“My Work Here Is Done”

AvoidJW was founded in October 2014 after Jason Wynne discovered that Jehovah’s Witnesses were using a secret rule book and procedures against their members in their version of the confessional, known as a judicial committee meeting.  Without having due process, the system is a flawed process causing untold harm  to millions of members. The end result is that families are destroyed, relationships are severed, and the victims’ lives have been changed forever.

Prior to AvoidJW, former believing Jehovah’s Witnesses (exJWs) shared information about the organization amongst themselves on various forums and through various media. While this helped educate exJWs, it didn’t help the wider public understand how Jehovah’s Witnesses managed to keep their more insidious aspects under wraps.

Jason Wynne saw early on that it was important to get the secret policies and procedures out into the public to help governments, courts, police and others understand how this organization operated. For decades they have managed to keep their harmful practices out of the public view. But that now has ended.

In 2016, AvoidJW made public some of the shunning videos that Jehovah’s Witnesses were showing to their members at their national conventions around the world. The intent of these videos was to direct members to shun close family members if they were not compliant with the organization’s rules. This helped many see that the shunning is promoted by the organization and not a few “disgruntled former members” having a go at the religious group, as claimed by anonymous representatives of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Office of Public Information (OPI).

In Russia, Jehovah’s Witnesses spent a number of years going through the courts in an attempt to prevent the Russian Authorities from banning their religious operations. This all culminated in a week long hearing at the Russian Supreme Court in April 2017 where they initially lied to the court about ownership of their properties. This was a futile attempt to hide who owns what – initially they said the properties were owned by individual JWs and then they said the properties were owned by American citizens. However, documents were sent to the Russian authorities that showed how the organization was trying to circumvent Russian law in an attempt to keep the properties in the hands of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Because of their lies, this exacerbated the situation in Russia. The Russian Supreme Court not only banned them from operating in their country, but also confiscated all of their properties, worth around $100 million. Unfortunately, the organization cares more for its property portfolio than its members. And even today, Russian members are being used as guinea pigs as part of the religious group’s persecution propaganda.

In the same year, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been abusing copyright law in an effort to silence critics like Jason Wynne. They have issued over 70 DMCA subpoenas in an effort to find out who has been leaking documents. Indeed, Wynne received a legal threat from their legal counsel at World Headquarters, Philip Brumley, on Friday February 23, 2018. Referring to documents that are freely available to the public, Philip demanded that Wynne cease and desist from distributing material owned by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Brumley gave Wynne 10 days to respond. On the 10th day, Wynne responded but it wasn’t the response Brumley and his cronies were hoping for. The material that Brumley wanted taken off the internet is in the public interest. And as more and more news outlets are beginning to look closer at Jehovah’s Witnesses’ practices, this is especially true now.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have a serious problem of child sexual abuse within its ranks. One reason may be because Jehovah’s Witnesses have an obsession with sex. The subject of sex, marriage, adultery, fornication, and masturbation are regularly discussed at congregation meetings.  Children, from newborns to late teens, are not separated from their parents when such subjects are discussed. They are fed this information constantly. Is it any wonder then that many Jehovah’s Witnesses have a distorted view of sex and sex related matters?

In one year alone in Brazil, Jehovah’s Witnesses had a huge increase in child sexual abuse cases, many involving appointed men. In the United States, there are continuous court cases where Jehovah’s Witnesses are defending themselves against claims of abuse made against them. When it looks likes they are going to lose the case, they quickly settle with the plaintiff and slap on a non-disclosure agreement so the public (particularly donators of funds; aka believing Jehovah’s Witnesses) are not aware of how much money they are spending on child sexual abuse.

Cases involving sex and physical abuse have been reported around the world, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, UK, and the USA. Wynne has provided information to all of these countries, among others, in an effort to help improve Jehovah’s Witnesses’ handling of abuse within their confessional. In recent years we have seen improvements. In 2019, for example, a full chapter on child sex abuse has been added to the elders’ textbook, Shepherd the Flock of God.

Since 2016, abuse survivors no longer have to face their alleged perpetrator. However, further improvements are needed. Cases of child abuse are kept on file by Jehovah’s Witnesses but none of this information is shared with courts or police. Jehovah’s Witnesses claim clergy-penitent privilege. Jehovah’s Witnesses use a broad brush when it comes to clergy-penitent privilege. This includes retaining information even where no confession has been forthcoming. Also, elders are still not permitted to report allegations of abuse to the secular authorities unless permitted by the regional headquarters’ service department (“the authorities”).  All allegations must first be reported to “the authorities” within Jehovah’s Witnesses. Any deviation from this process will ensure swift deletion of an elder as an appointed member of the congregation.

In 2022, Jehovah’s Witnesses lost their registration as a religious group in Norway due to their extreme practice of shunning. All baptized members, including children who have been baptized, are required to comply fully with Jehovah’s Witnesses’ rules. Any deviation from these rules could mean expulsion. The treatment of baptized persons is the same irrespective of age. Once an elder makes a brief announcement that an individual is no longer one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the congregation is put on notice to shun that person. The shunning is sustained until the person is reinstated as a member in good standing. If one is never re-instated, the shunning continues for the rest of the victim’s life. Norway sees this as an infringement of a person’s right to leave the religious group. According to Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights and Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a person has a right to change their beliefs or hold no belief without any coercion. Religiously mandated shunning denies person’s these rights.

The loss of registration in Norway means that the religious group are not permitted to perform legal marriages. Nor are they permitted to receive state grants. This has no bearing on their right to practice their religion. This, therefore, is in no way comparable to the ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. To claim that it is an attack on religious freedom is patently false.  The government of Norway has no intention of forbidding Jehovah’s Witnesses from practicing their extreme form of shunning. Rather, they are no longer funding it or providing the religious group any form of financial privileges while they continue to curb the religious freedom of members who no longer want to practice their form of worship.

Wynne’s human rights activism has always been about bringing transparency to the more secretive aspects of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since 2014, he has felt that he has accomplished this. He has made various publications available to the public, including the Branch Organization manual, Circuit Overseer Guidelines, elder textbooks, confidential policy letters, various videos, among other things. These documents help empower victims of Jehovah’s Witnesses to the point where the religious group now resorts to sophistry in an attempt to convince the public that former believers’ claims are false. However, when the believers in so many countries are echoing the same complaints, it becomes more and more difficult for the Jehovah’s Witnesses to distort the reality of the situation.

Thankfully, governments, courts, police forces and others are learning a lot more about this group and are no longer taking their statements at face value. Their deceit is beginning to wane. It is for this reason that Wynne feels he has accomplished what he set out to do. In his own words, he says, “my work here is done”.

Although Wynne is leaving activism behind him, the work of AvoidJW.org will continue. It is imperative that members and former members have access to confidential documents. Every single member of Jehovah’s Witnesses has a right to due process. This is only achieved by having full knowledge of the procedures that are laid out in documents that are kept secret from the ordinary members, particularly women. 

Until the organization becomes transparent, AvoidJW.org must continue to assist victims of ostracism, injustice and deceit in Jehovah’s Witnesses.