1,800 Victims, more than a thousand perpetrators and not a single case Reported...??
ADAM DIFFERENT FROM eight million Jehovah's Witnesses around the world believe that the end is near and that Satan's world is the only one to be saved.
LEONARD MYERS: He can use undisclosed hailstones to destroy those wicked people.
Now, in the meantime, will we have to fear the elements?
Not at all. They were raised in this kind of fear ..... when they were constantly told, "The end of the world is near." Jehovah God will destroy the unbelievers.
"You will be judged."
But those who managed to escape the organization said the real danger was the outbreak of this group of ultra-Conservative literalists literally.
Former Witnesses of Jehovah have openly denounced practices that claim to wreak havoc on people's lives.
RENEE PICKLES: Everyone thinks that Jehovah's Witnesses are just lovely, friendly people, good-looking people, maybe strange, who walk in the door.
And it is very difficult to help people understand how dangerous this group is and how ... how bad it is that migrants have to go through.
They will tear you to pieces. They separate your dignity. They tear you down like a human being. that is, they even separated me as a mother.
Spending 50 years as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, especially if you find that to be true, is having a bad effect on you. Guy: Shut up in the stand.
The Royal Commission disclosed the treatment of victims of child abuse by Jehovah's Witnesses. PETER MCCLELLAN: Well, it's a very good way to deal with a person, after all, who has ever been sexually abused?
Yes, having 1,800 victims, more than a thousand perpetrators and not a single case reported to the authorities, the police, was shocking, I could not believe it. In the years since the Royal Commission, little has changed.
And if you refuse to accept there is a problem, then nothing can be done about it. PROTESTER: Why do you let this happen to children ?!
Currently in Australia, those with the scar of this group are fighting for themselves. Worse than Catholics! What should this organization be taken from you? 33 years of my life. And I don't let them take it.
They don’t take another part of my life. Tonight at four corners we search the secret world of Jehovah's Witnesses. We express habits which continue to hurt the new generation of children.
It shows how psychological warfare is used to fight former members. And it reveals how its fierce struggle for the preservation of its dignity and its goods affects those who have the courage to stand up to it.
In 2019 Jehovah's Witnesses from all over the world came to Melbourne to celebrate their enduring love of God and of each other ..... a three-day program of prayer, song, and preaching.
SONG Endless Love ... STEPHEN LETT Say "Wear love ...
"because it is a perfect bond of unity."
Endless love GEOFFREY JACKSON: Really, what other group of people in the world are interested in discussing a failed love? But for some former Witnesses of Jehovah, this love is perfect.
RENEE PICKLES: We're here for another protest ... This protest was a turning point in the life of a former Witness of Jehovah - Renee Pickles. ..we are suspended here again. Wow, they are trying to stop the protest from being seen.
That's just amazing. What an impact. I'M so proud. I see this and I just go, "That's just fun." He is proud. "And those slain by Jehovah will certainly come to be in that day from one end of the earth clear to the other end of the earth.
"They will not be mourned" and they will not be gathered or buried. "They shall be as dung upon the face of the ground." Jehovah's Witnesses had been Renee's country from birth until her early 20's.
The organization controlled every aspect of his life until he was expelled, separating him from everyone close to him. Most of the time, I was a happy child because I truly believed that I would survive Armageddon.
We were ... You know, we did everything right. We were to inherit the earth.
And many people would die. Many would die, and millions of bodies would be scattered at Armageddon. But I was very confident that I would pass. And if those corpses were taken, you know, corrupted or we were burying, you know, we'd take the land again ^ and enjoy all the spoils.
LOCATION VOICEOVER: John and Jane Hayman have been walking the streets of the city since their baptism as Witnesses in the mid-60's ... Jehovah's Witnesses have long been spreading the word about the coming Apocalypse.
We don't want to catch you. My husband and I are two of Jehovah's Witnesses ... The expected days of destruction came and went in 1914, 1925, and 1975.
FINAL VOICE: To some, Jehovah's Witnesses are seen as easily deceived, or ridiculed. In a nutshell, they are the prophecy and man's only hope for salvation.
But no matter what one thinks of their message, one cannot help but admire the likes of John and Jane Hayman as they try to warn Toorak housewives about the end of the world.
I'm sorry, at the moment I found the kids eating lunch. The epidemic lifted the door and temporarily closed organizations, Kingdom Halls ...Now the names 'coronavirus' and 'COVID-19' ... but Jehovah's Witnesses believe that COVID is a sign of impending doom.
The spread of the disease is depressing, but it is not surprising to see a global epidemic, is it not? Jesus made it clear in Luke 21:11 that pestilences would be part of the sign of the last days.
Internal organization production. They are perfect leaders with full authority in the organization. Doubt and fear surround me ... IRWIN ZALKIN: The basis of their belief that the outside world, the world outside of what they call the truth, the belief of Jehovah's Witnesses, is corrupted by Satan.
Without living in the real world, working in the real world, going to school in the real world, they separate themselves. They realize that socializing with others, which they call 'the people of the world,' is a bad association.
The Governing Body sits in a building that they call Bethel - or the House of God - in New York State.
The world headquarters is a 100-hectare site that replaces a Brooklyn company, sold in recent years for more than a billion dollars.
The Governing Body oversees the activity of the world headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses as well as the construction of Kingdom Halls throughout the world.
HAHN Bill: They are a big business with billions of assets.
Billions of dollars' worth of buildings.
They sold their goods in New York and moved to New York State and they built their new headquarters there and built some great buildings.
The Australia branch has at least 440 locations and last year more than $ 32 million was reported. GARY JOHNS: The charity does not need to pay any income tax on its income.
It can also be the case of a recipient of a paid gift, in which case the donor deducts tax. There may be other taxes, including state taxes, that are exempted from charities.
RICK ALAN ROSS: I think it's really confusing that the organization that predicted the end of the world is near
and predicted the end four times, the last in 1975, would create a long-term investment portfolio with real estate that they carefully store and make big money from. He that spareth his rod hateth his son;
"but the one who loves him rebukes him diligently." Bill Hahn was the treasurer of his congregation, known as the Accounts Servant. This man was born into the organization and raised his children as a Witness.
What did you lose? He ... Football. That was my big thing as ... when I was a kid. I was just ... I was asking every year, "Can I play football?" And it could be, "No." It's disturbing, "you know," we have to go and testify, "we have to," you know, "meetings." Birthdays - we have never celebrated birthdays.
Christmas activities - never been involved. You grew up feeling like a foreigner in your own country. And yet you have done the same thing to your own children.
They were probably around 10 and 12 at the time, and we knocked on the door again ..... he was a good man, he said to the boys, "Oh, boys, don't you prefer to go out in the morning and play football?"
And my dear middle boyfriend, Oliver, was like, "Oh, no, that's not ... Okay, we like to meet people and talk to them."
And I just ... I felt so sorry for her then. It really comes back to me with all that loss I felt when I was a child. And there are fears that many who have become Jehovah's Witnesses report.
AMY WHITBY: What I could find were the little kids in the world, as they called them, you know because they were ‘people of the world’.
The thought of their death struck me because we had been taught that only Jehovah's people in the organization would survive Armageddon, that all other outsiders could die.
Therefore, it was our responsibility to go out and witness, trying to bring as many people as possible. And if you don't use this opportunity to testify, you've got their blood on your hand.
RICK ALAN ROSS: In my opinion, it is a place of Jehovah's Witnesses it can be very harmful to children. They were raised in this kind of fearful speech when they were constantly told, "The end of the world is near." Jehovah God will destroy the unbelievers. He will be judged.
"And there is this pressure to save people, going from house to house to convert people. And, at the same time, there are no birthdays, no holidays.
It's ... It's ... It's exactly what it is. Children are taught at an early age that homosexual acts are not acceptable.
GIRL: Carrie drew two mothers. He told me they were married. My teacher says that the most important thing is that people love each other and are happy.
Hmm ... Well, people have their own ideas about what is right and what is wrong. But what matters most is how Jehovah feels.
"You must not lie down with a male the same as you lie down with a woman. "It's an abomination." Adam Van Wirdum left Jehovah's Witnesses in 2019.
It has great effect when you are told that you can pray for homosexuals you can approach and you can make a great effort and, with God's blessing, you can ... you can understand, basically.
So, really, since I was a kid, I knew I was gay, but I never did. I was afraid to point it out. Hostility ... in homosexual churches ... is really bad. Refusing higher education and having ... independent thinking and analysis is frustrating, as is higher education.
Higher education, with its emphasis on academic study, often produces graduates who have few or no practical skills, leaving them unprepared to deal with the Christian personality.
We will not need doctors or lawyers after Armageddon, but we will need plumbers and plumbers and similar construction workers.
RENEE PICKLES: I've been given a chance for 12 years
to go to university. I was one of six children in a school that was selected to enter early.
And I remember when I got home I showed it to my mom and we laughed and threw it away. Why is it possible for us to receive instruction in Satan's system when we have the best education from Jehovah's organization?
ADAM VAN WIRDUM: I was actually a Science dux at school and got a Bachelor of Science at Sydney University, but I never did it because ... I was told it was a waste of time.
RICK ALAN ROSS: In my opinion, they are disappointing because, in higher education, people are encouraged...continue...
