Witness

Only one activity? (although there are more) The very activity that brings people to consider suicide?  The very activity that brings WT’s sins to light – before the world’s eyes? The very activity that breaks up families?  We’re not talking about just a few people who have suffered from this “one” activity, but thousands.  I’m not referring to gross sin such as murder, where that someone that should be in jail.  Or pedophilia, where that someone, should also be in jail (but we know in innumerable cases, is not).    
It is men, unrighteously judging men as in the case of Ray Franz – one of thousands who met with the same outcome for rejecting lies.  Who is at the root of this judgment, this decree, but those who set the guidelines for it?  Rev 13:11,12
John 16:3,4 – “They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them.
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them”  Matt 7:15,16a
We recognize them by their teachings, their human doctrines, that always fail. Jesus warned of those who would carry out John 16:2, and that they are “false prophets” found “among” his anointed ones – his “elect”. 
Another way it is said,
 “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect”  Matt 24:24
The love shown for one another in the organization is conditional.  It is not the love that Christ taught through his teachings. 
"If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"   Matt 5:46,47
Only through the complete anointed Body of Christ's priests, would love be manifested by the utilization of their gifts of Holy Spirit.  They would be teaching the people God’s laws in Christ.  Mal 2:7; 1 Pet 2:5,9; Rom chapter 12.  They would not be removed for disagreeing with the GB.  Matt 24:48-51; Rev 13:11,12,15   If the Body was working as one under Christ, showing love and respect toward each other, everyone would benefit from that love and guidance. 
But, instead, a huge army of “Gentile” elders stumble over their judgments and cause families to be crushed. Joel 1:3-9; Rev 9:7-10  It would be disingenuous to realize this, and then dismiss it by saying, “but sometimes we must forgive them”, and that it is an act of sacred service, a “Christian duty”.   No!  Not at all.  It is blasphemy.  It is blindness to Christ’s teachings and God's standards toward His priesthood.   Sacred service is to be offered by God’s priests of His Temple, not by those who claim to “represent” them; trampling them into submission. Ezek 44:6-9; Matt 24:15,16; 2 Thess 2:3,4; Rev 11:1,2  For those elders who cry, I hope beyond hope, that they wake up, and remove themselves from the organization. They are working against their conscience, why?  Out of fear of losing status?  Out of fear of losing family?  Why do they cry?
God sees all of this.  He sees victims of a prejudiced justice system that destroys.  Jesus knew his people would come against an authority that would unrighteously judge them. Satan is behind it, and God allows it.  Luke 22:31; 2 Thess 2:9-12
I’ve quoted this before, and I remember once you also did, I suppose when warning of what the organization should not be like, but correct me if I'm wrong.  
“A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25 Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles (“Gentile” elder body) lord it over them (over  JWs); and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors (GB). 26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” 
To be “like that” obviously, is not based on Christ’s love.  But, it is “like that” – exactly like that – in the organization.  Luke 22:24-27  The “Gentile” elder kings lord it over JWs, and those who exercise authority over the elders, are the members of the GB - “Benefactors”. 
People in the world are not blind to the organization’s hypocrisy.  It is the majority of JWs who refuse to see it.  For those few who do see it, one must ask why they support hypocrisy. 
 Beasts are known to destroy.  Dan 7:23; 8:10; Rev 13:1,2,5-8,11,12,14-18
 
 
 http://pearl-sign.blogspot.com/
 
 
 

Before Matt 5:48 –
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
 
What makes an individual “perfect” according to these scriptures?  Love, which fulfills the law.  Can you see the WT leaders practicing anything that Jesus stated in these scriptures?  JWs are taught to love their own.   If anyone is ousted, they are considered “dead”. John 16:2; Rev 13:15 Those who leave the organization are mostly wiped out of the brain of their loved ones.  Do the leaders of the WT love their brothers and sisters in Christ if these ones approach their leaders about their flaws in understanding scriptures…if they suggest that their doctrine is wrong?   What happened to Ray Franz?  Is the label of “apostate”, called loving one’s neighbor as yourself?  Ray Franz did not sin; yet the proverbial sword came down upon him, and he was labeled as “dead”. 
“Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.”  1 John 3:12
The only example JWs have for the production of “fruit”, is that of their leaders who claim to be anointed. The scriptures in Matt 7 pertain to teachings.  The anointed are “inspired” by Holy Spirit – it is “poured” into one’s heart.  Rom 5:5  If that gift is not used, one can lose it.  Matt 25:19-30 The reason the GB admit they are not inspired, is because the leaders of the organization made judgment calls not based on Holy Spirit’s guidance, but on their own speculation – their own wisdom, and not that of Christ. They have to hide the fact somehow, so the falsehood is created that anointed are not inspired.  The truth is, they have lost Holy Spirit that was once in their heart.  1 Pet 2:8; 2 Pet 3:17; 1 John 2:19; Rev 8:10,11
They are your only examples of receiving any “fruit” that they claim is derived from Christ.  Matt 24:24
Our own assumptions, actions, attitudes can lead to sin.  Paul and Barnabas had an argument over Mark.  Yet, both men spoke the truth of Christ. Obviously, love won out because Mark was mentioned by Paul later on.  Refinement from sin takes time. Learning obedience to the Father and Jesus doesn’t happen overnight.  Even Jesus was “perfected” through his endurance while on the earth.  Not that he sinned, but that he “learned obedience”:
“Although he was the Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. 9 After he was perfected, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him”  Heb 5:8,9
“he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death -- even to death on a cross.”  Phil 2:8
Two things appear to bring about perfection.  Loving one another, and obeying God’s laws fulfilled in Christ.  They are tied together.  Mark 12:28-31
"I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”  John 17:19
“Sanctify” - to make holy, i.e. (ceremonially) purify or consecrate
“All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 1 John 5:17,18
Are the WT leaders “sanctified/purified by the truth” through their obedience to Christ’s direction?  Not if they teach falsehoods and excuse them as minor bumps on the historical road of the WT’s existence! (G. Jackson’s latest with the barking dog)  Not if they refuse to budge on falsehoods set in place.    
Even though Jesus had to learn obedience to the Father, he still taught only truth from God while on earth. He is our pattern to follow.   (Col 2:5; 2 Tim 1:7; Titus 1:8; Rev 3:19) The Holy Spirit is the source of truth. John 16:3  Preaching falsehoods is evidence of an anointed one segregated from the vine of Christ.  No one can claim to be a “faithful slave” of Christ, if they preach an untruth!
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”  John 15:4-8
Once again, this “fruit” is speaking about truth from God.  A faithful one in Christ will produce truth sourced in Holy Spirit which flows from the vine, to the branches – to the heart. 
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  Luke 6:45
It is important to remember that the anointed have inscribed upon their hearts, the laws of God; again, fulfilled in love.  Heb 8:10; Rom 13:8; Gal 5:14   Additional rules, laws, regulations, staunch adherence to the “two witness rule”, are not the workings of the Holy Spirit, but purely the admonitions made by men.  The organization carries around two bibles – one, barely used but is “inspired” by God, and one totally leaned upon, and is inspired by the hearts and minds of men.   
"They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.'"  Matt 15:9
"These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings."  Col 2:22
The two "bibles" combined, will not work for the common good, as is evident in the court system today.  

 
 
 
 

Only one activity? (although there are more) The very activity that brings people to consider suicide?  The very activity that brings WT’s sins to light – before the world’s eyes? The very activity that breaks up families?  We’re not talking about just a few people who have suffered from this “one” activity, but thousands.  I’m not referring to gross sin such as murder, where that someone that should be in jail.  Or pedophilia, where that someone, should also be in jail (but we know in innumerable cases, is not).    
It is men, unrighteously judging men as in the case of Ray Franz – one of thousands who met with the same outcome for rejecting lies.  Who is at the root of this judgment, this decree, but those who set the guidelines for it?  Rev 13:11,12
John 16:3,4 – “They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them.
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them”  Matt 7:15,16a
We recognize them by their teachings, their human doctrines, that always fail. Jesus warned of those who would carry out John 16:2, and that they are “false prophets” found “among” his anointed ones – his “elect”. 
Another way it is said,
 “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect”  Matt 24:24
The love shown for one another in the organization is conditional.  It is not the love that Christ taught through his teachings. 
"If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"   Matt 5:46,47
Only through the complete anointed Body of Christ's priests, would love be manifested by the utilization of their gifts of Holy Spirit.  They would be teaching the people God’s laws in Christ.  Mal 2:7; 1 Pet 2:5,9; Rom chapter 12.  They would not be removed for disagreeing with the GB.  Matt 24:48-51; Rev 13:11,12,15   If the Body was working as one under Christ, showing love and respect toward each other, everyone would benefit from that love and guidance. 
But, instead, a huge army of “Gentile” elders stumble over their judgments and cause families to be crushed. Joel 1:3-9; Rev 9:7-10  It would be disingenuous to realize this, and then dismiss it by saying, “but sometimes we must forgive them”, and that it is an act of sacred service, a “Christian duty”.   No!  Not at all.  It is blasphemy.  It is blindness to Christ’s teachings and God's standards toward His priesthood.   Sacred service is to be offered by God’s priests of His Temple, not by those who claim to “represent” them; trampling them into submission. Ezek 44:6-9; Matt 24:15,16; 2 Thess 2:3,4; Rev 11:1,2  For those elders who cry, I hope beyond hope, that they wake up, and remove themselves from the organization. They are working against their conscience, why?  Out of fear of losing status?  Out of fear of losing family?  Why do they cry?
God sees all of this.  He sees victims of a prejudiced justice system that destroys.  Jesus knew his people would come against an authority that would unrighteously judge them. Satan is behind it, and God allows it.  Luke 22:31; 2 Thess 2:9-12
I’ve quoted this before, and I remember once you also did, I suppose when warning of what the organization should not be like, but correct me if I'm wrong.  
“A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25 Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles (“Gentile” elder body) lord it over them (over  JWs); and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors (GB). 26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” 
To be “like that” obviously, is not based on Christ’s love.  But, it is “like that” – exactly like that – in the organization.  Luke 22:24-27  The “Gentile” elder kings lord it over JWs, and those who exercise authority over the elders, are the members of the GB - “Benefactors”. 
People in the world are not blind to the organization’s hypocrisy.  It is the majority of JWs who refuse to see it.  For those few who do see it, one must ask why they support hypocrisy. 
 Beasts are known to destroy.  Dan 7:23; 8:10; Rev 13:1,2,5-8,11,12,14-18
 
 
 http://pearl-sign.blogspot.com/
 
 
 

JW Org pretends not to have clergy - laity distinction.
And some of the anointed are female whilst here on earth. It seems that spirit persons do not have a gender.
However, were all angels that appeared as humans on earth, men ?  
Quote Srecko. " BUT all are (male and female) ordained ministers. :))"  Um, but is this after they are baptised, or is it when they put in a Report sheet for doing ministry ? 
The plot thickens. 

Before Matt 5:48 –
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
 
What makes an individual “perfect” according to these scriptures?  Love, which fulfills the law.  Can you see the WT leaders practicing anything that Jesus stated in these scriptures?  JWs are taught to love their own.   If anyone is ousted, they are considered “dead”. John 16:2; Rev 13:15 Those who leave the organization are mostly wiped out of the brain of their loved ones.  Do the leaders of the WT love their brothers and sisters in Christ if these ones approach their leaders about their flaws in understanding scriptures…if they suggest that their doctrine is wrong?   What happened to Ray Franz?  Is the label of “apostate”, called loving one’s neighbor as yourself?  Ray Franz did not sin; yet the proverbial sword came down upon him, and he was labeled as “dead”. 
“Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.”  1 John 3:12
The only example JWs have for the production of “fruit”, is that of their leaders who claim to be anointed. The scriptures in Matt 7 pertain to teachings.  The anointed are “inspired” by Holy Spirit – it is “poured” into one’s heart.  Rom 5:5  If that gift is not used, one can lose it.  Matt 25:19-30 The reason the GB admit they are not inspired, is because the leaders of the organization made judgment calls not based on Holy Spirit’s guidance, but on their own speculation – their own wisdom, and not that of Christ. They have to hide the fact somehow, so the falsehood is created that anointed are not inspired.  The truth is, they have lost Holy Spirit that was once in their heart.  1 Pet 2:8; 2 Pet 3:17; 1 John 2:19; Rev 8:10,11
They are your only examples of receiving any “fruit” that they claim is derived from Christ.  Matt 24:24
Our own assumptions, actions, attitudes can lead to sin.  Paul and Barnabas had an argument over Mark.  Yet, both men spoke the truth of Christ. Obviously, love won out because Mark was mentioned by Paul later on.  Refinement from sin takes time. Learning obedience to the Father and Jesus doesn’t happen overnight.  Even Jesus was “perfected” through his endurance while on the earth.  Not that he sinned, but that he “learned obedience”:
“Although he was the Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. 9 After he was perfected, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him”  Heb 5:8,9
“he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death -- even to death on a cross.”  Phil 2:8
Two things appear to bring about perfection.  Loving one another, and obeying God’s laws fulfilled in Christ.  They are tied together.  Mark 12:28-31
"I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”  John 17:19
“Sanctify” - to make holy, i.e. (ceremonially) purify or consecrate
“All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 1 John 5:17,18
Are the WT leaders “sanctified/purified by the truth” through their obedience to Christ’s direction?  Not if they teach falsehoods and excuse them as minor bumps on the historical road of the WT’s existence! (G. Jackson’s latest with the barking dog)  Not if they refuse to budge on falsehoods set in place.    
Even though Jesus had to learn obedience to the Father, he still taught only truth from God while on earth. He is our pattern to follow.   (Col 2:5; 2 Tim 1:7; Titus 1:8; Rev 3:19) The Holy Spirit is the source of truth. John 16:3  Preaching falsehoods is evidence of an anointed one segregated from the vine of Christ.  No one can claim to be a “faithful slave” of Christ, if they preach an untruth!
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”  John 15:4-8
Once again, this “fruit” is speaking about truth from God.  A faithful one in Christ will produce truth sourced in Holy Spirit which flows from the vine, to the branches – to the heart. 
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  Luke 6:45
It is important to remember that the anointed have inscribed upon their hearts, the laws of God; again, fulfilled in love.  Heb 8:10; Rom 13:8; Gal 5:14   Additional rules, laws, regulations, staunch adherence to the “two witness rule”, are not the workings of the Holy Spirit, but purely the admonitions made by men.  The organization carries around two bibles – one, barely used but is “inspired” by God, and one totally leaned upon, and is inspired by the hearts and minds of men.   
"They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.'"  Matt 15:9
"These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings."  Col 2:22
The two "bibles" combined, will not work for the common good, as is evident in the court system today.  

 
 
 
 

It all goes back to..."A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit."  Matt 7:18
Jesus' thinking on this matter was purely black and white.  
 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits."
 "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit." 
 "Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Matt 7:15-20

It all goes back to..."A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit."  Matt 7:18
Jesus' thinking on this matter was purely black and white.  
 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits."
 "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit." 
 "Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Matt 7:15-20

I don't know, of course, what sort of feeling and in what degree, level, is in soul of JW members while obeys commands about not speaking, greeting with ex-JW. Is that hate, animosity, anger, pride ...? But, it is condition, human relation that need to be book written about it.  :))

Because of possibility (proved until now) how some dishes are indeed poisoned on the table with other food, what will be advice, how to give warning to people around the table to not eat specific food?

I have made these videos files available on my Google Drive for anyone having issues accessing the videos.
Part1
 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YOTBNjnXsTw_d6EmMzVgs23-yE7wNVar/view?usp=drivesdk
Part 2
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YXaB_9IZ9pB98BVEkn_pOSvvOKGLMjdq/view?usp=drivesdk

The YouTube doesn't work for me.
Here are the 2 parts on Facebook, if the link doesn't work maybe you need to be part of the Facebook group.
Part 1
 
Part 2
https://www.facebook.com/shayne.mechen/videos/2824289697627754/

Yes, and this bring more confusion. JWorg don't have clergy-laity distinction, but have heavenly and earthly class, also have priesthood and not priesthood class, anointed and not anointed class, males as Heads and females as not Heads - BUT all are (male and female) ordained ministers. :))

You noticed this very well. Thanks !
How we would know it is about Catholic priests if news reporters didn't mentioned their religious affiliation? :))
Perhaps Tom thinking about rank and file Catholic members ? But rank and file Catholic are mere "laity". Inside JWorg rank and file members are not "laity" :)))

Oh dear @TrueTomHarley I quote  " Countless persons are arrested with regard to child sexual abuse. Their religious affiliation or lack of is never reported. 
But then I quote " Unlike virtually anywhere else, where the leaders of an organization are themselves the abusers.." 
Um, Catholic church comes to mind Tom. But Tom you said  "Their religious affiliation or lack of is never reported." .... So if their 'religious affiliation' is never reported, then how come the Catholic church was being reported on long before the JW Org ?  
Quote : The current “gold standard” of child sexual abuse to “go beyond the law” will inevitably cause you problems with those who, not surprisingly, expect you to abide by law.
Which law Tom, God's or man's ?  Those people that love God and Christ would expect the GB and it's Org to obey God as ruler rather than men.  Whose 'law' and 'rules' and 'principles' do you live by Tom ? God's or man's ? 
Quote  " Therefore efforts to prevent it ought to be given at least as much creedence "
TOM, wake up. It hasn't been efforts to prevent it. It has been efforts to hide it. Elders have been allowed to remain in their positions even though it was known that they had been and still were sexually abusing children. 
Tom you are back to your old trick, but it does not work. There is NO POINT AT ALL comparing the GB and it's rotten Org to the world which belongs to the Devil. You should compare them to God's standards required for His people.  
Quote: .Tragically, it happens, and when it does Jehovah's Witnesses follow the law. 
Which law Tom, God's or man's ? And which law should they be following ?

You are right in conclusion how "involved parties" are those who may decide.
WT elders, when came to position to hear about something  comes to be also "involved parties" because they have information. Even more, they alone examining such information and classified them into "truth" or "lies". Well, if this serious men, elders, have such crucial knowledge about crime act, what making them to be without responsibility toward - truth, justice, involved parties and victim first?
Do we have to mention advice's made by many of this same elders, not to go to "worldly courts" because of god's name and organization honor?
Perhaps "public" is all those people who don't know nothing or not know enough about CSA and Court cases in JWorg? Then will have at least two class: 1) JW people Public and 2) Worldly people Public. Which of this two groups will be more devastated after WT "kickback"? Or will these WT kickback be presented in two envelops, one for worldly public and one for JW public?

The link you provided did not work.
This one on YouTube does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zfMRqpzuOE
 

Thank you @Witness  That was a lot of reading but well worth it. 
I'm sorry if I seem insulting toward Americans but there was such a big difference between calmly reading all that, or, listening to voices on video. Unfortunately the people  on video look as if they are cheering a ball game not reporting on something serious. 
But keep it up Witness, the more information available the better. Thank you again.
 

https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania-grand-jury-investigating-jehovah-witnesses-sex-abuse-cover-up-20200209.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/02/08/jehovahs-witnesses-under-investigation-pennsylvania-attorney-generals-office/2425260001/

I hope every JW here reads this article.  Please!
https://jwsurvey.org/news/pennsylvania-opens-grand-jury-criminal-investigation-into-jehovahs-witnesses-jw-survey-editor-subpoenaed
Pennsylvania Opens Grand Jury Criminal Investigation Into Jehovah’s Witnesses; JW Survey Editor Subpoenaed
In 1884, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was incorporated in the Court of Common Pleas in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The movement of Charles Taze Russell became an established religious business, a tax-exempt corporation that would go on to control the lives of more than 8 million devoted followers,
One hundred years later and four hours southeast of Allegheny, I was baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a tiled, heated baptismal pool in Crownsville Maryland. I was 16.
Thirty-five years after that, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania served me with a subpoena to testify in a Grand Jury investigation into alleged criminal activity by the very same religious organization to which I devoted the formative and working years of my life. Let me explain why this happened.
I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, the only child of devoted Jehovah’s Witness parents who had embraced the religion following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the escalation of the Vietnam war. Jehovah’s Witnesses pounded the pavements of Baltimore, preaching the imminence of Armageddon.
Watchtower vice-president and oracle Frederick W. Franz famously came to Baltimore in 1966, delivering multiple conventions speeches, including the epic book-release of Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God. This 400+ page publication unveiled a shocking timetable of world events, including the revelation that 1975 would mark the most significant modern date in history.
From that moment forward, everything changed. Urgency over the date 1975 drove Witnesses into a subtle frenzy, with Organization overseers using these new revelations as spiritual cattle prods, driving many to sell their homes and preach the news of the end of the world.
When I was 8 years old, 1975 came and went, but new predictions emerged, and the old ones were revised. As a child, I could not accept that I was being lied to, so I trusted Jehovah’s Witnesses and their appointed elders.
Among the most trusted elders was a man named Charles Brineshults. Charlie, as he was known, was a long-time appointed elder, a widower, and held the distinction of being one of the elite few remaining “anointed” Jehovah’s Witnesses on Earth. He was also a serial pedophile, but I didn’t know that.
Charles “Charlie” Brineshults Even as a child my instincts told me something was not right. Brineshults shuffled from family to family, latching on to the generosity of anyone who would take him in. Of course, the homes he selected and the families he embraced all had children. Vulnerable children.
It was not until about 10 years ago during a group vacation that a close friend and longstanding elder heard the name Brineshults in conversation, and he piped in “Oh yeah, he diddled kids, you didn’t know?”

“What?” I exclaimed as I shot a piercing gaze across the South Carolina beach resort, expecting to hear this was some kind of joke. But it wasn’t. As it turns out, it was an open secret among dozens of families and nearly all of the elders in the congregation circuits I grew up in.
I was horrified. At that moment I could instantly recall sitting in the rear of a Kingdom Hall after a meeting, watching Charlie approach me with my father nearby. “Mark is so polite when he answers the phone, I am very impressed He speaks to clearly and with such maturity.”
I was barely 10 years old. Like so many others, I was unaware I was being groomed, and were it not for the screen of my extra-protective mother, I would most certainly have been one of his many victims.
And then there was Ongsingco.
Louis Ongsingco was a charismatic Watchtower-appointed pioneer minister and self-declared pied piper of the local Jehovah’s Witness children. He was engaging, well-traveled, and he liked girls. Young girls.
Louis Ongsingco Louis was a jet-setting flight attendant who frequently returned from Paris or London with expensive chocolates and other gifts for the kids he liked the most. He was also a massage therapist.
He had a smooth-talking way of conversing with teen girls, advancing his hands further and further from their shoulders to their backs, then finally blurring the lines between friendly conduct and full-on sexual assault. I saw this myself.
I was barely a teenager when I approached local elder Robert “Bob” Manke about Ongsingco’s behavior with girls. Where else would I go? My parents couldn’t control Louis, and I didn’t know that this was a matter for the police. How could I? So I trusted that Manke and the other elders would handle the situation.
They didn’t. Instead, they told Ongsingco that I had outed him, which led to severe chastisement from Louis himself. It was frightening. Meanwhile, Louis kept up his behavior, and decades passed. After leaving the Witness religion in 2013, I wanted to see what happened to this man.
After a brief investigation, I discovered that Louis Ongsingco went on to sexually assault multiple women, both Jehovah’s Witnesses, and non-Witnesses. By 2001 at least seven different women filed two lawsuits against Ongsingco.
These lawsuits are independent of additional allegations against Ongsingco, including those of two women who claim that Ongsingco placed his hands down the front of their shirts when they were teenagers.
One of those women came forward to the Atlantic in 2019 and was interviewed by journalist Doug Quenqua, who investigated Jehovah’s Witnesses in his article The Secret Database of Child abuse.
The Atlantic Article
In 2018 I was introduced to journalist Douglas Quenqua, a respected writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, CNBC, Buzzfeed, and other periodicals. Doug had learned that I had received hundreds of pages of child abuse case documents from several Jehovah’s Witness congregations, and he wanted to learn more.
Over the course of 2018, we spent a number of days discussing these documents, and why Jehovah’s Witnesses had not reported these cases to the police. The incidents were horrifying, and worse yet, they revealed that most of the perpetrators were still at large, and were in contact with children.
On March 22nd, 2019, the Atlantic released Doug’s article. 24 Hours later, two elders rang our doorbell before 10 AM. We did not answer. When we checked our security camera later, it was apparent who these men were. They were church elders from the Perry Hall Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Maryland.
One of the two elders is the father of a woman who was sexually assaulted by not one, but two Jehovah’s Witness men. The men were Brineshults and Ongsingco.
 
Two Church Elders at my door, seeking to disfellowship I remember thinking how pathetic it was to be chased down by the very men who have been covering up child abuse for years, and whose children were among the victims.
On April 14th, 2019, Watchtower representative and local church elder Joel Raniolo mailed two certified letters to my home, demanding that we attend a judicial hearing at the Perry Hall church. When reached, Raniolo refused to divulge why he had sent the letters, and how he had obtained our personal information.
On May 14th, 2019, another Church elder announced to the Perry Hall congregation that Mark and Kimberly O’Donnell are no longer Jehovah’s Witnesses. It had been 35 years since my indoctrination and baptism back in February 1984.
The Pennsylvania Grand Jury
In the weeks following the release of the Atlantic article, national and global attention became focused on the Jehovah’s Witness religion. In particular, the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General took notice of the allegations of corruption within the Witness Organization.
The State of Pennsylvania is no stranger to the cover-up of abuse within religious organizations. In 2018, the Attorney General’s office released the results of a two-year investigation into the Catholic church, following multiple substantiated reports of child sexual abuse and corresponding cover-ups.
On July 2nd, 2019 I was interviewed in my home by the Deputy Assistant Attorney General of Pennsylvania, along with a Special Investigator for the State. For more than three hours I provided documentation and details concerning the policies and practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses, especially in connection with child abuse.
On July 29th a Special Investigator arrived at my Baltimore home and served a subpoena for me to appear before the 45th Investigative Grand Jury of the State of Pennsylvania.
Finally, on August 22nd, 2019, I arrived at the State Capitol before 7.30 AM and was sworn in by Judge J. Wesley Oler in his chambers. Moments later I entered the large Grand Jury room, where 23 grand jurors and approximately 12-15 alternates were stationed at their desks, positioned to take notes and record their questions on paper.
A Grand Jury is a special tool used by state and federal governments to investigate criminal allegations against persons or institutions. The powers of grand juries are wide-ranging and potent. They include the ability to subpoena and compel witnesses to testify, and those witnesses are encouraged to speak freely and without fear of reprisal.
Any form of retaliation is taken seriously by the office of the Attorney General and the presiding judge. Of course, Jehovah’s Witnesses had already executed retaliation on my wife and me in response to our efforts to shed light on the epidemic child abuse problem within the religion.
My testimony lasted more than two straight hours as I sat facing the Grand Jury and the Deputy Attorney General, together with several State Attorneys and Special Investigators.

Grand Juries can be cathartic experiences for cooperative witnesses who testify on the side of civil justice. That was my experience.
For the first half of my initial testimony, I recounted my personal history within the Jehovah’s Witness religion, beginning with my religiously isolated childhood. It was an opportunity to share my experiences with a large group of citizens who will ultimately make important decisions when they vote on the choices presented to them.
There were moments of levity amidst the proceedings, including a curious exchange in which I discussed the history of the Witnesses’ custom Bible, the New World Translation. I explained how the translation was largely the brainchild of Frederick W. Franz, whose linguistic education was limited to a maximum of two years study of Greek, and no training in Hebrew.
The irony of this information was not lost upon the investigating members of the Grand Jury.
The Grand Jury and the JW Organization
As the morning progressed, my testimony turned North to the driving force behind the reason these people were assembled in this room- to comprehend whether the religious hierarchy which drives this religion is responsible for the failure to report the crime of child abuse.
A large whiteboard was placed to my left, facing the grand jurors. At the very top, the letters “GB” were written in large letters, then circled. It was clear that the Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania understood that the decisions and power of this religion lay at the top of a complicated network of corporations, congregations, Circuit Overseers, and churchgoers.
I spent some time attempting to explain the spider web of mechanisms used by Jehovah’s Witnesses, describing the difference between their view of the spiritual and the legal.
Branch Committees, Corporations, Circuit Overseers, Congregations, Elders, Ministerial Servants, Pioneers, Publishers- all of these found their way to the diagram of the Witness organization. Lines were drawn connecting all of the organizational machinery which comprises the Jehovah’s Witness religion. In the end, all roads terminated at the Governing Body.
After testifying for more than two hours, I was excused and held in a waiting area while the Grand Jurors scribbled their questions on paper and handed them to the Deputy Assistant Attorney General, after which I was brought back into the room, and given the opportunity to respond to the questions.
The process was dignified, thorough, but clearly an incremental process. Four months later, I found myself escorted once again into the halls of Pennsylvania justice, this time in a brand new government complex even more secure than the prior Strawberry Square location.
Grand juries are most often 18 months in length, with citizen jurors obliged to comply with the civic duty once per month for several days at a stretch. In some cases, grand juries are extended another 6 months. So it was no surprise that I returned 4 months after my initial testimony, this time to discuss documents.
Documents
The smoking gun of certain crimes lies in the creation of a paper trail of evidence that substantiates repetitive negligent or criminal behavior. If there’s one thing the Jehovah’s Witnesses are not lacking, it’s documents.
From the inception of Watch Tower Pennsylvania in 1884, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been in the document business. As the religion branched from printing Bibles and books to buying and selling real estate, the global corporations expanded, and so did the need to maintain centralized control over a growing member base.
By the 1970s, the Witnesses had tightened controls over congregation elders, formed Governing Body Committees, and published letters to all Elders on various corporation letterheads. They even began publishing a secret elder’s manual with strict instructions that it be concealed from anyone not an elder.
The expansion of congregation elder bodies meant that members trusted local elders to handle certain matters which would otherwise be best handled by law enforcement. Elder bodies became the police department for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
As the organization became further centralized, policy letters became the norm. While many documents dealt with routine activities for the church, other letters started to emerge which seemed to border on matters best left for law enforcement.
On July 1st, 1989, Watchtower New York issued a now-famous six-page letter to all congregation elders, labeled “confidential.” This letter warned elders not to divulge confidential information to “unauthorized” persons, including the police.
It was clear that the rising number of child abuse cases in the Organization needed to be addressed, but Watchtower insisted that their New York Legal department act as first point of contact for any elders who learn of abuse.
This letter served as the opening salvo in a policy of obstruction of justice for victims of child abuse and the law enforcement agents who could have helped them.
On December 18th, 2019, I sat before the Pennsylvania Grand Jury, listening to the reading of the entire six-page letter from 1989.
It began to hit me how serious these letters were, and how vital they are to the investigation into Jehovah’s Witnesses. Every line, every paragraph was dissected and scrutinized. And then more letters were introduced.
On March 14, 1997, Watchtower released yet another directive to elders, and this time they asked for documentation of known child abusers serving in any congregation. It was, in effect, an official announcement of a secret database of child abusers.
On Page two, the letter stated:
This single sentence has formed the basis for a series of civil lawsuits in California in which attorney Irwin Zalkin and his team have worked many years to expose, knowing that Watchtower is harboring the names of thousands of child abusers in its database. Many of the abusers are still at large and serving in positions of authority among Jehovah’s Witnesses.
These were just a few of the many letters I reviewed and certified as authentic for the Pennsylvania Grand Jury.
What Effect Will the Grand Jury Have?
I cannot speculate on the full nature of this investigation, as these proceedings are sealed off from the public and the press. The Office of the Attorney General cannot confirm or deny that there is an investigation. They cannot confirm or deny that they will seek to investigate and subpoena specific individuals, such as victims, attorneys, experts, active elders, or members of the organization who serve at the highest level.
Subpoena for the 45th Investigative Grand Jury Only those who testify, and who have not been placed under a gag order from the presiding judge may discuss their testimony, if they choose to do so. Otherwise, until their investigation is complete, they will not comment.
There are a number of possible consequences of this Grand Jury investigation, and it may take some time before we see the results. One outcome is a presentment- a recommendation that charges be filed against a person or organization. Another outcome is a formal report, like the Catholic Church report released in 2018.

Whatever the case, the Office of the Attorney General has the power to issue search warrants and subpoenas, to compel testimony, and may even cross state lines to accomplish their work.
After a lifetime in the Jehovah’s Witness organization, having seen the damaging effects of child abuse and the cover-up of these crimes, I am thankful that the Government of Pennsylvania has finally turned its attention to the organization which silenced the voices of survivors and those who champion their rights.
 

I hope every JW here reads this article.  Please!
https://jwsurvey.org/news/pennsylvania-opens-grand-jury-criminal-investigation-into-jehovahs-witnesses-jw-survey-editor-subpoenaed
Pennsylvania Opens Grand Jury Criminal Investigation Into Jehovah’s Witnesses; JW Survey Editor Subpoenaed
In 1884, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was incorporated in the Court of Common Pleas in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The movement of Charles Taze Russell became an established religious business, a tax-exempt corporation that would go on to control the lives of more than 8 million devoted followers,
One hundred years later and four hours southeast of Allegheny, I was baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a tiled, heated baptismal pool in Crownsville Maryland. I was 16.
Thirty-five years after that, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania served me with a subpoena to testify in a Grand Jury investigation into alleged criminal activity by the very same religious organization to which I devoted the formative and working years of my life. Let me explain why this happened.
I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, the only child of devoted Jehovah’s Witness parents who had embraced the religion following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the escalation of the Vietnam war. Jehovah’s Witnesses pounded the pavements of Baltimore, preaching the imminence of Armageddon.
Watchtower vice-president and oracle Frederick W. Franz famously came to Baltimore in 1966, delivering multiple conventions speeches, including the epic book-release of Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God. This 400+ page publication unveiled a shocking timetable of world events, including the revelation that 1975 would mark the most significant modern date in history.
From that moment forward, everything changed. Urgency over the date 1975 drove Witnesses into a subtle frenzy, with Organization overseers using these new revelations as spiritual cattle prods, driving many to sell their homes and preach the news of the end of the world.
When I was 8 years old, 1975 came and went, but new predictions emerged, and the old ones were revised. As a child, I could not accept that I was being lied to, so I trusted Jehovah’s Witnesses and their appointed elders.
Among the most trusted elders was a man named Charles Brineshults. Charlie, as he was known, was a long-time appointed elder, a widower, and held the distinction of being one of the elite few remaining “anointed” Jehovah’s Witnesses on Earth. He was also a serial pedophile, but I didn’t know that.
Charles “Charlie” Brineshults Even as a child my instincts told me something was not right. Brineshults shuffled from family to family, latching on to the generosity of anyone who would take him in. Of course, the homes he selected and the families he embraced all had children. Vulnerable children.
It was not until about 10 years ago during a group vacation that a close friend and longstanding elder heard the name Brineshults in conversation, and he piped in “Oh yeah, he diddled kids, you didn’t know?”

“What?” I exclaimed as I shot a piercing gaze across the South Carolina beach resort, expecting to hear this was some kind of joke. But it wasn’t. As it turns out, it was an open secret among dozens of families and nearly all of the elders in the congregation circuits I grew up in.
I was horrified. At that moment I could instantly recall sitting in the rear of a Kingdom Hall after a meeting, watching Charlie approach me with my father nearby. “Mark is so polite when he answers the phone, I am very impressed He speaks to clearly and with such maturity.”
I was barely 10 years old. Like so many others, I was unaware I was being groomed, and were it not for the screen of my extra-protective mother, I would most certainly have been one of his many victims.
And then there was Ongsingco.
Louis Ongsingco was a charismatic Watchtower-appointed pioneer minister and self-declared pied piper of the local Jehovah’s Witness children. He was engaging, well-traveled, and he liked girls. Young girls.
Louis Ongsingco Louis was a jet-setting flight attendant who frequently returned from Paris or London with expensive chocolates and other gifts for the kids he liked the most. He was also a massage therapist.
He had a smooth-talking way of conversing with teen girls, advancing his hands further and further from their shoulders to their backs, then finally blurring the lines between friendly conduct and full-on sexual assault. I saw this myself.
I was barely a teenager when I approached local elder Robert “Bob” Manke about Ongsingco’s behavior with girls. Where else would I go? My parents couldn’t control Louis, and I didn’t know that this was a matter for the police. How could I? So I trusted that Manke and the other elders would handle the situation.
They didn’t. Instead, they told Ongsingco that I had outed him, which led to severe chastisement from Louis himself. It was frightening. Meanwhile, Louis kept up his behavior, and decades passed. After leaving the Witness religion in 2013, I wanted to see what happened to this man.
After a brief investigation, I discovered that Louis Ongsingco went on to sexually assault multiple women, both Jehovah’s Witnesses, and non-Witnesses. By 2001 at least seven different women filed two lawsuits against Ongsingco.
These lawsuits are independent of additional allegations against Ongsingco, including those of two women who claim that Ongsingco placed his hands down the front of their shirts when they were teenagers.
One of those women came forward to the Atlantic in 2019 and was interviewed by journalist Doug Quenqua, who investigated Jehovah’s Witnesses in his article The Secret Database of Child abuse.
The Atlantic Article
In 2018 I was introduced to journalist Douglas Quenqua, a respected writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, CNBC, Buzzfeed, and other periodicals. Doug had learned that I had received hundreds of pages of child abuse case documents from several Jehovah’s Witness congregations, and he wanted to learn more.
Over the course of 2018, we spent a number of days discussing these documents, and why Jehovah’s Witnesses had not reported these cases to the police. The incidents were horrifying, and worse yet, they revealed that most of the perpetrators were still at large, and were in contact with children.
On March 22nd, 2019, the Atlantic released Doug’s article. 24 Hours later, two elders rang our doorbell before 10 AM. We did not answer. When we checked our security camera later, it was apparent who these men were. They were church elders from the Perry Hall Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Maryland.
One of the two elders is the father of a woman who was sexually assaulted by not one, but two Jehovah’s Witness men. The men were Brineshults and Ongsingco.
 
Two Church Elders at my door, seeking to disfellowship I remember thinking how pathetic it was to be chased down by the very men who have been covering up child abuse for years, and whose children were among the victims.
On April 14th, 2019, Watchtower representative and local church elder Joel Raniolo mailed two certified letters to my home, demanding that we attend a judicial hearing at the Perry Hall church. When reached, Raniolo refused to divulge why he had sent the letters, and how he had obtained our personal information.
On May 14th, 2019, another Church elder announced to the Perry Hall congregation that Mark and Kimberly O’Donnell are no longer Jehovah’s Witnesses. It had been 35 years since my indoctrination and baptism back in February 1984.
The Pennsylvania Grand Jury
In the weeks following the release of the Atlantic article, national and global attention became focused on the Jehovah’s Witness religion. In particular, the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General took notice of the allegations of corruption within the Witness Organization.
The State of Pennsylvania is no stranger to the cover-up of abuse within religious organizations. In 2018, the Attorney General’s office released the results of a two-year investigation into the Catholic church, following multiple substantiated reports of child sexual abuse and corresponding cover-ups.
On July 2nd, 2019 I was interviewed in my home by the Deputy Assistant Attorney General of Pennsylvania, along with a Special Investigator for the State. For more than three hours I provided documentation and details concerning the policies and practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses, especially in connection with child abuse.
On July 29th a Special Investigator arrived at my Baltimore home and served a subpoena for me to appear before the 45th Investigative Grand Jury of the State of Pennsylvania.
Finally, on August 22nd, 2019, I arrived at the State Capitol before 7.30 AM and was sworn in by Judge J. Wesley Oler in his chambers. Moments later I entered the large Grand Jury room, where 23 grand jurors and approximately 12-15 alternates were stationed at their desks, positioned to take notes and record their questions on paper.
A Grand Jury is a special tool used by state and federal governments to investigate criminal allegations against persons or institutions. The powers of grand juries are wide-ranging and potent. They include the ability to subpoena and compel witnesses to testify, and those witnesses are encouraged to speak freely and without fear of reprisal.
Any form of retaliation is taken seriously by the office of the Attorney General and the presiding judge. Of course, Jehovah’s Witnesses had already executed retaliation on my wife and me in response to our efforts to shed light on the epidemic child abuse problem within the religion.
My testimony lasted more than two straight hours as I sat facing the Grand Jury and the Deputy Attorney General, together with several State Attorneys and Special Investigators.

Grand Juries can be cathartic experiences for cooperative witnesses who testify on the side of civil justice. That was my experience.
For the first half of my initial testimony, I recounted my personal history within the Jehovah’s Witness religion, beginning with my religiously isolated childhood. It was an opportunity to share my experiences with a large group of citizens who will ultimately make important decisions when they vote on the choices presented to them.
There were moments of levity amidst the proceedings, including a curious exchange in which I discussed the history of the Witnesses’ custom Bible, the New World Translation. I explained how the translation was largely the brainchild of Frederick W. Franz, whose linguistic education was limited to a maximum of two years study of Greek, and no training in Hebrew.
The irony of this information was not lost upon the investigating members of the Grand Jury.
The Grand Jury and the JW Organization
As the morning progressed, my testimony turned North to the driving force behind the reason these people were assembled in this room- to comprehend whether the religious hierarchy which drives this religion is responsible for the failure to report the crime of child abuse.
A large whiteboard was placed to my left, facing the grand jurors. At the very top, the letters “GB” were written in large letters, then circled. It was clear that the Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania understood that the decisions and power of this religion lay at the top of a complicated network of corporations, congregations, Circuit Overseers, and churchgoers.
I spent some time attempting to explain the spider web of mechanisms used by Jehovah’s Witnesses, describing the difference between their view of the spiritual and the legal.
Branch Committees, Corporations, Circuit Overseers, Congregations, Elders, Ministerial Servants, Pioneers, Publishers- all of these found their way to the diagram of the Witness organization. Lines were drawn connecting all of the organizational machinery which comprises the Jehovah’s Witness religion. In the end, all roads terminated at the Governing Body.
After testifying for more than two hours, I was excused and held in a waiting area while the Grand Jurors scribbled their questions on paper and handed them to the Deputy Assistant Attorney General, after which I was brought back into the room, and given the opportunity to respond to the questions.
The process was dignified, thorough, but clearly an incremental process. Four months later, I found myself escorted once again into the halls of Pennsylvania justice, this time in a brand new government complex even more secure than the prior Strawberry Square location.
Grand juries are most often 18 months in length, with citizen jurors obliged to comply with the civic duty once per month for several days at a stretch. In some cases, grand juries are extended another 6 months. So it was no surprise that I returned 4 months after my initial testimony, this time to discuss documents.
Documents
The smoking gun of certain crimes lies in the creation of a paper trail of evidence that substantiates repetitive negligent or criminal behavior. If there’s one thing the Jehovah’s Witnesses are not lacking, it’s documents.
From the inception of Watch Tower Pennsylvania in 1884, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been in the document business. As the religion branched from printing Bibles and books to buying and selling real estate, the global corporations expanded, and so did the need to maintain centralized control over a growing member base.
By the 1970s, the Witnesses had tightened controls over congregation elders, formed Governing Body Committees, and published letters to all Elders on various corporation letterheads. They even began publishing a secret elder’s manual with strict instructions that it be concealed from anyone not an elder.
The expansion of congregation elder bodies meant that members trusted local elders to handle certain matters which would otherwise be best handled by law enforcement. Elder bodies became the police department for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
As the organization became further centralized, policy letters became the norm. While many documents dealt with routine activities for the church, other letters started to emerge which seemed to border on matters best left for law enforcement.
On July 1st, 1989, Watchtower New York issued a now-famous six-page letter to all congregation elders, labeled “confidential.” This letter warned elders not to divulge confidential information to “unauthorized” persons, including the police.
It was clear that the rising number of child abuse cases in the Organization needed to be addressed, but Watchtower insisted that their New York Legal department act as first point of contact for any elders who learn of abuse.
This letter served as the opening salvo in a policy of obstruction of justice for victims of child abuse and the law enforcement agents who could have helped them.
On December 18th, 2019, I sat before the Pennsylvania Grand Jury, listening to the reading of the entire six-page letter from 1989.
It began to hit me how serious these letters were, and how vital they are to the investigation into Jehovah’s Witnesses. Every line, every paragraph was dissected and scrutinized. And then more letters were introduced.
On March 14, 1997, Watchtower released yet another directive to elders, and this time they asked for documentation of known child abusers serving in any congregation. It was, in effect, an official announcement of a secret database of child abusers.
On Page two, the letter stated:
This single sentence has formed the basis for a series of civil lawsuits in California in which attorney Irwin Zalkin and his team have worked many years to expose, knowing that Watchtower is harboring the names of thousands of child abusers in its database. Many of the abusers are still at large and serving in positions of authority among Jehovah’s Witnesses.
These were just a few of the many letters I reviewed and certified as authentic for the Pennsylvania Grand Jury.
What Effect Will the Grand Jury Have?
I cannot speculate on the full nature of this investigation, as these proceedings are sealed off from the public and the press. The Office of the Attorney General cannot confirm or deny that there is an investigation. They cannot confirm or deny that they will seek to investigate and subpoena specific individuals, such as victims, attorneys, experts, active elders, or members of the organization who serve at the highest level.
Subpoena for the 45th Investigative Grand Jury Only those who testify, and who have not been placed under a gag order from the presiding judge may discuss their testimony, if they choose to do so. Otherwise, until their investigation is complete, they will not comment.
There are a number of possible consequences of this Grand Jury investigation, and it may take some time before we see the results. One outcome is a presentment- a recommendation that charges be filed against a person or organization. Another outcome is a formal report, like the Catholic Church report released in 2018.

Whatever the case, the Office of the Attorney General has the power to issue search warrants and subpoenas, to compel testimony, and may even cross state lines to accomplish their work.
After a lifetime in the Jehovah’s Witness organization, having seen the damaging effects of child abuse and the cover-up of these crimes, I am thankful that the Government of Pennsylvania has finally turned its attention to the organization which silenced the voices of survivors and those who champion their rights.
 

Their state of "no interest" is fostered by the lack of integrity.  If the organization's leaders were to show integrity, they would feel obligated to inform their members.  Out of love for their neighbor, they would make it happen. Matt 22:39  Out of love for Christ's teachings, they would make it happen. John 14:15 Instead, they uphold their "unrighteous decrees".     Isa 10:1-4; Rom 2:5   
If only JWs would not put up with unrighteousness.  
  "Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain
    is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked."  Prov 25:26     

The Montana case has been re-filed!
As of February 6th, 2020, plaintiffs Nunez and McGowan have re-filed their claim in Sanders county, where the original trial was held. 
I know I am going to get a lot of questions on this case so please be patient. 
To give you the short explanation, this case is being filed on the basis of willful negligence on the part of Thompson Falls elders, Watch Tower Pennsylvania, and Watchtower of New York.
The original trial was predicated upon the decision by Judge Manley that Watchtower had broken Montana's mandatory reporting law. While we believe this to be correct, the Supreme Court decided that Watchtower was entitled to the clergy-penitent loophole, indicating that they had no choice but to allow Jehovah's Witnesses to take advantage of this poorly-written law.
Now that the Montana Supreme court has made this ruling, this case reverts back to some decisions which were rendered prior to the trial involving negligence. 
The simple way to say this is that Lexi and Holly's attorneys were not given the opportunity to properly make their case for negligence because the judge had already assessed fault to Watchtower for failure to report. 
Hence we are going back to the drawing board in making the assertion that despite Montana's laws, Watchtower and the elders will still willfully negligent in their practices.
Another way to say this is that even when a person or organization is technically innocent of breaking a law, they can still be sued for negligence. 
In the Montana case, the elders were absolutely negligent in failing to warn and protect Lexi and Holly after learning of the dangers of being cared for by a known child predator. 
Additionally, there have been updates in Montana law following the 2018 trial where the Statues of Limitations for civil liability have been extended, and which allow Lexi to file her case once again without fear of the expiration of SOL.
And finally, we have one more piece of news in this case: 
Watch Tower of Pennsylvania has been added as a defendant in this case, despite the vocal protests of Watchtower attorneys from New York. There have been additional revelations and documents secured which contradict Watchtower's original claims that Watch Tower Pennsylvania is not involved in child abuse cases, and that they are only involved in copyright matters. 
Documents obtained reveal that Watch Tower Pennsylvania has assets well exceeding one billion dollars, plus multiple offshore bank accounts and investments. 
I want to thank everyone who has ever provided leaked information, documents, and details which provide proof that all of these Watchtower corporations are just alter egos for one another and for the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses. 
Enough is enough. It's time to pull back the veil of secrecy and hold this organization accountable for its destructive influence upon millions of followers, particularly the vulnerable children who have suffered for so long. 
WE'RE GOING BACK TO MONTANA!!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2649615928590652&id=100006268126035
 

https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/oxygens-the-witnesses-alleges-jehovahs-witnesses-hid-child-abuse/

The Montana case has been re-filed!
As of February 6th, 2020, plaintiffs Nunez and McGowan have re-filed their claim in Sanders county, where the original trial was held. 
I know I am going to get a lot of questions on this case so please be patient. 
To give you the short explanation, this case is being filed on the basis of willful negligence on the part of Thompson Falls elders, Watch Tower Pennsylvania, and Watchtower of New York.
The original trial was predicated upon the decision by Judge Manley that Watchtower had broken Montana's mandatory reporting law. While we believe this to be correct, the Supreme Court decided that Watchtower was entitled to the clergy-penitent loophole, indicating that they had no choice but to allow Jehovah's Witnesses to take advantage of this poorly-written law.
Now that the Montana Supreme court has made this ruling, this case reverts back to some decisions which were rendered prior to the trial involving negligence. 
The simple way to say this is that Lexi and Holly's attorneys were not given the opportunity to properly make their case for negligence because the judge had already assessed fault to Watchtower for failure to report. 
Hence we are going back to the drawing board in making the assertion that despite Montana's laws, Watchtower and the elders will still willfully negligent in their practices.
Another way to say this is that even when a person or organization is technically innocent of breaking a law, they can still be sued for negligence. 
In the Montana case, the elders were absolutely negligent in failing to warn and protect Lexi and Holly after learning of the dangers of being cared for by a known child predator. 
Additionally, there have been updates in Montana law following the 2018 trial where the Statues of Limitations for civil liability have been extended, and which allow Lexi to file her case once again without fear of the expiration of SOL.
And finally, we have one more piece of news in this case: 
Watch Tower of Pennsylvania has been added as a defendant in this case, despite the vocal protests of Watchtower attorneys from New York. There have been additional revelations and documents secured which contradict Watchtower's original claims that Watch Tower Pennsylvania is not involved in child abuse cases, and that they are only involved in copyright matters. 
Documents obtained reveal that Watch Tower Pennsylvania has assets well exceeding one billion dollars, plus multiple offshore bank accounts and investments. 
I want to thank everyone who has ever provided leaked information, documents, and details which provide proof that all of these Watchtower corporations are just alter egos for one another and for the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses. 
Enough is enough. It's time to pull back the veil of secrecy and hold this organization accountable for its destructive influence upon millions of followers, particularly the vulnerable children who have suffered for so long. 
WE'RE GOING BACK TO MONTANA!!

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