Jehovah's Witnesses Speak Out: Part One

Keep the faith or lose the family

By Bobbi Dugan

Many of the former Jehovah's Witnesses interviewed for this article gave permission to use their last names. Some asked us not to. To protect all those who shared their stories, and to spare their families further difficulties, we have used first names only for most participants.

What began as a simple news article about a religion's attempt to shut down a gay Web site, turned into a months-long investigation that uncovered physical and emotional abuse, spies and enforcers, and scores of broken families. It isn't an easy read. This shouldn't happen in the United States. But it does--and in every other nation that has been infiltrated by the secretive and manipulative religion known as Jehovah's Witnesses. A panel of gay former Jehovah's Witnesses, invited by Echo to a round table discussion for this article, testified they grew up knowing two things for certain: Some day they would be discovered. And when they were, they would lose their religion and probably all contact with loved ones. Fear and the anticipation of punishment is what their faith bestowed upon them from birth. Like many religions, Jehovah's Witnesses doctrine does not permit sexual activity outside of marriage. But the members of the panel believe this religion seeks out sexual sinners--especially gays--and when it finds them, it sets out to discredit them and to cut off family ties.

Cult or Sect?

Experts disagree on whether Jehovah's Witnesses is a cult or merely a strange sect. They do agree the group has precipitated psychological damage on members. Rick Ross is an internationally known cult expert and intervention specialist. He states, "I do not regard the Witnesses as a cult--although many do. Instead, my view of the group is that they are a totalitarian and destructive group that employs coercive thought reform techniques." Ross acknowledges he has not had specific experience with gay former Jehovah's Witnesses, but he understands well what they have suffered. "I have been retained for interventions regarding Jehovah's Witnesses .... The group employs isolation, coercive persuasion and unreasonable fear to manipulate potential recruits and retain its members."

Panel member Scott M. (pictured above) calls Jehovah's Witnesses a cult. He shakes with emotion when he talks about how narrowly he escaped its clutches. Scott keeps a large vegetable crate filled with books, magazine articles, and Internet downloads about Jehovah's Witnesses and cults. Scott offers the material as proof of the abuse he endured growing up a Jehovah's Witness.

Brainwashing is a word the young gay man uses when he talks about his childhood. He has a list called "Eight Marks of a Mind-Control Cult" from the book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, by Robert J. Lifton. Scott ticks off the areas in which Jehovah's Witnesses earn an "A."

Isolation - Members are separated from society, forbidden educational media that might provoke critical thinking. Information is kept on each recruit by the mother organization. All are watched.

Mystical manipulation - God will punish "bad" members with accidents, ill will, loss of material goods, etc. "Good" members will be rewarded.

Demand for purity - World is black or white, good or evil. Guilt and shame are used to control individuals. All things "evil" must be avoided.

Confession - Serious sins (as defined by the group) are to be confessed immediately. Members are encouraged to spy and report on one another.

Sacred "truth" - The cult holds the only truth. Its ideology is too "sacred" to call into question. Cult leaders must be treated with absolute reverence.

Thought-terminating cliches - These are expressions or words designed to end conversation or controversy. They are easily memorized and said. Jehovah's Witnesses use such catch-phrases as "the truth," the "mother organization," "apostates" and "worldly."

People vs. doctrine - Human experience and knowledge are subordinated to doctrine. Members are valuable only if they conform to doctrine. Common sense or logic is disregarded.

The right to live - The group decides who has the right to exist and who does not. Outsiders can be "sinned" against in the form of lying, deception, separation from families, etc., because "outsiders are not fit to exist."

"I think being gay actually saved me," Scott said of his time in what he considers a dangerous cult. Scott knew his sexual orientation at an early age. He also knew the Jehovah's Witnesses would not tolerate it. So he simply refused to be baptized into the group. He walked away at 18. But Scott believes he still is recovering from those first 18 years of his life.

David and Goliath

Jim Moon joined the Jehovah's Witnesses at about the same age Scott was when he left. Like Scott, Moon knew his sexual orientation. He said the Jehovah's Witnesses elder who recruited him in 1975 also knew. The elder told Moon it didn't matter, because Armageddon was imminent, and after that it would be okay to be gay. "They offered me immortality," Moon said. "Who could refuse?" When the end of the world did not happen on schedule--a problem that has plagued Jehovah's Witnesses throughout their history--Moon was left to deal with the incompatibility of his sexuality and his religion. Eventually, he was pressured out of the sect. The resulting trauma led him to become webmaster of A Common Bond, an Internet gay Jehovah's Witnesses support group.

The San Francisco-based site Moon now operates was blocked after his Internet server received a complaint from the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society, Inc., the Jehovah's Witnesses' controlling corporation. When his site went down, Moon sent out a distress call on the Internet. "On July 24, 1998, our group's Web site was blocked access by GeoCities, where this site was formerly located," Moon wrote. He acknowledged that he was not surprised by the action. A Common Bond "had been the target for some time of hate mail from current cult members, and explicit threats that they would attempt to close the site down somehow," Moon said. GeoCities told Moon the block was because of an alleged "copyright infringement." A Common Bond had posted an illustration from a Watchtower book, Knowledge That Leads to Everlasting Light. Moon wrote, "The illustration is supposed to be a depiction of the resurrection ... but it depicts same-sex couples embracing. The subliminal message is profound, to say the least." GeoCities told Moon to work things out with Richard Moake of the Watchtower, who lodged the original complaint. Moon wrote to Moake that although the Watchtower might perceive A Common Bond as "a threat to your religious organization," the site had a constitutional right to free speech. He maintained since the illustration was used "expressly for the purpose of education and information" its use was not in violation of copyright laws. Based on years of experience with the cult, Moon didn't expect the Watchtower to budge. However, after flooding the Internet with the discrimination story, and after GeoCities received "thousands of complaints worldwide," the Web site was restored within four days, sans the offending graphic. The unpleasant experience caused A Common Bond to obtain its own URL. Now when you log on to www.gayxjw.org, you are confronted with the infamous illustration, middle blanked out. "Hey!!" text in the blank part reads, "What happened to the picture?? Click here to find out how the Watchtower tried to shut us down."

Moake was unavailable for comment. But a spokesperson for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society did speak to Echo. The Society's director of public affairs, James Pellechia, declined to comment on the legalities of Moon's use of the photo, saying he is not a lawyer. He added, however, "We are not in the business of shutting down Web sites." Pellechia also said the Society would not "target" groups comprising former JWs. "We would ask any Web site using copyrighted material to remove that material," Pellechia said. When you click, you get the entire censorship story, ending with "Our group is grateful to Richard Moake for unwittingly publicizing our group, and this Web site." For Moon, it was a minor victory against an all-powerful organization, but a sweet one.

Through Moon and A Common Bond, Echo located dozens of gay former-JWs. all eager to tell their stories. The tales were frightening and sadly similar. But to understand the extent to which Jehovah's Witnesses control and alter people's lives, it is necessary to understand the organization itself.

Apostles of Denial

In 1970, Edmond Charles Gruss, a religious history professor at the Los Angeles Baptist College and Theological Seminary, wrote a scholarly exposé and history of the Jehovah's Witnesses titled, Apostles of Denial. Gruss described the defining characteristic of the sect: If any facts in the long history of Christianity did not suit what the Witnesses chose to believe they would merely deny the existence of those facts. He also wrote that the group went so far as to translate and publish its own version of the Bible, which conveniently changed key words to make scripture fit JW theology.

Charles Taze Russell (pictured) founded Jehovah's Witnesses in the late 19th century. But according to Gruss, "The Jehovah's Witnesses claim the first of their number was Abel, and that they are the modern-day representatives of the line of Bible witnesses mentioned in the Old and New Testaments." Gruss calls the lineage claim preposterous. In 1870, at age 18, the charismatic Russell started a Bible study class. It soon became wildly popular, and the students' adoration went to Russell's head. In 1879, he founded The Herald of the Morning, which later became The Watchtower. The newsletter showcased Russell's religious theories and scriptural interpretations. As more people flocked to him, and as the sect's coffers began to fill, Russell went commercial. In 1884 he established the Zion's Watchtower Tract Society (now the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc.). It was then the sect entered into its present-day area of domination, publishing its own versions of "The Truth."

Once Russell discovered the power of the printed word, his ambition could not be contained. He spent the rest of his ministry stumping from town to town, church to church, selling his slick tracts, books and magazines. Russell convinced his target market that it needed to purchase his publications, because the Bible could be properly understood only through his interpretations. A showman as well as a preacher, Russell realized the best way to get people's attention was to hit them between the eyes--with The End of the World. He dramatically predicted specific dates for the long-awaited occurrence. Alas, time and again the big day came and went with no End in sight. This was but a minor problem for Russell. He lost followers whenever the Apocalypse failed to materialize, but like P.T. Barnum, Russell knew a sucker is born every minute. There always were new lambs to join the fold.

Awake! And open your wallets

In his book Saleskids, Duane Magnani, wrote, "From a simple bible class in the 1870s has sprung one of the world's fastest growing and most influential cults of the 20th century ... because many billions of books, magazines and other publications have been sold to the public in the name of the Watchtower Society." The January 1986 Watchtower revealed that in 1985, at the height of its publishing prowess, "Jehovah's Witnesses placed nearly 39 million Bibles, books, and booklets in the field, as well as more than 300 million magazines." Watchtower, considered by the sect to be the official word of Jehovah, and Awake, which many experts tag a superior example of propaganda, along with the Bible are the flagships of the JW publication fleet.

For years, Jehovah's Witnesses raked in the converts and the money, Magnani claims. It was easy to make a profit on the publications. The salespeople were herds of JW offspring, trained from early childhood to peddle the magazines door to door. The money was turned over to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, which supposedly used it only to produce more books and magazines.
However, Randall Watters, author of Free Minds Journal, has done extensive investigation into the Watchtower's publishing business. He once was a printer for the organization. In Watters' opinion, publishing has been a moneymaker for Jehovah's Witnesses since the beginning. "The most expensive cost in printing is usually the labor," Watters explains. "The Watchtower has solved that problem by having all their work done by volunteers--none are paid. Second, there is no middleman to be paid--the Watchtower does all the advertising, marketing and shipping. Third, the more copies of a book printed, the lower its cost."

The Watchtower also has its own printing presses, binderies, and other necessities of the trade.
Watters goes on to report, "The Watchtower has created an instant market for its publications. To release just one new book at a yearly District Assembly brings automatic sales of at least five million books." As a tax-exempt religion, the U.S. branch of Jehovah's Witnesses is very secretive about how it is financed. Watters writes, "They fail to disclose their primary source of income. Rather, they seek to convey the impression that their income comes strictly through free will contributions, with a few estates denoted as well. No mention is made of the major source of their income, which is the distribution of books and magazines." Since 1990, the U.S. government has forbidden Jehovah's Witnesses to sell publications without paying taxes on the income, because the sect claims nonprofit status, Watters said.
However, the children and their parents still go through neighborhoods ringing doorbells. Now, they ask for "donations." And the Society gives its solicitors "instructions on how to suggest the old prices for Watchtower and Awake subscriptions," Watters says.

Go Forth and Tell All Nations

In many countries, laws governing religious moneymaking are not as strict as in the U.S. Perhaps that is one reason for the phenomenal growth of the Jehovah's Witnesses in other nations. In 1997, official Watchtower figures claimed nearly 5.6 million members* in 232 "lands." Nearly 1 million of those members live in the U.S. More interesting than the numbers is the ratio of Witnesses to the population. In the U.S., for instance, the Watchtower lists one Witness for every 274 non-Witnesses. In Curaçao, it is 1 to 97. In Guadeloupe, 1 to 52.
The religion is growing rapidly in many African nations, especially those where fundamentalist Christianity already has a toehold.
In Zimbabwe, where anti-gay sentiment is nearly out of control and religious fervor is high, the ratio is 1 to 475. But in non-Christian countries, such as India, few inroads have been made. There the ratio is 1 to 56,919. It is difficult to determine what the Watchtower means by "lands," however. Its statistics list the membership numbers for Alaska and Hawaii separately from the U.S.

Perhaps Jehovah's Witnesses are not yet aware the 49th and 50th states have joined the Union.

Suffer the Children

As an intervention expert, Ross has seen firsthand results of JW parenting, and he does not paint a pretty picture. "JW children generally are somewhat isolated, insulated and withdrawn through their family involvement with the organization," Ross said. "They also often are forced to sit through long meetings and conferences and also taken door to door to promote the organization/literature. "The children for some time have been discouraged from advancing to higher education, or being involved in sports and extracurricular activities. This can be seen as a form of 'restrictive abuse.'"

And one could infer by reading Watchtower Society publications that that physical abuse of youngsters is encouraged. For example, here are quotes from some of publications:

"The lessons learned at mother's knee do not make as lasting an impression as those learned while stretched across daddy's."

"All children of Adam need correction, and at times firm discipline requires the rod, in the administration of pain .... At times, a parent will need to speak to the child by the administration of pain."

Perhaps the most telling is a chapter from Disciplining Children for Life, a "parenting guide" for Jehovah's Witnesses. The section is meant to instruct children on why it is okay for mommy and daddy to beat them. It describes how animal mothers discipline their young. For example: A mother tiger "took the youngster's whole head in her mouth, squeezed and shook it, while the startled baby whimpered."
A concealed fawn, if it dares move, will "get a spanking from sharp mother hooves." A bear gave her cub "a good wallop with her paw and sent it rolling." Abusive animal mother of the year awards must go to a mother koala, who turns her babies over her knee "and spanks them on their bottoms for minutes on end with the flat of her hand, during which time their screams are soul-rending."

Disciplining Children for Life is not Dick and Jane, but it serves the purpose of controlling the kids. Sexual abuse is common in societies that are almost completely sexually repressed. Married JW adults are forbidden certain erotic activities, such as oral sex. While sex education is discouraged, children grow up hearing horror stories about sexual sin--especially homosexuality. Many of the former JW members told Echo stories of sexual abuse, by family and other church members. Scott M said his older sister sexually abused him.

When he reported the abuse to parents and elders, nothing was done. Talking about sexual matters is an uncomfortable thing in the Kingdom Halls where members gather to worship. Topics such as incest, adultery and homosexuality are swept under the rug. But while official doctrine says homosexuality is a terrible sin, several former gay JWs reported common homosexuality among the ranks.

Part two will reveal the gay secrets of "Bethel's Boys"; the arrest of founder Charles Russell on charges of child molestation; how one JW mother deals with her son's homosexual "rape"; and stories of suicide and murder--all in the name of Jehovah.

*"Members" denotes Jehovah's Witnesses in good standing. There are far more people involved in, and contributing to, the religion who are not recognized nor counted as members.

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