Jehovah's Witness Allow Predator to "Grill" Victim

SNAP
May 23, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/ireland_jehovah_s_witness_allow_predator_to_grill_victim

One of the most difficult—but important—things that a survivor of sexual abuse can do is report the crime and put a predator behind bars. That's what the victims in this case did. They worked with law enforcement to ensure that Jonathan Rose was arrested, convicted and jailed for molesting two little girls.

But to the Jehovah's Witnesses, that was not enough to "prove" Rose's guilt. Allowing a convicted—or a credibly accused predator—to "grill" victims is shocking and disgraceful. It breeds fear in victims that they, too, will be unprotected, revictimized and shunned by their faith community if they are ever brave enough to come forward and report crimes to police.

The Jehovah's Witness elders who participated in this shameful activity should immediately remove themselves from any position of authority in the church, apologize to victims, and immediately rewrite any church rules that would allow "inquisitions" like this to continue. Until then, we have to believe that the Jehovah's Witnesses will only continue to protect and embrace child predators at the risk of children globally.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 18,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)