{"id":286416,"date":"2020-01-13T18:27:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T01:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1111369"},"modified":"2020-01-13T18:27:50","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T01:27:50","slug":"oxygens-the-witnesses-uncovers-shocking-sexual-abuse-stories-from-former-jehovahs-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/oxygens-the-witnesses-uncovers-shocking-sexual-abuse-stories-from-former-jehovahs-witnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxygen’s The Witnesses Uncovers Shocking Sexual Abuse Stories From Former Jehovah’s Witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Jehovah’s Witnesses are speaking out about allegations of sexual abuse within the denomination in Oxygen’s latest special, The Witnesses<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The two-night investigative special, airing Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m.<\/a>, features the stories of four former Jehovah’s Witnesses, who claim they suffered from sexual abuse during their time within the organization.<\/p>\n

Specifically, former Witnesses Debbie McDaniel<\/strong>, Deloris Lyles<\/strong>, Sarah Brooks<\/strong> and Chessa Manion<\/strong> will bravely share their first-hand accounts to highlight the flawed system within the denomination. Leading this investigation is journalist Trey Bundy<\/strong> from The Center for Investigative Reporting, who has spent half a decade investigating this matter.<\/p>\n

“If you ask a lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses how child abuse gets handled in their congregations, it would come as a total shock to them that it’s not supposed to be reported to police,” Bundy notes in the footage above.<\/p>\n

This isn’t the first time the sect has made headlines regarding sex abuse claims.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Back in 2019, The Atlantic<\/em> reported that the organization<\/a> had a decades long list of accused predators within its membership. Still, this past week, Montana’s Supreme Court reversed an earlier $35 million decision against the sect for failing to report to authorities a girl’s sexual abuse. According to Justice Beth Baker<\/strong>, “clergy are not required to report known or suspected child abuse if the knowledge results from a congregation member’s confidential communication or confession and if the person making the statement does not consent to disclosure.”<\/p>\n

“No child should ever be subjected to such a debased crime,” Joel Taylor<\/strong>, an attorney for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, said in a statement<\/a> to the AP<\/em>. “Tragically, it happens, and when it does Jehovah’s Witnesses follow the law. This is what the Montana Supreme Court has established.<\/p>\n

Yet, those interviewed in this special allege that “the elders know” of the sexual abuse and are “knowingly protecting the identities of pedophiles.”<\/p>\n

“In this organization, the predator has more rights than the victims,” one victim states. “They think they are above the law.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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As seen in the footage above, Bundy is even turned away from one Kingdom Hall amid his investigation.<\/p>\n

“I absolutely believe in religious freedom,” Bundy defends in a confessional. “But, as soon as their conduct puts kids in danger, that’s when they become my concern.”<\/p>\n

Per one voice-over claim in the first look, without access to the organization’s database, investigators may never know the “true scope” of the issue.<\/p>\n

Will The Witnesses<\/em> uncover important information regarding this case? For that answer, be sure to catch the two-night special, starting Feb. 8 at 7p.m.<\/p>\n

(E! and Oxygen are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Jehovah’s Witnesses are speaking out about allegations of sexual abuse within the denomination in Oxygen’s latest special, The Witnesses. The two-night investigative special, airing Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m., features the stories of four former Jehovah’s Witnesses, who claim they suffered from sexual abuse during their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-05 01:59:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}