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NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
Watch Tower Information
JW Molesters
Court Transcripts
This was the first letter written to media regarding Jehovah's Witnesses policy on child abuse.
Spanish Translation
02/07/01
I am writing to address an issue that transcends religious belief and exposes a reality that affects thousands of children everyday. I have served as a Christian minister for over twenty years. However, I can no longer continue to serve the members of my church as I do not agree with a church policy that as a church elder I am required to enforce. This policy, in my opinion, has harmed thousands, is leaving many unprotected, and provides refuge to outright criminals.
I am referring to a church policy to keep information about members who are pedophiles confidential. These pedophiles are protected by a church mandated "code of silence" where even members of the immediate family cannot be informed, and, in many cases, accused pedophiles remain in positions of responsibility within the church while their victims suffer in silence or face church sanctions. I believe this policy is unethical, immoral, and, in many states, illegal.
This policy was publicly stated in The Watchtower, a publication of my religion, Jehovah's Witnesses. The Watchtower, which is published by the tens of millions and distributed around the world in over 139 languages, stated in the November 1, 1995 issue, pages 28-29, regarding how church officials should handle molestation:
"If the accusation is denied, the elders should explain to the accuser that nothing more can be done in a judicial way. And the congregation will continue to view the one accused as an innocent person. The Bible says that there must be two or three witnesses before judicial action can be taken. (2Cor.13:1, 1 Tim. 5:19) Even if more than one person "remembers" abuse by the individual, the nature of these recalls is just too uncertain to base judicial decisions on them without other supporting evidence. This does not mean that such "memories" are viewed as false (or that they are viewed as true). But Bible principles must be followed in establishing a matter judicially."
Accordingly, the only way an accused person within the Watchtower organization can be deemed guilty by church leaders of child molestation is by his/her private confession, or by the mouth of two witnesses who saw the individual crime. In the event the pedophile denies the charge he/she is protected by church authorities. The church then demands the victim remain silent or face shunning for slander of an innocent man. I feel I can trust no one within the Watchtower organization with my children. As it stands now, if my child were to accuse a Jehovah's Witness of molestation, all he/she would have to do is deny it, and as a father I would be silenced with the threat of shunning if I were to try to warn or protect others who might be in harms way.
Let me ask you, how often are there any witnesses to an act of child molestation? How can there be "supporting evidence" of molestation when 90% of the time the crime is reported weeks or sometimes years later? How many pedophiles will tell the truth knowing if they do they could go to jail? Does the fact that the average pedophile will molest seventy children in his lifetime and is never convicted of a crime mean we should allow them anonymity within the church? What about church members who know nothing of these accusations? They are left in the dark without any knowledge that their children may possibly be in the company of an accused sex offender on a regular basis. In addition, if the molester admits to molestation, repents in private to church elders, the victim or family of the victim is not encouraged to report the molestation to the police, and, if not reported, then church authorities demand the victim remain silent. Hence the pedophile can repeat the offense because no one is aware of his past.
How bad is it? In my opinion, due to present church policy, my religion has become saturated with pedophiles holding positions from top to bottom. In my forty-plus years as a member, I have yet to find one church among Jehovah's Witnesses that does not have problems with child molestation
Henceforth, I will no longer serve as a church elder in an arrangement that promotes such unethical and immoral behavior toward children. I refuse to support a pedophile refuge mentality that is protected among our churches around the world. I believe, rather than the church involving itself in determining whether an accused person is innocent or guilty, the first step the church should take is to notify the local authorities who will investigate whether the accusation has merit. Then if found guilty in a court of law, the pedophile will be publicly identified and punished. This protects the innocent and could help give closure to the victim. Until that day happens, the lambs have been silenced, the victimized little ones, who look to their ministers for protection, but instead are crushed and ostracized by an organizational policy when they need help the most.
It is my sincere hope that this letter will result in making persons aware of what could also be happening in their own church as well. There has to be a grass roots movement that will force those who have responsibility to completely overhaul their church policy, if it is similar to the policy of Jehovah's Witnesses, and address this horrific stance of protecting pedophiles and exposing children to danger...
Governing Body Pedofiles
The two people mentioned below were appointed as elders and Governing Body Members by the Governing Body Committee ( not disfellowshipped )and one was allowed to stay in a position of oversight even after admitting to pedophilia and homosexuality
Leo Greenlees
Tales of the City
A Little Bethel History from Toronto
(as told by a member of the Toronto Support Group)
At one time I thought that perhaps I was the only gay Jehovah`s Witness in Canada, perhaps the world. This was not unusual, as most gay/lesbian Jehovah`s Witnesses feel the same way. There is a conspiracy of silence on the subject, since these things were "not to be even mentioned" by a good Christian.
Percy Chapman and his companion Leo Greenlees were sent by Rutherford from London Bethel in 1936 to replace the rebel Canadian Branch Overseer, Walter Salter, who had started up his own group over the "elected elders" debacle. Percy was a mesmerizing public speaker of the old school (no voice amplification required) and with his Lancashire lilt of voice reminded me of Winston Churchill, flapping jowls and all. I can still remember the reverberating vibrato of his voice warning of the "vile depths of the abominations" and since I knew that homosexuality was "an abomination unto the lord" wondered if that was what he was referring to. It was not until later that I began to suspect the administration at Bethel was mainly gay.
I remember the shock at a district assembly in 1959 at Halifax, Nova Scotia where Percy Chapman, then the branch overseer of Canada was to give the main talk. Suddenly who should appear to replace him, but Brother Knorr, the President from New York. Percy Chapman just disappeared from sight. Later we found out that Brother Knorr had removed all responsibilities from Percy but allowed him to remain at Bethel in Toronto as a janitor. The next shock was that Percy Chapman was forced to be married.
Percy, following the Rutherford line, was totally anti- marriage and he made sure that none of the "Bethel boys" even contemplated the subject with very strict rules and early curfews. The only way a bethel boy could see another sister would be to go on a Bible study with her. My parents started studying in 1945 with a beautiful young pioneer sister named Joyce Randall and every week there would be a new Bethel boy accompanying her. She later was sent to Gilead and posted in Peru, totally isolated, only to be seduced by a latin lover.
Of course she was disfellowshipped and sent home in disgrace. But my family did get to know a lot of Bethel boys. They were all young and handsome, hand-picked by Percy Chapman; there was even an elite group known as "Percy`s boys" who would accompany him to expensive restaurants and bars and receive other favours.
At the time, Bethel was on Irwin Avenue, now (although replaced by a condominium) in the centre of the gay district of Toronto. There was even a Kingdom Hall above "the Parkside", one of Toronto`s few gay bars in the fifties and sixties.
Poor Leo Greenlees, Percy`s close companion for three decades even when at London Bethel, had to find himself a new room-mate. Leo was a cheerful, likable fellow, with his thick Scottish brogue and also an electrifying public speaker.
He was very open about his homosexuality to those few good-looking young brothers like those he would meet at one of the summer resorts in Haliburton run by Jehovah`s Witnesses (later bequeathed to the Watchtower Society).
I got to know Leo a little better when he was assigned to be congregation overseer at the Kingdom Hall I attended as a teenager during the early sixties in Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto. He would bring along another bethel boy, Lorne Bridle, who was very good looking and charming. After a failed marriage to a young pioneer sister, he eventually committed suicide. I often wondered what tortured state of mind led him to that - but so often the fate of closeted gays in the Watchtower society!
But Leo was soon to be promoted to Brooklyn Bethel, where he became the Treasurer of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and one of the elite governing body. He managed to escape the witch-hunt at Brooklyn Bethel in the early seventies when dozens of Bethel boys were disfellowshipped after learning of their midnight trysts in the sauna in Brooklyn bethel.
There was for a short period in the late sixties and early seventies a marked liberalization of attitudes among the governing body. But this suddenly ended, culminating with a power struggle and the disfellowshipping of Raymond Franz, a member of the governing body who was a free-thinker and had written the "Truth" book and chaired the writing of the almost scholarly "Aid to Bible Understanding". Both books, interestingly have joined the list of publications that you would think never existed according to the Watchtower society, although the "Truth" book had the largest printing, next to the Bible, of any book in the world.
It as not until a few years ago that I learned Leo Greenlees had been found out and was removed from the Governing Body for being gay. The last I heard as that he was sent to San Diego where he died not too long ago. As far as I know he was never disfellowshipped, nor can I corroborate any real seductions. Another member of the GB, Chitty who was also removed from Brooklyn Bethel for the same reason and sent away to London, England, I understand.
Ewart Chitty
Governing Body member Ewart Chitty (born ca. 1898) resigned his position in 1979. He entered the London Bethel in 1921, began to work in "the office", and by 1938 held some sort of official position, as two 1938 Watchtowers have him reporting to J. F. Rutherford on the attendance of Bethel family members at the "family" study. By 1942 Chitty was the secretary of the International Bible Students Association (IBSA; the Society`s British equivalent of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.).
Somewhere along the line he was appointed as secretary-treasurer of the IBSA, which position he held until his appointment to the Governing Body in November 1974. After his 1979 resignation from the GB, Chitty remained in Brooklyn working in Writing Correspondence, so he was certainly in good standing.
A 1981 Awake! article has Chitty making comments about people having lost their love of neighbour and God. Apparently by this time Chitty was drinking heavily, according to close acquaintances. Likely this contributed to his being dismissed from Brooklyn and reassigned to the London Bethel a few years later. There he worked at an assignment of little responsibility, but was appointed an elder in a local congregation. Chitty died about 1993. As to Chitty`s alleged homosexuality, he certainly made some remarks in his 1963 life story in The Watchtower that leaned in this direction. By then he had roomed with the same man for 30 years .
When in Brooklyn, Chitty seems to have preferred younger men as roommates. The actual charge brought to the GB against Chitty was made by a former roommate and involved some sort of inappropriate conduct. The GB concluded that Chitty had homosexual tendencies, whatever that means, and asked him to resign.
Chitty could hardly do anything but comply with the rest of the GB`s wishes, since his only alternative would have been to leave Bethel at age 81 and after being there for 58 years. It may well be that the GB didn`t view Chitty as guilty of homosexual activity, since he remained a Bethel member in Brooklyn or London, but it may also be that they made a deal
Chitty would remain quiet about where "the dead bodies" were buried as long as the Society cared for him in his old age.