Cults and Extreme Belief

A religion with a secret listof alleged child predators.

A&E investigates the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Every single time I drive by this building, it makes me sad.

I was sexually abused by somebody in the organization,

and no one would help me.

It's just so horrific that it's hard to wrap your head around.

They had been putting known molesters

in positions for six decades.

I was shocked into silence, and I have gone long enough.

They spend thousands and thousands and thousands

of hours knocking on strangers' doors to bring them in,

but they won't come to this gate and talk to me.

Would one of them be willing to talk to me if I wait?

What would you say to people watching this right now?

I just want people to know this

really is going on in here.

And tonight, a "City News" exclusive.

This is a $66 million class action lawsuit

that's been filed against a religious organization best

known for its door-to-door proselytizing, the Jehovah's

Witnesses, accused of having rules

and policies that protect child sex abusers

and put children in harm's way.

Do you consider

Jehovah's Witnesses a cult?

These are just some things I found,

you know, digging and had no idea.

I thought I'd thrown everything away.

This is me at a Jehovah's Witness convention.

Wow.

Look how cute you are.

And this is me looking

in the mirror at my Grandma Betty's

house in their bathroom.

And I have no idea what I was thinking.

But I certainly wasn't smiling.

I'm going to go meet Barbara Anderson,

who is a big critic on the organization

of Jehovah's Witnesses.

I'm leaving in just a couple of days.

And I'm going to get to go spend some time with her.

She used to be high up in the church, in a position of trust.

What I'm hoping to get out of speaking with Barb

is putting the pieces together with what she's done

and what she's found, and the facts that she's found.

Growing up as a Jehovah's Witness, I was born into it,

and didn't have a say whether I wanted to be in it or not.

I'm fourth generation.

So it was me, my mom, her mom, and her mom.

I followed along, because my mother was so passionate in it.

And she was so special to me, you know.

And I-- I stayed, as a child, not

knowing, because you're a child, feeling

that something wasn't right.

This is interesting.

I mean, basically here it talks about the moral principles

we follow and why.

Oh here's about the national anthem and the school songs.

Well you can't stand and salute the flag

as a Jehovah's Witness.

You have to sit.

And then people, you know, you feel like an oddball.

In the Jehovah's Witness religion

they have a lot of rules.

We're not allowed to pledge allegiance to the flag.

We're not allowed to be in a classroom when they're

having a birthday party, or a Valentine's

party, or a Christmas party.

So you go to school, and you're like--

They set you up to just be a complete outcast.

Anything that's part of this world

is evil and bad, and dangerous to them.

They're not part of our world.

They believe that r world is evil and ruled by Satan.

Converts to the ranks

of Jehovah's Witnesses--

7,136-- arrive at New York's Orchard Beach

for the greatest mass baptism of modern times.

The sect claims to be the fastest-growing

religious group of our day.

You know, a lot of people, all they know, really,

about Jehovah's Witnesses are the nice folks

who knock on the door proselytizing,

the occasional celebrity, Prince, or Michael Jackson,

and that's it.

I mean, with 8.3 million members,

how is this different from another religious sect

of some kind?

Because of the level of control and influence.

There's a great deal of peer pressure.

If someone leaves, they're shunned to the degree

where they can't see their family, have any contact--

can't even go to like funerals or weddings.

It has all the characteristics that

can be identified as a cultic-- a cultic structure

and cultic behavior.

And especially the authoritarian leadership.

It's not quite the same as having one charismatic leader.

Right, you said that most cults have

a single, charismatic leader.

That's not true here.

Well, it began that way.

But then the leadership became the governing body.

The people on the governing body are

said to be spiritually appointed,

and are imparting the words of Jehovah

so that everything that comes down from them

is supposed to be actually conveying

the words from Jehovah.

They have what we might call charisma by proxy.

So they're the authoritarian leaders

that cannot be questioned.

The people in the governing body write

to "Watchtower" newsletter, or the "Awake!" magazine.

And the "Watchtower" newsletter is

then sent out to every congregation for them to study.

Old "Watchtowers."

Mm-hm.

I haven't seen those in a while.

"What does God require of us?"

It's a little demanding.

As a Jehovah's Witness, going door-to-door

was a big part of our lives.

It was always scary to go door-to-door,

because you're knocking on complete strangers' doors.

They don't know you, you know.

And a lot of times it wasn't ever, you know, real positive.

We were actually chased off of properties before--

with guns.

We've been chased off-- that's happened to me a couple times.

Everything was wrapped around the religion keeping us busy.

And we'd go to the Kingdom Hall three times

a week, because there was three meetings.

Jehovah's Witnesses don't consider themselves a church.

They want to distinguish themselves

from churches, which is why they call

their buildings Kingdom Halls.

So they had you so wrapped up

in going to all the meetings, and keeping our minds thinking

what they wanted us to think.

I feel like as a Jehovah's Witness, as a little girl,

I felt like my whole childhood was stolen.

You have to follow all the rules.

You have to follow everything they say.

And there's a lot of them.

If you don't do what you're supposed to do,

when Armageddon comes, you're going.

When he executes judgment

over the world at Armageddon, his

will destroy all but the faithful Jehovah's Witnesses.

They really drill in your head that if you're not

a part of that organization, and you're

not baptized in it, that you will not survive Armageddon.

It's a very scary message.

As a child, I was told people would be up to their neck

in urine from being so afraid when Armageddon hits

and watching the birds come around

and eat the dead flesh around us.

You kind of get wrapped into it.

And you don't really know how to get out,

because that's what you know.

I just remember being afraid.

You know, it was very scary.

If it would rain real hard or anything as a child,

I remember-- --it's Armageddon.

Yeah.

It's coming, because it was always told,

you better watch out.

It's going to be here like a thief in the night.

It's going to get you when you least expect it.

So you'd better come to the Kingdom Hall.

You'd better go to the conventions.

You'd better do all this.

Because I'm telling you, when that Armageddon comes,

and you're not doing the right things,

you're going to be one of those getting eaten by the birds.

It wasn't just the fear and isolation

that haunted my childhood.

I was sexually abused.

I was sexually abused by a member.

When the abuse started, I was approximately four.

And a lot of the abuse happened in his home.

And it wouldn't matter the time of day.

I was abused sexually in the bedroom,

and when I was in the bath tub, out in his shop, in every room.

I remember going to the Kingdom Hall,

and him actually being in the Kingdom Hall,

and him making me sit on his lap in the Kingdom Hall.

And it was like everybody knew.

I remember some of the things he was doing to me when I was

on top of him, face-to-face.

And I remember it being very scary.

I remember parts of that that even kind of felt good.

It was a really weird feeling.

He just kind of used me as a tool to get,

I guess, on so many different levels, so many

different times.

It just felt so bad.

And I just remember the fear of him, because he was so big,

and I was so little.