why individuals (especially men) can be or become pedophiles, it is no surprise that religions have their fair share of pedophiles. Recent news has revealed how prevalent the problem is in the Catholic Church. A recent movie that was released earlier this year was relating the true story of several victims of a hidden Catholic Priest who abused dozens of boy scouts in France between the mid-1980s and early 1990s. This helped the public at large to understand better how religion can contribute to the pedophilia epidemic and put children at risk.

However, there is another religious group that is now making more pedophilia case scandals than the Catholic Church, and this religious group is Jehovah’s Witnesses also called the Watchtower, their corporate name.

By now we’ve heard of cases of pedophilia among Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States, Canada, Australia, and several countries of Europe where some ex victims have found the courage to speak out against the Watchtower leaders and against their local congregation elders for not only not having protected them against their abusers by calling the authorities, but also not believing the victims and in some cases excommunicating (disfellowshipping) them, which in the world of Jehovah’s Witnesses means losing family, friends, and whole social network in most cases.

In numerous cases, the victim has been disfellowshipped years prior and is completely shunned by their family and friends, while the abuser is now in good standing in the religion. The pedophile in question is going to a local kingdom hall (church for Jehovah’s Witnesses) where members don’t suspect that there is a pedophile in their midst. On top of it all, that pedophile is likely to ring your bell or knock on your door on Sunday morning. I am not just saying this to write sensational stuff. This has been proven to be the case on camera more than once.

Because sexual abuse on children is so widespread and the proofs being more and more overwhelming, on August 14 of this year, a new law that extends the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse has gone into effect in the United States. In the state of New York that “window of justice” will last one year. It is to expect that the number of ex Jehovah’s Witnesses who were victims of pedophiles as children, now speaking out, are going to grow still during this period.

Why So Many Pedophiles in Jehovah’s Witnesses Religion?

With all of that said, why is it that a religion that thinks of itself above and beyond all other religions, with much emphasis on sexual sins, which include pretty much all kind of sexual conducts and orientations outside of marriage, is having so many pedophiles in its midst? According to William Bowen, an ex-Jehovah’s Witness elder and the founder of the non-profit organization Silentlambs there are 23,720 alleged pedophiles in the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. For a religious group of only about 8 million that is a staggering number.

As a matter of fact, Bowen has called the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses a “pedophile paradise.” I feel that the reason why there are so many pedophiles in this religion is at least partly because of that fact. They have found the perfect place to commit their crimes. A paradise for pedophiles. In 1989 the Watchtower had issued a top-secret instruction to keep known child sex abusers in the congregations a secret.

Here are some of the reasons why the Jehovah’s Witness religion is, indeed, a paradise for pedophiles.

They Live in a Parallel World

Known pedophilia cases don’t go outside of the walls of the religion. For the most part, when a child is reporting sex abuse he’s reporting it to his parents and/or to the elders (the equivalent of pastors) of the congregation. But neither the parents nor the elders report the case to the police. In cases where the abuser is one of the parents, the child has nobody on their side to defend them.

The brainwashing of the teaching of this religion is very strong and “worldly authorities” are seen as inferior to “God’s authority” and therefore, they handle their pedophilia cases within their own judicial system without ever involving the legal authority of the country in which they live.

In many cases, the pedophile only receives a small rebuke because they deny the facts. According to victims’ testimonies more often than not the abuser is believed by the elders much more often than the victim is. Worst case scenario, even if the abuser confesses he’s disfellowshipped, but still not reported to the police. This means that the congregation might be safe “for a while” but the neighborhood is not.

Leaders of the Congregation are to be Respected and Obeyed

Sadly, many of the pedophiles in the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses are elders and ministerial servants. Children are taught from infancy that those men are appointed by God and should be respected, obeyed, and even feared. Not only those men are respected, but they are also trusted by most members of the congregation and thus, they have easy access to their children. Since they are also “teachers” they can easily pretend to want to teach a child they intend to abuse. When elders sexually abuse children they know exactly what to say to keep them quiet and fearful enough so that they won’t tell anyone.

This tactic is very efficient. Most abused children in this religion never tell until they are adults. If they ever do.

Jehovah will Fix Everything

Every ex or current Jehovah’s Witness have found themselves in this situation. You go to an elder, or a “mature Christian” as they call the most experienced ones, with your complaint about someone, but you are quickly dismissed and told that “Jehovah knows it and he will fix it in his own time.”

How many poor children or teenagers, or even adults, have heard this recurring sentence when they went to the elders to tell them about the abuse they were enduring? Whether it may be sexual abuse or another kind of abuse.

Any non-indoctrinated person would be able to make the difference between a minor issue or even a “sin” and the fact that molesting a child is not just an issue or even a sin, but a crime of utmost importance. A crime against humanity. But it seems that Jehovah’s Witnesses who have been living in the Watchtower bubble for years have lost that basic discernment skill. No matter how grave the problem, even a crime such as sexual abuse on a child, can be dismissed as something that “Jehovah will fix.”

Don’t Bring Reproach on Jehovah

The group of leaders of the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses called the governing body, likes to make their members believe that they count and that they are valuable. Steven Lett, one of the governing body members said: “if anybody would take action against someone who would threaten our young ones, and takes actions to protect our young ones, it’s Jehovah’s Organization!” This is a lie. The main concern of this organization is not the welfare of children, it’s that no reproach be brought upon Jehovah. In other words, no reproach be brought upon their organization.

It is better in their mind to hide a pedophile than report him to the authorities and tell the members of a congregation that there is a pedophile in their midst so they could take proper measures to protect their children. Their philosophy is, let’s keep quiet, so we can save our reputation.

The only problem is that the Watchtower didn’t count on the damages that the internet was going to do to its organization. Today with dozens of ex-members YouTube channels revealing every little secret of their ex religion, including the big problem of pedophilia among Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is no longer a secret for anyone.

And if that wasn’t enough the Candace Conti (ex-Jehovah’s Witness victim) case in the United States and the Australian Royal Commission in 2015 which put the Watchtower on trial for 1006 pedophilia cases that took place between 1950 and 2015 in Australia, which were not reported to the police, opened the eyes of many members and non-members about the problem.

Today, as news spread on TV and all over the internet thanks to ex-Jehovah’s Witness activists, pedophilia among Jehovah’s Witnesses is no longer a secret, and the watchtower has been and still is forced to reveal what they have been hiding for decades.

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