Less notice has been paid to the abuse among the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Christian sect with more than 8.5 million members. In recent decades, much of the world’s attention to allegations of abuse has focused on the Catholic Church and other religious groups. Thus did the Jehovah’s Witnesses build what might be the world’s largest database of undocumented child molesters: at least two decades’ worth of names and addresses-likely numbering in the tens of thousands-and detailed acts of alleged abuse, most of which have never been shared with law enforcement, all scanned and searchable in a Microsoft SharePoint file. Keep a copy of the report in your congregation’s confidential file, the instructions continued, and do not share it with anyone. The letter laid out instructions on how to deal with a known predator: Write a detailed report answering 12 questions-Was this a onetime occurrence, or did the accused have a history of child molestation? How is the accused viewed within the community? Does anyone else know about the abuse?-and mail it to Watchtower’s headquarters in a special blue envelope. The organization was concerned about the legal risk posed by possible child molesters within its ranks. congregations, and to many more congregations worldwide. In March 1997, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the nonprofit organization that oversees the Jehovah’s Witnesses, sent a letter to each of its 10,883 U.S.
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