Tag: child sexual abuse

Dear Merlin, Paul, Reid, Joshua and Vancouver Field Elders,

Vancouver field elders, we have been made aware of how some of you feel about us by the workers in the Vancouver area, in both written and verbal communication. According to Merlin, Paul, Reid and Joshua, the characterizations made of us by some of you, precede the decision to remove our meeting. The workers informed us that some of you consider us as unworthy of the privilege of being an elder for several reasons, one specifically that we don’t possess the “qualities of an elder”. More specifically, some of you had this concern BEFORE the meeting was placed in our home, this according to a letter sent by Merlin to one of the friends.

It is also possible that you never actually did say anything negative about us but that this was fabricated, or was it the perspective of the workers as they shared with you their thoughts about us, and you simply agreed. A case of “the workers are always right”.

There is a trait in our fellowship that we have allowed to become the very nucleus of our worship, the direction of our faith – that the workers, no matter the circumstance, justification or even how outside of Doctrine their actions are that we will agree with them – that they are the actual embodiment of God’s will and voice at any time, place, or circumstance.

Below are facts:
It was brought to our attention that in late 2022 someone in our Sunday meeting twice asked Paul Chiu to add people to our meeting, especially since a couple from South Africa had moved to North Van, live close to us and have a teenage daughter similar in age to the other teenagers in the meeting. Paul declared to this person on one occasion (unbeknownst to us) that he “will not add people to the meeting because of Leonie’s hair”. The folks in our meeting were so upset about this that they didn’t feel they could share it with us, so we didn’t know anything about this until the first week in February when we were told about the perp coverups etc.

On Saturday February 11, 2023, Paul Chiu and Reid Goodkey came to our home for dinner. After dinner Paul announced that “they are balancing the meetings” and that our meeting (our family, B&V L family; M&H W family) is being split and sent to three other Sunday meetings in the Vancouver field as of March 5th. Jeremy said to Paul that we can accept the changes but that we feel it is unwise at this time given that some of our meeting folks were in so much pain due to recent issues and how they have been handled by the workers. Paul did not accept this. Jeremy gave Paul an opportunity to tell the truth: he asked him THREE times – Is balancing the meetings the complete and only reason for this change? Three times Paul answered “yes, that is the only reason”. Jeremy asked “are there any other reasons?”. Paul answered “no”. Jeremy then said “we know what you said about Leonie’s hair to someone in our meeting”. Paul replied: “yes I did say that, but this change has nothing to do with Leonie’s hair”. Again, Paul was asked more than once to confirm this to be the truth. He confirmed it to be the truth.

On Tuesday February 14 (or maybe Thurs February 16) both Ls and Ws met with Paul, Reid and Merlin about the CSA coverups going on, perpetrators allowed to come to meeting, sister workers quitting in droves and the decision to remove our meeting. Merlin was bluntly asked if the meeting decision had anything to do with Leonie’s hair. He categorically stated “no”. He even said “I have never said anything about Leonie’s hair, for all I know it is a health or allergy issue…”

Prior to March 5th both Ls and Ws wrote to the workers and advised them that they would continue coming to our home on Sunday and we have continued with the meeting – with very rich fellowship and the certain presence of the Spirit in each meeting. We texted B&K K about our decision to keep our meeting intact stating specifically we cannot go along with the deceitful way this was handled and the lies being told around it.

News of our meeting being removed travelled far and wide with people from three continents asking us how this can be and voicing their support. Many of these people have, without our knowledge or request, written to the workers about our meeting removal. Yet we have been falsely accused by the workers of “drumming up support”. Reid, by his own admission, even preached AT us about this in a Gospel Meeting. Not a Gospel message!

A few weeks ago, in a visit with an elderly couple in the Vancouver field Reid (accompanied by Joshua), told some egregious lies about us. As follows:

• we are “drumming up support” all over the place about the meeting decision;
• they have been trying to arrange a visit with us but we refuse to meet with them.

This couple is friends of ours and shared this with us, and so Reid was caught in a lie. We wrote a strongly worded letter on June 10, 2023 which you can read below the end of this letter. Reid then set up a meeting with us for Sunday June 18 after gospel meeting. We arranged to have two witnesses, H&M W, present. Reid and Joshua were the only workers present.

Reid apologized for telling lies about us “drumming up support” about the meeting removal and he also admitted that we had never refused to meet with them, and that we had actually invited them to come and visit us. He also admitted to and apologized for preaching AT us in a Gospel Meeting based on his own false assumptions. The matter of our meeting came up again and after his apology, Reid then provided the following reasons for our meeting being taken away:

1. We ENCOURAGE alcohol consumption. Encourage? NOTHING is further from the truth. The only thing is that we don’t hide the fact that we have wine in the house and offer it on occasion to guests. Leonie extremely rarely drinks alcohol. Titus 1: 6-9 is used as justification AND the “fact” that “someone” has raised the concern that we ENCOURAGE drinking. When we pushed back on this, Reid stated “well it was before my time here”. We asked for details, and Reid committed to provide the information to us. We are still waiting……..
2. Leonie has short hair – even though Reid admitted there is no doctrine to support the outward appearance rules that have become so entrenched in this fellowship. Please also remember that BOTH Paul and Merlin unequivocally stated that the meeting decision had NOTHING to do with Leonie’s hair! This also calls into question the validity/sincerity of Reid’s apology as he was present when both Paul and Merlin stated the meeting decision had nothing to do with Leonie’s hair.
3. AL didn’t approve of the meeting being placed in our home when he and J sold their home in West Van. Again, this is not true. A.. recently wrote to Merlin requesting (unbeknownst to us) that the meeting be officially reinstated and people be added. Would he have taken the time to write Merlin if he didn’t approve? Reid further said that “other elders” also didn’t approve of us getting a Sunday meeting at the time.
4. Our reaction (spirit) when we were told the meeting is being taken away. Think about this reason for a second: “we are taking your meeting away because of how you reacted when we told you we are taking your meeting away”……
5. Balancing the meeting numbers – this continues to remain untrue and illogical.
6. “Some elders” have voiced concerns about us. Did you have concerns? What are they?

At this meeting Reid also informed us that from now on we will not receive ANY communications from “the workers”, that we would have to look on social media etc. to avail ourselves of any current communication to the BC/Vancouver friends. Do the workers in the field communicate on social media?

Shortly after we were informed our meeting was being taken away, Bruer-gate erupted. You all know we did not keep quiet about this. When Merlin issued his letter about Bruer having been “immoral” (rather than “criminal”) we simply could not keep quiet and you received our first communication. Contrary to the convenient narrative of the workers our outrage was as a result of the treatment of many sister workers and of relaxed and unconcerned attitude of many workers towards child sexual abuse and sexual abuse being perpetrated by workers, elders and friends and being swept under the rug by overseers and others.

Our so-called “bad spirit” is nothing more than a righteous anger towards the people that make a mockery of the Doctrine of Christ and the dismal lack of empathy shown to innocent victims and others whose lives are or were often permanently and savagely scarred by workers and others who were implicitly trusted. Ours is a righteous anger toward the evil in God’s House. Outside of being a sexual predator, a common criminal or a murderer the most egregious thing a minister can be is a liar. Anyone who is a spiritual teacher, worker, minister or a person presenting themselves as a servant of God that goes and lies to their church is an abomination. Consider Revelations 22:15. It’s disturbing that people who say they are led by the Spirit see this happening in front of them and then simply accept it as God’s Truth. Is this not making God’s Truth a lie? If we know of evil and do not shun it, we are complicit. Plain and simple.

We plead with you to consider this, as hard as it may be:

1. The “Way” as we know it currently FAR exceeds the known sexual atrocities statistics per capita of the Catholic Church? We appear to be the WORST Christian group on the planet for hiding and allowing child sexual abuse and sexual abuse to continue by systematically not reporting offences to the authorities and by withholding the truth from the Friends to maintain a phony outward show.
2. The extent to which child sexual abuse and sexual abuse has come out against overseers, workers, elders and friends in North America and world-wide. Many overseers (past, present and dead), workers, and ex workers have been identified as alleged pedophiles, alleged sexual abusers or good old-fashioned fornicators while in the work. We suggest you visit the following reliable information sources:
   https://wingsfortruth.info/category/news/ and
   https://www.advocatesforthetruth.com/updates and
   https://www.advocatesforthetruth.com/open-cases .
3. Since March 2023 more than 500 perpetrators in this fellowship have been reported to Private Investigator Cynthia Liles.
4. The victim count is now in the thousands.
5. Many overseers either preyed on victims or covered up for predators.
6. The FBI is now involved as a result of the sheer magnitude of this problem. It is probably a matter of time before they involve their good neighbours, the RCMP.
7. Can you accept this? We cannot.

We know that reems and reems of letters to the fields and friends, apologies, policies, and the like are now seeing the light of day. It is a good thing, but much of it is simply too little too late. Many of the people writing letters, writing apologies, writing zero-tolerance policies, and conducting listening tours are the very ones that knew about the CSA and SA atrocities and either helped cover it all up or did nothing.

Have you ever felt hopeless to the point of utter despair because:

• You have ZERO prospect of waking up to a new day void of guilt and burden placed upon you by the actions of a person abusing the authority they claimed, and that made you feel like it was all your fault.
• Your parents and siblings judged you for having the gall to seek help and protection from a respected and idolized creep.
• Of feeling like everyone sees and judges you.
• You cannot calm the mind down that constantly reminds you of your tormentor.
• Your mind torments you that your family is constantly plotting against you.
• You just yearn to be free but deep down you know this torment is for life.
• Your life becomes one lived in the imagination, one of a life free of the torment. Each new day being a cruel reminder of the past.
• You constantly make unwise and rash decisions, always entertaining the possibility of a life that would be wholesome and kind, but always being disappointed.
• You live cumulatively for half your life drugged to a stupor by psychiatrists who never seemed to get it that you were abused and needed to be heard and healed.
• You were always a laughingstock of children and adults who poked fun at your ticks and odd mannerisms, the result of side effects of medically prescribed drugs.
• You see through the people that patronizingly speak to you as they would to a child or a pet because they consider you crazy and weird.

But all through this she never lost her faith in God. You have just read a little how it was for Jeremy’s dear mother thanks to being sexually assaulted at age nine by George Absalom (a most revered worker in South Africa) and thanks to parents and a fellowship so wrapped up in form that she, as a child entered a life void of hope of normality and eventually a life ruined and wracked by paranoid schizophrenia and the side effects of medication she was forced to take. Her story is far from unique.

You know who you are on this list that have said to us in the past “our blessing comes from being obedient to the workers even if we know they are wrong”. We strongly disagree. Take a moment to reflect on where that approach has taken us as a fellowship……

Your reaction to all this may be that “God knows all, and all will be just fine”. You are right, God does know all, and all will eventually be fine but right now there is wrong in the ministry and fellowship that is like a cancer. So, is this the time then to turn away and say:
I don’t need to know of this;
It doesn’t concern me;
The workers have this under control;
God will fix it, we just have to pray and have faith.
NO, IT IS NOT. Faith without works is DEAD.

The time for pretending all is fine is long gone.

Kind regards, Jeremy and Leonie

Email sent June 10, 2023 at 9.52pm:

Dear Merlin,

This letter is also addressed to Reid, Paul and Joshua.

It has come to our attention that you are spreading the word that we are speaking to people to gather support for us having lost our Sunday meeting and asking them to speak up on our behalf. THIS IS NOT TRUE. We have NOT requested of ONE single person to reach out to any one of you with respect to our meeting being “taken away”. We encourage you to ask anyone that have written you about the removal of our meeting whether we had asked them to do so.

We continue with our Sunday meeting. Nothing to take away. We enjoy it when others attend our Sunday meeting on an ad-hoc basis to add to our number.

Note the following for the record:

1. With respect to our Sunday meeting, we have not gone looking for support from any person whatsoever.
2. Many people have however heard of the decision regarding our meeting and have reached out to US. Many of those people we have never even met before. Most of those people have shared with us their frustrations with the workers in BC and the mishandling of issues (see 3 below).
3. We have communicated the following concerns to you (as have many others):
4. Handling of CSA issues and suppression of transparency. (Why is there still no general notification of current CSA investigations in BC in order that victims be made aware. Also there has been no notification of members stepping down from Merlin’s CSA committee, why not?);
5. The unacceptable treatment, silencing and bullying of sister workers;
6. Overseers and workers’ abuse of power;
7. Suggested changes to restore trust and a healthy foundation for our fellowship.
8. We have communicated with friends regarding the manner in which you, as ministers in a position of trust have been conducting yourselves. One such issue is bold faced lying and below is a recent example:
9. Reid and Joshua, you have spoken to people this past week suggesting that you have been trying to arrange to meet with us and that we have not accepted this – HOW do you manage to lie so blatantly? You know that after Gospel Meeting when we greeted you at the door that we INVITED you to come to our place. Specifically, you Joshua. We were genuinely pleased to see you when you took Paul’s place with Reid and we specifically said to you after your first Gospel Meeting “thank you for a Gospel message today and please come and visit us anytime”. You know that we invited you directly more than once and you, Reid, know and heard that invitation after Gospel meeting. You have our cell phone numbers and email addresses and we have not received a single request to meet.
10. If anyone of you did send requests to meet with us and if we declined or if you did not receive a reply from us: please forward the time-stamped communication to us and everyone on this letter.

There have been meetings with concerned friends in BC where you are KNOWN to have LIED and be very clear: several people present in those meetings KNOW the truth. How do you expect the friends in our fellowship to have any trust in the ministry when you yourselves don’t follow the most basic Doctrine?

Merlin, we understand that communication was sent to elders recently regarding baptism arrangements. While we had heard of it, we never received any details. We then contacted Reid by text to ask if there were recent communications and were told there was communication about baptism, but without any details. We still have not received details from Reid or anyone else. This does beg the question whether you, Merlin, Paul, Joshua and Reid consider our children as unworthy of baptism? Interestingly, our text to Reid was recent and further evidence of how there has been ample opportunity for Reid and Joshua to make contact to meet with us.

Kind regards

Jeremy and Leonie Tomlinson

WINGS Note: Certain family names have been anonymised:

B&V L family; Ls
M&H W family; Ws
AL; A…

Dear friends and workers,

Welcome to Duncan Convention in Beautiful British Columbia. As we look forward to our upcoming days at the convention, we want to communicate a few guidelines that could help our time together be safe, restful, and profitable.

Some of Jesus’s strongest words of reproof were for those who would harm children (Matt 18:6). As we look forward to conventions, we appreciate that Jesus modelled respect, nurturing, and protection that children should be able to expect from adults entrusted by God with their care. Children inherently have an innocent, trusting nature and come into this world dependent upon adults. When that trust is breached, there are life-changing consequences, so we understand that children require and deserve vigilant protection.

Each one of us can and must play a part in safeguarding our children at the convention. Parents can help by having open and ongoing dialogue about body safety in general and about safety at convention specifically.

The news in recent months of abuse involving both workers and friends across Canada and the USA has alarmed us all. This abuse has included child sexual abuse as well as emotional, physical, and psychological abuse, and it has also occurred among both friends and workers here in the province of BC. All forms of abuse, sexual as well as emotional, are damaging and may leave the victim with lifelong trauma. There is no doubt that we all want to minimize opportunities for any kind of abuse. While we respectfully agree and are happy to voluntarily host (provide the location/venue) for Duncan Convention to be conducted, we also have taken a zero-tolerance approach to any of this behaviour on our property. Any allegation will be taken seriously with proper reporting and real transparency.

In addition, it has been recently brought to our attention that Robert Corfield, a visiting senior brother worker, who stayed in the basement of our home during Duncan Convention last year, is a self-confessed pedophile. This has not been widely reported in BC, so we do feel it’s our duty to inform the Duncan Convention attendees of this and urge you to please speak to your children if they had any negative encounters. You likely can understand how we are feeling and see how it is entirely appropriate to take a serious and cautious approach to the convention, especially knowing that this particular situation was entirely avoidable; Robert Corfield’s CSA behaviour was known by the out-of-province senior worker(s) years ago.

Considering all of this, we feel particularly compelled to create a welcoming environment where all feel safe and at home. Here are some guidelines for Duncan Convention:

• Convicted and alleged child sex offenders (CSA) are not invited.
• There will be no communal, multi-person dorm sleeping. Please stay off-site, use an RV or bring a private tent. If you cannot afford a tent, we can help.
• We will provide shaded, day rest areas, in the former dorm areas.
• There will be no Wi-Fi password provided to any guests.
• Minors must have a designated adult/guardian responsible for them at all times. Absolutely no drop-offs and/or minors attending without a guardian.
• If younger children need to use the restroom during a meeting, a good practice would be for them to not go alone but be accompanied by their guardian or responsible sibling.
• All those that would like to listen remotely instead of attending in person are welcome to do so via the call-in number.

If any kind of sexual abuse happens ….do not keep silent. Report it to the authorities {Call 911) immediately and inform both the workers and owners of the property as soon as possible. Chat with your children before arriving about what to do if they feel uncomfortable at any time.

Please remember that we are all guests of the convention grounds owners/hosts throughout preps and convention. Conventions are a free, non-commercial event held on private property and are only open to invited, safe guests. As guests, we want our behaviour to be appropriate, safe, and respectful. Happy children, enjoying being together with their friends, is an appreciated hallmark of our gathering each year. With this in mind, we encourage parents to visit with their children about safe behaviour while attending. Let’s all invest in keeping the children and vulnerable as safe as possible.

You can help by taking the Ministry Safe course: https://ministrysafe.com/ . This program is not just for ministers but for everyone. It was created by two attorneys with extensive experience in child sexual abuse among faith-based groups.

As well, our convention season will soon arrive this summer and for many, it won’t be an easy time. Some of us are looking forward to being together again and feel it’s exactly what will help. There are others who are more reluctant, and understandably so, because of the breach of trust that has occurred. Feel free to attend or not. We understand your feelings and support your decision, either way. Emphatically, there will be no judgment on this very personal decision.

Should there be any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out and call us. We appreciate your help in ensuring our time together is enjoyable and spiritually beneficial.

Call-in number: Duncan Convention 778-561-3415

Sincerely,

Bruce & Rachel Munro

Jim Stipp has been removed from all meetings due to multiple allegations of childhood sexual abuse. He was a worker for about 30 years, starting in the 70s. He labored in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mexico, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. Jim now lives near Chicago, Illinois.

Allegations were brought to the attention of the overseer, Clarence Anderson, about 20 years ago, and no action was taken. They were later brought to the next overseer, Alan Anderson, and no action was taken.

Dear Ray and Barry,

In regards to the plethora of information coming to light about the mishandling of CSA/SA cases I feel compelled to write again. When a meaningful and sustainable policy has been put in place to prevent tragedy in this arena let’s have some further conversation about bullying and other forms of abuse that heavily contribute to the former.

Jack Mulkey often told us about the person who was asked “How long have you been in the Lord’s WAY”. The answer of course was “way too much and far too often”. In retrospect I’ve been guilty of this and realize my clumsiness in handling God’s work has been grievous. I understand not wanting to be rash or getting ahead of God. I know the feeling of people looking to you for leadership and being overwhelmed by the questions and not having answers. I know how hard it is to maintain an image of perfection and control, trying to keep “the box” together when it is completely falling apart because of the sand that it is.

I say this respectfully… would you ever consider that God is responsible for dissolving the box? Not allegations, not history, not cover ups, not mistakes that were made, not Dean B. Not CSA/SA, not ignorance. These are all simple tools. God is using the many voices of the unheard and abused to expose the sand that we have built on?

What if the time has actually come to dissolve the ministry, especially the current structure of overseership? This may be my own opinion but are you open to the Spirit’s direction here? How has strong oversight been helpful? Logistics? Unity? Honestly? Listening? Trust? Safety? Many of us know the feeling of hearing the story and afterwards Nathaniel says “You are the man”!

Something to ponder… mental instability and mental problems very often lack pathology. Meaning these problems stem from trauma and not being heard more often than something physically wrong with the brain. When we judge people to have mental health problems let’s ask how I have contributed to this. Listen, forego power and control then see how changes occur in one’s mental health status! Being a “Mental Health Professional” is not so difficult. Jesus was the greatest Authority on Mental Health this world has ever seen!

Can anything be done to undo what has been done? None of us have lived long in this world before we see many things we wish had been done differently. An apology comes to mind. Not the kind my kids say to each other when they are forced to. Not the kind that is guarded or accompanied with excuses. The kind that comes with self-exploration and from the heart.

This crisis isn’t a distraction from the “Gospel work”. The listening, connecting, self-examination and heart-felt. “I’m sorry” which can lead to healing… IS the “Gospel Work”!

Sincerely,

Rolland Sarver

Hi everyone,

I’m Tamara Gómez from Colombia. Please excuse mistakes since English is not my first language. I wanted to talk to you about my experience within the meetings. I first met the Friends and a Worker named Michael Hassett around 2002 after a terrible car accident my family suffered in Quito, Ecuador.

They were very charming and loving and I was surprised why this foreign people (all of them from Canada) were so interested in us, with such a love and care for our situation. That really made an impression on me. Then I was invited to my first gospel meeting, by that time I was at university in Ecuador.

Several months later, I professed. Eventually most of the maternal side of my family professed too. We regularly attended, most of them still do, meetings in Ecuador and Colombia. Women are told to be presented in very modest clothing in order to not be a temptation for other men or workers, we are told to be submissive to men. We, as women lived a very isolated life since we look so different to other women in our fields, work or study places, we rarely make friends with other people outside the group. Men look almost “normal,” so they really don’t have to deal with the rejection, bullying or jokes from others.

Women aren’t explicitly discouraged to pursue studies but most of them marry young and stay at home or work in family businesses. I was a single mother at a young age (17) and I studied medicine and later specialized in a clinical field, so my understanding of the outside world was bigger, but that didn’t prevent all the brain washing I suffered.

When The Truth was starting “the Work” in a small Colombian city in the Border of Colombia -Ecuador called Ipiales, many members were curious about the money, how the organization works, the hierarchy and all that stuff but they were told that they cared more of the mundane stuff than the spiritual things and that they should put their heart to the message from God they were bringing to us and not all those small things.

I have witnessed very concerning ways to deal with spousal or sexual abuse. If you are being beaten by your husband (even being both part of The Truth) the right thing to do is to stay with him and pray harder for his soul, and beware of not provoking him to hit you. I know a girl who was in her 20’s she was beaten so hard by her husband (both professing) that she flew to her parents’ home, and was convinced by her parents and Workers of the field that she has to stick to the husband she chose, since marriage is forever, and not be temptation for him to sin (it means hit her).

I knew of a female worker who was married in her country to another professing alcoholic guy that used to hit her so hard she was hospitalized several times, and she claims that God told her to leave him because she was going to be the cause of the loss of his soul if he finally killed her.

I know 2 now grown men who were sexually abused when they were kids by a worker in Ecuador and were told to heal in silence, and the worker was sent to another country.

I know a family where the grandfather and father sexually abused daughters and granddaughters during many years and are now are elders, and I know that the Workers knew about this situation years ago.

I eventually married a professing guy from Argentina, [name redacted]. He was constantly jealous and felt very threatened by my education and the fact that I, being a physician, was the main provider of our home, so he started psychologically abusing me, was very jealous and controlling in ways so damaging to my brain and soul that I cried almost every night of our first year of marriage. He was jealous of family members, friends, workers, everyone. In this first year I fought back this conduct and we decided to speak with the Senior Worker of Colombia about it, Munro MacAngus.

I thought he was going to help me and at least scold my husband, but what a surprise was when the thing he said was “well I know from now on Tamara would never give you any other reason to make you mad or jealous of her”.

So I started living by that premise. I was constantly walking on shells around him, I gave him the money I made for him to manage, I accepted that he chose my clothes, who I talked to, who I was associated to, what kind of jobs to accept etc. I completely lost my personality, my whole self was erased in the marriage. Remember I was a single mother, and my daughter was 15 when I married. I made her call him dad and to be submissive to him too, and he years later started sexually harassing her for a year or so, showing himself naked, hugging her and taking advantage of the proximity to touch her close to the butt and breasts, staring at her when she went up the stairs, laying down next to her on the bed while she was asleep, etc.

I tried to think that those were just honest mistakes of an honest man, but deep down I knew the truth but I was a coward not able to accept it. My daughter started acting out, not wanting to go to meetings, changing her hair and clothing, being irritable and disrespectful all the time until she finally attempted suicide by ingesting the pills she was prescribed by her psychiatrist. She never told her about the sexual harassment she was suffering so she was labelled with an anxiety and depression disorder medically speaking and just “trouble” in the fellowship.

I struggled with my maternal instincts and what I’ve been taught for almost 20 years, be submissive, be a peacemaker, obey your husband, marriage is sacred. I finally confronted [my husband] about the situation. I remembered one thing he said “Come on if I wanted to rape her I would have already done it”.

When the Workers in our field (both female – Isabel Fica from Chile and Elizabeth Jennings from Ireland) learnt about the abuse the response was what you expect, I should stay married and since my daughter was now 18 she should leave the house and nobody should hear about the abuse to not taint “the truth”. And she was blamed for the way she dresses, she behaves, she sits etc. As she was a young lady she was a temptation to my husband.

After several months of suffering and not sleeping I decided my marriage has to come to an end. So I kicked my husband out of the house. By that time the pandemic had arrived and I was the only provider for our home, so he had to fly back to Argentina to stay with his brother.

I continued to attend meetings only to be bullied and incessantly persuaded to “save” my marriage, to be told how much of a sin it was to make [husband’s name redacted] leave home; I remembered Elizabeth saying my sin was bigger than his. Almost all the messages in the meetings were about the holiness of the marriage and how big of a sin divorce is.

The workers and I also became aware that my husband also abused his younger sister since she was 3 to 17 yo and also a young female cousin while growing up. That didn’t stop them from keeping pressuring me to take him back. I was told I could not participate in the Sunday meeting if I don’t repent from my sin. They even told me that if the money for the plane tickets was the problem, they would pay for them.

The bullying was so mortifying that I stopped going to meetings at all. My soon to be ex-husband, we are in the middle of the divorce process, is now back in Colombia and continues attending meetings and sometimes acts as an elder when there is no worker present. I doubt other people in the fellowship know about the true reason we separated and think that they believe I am just a bad and cruel woman, not only here in Colombia but I’ve been told it’s how they see me in Argentina too.

The situation is reported to the competent authorities in my country, that can be checked. I’m now dealing with anxiety and depression too, and guilt, the guilt of not being able to act sooner and be brave enough. It’s been 2 years now and I can now see how toxic, sexist and dangerous environment “The Truth” is and how it enables abuse in so many ways affecting children and women all over the world.

WINGS Note: Overseer Percy Broughton is aware of these abuse cases.