What Does A Secret Database Kept By Jehovah’s Witnesses Reveal About Potential Sexual Abusers?

[Isabella]

The organization allegedly directed elders in all of its United States congregations to send detailed reports on members facing an allegation of sexually abusing a child to its headquarters.

Since the late 1990s blue envelopes from Jehovah’s Witness congregations across the country have been sent to the organization’s headquarters. But, it’s the information inside those envelopes that contain damaging secrets. 

The blue envelopes contained detailed reports of members within the religion accused of child molestation. Officials scanned those documents into a database of files for each congregation, according to a sworn deposition by an official with The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society obtained by Reveal, the website for the Center for Investigative Reporting. 

But the specific details within that database have largely remained a secret—despite court orders and calls from the public to release its contents, leading some to accuse the organization of concealing suspected child abusers. 

The child abuse files were collected after the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society—the organization that oversees the Jehovah’s Witnesses—sent a request in March 1997 to all of its United States congregations requesting that each congregation write a detailed report about anyone within the religion who had been accused of child molestation and send it to the headquarters in the special blue envelope, according to The Atlantic

Full article: https://www.oxygen.com/the-witnesses/crime-news/jehovahs-witnesses-keep-secret-database-of-potential-sexual-predators

[TrueTomHarley]

There were blue envelopes but they were for relating the disfellowshipping of any person for any reason. The idea was that someone disciplined for any sort of wrongdoing could not just slip into a new congregation as though a rebuke had never happened. Presumably, the envelopes were blue for privacy’s sake, so they would be forwarded to the right persons.

Today, It is painted specifically as though it was for CSA. That was not the case. It was for any type of wrongdoing.

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

1 hour ago, TrueTomHarley said:

There were blue envelopes but they were for relating the disfellowshipping of any person for any reason.

You are wrong, TTH.

The blue envelopes were ONLY for CSA reporting.

Isabella is correct.

"Normal" disfellowshipping reporting to central control is done on a standard form.

If you have some references to the contrary, please provide them, and I will beg your humble pardon.... when they are checked out.

[TrueTomHarley]

3 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

The blue envelopes were ONLY for CSA reporting.

Well, in the face of such a confident challenge (given that you always speak that way).....I’m not iron-clad sure, big boy. But I think so. I was an elder for 20 years until about 2000. I served as secretary for most of those years. Blue envelopes were well-known to me and to the elder body. Yet I never sat in on or forwarded any judicial case involving CSA. So I start to revert back to what I said in the first place—for me to recall them so well, even submitting them I think, they would have had to have been for any form of wrongdoing. 

Furthermore, had there been a specific request, in 1997 or any other time, to write detailed reports of anyone in the congregation who had.ever been accused of CSA, I certainly would have remembered it, because I would have been the one charged to do it. I would not have been like Pilosi ripping up the letter. I took letter-writing seriously, something that should hardly be a surprise to anyone.

So that’s my evidence. I could be wrong—20 years time is enough to forget details—but I don’t think so. What is your evidence? Do you have any? Or are you just repeating what you have read on the internet?

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

TTH:

I am just repeating what I learned from the internet, but one of those sources was watching the Australian Royal Commission Hearings  No. 29, and 52, which emphasized that CSA reports were sent to N.Y. in "special" blue envelopes.

I have read about that in several disparate sources, and seen video recordings, and read court transcripts, which all indicated that CSA reporting was done in "special" blue envelopes.

Perhaps I misunderstood, but I don't think so ...

No one ever mentioned that they were used for "normal" submissions, always referring to then as "special" blue envelopes, or merely as "blue envelopes".

I listen very carefully, making mental pictures as I listen, or read, and I have a lifetime of experience creating documents (drawings, specifications, reports, and other engineering documents ..) so details are important.to me ... making me a pest in normal human conversations. People tend to resent being cross examined for details and minutia, which is necessary to build a sharp mental picture.

Perhaps you could ask your Congregation Secretary?

Here is a representative example of "blue envelope" references. This one from "The Atlantic", by Douglas Quenqua, April 3, 2019, referring to a Watchtower Lawyer referred to CSA reporting as "blue envelopes".

 

UPDATE:  I found the original letter to Congregations about the "special blue envelopes", so here it is, directly from "the horse's mouth", so to speak.  The "Special Blue" envelope is called for on Page 3 of the letter to all bodies of Elders. (pdf file attached).

 

SPECIAL BLUE ENVELOPES .pdf

 

======================================================

 

 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

17 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

There were blue envelopes but they were for relating the disfellowshipping of any person for any reason. The idea was that someone disciplined for any sort of wrongdoing could not just slip into a new congregation as though a rebuke had never happened. Presumably, the envelopes were blue for privacy’s sake, so they would be forwarded to the right persons.

Today, It is painted specifically as though it was for CSA. That was not the case. It was for any type of wrongdoing.

And do you have proof of that Tom ?  i doubt it very much. 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

13 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Well, in the face of such a confident challenge (given that you always speak that way).....I’m not iron-clad sure, big boy. But I think so. I was an elder for 20 years until about 2000. I served as secretary for most of those years. Blue envelopes were well-known to me and to the elder body. Yet I never sat in on or forwarded any judicial case involving CSA. So I start to revert back to what I said in the first place—for me to recall them so well, even submitting them I think, they would have had to have been for any form of wrongdoing. 

Furthermore, had there been a specific request, in 1997 or any other time, to write detailed reports of anyone in the congregation who had.ever been accused of CSA, I certainly would have remembered it, because I would have been the one charged to do it. I would not have been like Pilosi ripping up the letter. I took letter-writing seriously, something that should hardly be a surprise to anyone.

So that’s my evidence. I could be wrong—20 years time is enough to forget details—but I don’t think so. What is your evidence? Do you have any? Or are you just repeating what you have read on the internet?

Um, I remember saying that this forum was full of elders.

And now i also know why Mr Harley is so bitter toward the truth about JW Org. 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

@Isabella Thank you for this information which has been discussed on this forum previously but it's nice to have a refresh. 

There are many things that I don't quite understand about the GB / their lawyers and JW ORG. 

(An interesting side note here is this :- Mr Tom Harley, the very sarcastic story teller, tells me that I know nothing. However I do wonder if his attitude was the same toward people when he was an Elder. )

To continue :

This American GB / JW Org Database was, so we believe, started in 1997. = 23 years ago.

However the Australian Royal Commission, that found 1006 CSA accusations in JW Org Australia, went back 50 years. 

Now JW Org is an American based religion. It started in the USA. So, if Australia Bethel has Paedophilia reports going back over 50 years. WHY does American Bethel only have a database going back just 23 years ?

Next point : I do not have knowledge of how the ARC obtained the 50 plus years of information. Did the Aus Bethel offer the information or did the ARC demand the information ? Either way and even if, court proceeding occurred, the information was obtained by the ARC and was used to make a full investigation.

Now here in the UK, I understand that when the Charity Commission asked for similar information from the UK Bethel, that the UK HQ refused to hand it over. I understand that a court case occurred and that the UK Bethel lost the case and had to hand over the information. That is how I understand it, and I've never dug deep into it. 

But in both case, Australia and UK , the records of Child Sexual Abuse were handed over to those people in authority that were investigating the JW Org. 

The scripture relating to being in submission to the Superior Authorities would fit well here.

It should also be noted, or so my information has it, that the Charity Commission has not closed it's investigation but it is ongoing. Add to this that the IICSA investigation is also in progress here in the UK.

So where does that leave the GB and it's Lawyers in America ?  

We could ask many questions about God's role in all this, and the role of Christ Jesus. 

In my opinion, God and Christ have washed their hands of it all. How can that which is Holy be involved with that which is not holy. We now know that the GB and their Lawyers are not inspired of God. We also know that the GB has given permission or instruction for the Elders to deliberately tell lies. They are calling it 'spiritual warfare'. Is that really God's viewpoint ? 

It seems though that there is now a big divide in the different Bethels / JW HQs around the earth. Each country is no longer living 'as one organisation earthwide' all serving God. But each Bethel is 'doing it's own thing' when it come protecting itself against the courts and media coverage concerning Child Sexual Abuse within the CCJW. It seems as if the GB are losing control. 

The news about the UK congregations money and their properties being taken over by an outside source seems to fit in well here.

 

[TrueTomHarley]

JTR: I was circumspect in my answer because, after 20 years, I didn’t want to be reckless. Recollections can fade after that much time. I wanted to be sure as I dusted off the cobwebs of my back memory. You were so firm in your counter-response that I thought maybe you were aware of something concrete. But now I learn that 

19 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I am just repeating what I learned from the internet,

Of course! All as reported by those who would be happy if JWs were to vanish off the planet. I go back to my own memory of things with more confidence.

19 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

No one ever mentioned that they were used for "normal" submissions, always referring to then as "special" blue envelopes, or merely as "blue envelopes".

Of course they were ‘special’ but the question not addressed is ‘What was special about them?’ They were special because they were the reports of judicial committees reporting disfellowshipping for any reason. You think that’s not ‘special?’ Do you think that half the mail volume at Bethel is reports of people disfellowshipped?

The idea behind sending such reports in a color coded envelope was so that Madge, the Bethel secretary, or whoever was filling in for her, would not be the one to open them. Blue envelopes were forward directly to Della White, Perry Bethel’s private secretary. As judicial reports, they would contain sensitive material that you didn’t want to broadcast to every Tom, Dick, or Madge. 

The idea behind all reports was so when someone was disfellowshipped in one congregation, he just couldn’t slip back into another congregation with his past expunged and start anew.  Any religion ‘policing its own’ would of course have such an arrangement. Since few, if any, did, it will sound quite novel. What they did with the info I don’t know. Perhaps just kept them filed away by name after a quick review in case that name ever came up again from another congregation.

As to writing detailed reports of anyone ever accused of CSA, as I said, I certainly would have remembered that because I would have been the one charged to write it. I suppose it is possible that such a request was received and I do not recall it because we didn’t have anyone to write about. Maybe I wasn’t even serving as an elder by 97, though my recollection was that it was about 99 or 00 that I discontinued serving. I do get a little hazy as to which years I served as secretary and which not, but it would have been most of them and certainly the ones at the tail end of my service. I suppose I could dig up some records and check, but

19 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Perhaps you could ask your Congregation Secretary?

Would it make a difference? Or if the answer came back not what you have already concluded, would you not just say that he is a ‘company man’ saying whatever he thinks will cover his own rear end and that of HQ? As it is, 4Jah demands what proof I have that what I answered to you is the truth. The moron! The ‘proof’ I offered was the greatest proof any individual can offer—the evidence of an eye-witness. 

For many years I always had 3 or 4 of those blue envelopes in my desk, for whenever the need might arise. Use one, and they would send another in the next literature order, or maybe separately. Every other congregation secretary had a few of them as well. Yet I never sat in on or reported one matter of CSA. Therefore, they were for general ‘judicial’ use, and ‘special’ for that reason.

 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

That is not what the Watchtower Lawyer told the courts, or what is stated in the 1997 letter to all Elders, on page 3 ... of my last post that had a .jpg of the blue envelope.

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

Dear Elder @TrueTomHarley it appears that  @James Thomas Rook Jr.  has just proven YOU to be LIAR.

So now YOU are showing YOURSELF to be the MORON. 

This quaint idea of 'memory loss of convenience' for you, does not convince anyone that you speak truth. 

What is obvious though Tom, is that my speaking truth upsets you greatly. The proof of that is your continuing insults of me. You call me a moron, you reply to Anna, that I know knowing at all. It is a continual bombardment of insults from you, an (ex) Elder. 

I think it was James that said 'De nial isn't just a river in Egypt' How right he was. 

Tom, you push this idea as a pretence, quote  " All as reported by those who would be happy if JWs were to vanish off the planet. " 

You try to use this idea as a way to discredit people and reports, that tell the truth about the GB and the JW Org.  In fact Tom, some of those you try to discredit are your Brothers. 

 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

4 hours ago, 4Jah2me said:

Dear Elder @TrueTomHarley it appears that  @James Thomas Rook Jr.  has just proven YOU to be LIAR.

Not necessarily ... I used to be a pretty good detective, and I can see a few loose ends that need to be tied up and resolved before your statement would be correct.

I think your judgement is premature or possibly wrong for any number of legitimate reasons.

Some based in fact, some based in human perceptions.

My considered opinion is that he is just wrong ... but I may not know everything there is to know.

According to best available (AVAILABLE !!) evidence, I am correct, or, with the full expectation that every word I speak will be (and should be) challenged emphatically ... I would have not made the statements.

As Marvin Webster sez: "Y'all think about it!"