![]() In Vice Versa: Crusaders, Kaufman explains the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ two-witness rule, a key doctrine that states that, absent a confession, no member can be accused of committing a sin without two credible witnesses coming forward to offer corroboration. ![]() That includes Barbara Anderson, an ex-Jehovah’s Witness who worked in the Watchtower headquarters Amber Scorah, author of Leaving the Witness Kameron Torres, another ex-Jehovah’s Witness and vlogger and Kimmy O’Donnell, a former Jehovah’s Witness and activist who alleges she was abused by her mother, who enjoyed impunity.Īfter she brought her allegations to a church elder at age 12, “because it was my word against my mother’s, they would take no action,” O’Donnell says at one point in the documentary. Vice Versa: Crusaders offers accounts of sexual abuse victims, who talk about their anguish and fears, over an organization that they claim actively works against them and turns family members against one other to keep total control over their lives. “What has happened with the Catholic Church and with the Witnesses is they have chosen to protect their organization directly over protecting their parishioners, whether that’s children or adults,” Kaufman argues. But the Vice Versa: Crusaders director insists he didn’t want to get sidetracked into making a movie about pedophilia in the Jehovah’s Witnesses - as it had earlier been exposed in the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts, as examples - as much as he sought to expose corruption at the top of the organization. “They created a de facto database of pedophiles within the organization, and they kept that database,” Kaufman said. When his early investigation connected with Mark O’Donnell, a former Jehovah’s Witness turned whistleblower, Kaufman says he gained access to stolen church documents that included a secret database of child abusers in the Witnesses’ ranks, created by the Watchtower headquarters to minimize legal risk. Vice Versa: Crusaders, Kaufman’s first embrace of the unscripted realm, aims to expose a religion with clean-cut and polite members focused on Armageddon and future Paradise, even as its leadership has allegedly colluded to cover up allegations of child sexual abuse worldwide. “It was amazing to me that this religion, Scientology, which everybody thought was beyond the pale and crazy, was so similar to my experience as a Witness,” he explains, as both organizations prize secrecy and guarding against scandal, he adds. Kaufman has aimed to change that with Vice Versa: Crusaders, an upcoming documentary from his production company, Lotus Land Entertainment, and Vice Studios, set to debut July 28 on Vice TV. ![]() ![]() That’s down to the jargon used by both organizations, for example, as Scientology calls the shunning of wayward members “disconnection,” while the Jehovah’s Witnesses refer to the same act of social exclusion as “disfellowshipping.”Īnd yet, the Church of Scientology, especially after Tom Cruise’s 2005 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, has come under a level of media scrutiny that the Jehovah’s Witnesses - and its Watchtower Bible and Tract Society leadership - have avoided. “The top of my head blew off because there was so much that was similar between the Scientology experience and the Witness experience,” he recalled. Vice Media Bankruptcy: CNN, HBO, A&E Networks Among Creditors List
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