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I was baptized into
the Jehovah's Witness religion

when I was 15 years old,

and I never questioned it.

There were adults
in the congregation

that knew about the abuse.

I went those elders...

I was putting
my life on the line

because my mom found out that
I told anyone about the abuse,

she would have killed me.

And his brother said,
go home and obey your mother.

Think about the apostate-driven
lies that Jehovah's organization

is permissive toward pedophiles.

I mean, that is ridiculous,
isn't it?

I knew inside
how wrong it felt,

I knew how sick I felt,

how could you not say something?

You're in a false religion,
you're in a cult.

I feel like the religion preys
on people

at their most vulnerable.

This organization is made
to put people in a box,

make them fearful
for their lives.

Maybe God is real,
but it's not this.

So much hidden documentation
of child abuse

that Watchtower does not want
the public to know about.

I knew that this was not going
to get out

unless someone did something
about it.

The problem of sexual abuse

in the Jehovah's Witness
organization

is much, much more significant

than in the Catholic Church.

Once you believe in something
this strongly,

it could be anything...
you'll do it.

I can't leave it alone!

I know what this organization
is responsible for doing.

We're attempting to leave,
but we're kind of encircled

at the moment.

We should do the right thing.

But they don't
do the right thing.

I was a happy Witness
for 43 years.

Ever since I was a child,

I've always been
a proponent for justice.

And so I became a Witness
because I thought this was just,

that the world would get better.

It was the atomic bomb age.

There was concentration camps.

I took those scriptures
literally about

a paradise Earth that God would
bring it back,

because I wanted all people
to be treated justly.

Surely all of us are thrilld
at the prospect

of surviving the end
of this wicked world

and living on God's
righteous new order.

What a grand future awaits u.

Jehovah's Witnesses think
that the world is ending,

and so since everything
in this world

is going to be basically

burned up at Armageddon,

the most important thing
to do right now is to preach

so that you can teach it
to others

and save yourself
and save other people.

The thing that attracted me
to the Watchtower Society

was that they taught
that Armageddon was so close

that those who were living now
would never have to die,

but that they
could live forever.

The basic beliefs
of Jehovah's Witnesses,

that this world one day
will come to an end

and God will bring
in a paradise Earth.

Jehovah's Witnesses came along
with a positive message,

I thought, from the Bible,

and that is what I wanted...
to please God.

Jehovah's Witnesses feel
that they have the truth.

I enjoyed being different
to a certain degree.

I liked not being
one of the masses

who weren't enlightened.

There was a certain allure
to that,

feeling like I had the truth.

I felt that I had won
the lottery.

I was born into
the only true religion.

The Jehovah's Witness
religion itself

was based upon the original work
of Charles Russell

back in the 1800s.

Charles Taze Russell was a
prolific writer

and a very good business man.

He was very much
into the publishing

and selling of his books.

Charles Taze Russell
had no intention

of starting a new religion.

The "Watch Tower" was basically
the name of the journal.

He started the "Watch Tower"
magazine in 1879,

so I don't know that you would
call it a religion

from its outset.

Russell established
a corporation,

Watch Tower Bible
and Tract Society.

They saw the need to purchase
their own printing equipment

and move to a place
that was close

to the shipping lanes
in the East River.

So Charles Russell

moved the organization
to Brooklyn, New York.

The organization was expanding
so rapidly

and it's interesting
to look back

and see all of those videos
of the printing presses

going back in the 1950s,
'60s and '70s.

The Jehovah's Witnesses started
expanding outside of the US

and they continue to expand

until now there is well over
200 countries around the world.

In 1969, Watchtower purchased
Squibb pharmaceutical buildings

at 2530 Columbia Heights,

and they turn them
into the famous

Watchtower headquarters complex.

There is such an iconic image
of the Watchtower

overlooking the East River
and the Brooklyn Bridge.

They were so proud of the fact
that they were in the middle

of the most important
city in America.

My husband and I were invited

to be part of the headquarters
staff of the Watchtower.

The Jehovah's Witnesses were
going through a growth period.

There were 4,000 people
in the complex

at the foot
of the Brooklyn Bridge.

I was transferred into
the writing department.

The writing department generates
all the articles that appear

and all of
the organization's literature.

The October 8th, 1991
Awake! magazine

had an article about how to deal
with victims of child abuse.

So there's eight million people
all reading this,

and the article really opened
a Pandora's box

for the Watchtower organization.

It received more response
than almost any other article

in the history of
the Watchtower.

And there was a windstorm

of remarks and statements
and letters.

Around the world,
Jehovah's Witnesses thought that

this article about child abuse

was a time to talk
about their child abuse...

that, "this Jehovah's Witness
molested me when I was a child."

I wanted to help
to make this issue known

because the lives
of children were at stake.

The Awake! editor and I

decided to
put a package together

of material
to show the Governing Body,

who were presiding elders,
the immense problem,

and to prove to them that
something had to be done.

The Governing Body
are eight men,

they've come up through the
ranks of Jehovah's Witnesses,

they claim to be
anointed by God.

They're celebrities,
I think, to a degree.

And they are
the only individuals

on the face of the Earth
who are spokespeople for God.

It took great faith to break
free from the darkness

brought on by centuries
of false religious practice.

You represent
the most high God Jehovah,

and you also have
to have conduct

that supports the fact that you
do worship this true God.

There will be many others
who will come back

who will have to abandon
their former way of life.

I was thinking, as an example,
a homosexual.

They're the conduit
for the Almighty God

that you believe in and worship.

And so if you don't believe
these people,

who are
the spokespeople for God,

then you're disobeying God.

And that's actually
what the Witnesses teach.

I just wanted to do my part
to clean out known molesters,

because that's what
the Bible says to do,

to put out the wicked man.

They couldn't agree on what
to do about it,

and some said it was a fad.

If you were a woman
and a mother,

and you learned what I did,

you would do the same thing.

You wouldn't rest at night.

But people don't say anything.

This is an organization
that you don't march with signs

and say, "Remove them!
Remove them!"

The dirty little secrets
are well kept.

The first time we got a call
was in 2010,

and he was a victim of a serial
perpetrator here in San Diego.

We start to learn a little bit
about Jehovah's Witnesses.

That's how it all got started.

This organization has allowed
the sexual abuse of children

to fester within its ranks
for decades.

I was very, very involved

with the Catholic
priest abuse scandal

that swept the nation since
The Boston Globe story

broke in 2002.

We did battle
with the Catholic Church,

but at the end of the day,

they fessed up to the fact
that they had a problem.

Not so with Jehovah's Witnesses.

The Jehovah's Witnesses
continue to insist

they don't have a problem.

They would much rather

prove the...
the accuser wrong

and cover up what happened,

because then you don't have

the problem of... of
the organization looking bad.

They care about
their reputation.

They don't want their names
dragged through the mud.

Their way of dealing with it
is to try to keep the lid on

as much as possible.

We were the first ones really
to get to them with litigation.

We learned early in our
litigation against them

that there was a call put out
to all of the elders

of all of the congregations
in the United States

in March of 1997.

Back when I was dealing
with this, this is 1997,

an article came out
in the Awake! magazine...

"Abhor What Is Wicked."

And in this article,
the statement was made

that this organization would not
appoint a known molester

to a position of authority.

That was great.

That was my moment of saying,

"Ah, five years
I worked on this,

and they're doing
something about it."

But what they didn't say
in the article

is that they had been doing it

for probably four
or five decades.

I wrote to the editor
and he wrote me back a letter.

So I'm reading
what he said there,

and I'm astounded.

And he said, "Thanks to our
Legal Department,

we no longer will have
more megabuck lawsuits."

Well, that was a shocker to me.

I didn't know
they had megabuck lawsuits.

If I had to pay up megabuck
money in a lawsuit,

I would certainly do something
that that wouldn't happen again.

After all, this organization
is supported by donations.

So donations were paying for

the megabuck lawsuit
settlements.

At this point, Watchtower was
becoming to understand that

they had a problem internally
with child sexual abuse.

So in 1997,
Watchtower sent a letter

to all 10,000
of its US congregations

with a questionnaire.

It said, if you suspect that you
have a child predator

in your congregation,

please take this questionnaire,

fill out these questions.

Put it in this special
blue envelope

and mail it back
to Watchtower headquarters

and keep a copy of it
in your file

in your Kingdom Hall,

When this letter to all elders

throughout the world
came out,

it said that we would like

to know the names
of known molesters.

So that made up a file.

That is how Watchtower
inadvertently wound up

creating this massive database
of child molesters.

That is the file

that the Watchtower
has never made public,

and that is the file
that the lawyers want.

We knew
what the database contained

because of
the March 1997 letter.

They emphasized the legal risk
that they were facing

of having potentially
known molesters

within the congregation.

So they were worried
about their legal exposure.

I remember where I was standing
at that moment

when I read that letter.

I said, enough, enough.

It was at that moment
I left the religion.

For us to get
to a tipping point

in the litigation against
the Jehovah's Witnesses,

we need to get, first
and foremost, these documents.

Once we start asking
for these files,

they started coming up
with all kinds of lies about,

"Well, we... we don't have them,

we'd have to go
searching for them.

It would take 20 years of
man hours to find these files,"

and all this nonsense.

Court ordered them
to produce it.

They said, no,
we're not doing it.

Not only did
Jehovah's Witnesses

refuse to turn
over the documents,

but they elected to pay
a $4,000 per day fine

rather than to turn over
those documents.

Ultimately, that $4,000
had accrued

to about $2 million.

They didn't produce
the documents,

and what happened was they ended
up settling that case.

I first found out about
the Jehovah's Witnesses

as a potential reporting topic
in January 2018.

I was contacted by a guy
I know on Twitter

who was
an ex-Jehovah's Witness,

and he had suggested there was
some deep rooted problems

in the religion.

I would find if I talked
to one abuse survivor,

they would put me in touch with
another one and another one,

you know, and within
the space of a few weeks,

I had, you know, more than
a dozen ex-Witnesses

who were willing to tell me
their experience.

This is really
a worldwide problem.

Mark O'Donnell is one of
the ex-Jehovah's Witnesses

that I came in contact with,
I think pretty early on,

for the first story
that we published.

What interested me
about Mark

was that he was
the first person apparently

to really get his hands
on aspects of the database,

which nobody had ever
managed to do before,

and that he was behind leaking
some of these documents.

Mark is a very mild-mannered,
soft-spoken,

intelligent,
unassuming, unemotional guy.

Mark is the last guy on Earth

that you would think
would be an activist,

and when you speak to Mark,

it takes a little while
to understand

what's going on
behind those glasses

and what's turning
in that head.

As a child, I didn't feel
that I needed to question

my faith because I believed
what I was being taught.

My awakening came around
the age of 46

when I began to peer
into the outside world

and become a little bit
more aware

of what was going on around me.

I just wanted to know truth.

I wanted to know what was real
and what was not real.

And I began to realize that
everything I had been taught

was false.

It was shocking to me
that growing up

as one of
Jehovah's Witnesses,

we believed in truth
and honesty and transparency,

and yet Jehovah's Witnesses
have done everything possible

to conceal these documents that
would have helped the victims,

that would have
exposed the problem.

Why?

Why would they do this?

What was it that
they were hiding?

What was it that they didn't
want the court to know?

What was it that they didn't
want the attorneys to know?

I believe that now
we're uncovering this

because it had been concealed
for so many years,

that, like other movements,
when one person comes forward,

then another person feels
the strength to come forward,

to realize that
there are individuals

who are inside the organization

who are waking up,
who have questions.

They might be elders, they might
be the circuit overseers,

they might be people who are
just leaving the organization.

They are going to reveal
a lot more

about what's really going on
behind the scenes

in the Jehovah's Witness
organization.

Finding out what was in the
secret database of pedophiles

became the search
for the Holy Grail.

I was born into this.

I feel as though
I was brainwashed

being raised
as a Jehovah's Witness.

I'm PIMO... "physically in,
mentally out."

And basically what that means is
I'm stuck in the organization,

but I made the conscious
decision of saying,

okay, I don't
believe this anymore.

Basically, I have days
where I feel very anxious

because if I do get outed
as somebody who doesn't believe,

then I may lose my family
and everybody I love forever.

Because you can't say
that you don't believe

and still have your family.

When I decided to uncover
the truth about the organization

that I had spent my entire life
as a part of,

I went online
and I created the account

"John Redwood" on Facebook.

The reason for using an alias
is because Jehovah's Witnesses

cannot simply leave
the organization and speak out

or say anything critical
of the organization

without fear
of being disfellowshipped.

It's either, you're in,
you're with us;

or you're not with us
and you don't have your family.

That's how controlling
this organization is.

And it's an incredibly powerful
behavior control tactic

to say if you ever question
the group

or break one of our rules,

you risk being expelled
or excommunicated...

or "disfellowshipped"
is the Watchtower term...

and then no one will be able
to have a relationship with you

or even acknowledge you
and talk with you.

When you're a part of
a community as tight knit

as the Jehovah's Witnesses,
where all of your friends,

most of their family
is Witnesses,

disfellowshipping
is very severe,

it can be like
a death sentence.

I mean, people have
killed themselves

due to being shunned
in this way.

If you speak out against them,

if you point out the
discrepancies in the religion,

then you're disfellowshipped.

And that's one of
their tactics of control.

They do not
tolerate dissents.

The 11th commandment
of Jehovah's Witnesses

is "Thou shalt not go public."
And I did.

Good evening;
at some point it may stop

being news each time
another person comes forward

to say they were
sexually abused as a child

by a trusted
religious figure.

This woman, Barbara Anderson,
worked for a decade

inside Jehovah's Witness
headquarters.

What she found,
she says, sickened her.

The Watchtower Society
didn't want to acknowledge

that these girls
were telling the truth

because they were accusing
elders of molesting them.

This is the story
of Candace Conti,

a young woman stepping
out of the shadows...

Go 'head and step forward.

To take on
the all-male leadership

of a wealthy,
secretive religion who she says

failed to protect her
from a predatory pedophile.

Candace Conti was a young girl
that was abused.

They didn't believe her.
They did not believe her.

There had been lots of lawsuits
previous to Candace Conti,

but they were
all settled in quiet.

She was the first one
to take Watchtower to court.

They made the mistake
in the Candace Conti case

of going to trial
and getting hammered by a jury

once how they handled
these cases got exposed.

All right, sir, if you'll
please raise your right hand.

When Candace and her attorney
began conducting depositions

with local church leaders,
known as elders,

they learned
something astonishing.

Do you recall becoming aware
at any time

of sexual abuse
of a child

by Jonathan Kendrick.

Um... yes.

In the case of Conti,

crimes that were committed
were known to

not only one elder,
not two elders,

but entire bodies of elders
in multiple congregations,

and they had been advised
not to call the authorities,

which further endangered
other victims.

I was disfellowshipped a week
before "Dateline" aired.

My son went
to the headquarters

and discussed my appearance
on "Dateline."

He was told that, because your
mother went forward,

thousands of people
have left the organization,

and so she's responsible
for their deaths at Armageddon.

If I'm supposed
to be responsible

for thousands of people who left

because I spoke the truth
to the public,

then they responsible
for their policies

over what has happened
to literally... literally...

tens of thousands
and thousands of children!

They said that
I was disfellowshipped

because I was a gross sinner.

I was a threat
to the organization.

And so what do you do?

We have no family any longer.

We lost our son to the fact
that he shuns us.

I know many people wonder

how in the world can you shun
someone that you love?

How in the world
would you shun your mother?

It is because you are told
it's an act of love.

We found out that
we have a granddaughter.

We don't know her name.

The shunning policy's torture.

Because you don't choose
to be part of a religion,

you have to be punished
like that?

One of the features
of destructive cults

is information control.

Destructive cults
leave out information,

they distort information,
and they outright lie.

They find all of these ways
to keep people in the dark.

The spread of rumors
is like wildfire.

It is hard to control.

They were told,
"Don't go on the Internet,

don't read worldly magazines
or newspapers.

You can't trust the news.

You can't trust the media.

Don't speak to apostates."

I was very surprised to find
that my pseudonym, John Redwood,

began to have more of
a following

than I ever expected.

I began to investigate
and to write,

and I realized that many people
were relying on the information

that I was sharing with
the public.

Jehovah's Witnesses
define "apostate"

as someone
who leaves Jehovah

and then becomes
an enemy of Jehovah

by speaking out
against the organization.

An apostate is the worst thing

you can be as
a Jehovah's Witness,

and that's because
an apostate is a threat.

Whoever, therefore, wants to be
a friend of the world,

is making himself
an enemy of God.

They will vanish like smoke.

Here's what Jehovah's promising.

Hey.

In 2016 was when I actually
gave myself

the okay to look at other
material besides material

that was published
by the Jehovah's Witnesses.

And that's when I broke down.

It would have been
expected of me

to run and tattle
on my husband.

After Mark
stopped going to meetings,

they would come to me and say,
Mark's hiding a secret.

Mark must be cheating on you.

Mark must be doing drugs.

They encouraged me
all the time to leave him.

So I would walk
into Mark's office

and he would turn
his monitor off.

He would flip
his Kindle over.

You would go in the back yard to
be on his phone or his laptop.

So then for a very
short period of time,

I started to question,
are they right?

Is he hiding
something from me?

Mark was hiding something.

I didn't really know Mark,

and that made
a small crack for me.

Every witnesses is taught that
Armageddon can come in any day,

and if you are not fully in,

you're going to die with
everyone else on the planet.

Even as a kid,
that fear was put in me.

It doesn't matter
how young you are,

if you don't follow
Jehovah's Ways

based on what
the Jehovah's Witnesses say,

you are going to die
when Armageddon comes.

There will be a complete
genocide,

seven billion,
eight billion,

however many people there
on the Earth,

they're dying
at Armageddon.

Only Jehovah's Witnesses
will be safe.

They have Armageddon
hanging over the heads

of all its members.

If you are not with Jehovah,

you are with the world

and the world was going to end,
and it's going to end soon.

They teach fear, they...
they want you to be afraid.

Growing up,
I was primed for fear.

If I heard, like,
a thunderstorm,

my mind instantly would go
to thinking it was Armageddon,

like, oh, shit,
they were right.

It's terrifying, especially
for a little child.

It's fire coming out of the sky.

People are just dying left
and right.

It's just intense.

The end game in terms
of the doctrine

and what they promise people
for all of these years

of kind of compliance
and being a Jehovah's Witness

is living forever
in a paradise on Earth,

and it's called the new system.

I never questioned my faith

because I honestly wanted
the new system to come.

I just needed to know that there
was something better out there.

That was my drive.

If I can make it
to the new system,

I can finally be happy.

Some of the most powerful
images from my childhood,

aside from the very
negative pictures of Armageddon,

would be the positive pictures,
the contract.

Things that we wouldn't see now,

we would see in
the new system of things,

and many people
really bought into that

and they believe that this was
the correct Bible teaching...

that Jehovah wanted people
to be happy

and to live in paradise Earth.

♪ Paradise ♪

♪ All who bring joy,
as we sing... ♪

When you're a Witness,
you believe

that this life you're living now
is just a life in waiting.

It's not the real life.

Everything is put off
to future paradise.

You don't live
in the present.

This isn't the real world.

So when that's the basis
for your outlook on life,

it affects
every decision you make.

Mark and I
did not have children.

My main reason
for not having children

was because I could have kids
in the new system.

So what's the rush?

The life I was living now

was really a kind of
a temporary life.

I just have to get through,

and then I can have
the real life...

and they call it the real life.

At least I got my cats.

In November of 2013,
Mark and I were on our way

to some friend's house
for the weekend,

and he sat down and said,
"I can't do this anymore."

And he at that point proceeded
to let me know

that he just wasn't
going to be a Witness anymore.

And of course,
that was devastating to me.

Mark and I had been married
15 years,

and we never had a real honest
conversation with each other

in 15 years...

I couldn't really tell him
what I thought.

Mark Jeffrey O'Donnell,

in the presence of
Jehovah God

and these witnesses,
take Kimberly Ann Weber

to be your wedded wife,
in accordance with divine law

as outlined in
the holy scriptures

for Christian husbands for as
long as you both may live.

I do.

I continued to go
to meetings and preach.

Mark and I would walk at night,
and we would talk.

For me, I wanted to know what
was going on in Mark's head,

so I would ask him
to just tell me

what he was thinking
and feeling,

and that I understood...
I wouldn't agree with it,

but I needed to know that;

I wanted
to be supportive for him.

So he was very careful
and very selective

of some things that he told me.

One thing that
he mentioned to me

was the case
about Candace Conti.

I went home and I looked up
the court documents.

I was shocked... Candace Conti
sued Watchtower over her abuse

and how it was mishandled
by the elders

and not reported to the police.

And immediately
that resonated with me.

That's my personal experience,

where I was told not to report
to the police

for m-my abuse.

I was shocked to learn that

the "Two witness rule"
was actually a policy

of the Governing Body
of Jehovah's Witnesses.

That "Two witness rule"
affected me personally,

it r-really ruined my life.

The "Two witness rule"

is really central doctrine

for the Jehovah's Witnesses.

The scriptures is ex...
is very, very clear.

It says, "No single witness may
convict another for any error

or any sin that he may commit."

It's very clear, isn't it?

There are a lot of people
that have been sexually abused

and it's all been swept
under the rug

because of
the "Two witness rule."

You can't apply that rule
to sexual assault.

You can't.

Where is there going to be
two witnesses to such a crime?

My mother suffered from
a personality disorder

which wasn't diagnosed
till later in life.

She was extremely abusive.

She's not a very nice person.

So she was one of
Jehovah's Witnesses,

and she would kind
of use the Bible

as part of her abuse with us.

She would read scriptures
to us about, you know,

make sure you obey your mother,
and then she would beat us

and did certain,
you know, awful things.

I have an older brother
and older sister.

My mom would lock us in rooms,

she turned the...
the door knob,

so the lock was on the outside
so she could lock us for days

at a time in our...
in our room,

with no access to the restroom.

You'd have to, you know, go out
the window or use a litter box.

We would watch her drown, uh,
kittens in front of us,

to kind of threatened us that
if we spoke up about the abuse,

this is kind of
what would happen to us.

Um, she would beat us.

Uh, she would starve us.

I was malnourished.

I was very skinny.

I was all skin and bones.

My clavicle
was always sticking out.

I had dark circles
under my eyes.

I was sexually abused as well
by my mother.

My father worked
different shifts at his job,

so there were times he worked
11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.,

and so we were
left alone with my mom.

She would make us lay in bed
next to her

while she masturbated.

Twelve years old,
went to an elder,

and I informed him
about the serious abuse

that was going on in our home,

but because it was my word
against my mother's word,

they would take no action.

I asked for help, they actually
reasoned with me that

if I died
at the hands of my mother,

which was a real possibility,

could she stop Jehovah
from resurrecting me?

And of course,
the logical answer was no.

And so instead of giving me
any practical help,

even providing some food

or reporting to
Child Protective Services,

I was sent back home to face
this horrible, horrific abuse.

On top, I was told
I couldn't report it

because, um, it would make
the organization look bad.

The abuse was so bad
that I actually remember

looking at my mom and thinking,
if I just kill her right now,

or I kill myself,
this would be over.

And, um...

She...
Sorry.

I always have in my mind, um,

a picture of a little girl
that I pushed down.

And so she's the one
that was abused

and I had to separate myself.

If those brothers had helped me
when I was 12...

I wouldn't have had to deal with
what I dealt with.

If they had made one phone call
to Child Protective Services.

She's still an active Witness.

She's around children.

I have nightmares,

my mom flushing kittens
down the toilet,

or tying them up
in a plastic bag

and listening to them cry
and die in front of me.

She's a psychopath..

So you don't say anything.

I just put a smile on my face.

No one knew
what was going on outside.

No one knew,
and I knew the risk that I took.

I went to those elders... I was
putting my life on the line

because if my mom found out that
I told anyone about the abuse,

she would have killed me.

And those brothers said,
go home and obey your mother.

She didn't talk about it until
after I left the organization.

She didn't talk about the fact
that the elders

had covered up
specific allegations of abuse

and told her to leave the matter
in Jehovah's hands.

Now it was personal.

I gave my life
to this organization.

I turned down a full scholarship
to an Ivy League school,

and I wanted to be a doctor.

And instead I turned that
all down for an organization

that wouldn't protect me.

Being a Witness
is an everyday commitment.

It's not enough to just believe

and then have a normal life
outside of your belief system,

you are to spend hours
in the ministry

going out,
knocking on doors,

because that's how you
demonstrate your faith to God.

You can't celebrate Christmas.

You can't go to
a birthday party.

It's a really busy life.

You're spending
the vast majority of your time

doing things that have to do
with being a Witness.

And that was the price that you
willingly paid for the truth.

They degrade colleges
and universities.

They degrade professors.

You'll see that smattered

all over
Jehovah's Witness literature,

their talks, their videos,

the dangers of higher education.

Higher education often instills
a sense of superiority

and self-reliance

that is in direct opposition
to the Christian personality.

We will not need doctors
or lawyers after Armageddon,

but we will need
carpenters and plumbers

and similar construction trades.

It requires faith
to decline higher education

and have the confidence that
our material needs will be

cared for
by training in other fields.

We really believed.

We studied, we made sacrifices
for this religion.

I served as a pioneer,
which would mean

working as a volunteer
full time.

The organization taught that
we should either be pioneers,

meaning full-time ministry,

or we should be
building kingdom halls,

we're going to Bethel to work

at the world headquarters
complexes.

Every time that there was
a crossroad,

I would give something up
to continue

being a good Jehovah's Witness.

Once I left, I realized that

I was living
under constant stress.

They teach you
you're not good enough,

that you were born imperfect

and that you will never be
perfect until the new system.

Let's remember these words
and this counsel,

"When you have done
all the things assigned to you,

say we are good
for nothing, slaves.

What we have done is what we
ought to have done."

I remember growing up

and hearing talks
throughout my whole life,

"You are
a good-for-nothing slave,"

and we would repeat that.

"We are good-for-nothing
slaves."

We owe our lives to God
because he created us.

Turning around
and asking yourself,

can I...
can I start over again?

Do I have the strength to do
that... is a very scary thing.

From an early age,

you're raised
with no self-esteem,

no self-awareness,
no confidence.

I didn't have prom,
I didn't have birthdays,

I didn't have dates,
I didn't have college.

You feel like you're robbed.

Like someone stole
something from you.

And you feel angry,
and justifiably so.

My first memories as a child
was being pushed in a stroller

and going door to door with my
mother trying to recruit people.

This is my book bag that I would
carry around with me

when I would go door to door,
full time pioneering,

so it's just full time
knocking on doors,

and trying to recruit people.

This brings back memories.

It all started with my mom.

We met a Jehovah's Witness,

and they showed her a couple of
scriptures from the Bible

she'd never seen before.

So at the time
she was pregnant with me,

I never had a father figure,
she was mom and dad.

I was baptized, and in here...

I just found this shit,
I still have the T-shirt

I was baptized in.

It was in San Francisco,
at the Cow Palace,

with 10,000 Jehovah's Witnesses,
like, watching.

I was hyped and had to
wear the white shirt,

because that means you're
starting new, it's fresh,

it's loose-fitting, it's modest.

My mom was excited.

Here's Kameron!

I remember, like, even walking
into the heated pool,

something feeling
like it left my body.

I felt like I was dirty
and that was restarting,

so I felt clean again

and I felt something
like a spirit had left my body.

Like, when I came out
of the water,

I felt, you know,
I had a second chance at life

because I was born a sinner.

But I also felt a lot
more pressure

because you're basically
marrying Jehovah God,

you're dedicated to him
no matter what.

You're always under pressure
to be perfect

and to set the right example
and, you know,

every time it's not, it's...
something's wrong with you.

I was like four or five.

And it was your classic,
you know,

they're close to the family,

trusted member of the family,
you're left alone.

I spent the night at his house,

and, um,
he took advantage one night

and I knew I wanted to leave,

I just didn't know what to do
because I was four years old.

He was 17, 18...
so he's not super old,

but he was old enough to know
that, like, that was not okay.

He said, "Yeah, don't talk about
this, this is just between us."

My mom comes from abuse.

I guess I was saying
some weird things,

and she's like,
"Wait, what does that mean?

Tell me what happened."

And then she immediately, like,
burst into tears

and set up a meeting
with the elders.

She was taught to talk to them
for direction for everything.

They told her the classics,
like, don't talk about it,

we don't want to bring
a reproach on Jehovah's name,

so we don't want to make
the religion look bad.

It's in Jehovah's Hands,
he'll fix it in the new system

when the world ends
and everyone was not

a Jehovah's Witness will die.

And, uh, they just pretty much
dismissed everything.

When I woke up, it was about
a solid month of depression

and sadness and crying and panic
and anxiety attacks...

found out everything
I was taught was a lie.

Once someone starts learning
about the group

and it kind of hits them
that they've been in a cult,

there's a lot of trauma
that can happen around that,

realizing that you've missed out
on a lot of things in life,

lost milestones,

lost achievements
and accomplishments.

It's very distressing.

Month later,

I... I had my little DSLR
that I had saved up for

because I wanted to be
a filmmaker,

and all of a sudden I was free
to, like, chase that,

and I was like,
I'm going to blog

'cause people need
to know about this,

and I just want
to help 10 people.

So that got me involved
in activism with child abuse.

When I started,
there was a handful of YouTubers

and there's a lot
of Reddit posts,

but now there's
tons of YouTubers.

I am a survivor
of childhood sexual abuse.

I don't remember exactly
when the abuse started.

Lots of people knew;
nobody did anything about it.

No one called the police.

I myself have been
through a ton of abuse.

It's their policies
that's protecting pedophiles.

I went to the Internet

to search for
Jehovah's Witness teachings,

and I saw that there were
a lot of people

who came out as victims of
child abuse in the organization.

I knew what child abuse was,
but never in my life

had I imagined

that this was such a strong,
ongoing issue.

I discovered that
the Jehovah's Witnesses

were not giving their documents

about alleged abuse
to the court.

They decided to keep this
all hidden

somewhere
in the Kingdom Hall,

and most members
inside the organization

didn't even know
it was occurring.

I think that 95% to 99%
of active Jehovah's Witnesses

have no clue
about the abuse that goes on.

If they were looking at it
like this actually happened,

it would blow most people away.

I had a very good idea

of where
these documents were kept.

I went back to
the ,

I was hoping to have
some kind of proof.

I knew that someone had to go
into the kingdom halls

and get these documents.

I found this elder,
I grew up with him,

I had a past history
and relationship with him,

and I was hoping that
this would trigger

something human
to come out.

Should be some guys dressed
kind of nice...

- Right there.
- Right here?

Yeah, I think so.

I was hoping to have
some kind of proof

and get
a confession about my abuse.

And he said that he'd love
to talk to me

about the depression
that I was going through

and how I was feeling
about my child abuse growing up.

I don't think anything has
changed in the organization.

It is one of the most stubborn
religious organizations

where they just throw children's
lives away like it's nothing.

People need to know about this.

There's no protections
in place for children,

and they're going to take
the side of the abuser

because there's no eyewitness...
so nothing's changed.

Hey, brothers and sisters,
if you haven't seen

the "Going to a memorial
as an apostate" video yet,

you should watch that.

Although the Governing Body
tries to say

that people will lie about us
on the Internet...

Be careful on the Internet.

We're just warning you,

that's all we can do
is admonish.

Stick with what
we have authorized.

You'll be safe.

There's no way that

this could all be lied about.

New sexual abuse
allegations tonight

- against Jehovah's Witness.
- The alleged victims' claims

- an elder...
- Says she was molested

by a fellow church member.

A pattern of alleged
child abuse.

The commission learned that
of those hundreds of cases,

none... none...
was reported to police.

At the time I was still
a member of the Congregation.

This is what Jehovah, the God of
Israel, says...

So everyone in the congregation
saw me as a regular,

spiritually strong,
trusted member...

Before he resurrects them,
he's going to create

a perfect place for them,
a paradise here on Earth.

But on the inside
I had my doubts.

I was only going there
to keep my family and friends.

My father was very high up.

He was a well respected member.

He had a lot of privilege
and he pretty much

was the leader
of our congregation.

He wanted myself to grow up
and be the same way.

So he taught me a lot,
and I found that growing up

I knew much more
than the typical Witness

regarding what goes on
behind the scenes.

My father taught me that when
something occurred

inside the Kingdom Hall,
that brother or sister

would meet with a couple
of elders in a secret meeting.

It was just that person
who had some problem

and two or three elders
speaking with them.

A judicial committee is a group
of three elders

in the congregation
who will convene

for a series of private meetings

with someone who has
committed a sin,

or to hear an accusation

they believe and they're trying
to get to the bottom of it,

with the end goal of,
do we have mercy on this person

or do we disfellowship them?

This would all be documented
and filed away

and locked for no one
to see except the elders.

I was curious as to

what is really hidden
in the kingdom halls,

what's really locked away.

At that point, when Judas
started getting curious,

we had been dating
for about five or six years.

I felt the need to take action
because we had the ability to.

We had a set of picks
that we used,

some doors were very difficult
to get open.

So in that instance, we would go
to meetings during the day,

crack open one of the windows,
and then come back later

at night
and crawl through the windows.

I was paranoid the whole time.

Every small noise I heard,

I would pause.

Be quiet.

Then we can continue.

We went through all the files
that we thought were suspicious.

We had little knives
to cut open the files.

We had our glue sticks
and then glue it back together

as if it were never opened.

I came across this big envelope

titled
"Child Abuse, Do Not Destroy."

We found way more pedophile
activity than we anticipated.

Hundreds of pages in just
one congregation.

These were people
I grew up with.

These are people I knew.

So it shocked me.

I could not believe what I was
reading and how extensive,

how severe and how detailed
these documents were.

It was horrifying.

Seeing the pedophiles
not getting the consequences

they deserved infuriated me.

So that caused us to act
and get as many files

as we could on them.

I felt that it was
my responsibility

to get these documents
and get them out to the public

and really show the true nature
of the organization.

I ended up posting on an ex-JW
page on the Internet

with one small letter
that I found...

a sample, so to speak.

Once I posted that,
I began to receive

a lot of messages.

One message
that grabbed my attention

was from someone named
John Redwood.

There is a subreddit group
called ex-JW,

which has something like
55,000 members.

And an individual had posted
some information that indicated

that he may have found
some documents

inside of congregations

that dealt directly with
child sexual abuse.

We gained each other's trust,

and I saw that we were fighting
for the same cause.

I received an anonymous
package of documents,

which was very extensive.

Many of the documents
were handwritten notes.

They were notes from elders,

they were notes from
the victims themselves

and from Watchtower's
communication back and forth

to the congregations.

And I knew immediately
that this was serious.

I really have evolved
over the decades

as I've learned more and more
about the Jehovah's Witnesses

to really think of them

as a more
and more destructive cult.

The pedophilia, uh,
predatory institution,

the shunning, uh,
the fear of Armageddon.

How many people have been harmed
by that institutional abuse?

For example, if you take
the blood issue,

tens and tens of thousands
of people have died

for not taking
a blood transfusion.

People have died for no reason

based on an arbitrary misreading
of the Torah.

Refusing blood transfusions

comes from a loosely
interpreted scripture

in Acts where you are told
not to eat blood.

And apparently that's the same
as taking a blood transfusion,

I guess...

that's... that's
how they see it anyway.

What does the Bible say
about blood transfusions?

The Bible commands
that we not ingest blood.

Note the following scriptures:
Genesis 9:4.

God allowed Noah and his family
to add animal flesh

to their diet after the flood,

but commanded them
not to eat the blood.

People die for this
all the time,

like, even children,

like, little babies die from it.

And nobody bats and eye...

in fact, people will usually,

like, put these people on
a pedestal,

the people that die.

They're martyred.

That's something
that I think is...

is hard for people
to wrap their minds around

if they're not
a part of the religion.

The seven year old boy
facing

death because his parents'
religious beliefs

prohibit blood transfusions.

Because both parents
are Jehovah's Witnesses,

they do not want to see their
baby girl get any foreign blood,

even if it is a matter
of life and death.

It's thought the medical team
wanted to carry out

a blood transfusion,
but the family,

being Jehovah's Witnesses,
refused.

Six hours later he died.

Jehovah's Witnesses are causing
people to die

due to not taking
blood transfusions,

that shouldn't be dead.

It's pretty nefarious.

I believe that God
wanted us to be loyal

and not accept
a blood transfusion

because the life was
in the blood.

I never questioned
any of that.

To me, it was always
a matter of loyalty.

You can change
people's thoughts

and get them to engage in
behaviors that are

against self preservation.

And I think that's
the scary thing.

And Witnesses do that really,
really well.

Most people will do what
they've been taught

is the right thing to do,

even if it means
losing their life.

I had already started
questioning the religion,

the cult.

And eventually I started
to think maybe God is real,

but it's not this.

I don't know what I'm doing.

My mom was baptized
when she was 12.

My mom was married
when she was 14.

The elders sanctioned that,
by the way...

they were the ones who told
my grandmother to do that.

My grandma tried to make my mom
live with my dad,

but my mom was a kid and she
wanted to come back home,

and she did come back home.

Originally, I was raised
by my mother.

I was living with her and
my grandmother at the same time.

Hey, I'm over here, babe.

I was indoctrinated
from, like, the womb on.

I was two years old

and I'm walking around
quoting scripture.

I had questions
my whole childhood,

and they never got answered.

Growing up
as a Jehovah's Witness

and being part of the LGBT
community was very stressful

and it was filled with a lot
of self-hatred and repression.

Keep clean before Jehovah
and enjoy his blessing.

The first way you can do this

is by avoiding
tight-fitting clothes

that can identify you
with homosexuality.

These clothes contribute
to changing

people's opinion
of homosexuality

because they come to see it
as normal and acceptable.

I asked my grandmother,
I remember,

"How do we know that we're
the right religion?

How do we know
it's not something else?"

And she would just tell me,
"Because the Bible says so."

She would always
give me answers like that,

that just weren't satisfying
and didn't make sense.

My mom started to drink more
in her early to mid 20s.

Work, work, work.

She started abusing
painkillers.

When I was 17 years old,

my mom got very ill
after a car accident

and she ended up
in the hospital.

We didn't realize
it at the time,

but she was suffering
from a lot of organ damage

from chronic alcoholism.

All of her organs were failing.

They were telling us that
she needed a blood transfusion.

My mom had brain swelling
at the time,

so they said that she couldn't
make the decision for herself.

They were leaving the choice
up to my grandma.

I distinctly remember there
being, um,

like a whole swarm of elders.

They were the Hospital
Liaison Committee,

that's what they're called.

Serious medical situations
are stressful,

and decisions often need to be
made quickly,

including those involving blood.

The Hospital Liaison Committee
arrangement provides comfort

and help at the right time.

They were there basically
to make sure

that my grandmother
made the "right" choice.

The Hospital Liaison Committees

have been a very powerful tool
in the hand of Jehovah

to provide this support
and strength

when the blood issue arises.

What a beautiful gift Jehovah
has given his people

through the fine work of
the Hospital Liaison Committees.

Truly, this has been
a strengthening aid for us

to keep abstaining from blood.

Often these brothers coming,
this committee,

to the bedside
of a Jehovah's Witness

who is in distress
or in a health situation,

it can turn into coercion,

like trying to convince a person

not to take blood
that could save their life.

When a child
or any family member

needs a blood transfusion
and they can't do it,

you know, Jehovah's Witnesses
will make sure

that they're always
on the scene

reminding you of the reasons
why you should obey these things

even though they're against
human nature as a parent.

They would be
in the waiting room.

They were in her room,
they were surrounding her bed.

You know, just bunch of suits
strongarming an old lady

into killing her daughter.

What did you buy this for,
Mami?

My grandmother knew
what she was supposed to do.

She was supposed to sacrifice
her daughter

to the organization.

For hours and hours,
different doctors came in

and they were trying to, like,
tell her the mortal peril

she was putting my...
my mother in

by allowing her
to have this surgery

without any blood transfusion.

But still, even after
all those hours of deliberation,

my grandmother, of course,
said no blood

and signed off
on the consent form,

and that was it.

She passed away.

When my mother died,

that was pretty much
the last straw for me.

I had such a...
such a hard time reconciling

how somebody could do that
to their own child.

I took that as a sign, like,

my family means business
about this religion,

like, they're willing to
kill each other over this.

I'm going to go and try to talk
to my grandmother

about what happened
with my mother.

The last time I spoke to her
was over a year ago.

I just want to understand why.

I'm on my way

to go and confront
my grandmother.

It's been over a year
since I've seen her,

and I'm really hoping
that I can just have

at least a coherent
conversation with her.

Oh, shit, that's
my grandma's garage opening!

That's fantas...
Oh, fuck!

We can do it, all right.

Hi.

- Hi.
- Hi.

- Can I have a hug?
- Huh?

Can I have a hug?

It's been like a year
since I've seen you.

I'm sorry, I look... I just...

I just haven't seen you
in forever.

There's always been some stuff
I wanted to ask you, like...

about my mom.

When... when you had
to make that choice,

- was it hard?
- She chose.

And naturally I am happy.

- But it... it...
- To make the right decision.

- It didn't hurt?
- No.

It didn't hurt you
to do that?

- No, honey...
- Not at all?

That's what she wanted.

- She'll be resurrected.
- Yeah, but she wasn't even

a practicing Jehovah's Witness
at the time.

It doesn't matter.
She make a good choice.

- And I'm so happy.
- One more hug.

I'm sorry, I never
get to see you anymore.

- Okay. Well...
- I hope everything's okay.

- Remember, time is short...
- Time is short.

And you can see your mom again

because she is
going to be resurrected.

It's upsetting that a group
would control people this way.

So once it kind of hits them,

it's going through
the process of saying,

"I'm still here,
I'm still alive,

and I'm going to make
the most of this."

It becomes very important
to speak up

and everyone finds
their own way to do that.

A lot of Jehovah's Witnesses,
when you leave,

people are empowered now to say,
hey, this happened to me

and I'm going to speak up
about it because it was wrong.

And I don't want it to happen
to somebody else.

I've always wanted to crash
Kingdom Halls,

I've always wanted to go
in there

and say something to them.

I can't help but think about
all the people

that are still stuck
in the cult.

I'm planting some kind of
a seed.

I just want them to hear
some of what I'm saying.

They don't
have to hear everything,

just enough to make them think,

"Is that something
that's worth looking into?"

Jehovah, our Heavenly Father,
I come to you in prayer

and ask that you please
forgive us

for your ever
changing blood doctrine,

which has caused
so many needless deaths...

- No, no, no, no, no...
- Including that of my mother,

Elizabeth van Hassel!

- Please sit down...
- My mother died...

- Please step down.
- My mother died from the bu...

the blood doctor, her name is
Elizabeth van Hassel.

She was only 32 years old
when she passed away.

- You have a choice, you either...
- My mother, my... my mother died

because... because her mother...
actually, her mother made

the choice for her not to...
for her not to have blood.

Not only that, but there are
people that you are shunning...

- Right now, get off right now.
- And they are

- committing suicide...
- Get off.

Please don't shun your family
members!

Please, I beg you,
do not shun your family members,

we love you,
we care about you,

we don't want...
we don't want you to shun us.

We care about you.

Also...

- Sir, sir...
- Do you know...

Let go of you, sir,
you cannot be touching me.

Do you practice...

You're a Jehovah's Witness,
that is against the law.

I really want people to look at
my videos

and I want them to see
an example of what they can do.

I want them to see
a human being suffering

because it's very real
and it happens all the time.

I want them to see...

hell...

in a human...

And see what that does
to somebody.

Jehovah Witnesses are
continuing a more

than month-long convention
at the Santander Arena.

It's expected to draw more than
25,000 Jehovah Witnesses

from 218 congregations
in Pennsylvania.

Right when the convention
was starting on Sunday morning,

I was unattended, and I just
went on the ex-JW Reddit page,

and I just made a post that said
they were checking lapel badges

and making sure that
no protesters got inside

and started talking to people.

Thirty minutes into
the Sunday convention,

I see a comment
from John Redwood.

My abuser's rights were
protected and I was silenced.

My four year old daughter
was the molested

by teenage boy
in the Kingdom Hall.

It was very important to us
as parents of a survivor

of child sex abuse
to let other parents know

that there are abusers
in the organization.

These elders who sit here
on these judicial committees

who know of some of this stuff,

say at conventions and across
the stage at congregations

that we abstain
from this type of stuff.

Report it to the police,
not to the elders.

It's okay.
It's okay to read.

Thanks, guys.
Good morning.

Their stock response is that
Jehovah's Witnesses

abhor child abuse...

and they are correct.

They do abhor child abuse,
that's not the issue.

The issue is how do they handle
a child abuse allegation?

So here we have a group
of elders

that are debriefing a victim
who has said

that there were multiple men
sexually assaulting her,

going all the way back to
when she was four years of age.

"How old were you
when this happened?"

Answer, "Four years old."
"Did he do anything

of a sexual nature, like touch
your private parts?"

Answer, "Yes."
Can you tell us

who was in the room?"
Answer...

who was convicted of raping
his half sister

a blond man was there, a red
haired man with a red beard

and who is
the main perpetrator

in the Palmer Leaks case.

These documents represent
the fact

that there was an internal
investigation at great depth

into the crimes committed
by this perpetrator

and other perpetrators who
were also Jehovah's Witnesses.

The package of documents
from Judas

contained multiple cases
of child sexual abuse,

none of which were ever
turned over to the police

by the congregation elders.

There was one case
in particular

called the Palmer Leaks,

and this involved the Palmer
congregation in Massachusetts.

What we discover is that
the two daughters of this man,

who was an elder
for some period of time,

had been viciously and severely
abused by their father.

I knew that Palmer congregation
is just one congregation.

I also knew that
there were hundreds,

maybe tens of thousands of cases
that were not released.

And this was just one case...
a sample, so to speak.

I had no choice
but to do something about it.

If I didn't speak up,

then this information
would be buried forever.

When the Palmer Leaks came out,
it was a big story.

It was picked up by media
all over the world.

The documents were incendiary
because these were essentially

the first time that copies
of database documents

were seen by the public.

By any estimation,
there are

tens of thousands
of people named in the database.

This was just a sample
of what people imagined

could be in the database.

The reason why I think
they're so adamant

in protecting these files
is because they must have

a concern with what these files
are going to tell the world

about their organization

and how they don't
protect children,

and instead protect
these pedophiles...

and their "brand,"
if you will.

Watchtower has sued
the organization

who was actually hosting
the documents.

But as a result of the release
of those documents

to not only the public,
but to the police,

there is now
an investigation by the police.

What it boils down to is people
seeing first hand

a serious, serious problem

that is not otherwise
ever going to be addressed

by this large institution
that's behind it.

I am on a mission... I haven't
seen or talked to my mother

maybe three or four times
in the last three or four years.

We set up a loose time
and a loose date for us

to meet up for coffee
on the weekend; she disappears.

I just...
I just don't hear from her.

She wasn't there,
and I end up finding out why,

because she knew
I would be there,

it would be too painful
for her to see.

Instead, I ran into
one of my abusers.

I didn't see him
until the very end.

I just remember feeling, like,
really angry and just upset.

It infuriated me because...

You know, this guy...

who fucked up my childhood...

I kept thinking about, like,

"What about the next kid,"
you know?

Ended up finding out
something happened

and I couldn't be there
to protect him.

You know,
I couldn't be there to...

protect my family.

I just felt, like,
useless and powerless because...

That's how the system is built,
it's for these child abusers

to get away with this shit.

Watchtower's legal department
looks for a loophole

in how to escape
mandatory reporting...

because most states
have mandatory reporting.

The Jehovah's Witnesses argue
that all of this information,

by their religious tenets,

are... is to be kept
confidential

no matter who gets to see it.

They tell the elders, you have
no obligation to report.

That's their loophole that they
made and they stuck to.

They want to manage
their own judicial process,

which includes child abuse,
and because of that,

we have this conflict
between church and state.

I think they've become
much more entrenched,

they've become
much more defiant.

They have done very little
to improve the risk factors

that would lead up
to child sexual abuse.

After the Atlantic article
came out,

the very next day,

two elders
from our local congregation

made multiple attempts
to reach us.

It was obvious
they were trying to bully us

and to hold us accountable
for speaking out.

My article for The Atlantic
was a larger look

at the Jehovah's Witness
organization,

at the religion,

at their
child sexual abuse issues,

and it was also a profile
of Mark O'Donnell.

The Atlantic article was
released March 22nd, 2019,

and exactly one day later,

there were two elders
that came to our front door.

The two elders that had come
to my home

were elders that we were
very familiar with.

In fact, the first elder
was the elder

who conducted
our marriage ceremony

and now he's at our door
and we were not there.

Within a few weeks, we had
received two certified letters,

one to Kimmy,
one addressed to me,

and those letters were
basically demanding

that we come to
a judicial hearing

at the Perry Hall Kingdom Hall

on the charge
of causing divisions.

They felt that we were somehow
disrupting the congregation

or causing divisions.

I knew that they were seeking
our disfellowshipping.

I really didn't care as much
as I did care about the effect

that it had
on my elderly mother.

She is a faithful Witness
and she has a very strong belief

in the Bible
and the resurrection.

She doesn't have
any other children.

So we are the only family
that she has.

It would really hurt her to know

that her only son
has been disfellowshipped

and can no longer speak
to any Witnesses whatsoever.

As mentioned, we do have
quite a few announcements,

so please bear with me.

First, this is to inform
the congregation

that Mark O'Donnell
is no longer

one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

And this is to inform
the congregation

that Kimberly O'Donnell
is no longer

one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

I'm not a fool,
I know that the organization

goes after whistleblowers...
it has for decades.

Anyone who speaks out against
the organization

or its policies,
they will be disfellowshipped.

I really feel that the timing
of our disfellowshipping

says a lot about
this organization,

the fact that we would
speak our truth

and tell our story
in The Atlantic

and we were disfellowshipped,

It says a lot about the lengths

that the organization
of Jehovah's Witnesses

will go to,

to chase down
a whistleblower.

Mark has absolutely had
a huge impact

and is likely to...

I think... I think Mark
is at the very beginning

of what he's doing;
I think

in the next 10
to 20 years,

we're going to see
the real breadth of impact

that Mark is going to have.

We'll continue
to do what we can

to bring about transparency

and bring about change

and to be... be here
to support people as they leave.

We had been married 15 years

before we really opened up
to one another.

You can leave and be happy.

And I'm happy.

I'm still terrified of what
my family is going to say,

because, you know, I crash
all those halls and everything

and I go out
and I protest and everything,

but I didn't really
fully understand myself

until actually just recently.

I'm finally out as being a man,

I can't believe it took
that long,

like, I still can't believe
it took that long.

So, yeah, my family
would not be very pleased

if they knew that not only
am I trans, but I'm also gay.

I think that'll shut
the door forever.

It feels terrible, feels awful
to know that the mother

that is supposed to love you

doesn't want to see you because
you changed your beliefs.

I don't know if I'll have a
relationship with my mom again.

It's been years.

That's probably my biggest fear
is, um,

her passing away

and me finding out months
or years later.

I wish that she could be
a part of my life,

I wish that she could,
you know,

see the production company
I'm doing,

and even see the activism
and see how good it is.

I wish she could see
the good things.

Here we go!

All right.
Second or first?

After we left the organization,

it was nice to just exist
as Mark and Kimmy

and figure out who we were
and what we liked

and... and find that...
that connection.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- You're at base, Kimmy.

Am I up?

- Probably not.
- It's supposed to rain, I think?

- My legs hurt.
- Tomorrow it's supposed to rain.

You can be friends
with non-Witnesses

and they're not going
to rob you or rape you.

There we go, there we go!

Great, great, great, great!

News alert... according to
their terminology

and their doctrine,

Mark and I will not be
part of the new system.

Come on, Mark!
Get ready to run!

Nice shot, nice shot!

We will be, um...

killed here at Armageddon

if we don't die before then.

We've had our final judgment.

Yeah...
Yeah.

But we do have freedom.

Freedom of thought,
freedom to do what we want.

Right, so no longer
living this temporary life,

we're having fun, we're enjoying
ourselves, we have,

you know, real relationships.

So now we're living.

Until a watchtower accepts
that this is not

strictly a moral failing,

that there is
a psychological problem

and that these people need help,
they need medical attention,

they need to be reported
to the authorities...

this is going to continue
to happen.

I think if... if developments
keep coming at the pace

and rate that they have so far,

within a few years' time
we'll be looking at,

you know,
one of the largest cover ups

of religious institutionalized
sexual abuse

that anyone has ever heard of.

If they had reported it
immediately to the authorities,

it would have prevented other
children from getting molested.

I have publicly made
this statement since 2002,

that it is not just a sin,

it's a crime,

and you report crime
to the authorities.

The organization has changed
over time.

They've been forced to:
they predicted the end of

the world, and the end of
the world hasn't come.

So they... they've changed.

They can change.

But so far,
they've shown no appetite

to change in these areas.

The scriptures are very clear:

before a judicial committee
can be convened,

there has to be a confession
or two witnesses,

so we will never

change our scriptural position
on that subject.

And we get rid of all drafts.

We... we no longer keep drafts.

So once we've finalized
our document,

we clean out all the drafts.

And the reason is,
is because there's many comments

that are sometimes
made on drafts.

Those are the ones
that get us in trouble.

Well, we know that the scene
of this world is changing

and we know Satan's
coming after us.

And he's going to go
for us legally.

I want to be
whoever I want to be,

and that's why I left.

Better your life,
better yourself

without that organization.

This is a brand new world
for me and my family,

but it's exciting.

I couldn't be happier now

to be able to share my story
and my trip with you.

The world needs to see that

the Jehovah's Witnesses
do not give a shit.

I hope that it helps
somebody out there,

that it touches some person who
is still stuck in the cold.

There's so much to do
in this world.

It's a much bigger place

than the Witnesses
make to seem to be,

and a much more loving place.

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