LARSON: (Voiceover) Anderson was a researcher at the Watchtower Society in the
early 1990s when a senior official there asked her to look into the church's handling of sexual abuse cases.
What she found, she says, sickened her ... hundreds of molestation cases on record, all kept secret in church files ... secret not only from the outside world, but from the members themselves, the families, the mothers and fathers and children who trust the church is looking out for them.
ANDERSON: I believe that if they asked to see the congregation records,
they will find that there are many envelopes with letters that discuss men ... or women ... in the congregation that were accused of molesting a child.
In fact, Anderson gave Dateline a copy of this letter written in 1992 by a psycotherapist, a Jehovah's Witness himself, who said he'd treated many Witnesses who'd told him they had been molested,
and he had personally dealt with a number of elders who were more interested in suppressing a matter of abuse.
LARSEN: Did the research that you did, talking to these therapists and psychiatrists, and the victims themselves, did it change the way you thought about the church and what was going on behind closed doors?
ANDERSON: Yes, because the Watchtower Society didn't want to acknowledge that these girls were telling the truth because they were accusing elders of molesting them.
LARSON: (Voiceover) Why would the church want to keep these cases secret and in-house? Anderson agrees that part of the problem is the church's distrust of
the outside world, but she says it's not that simple.
Anderson says when church elders investigate crimes like child molestation, they follow instructions that may prevent them from taking action; ancient instructions taken from the Bible itself.
ANDERSON: They basically use a scripture in I Timothy 5:19 that states you're not to make an accusation against an older man unless there are two or three witnesses.
LARSON: What are the odds that there are going to be two or three witnesses to an older man molesting a eight year old girl?
ANDERSON: No molester is going to have any witnesses, that's for sure.
BOWEN: The sum and total of their investigation will be going to a
pedophile and saying, "Did you do it? ... Nope? ... Well, OK. ... Guess weŽd better go
on then. Sorry we bothered you."
(Bowen on telephone with a "silentlamb".) Did he ask you any questions?
LARSON: (Voiceover) Bill Bowen says if you want to get an idea of how the church sweeps cases under the rug just listen to part of a conversation Bowen recorded a little over a year ago with an official in the Jehovah's Witness legal department.
WBTS HQ RECEPTIONIST: (On phone) "Good afternoon, WATCHTOWER."
LARSON: (Voiceover) Bowen calls seeking advice on how to handle a suspected molestation case involving a young girl and her father.
LEGAL DEPT RECEPTIONIST: (On phone) "Good afternoon, Legal Department."
Instead of being told
to report it to the police, Bowen is told to confront the suspected abuser.
WATCHTOWER ATTORNEY (On phone): You just ask him again, "Now is there anything to this?"
WATCHTOWER ATTORNEY: If he says "No," then I would walk away from it.
BOWEN: (On phone) Yup.
WATCHTOWER ATTORNEY: (On phone) Leave it for Jehovah. He'll bring it out.
BOWEN: (On phone) Yup.
WATCHTOWER ATTORNEY: But don't get yourself in a jam.
LARSON: (Voiceover) Again, there was no insistence that this matter be brought to the authorities in the outside world. Bowen says he was so upset by the
whole case he resigned as a church elder and vowed to help abuse victims. He didn't know that halfway across the country, Erica Garza as feeling the same frustration as she prepared to face her molester in court.
LARSON: Did any of those elders, any of the people in the church stand up and speak on your behalf?
ERICA: "NO!"
LARSON: (Voiceover) But Erica Garza was about to find out that she wasn't
really all alone.
END OF FIRST 15 MINUTE SEGMENT.
(Commercial Break)
Announcer: DATELINE NBC, winner of 10 Headliner awards for excellence in journalism. America's most watched, most honored news magazine, DATELINE, will be right back.
(Commercial Break)
