New Book on the Coverup of Abuse in JWs
We are happy to let abuse survivors know about this book about the cover up of abuse in the Jehovah’s Witness organization and the brave effort of a mother to rescue her daughter.
Book Description
No communication was allowed among family members after my husband and I resigned from the church of Jehovah's Witnesses. It became imperative for me to rejoin and go undercover as a member so I could achieve a successful rescue of my daughter which took a two year journey.
Nancy Sage writes:
Jehovah’s Witnesses are defined as a CULT by some and not others. Individuals will have to make that determination for themselves based on ones own accumulative knowledge.
According to Steven Hassan, a former Moonie and author of the book Combating Cult Mind Control there are four qualifying components of mind control. Page 66 of his book says:
“Behavior control, thought control, emotional control, and information control: each form of control has great power and influence on the human mind. Together, they form a totalistic web, which can manipulate even the strongest-minded people. In fact, it is the strongest-minded individuals who make the most involved and enthusiastic cult members.”
Religious indoctrination is successful when an individual can be persuaded to believe a particular religious institution is the ONLY VOICE OF GOD. They are then subject to believe and obey all of their dogma. Do CULTS only come in small groups? Are CULTS also identified as such with centuries old established religious institutions?
My story reveals the reason why it was imperative for me to take the action of going UNDERCOVER to rescue my daughter. What is it about the organizational structure that makes it different from other religions? Knowledge is a defense. It is my desire to give comfort and hope to all the millions of families world wide, who are suffering as our family had, by writing about my personal experience. This is my story of a two year journey to rescue my daughter.
REVIEWS
By
H. Baker "Passionforlife & Books" (Kannapolis, NC USA) - See all my reviews
I was deeply impressed with this Mother and Dad's devotion to their daughter. How the Mom was willing to submit herself to a high control religious organization like the Jehovah's Witnesses to get reinstated. Love moves us to do many thing but this Mom really took the extra step to save her daughter and her granddaughters from a monster of a husband. Sadly the monster husband was embraced by the JW's as a good and decent man but he was anything but having molested his young sister-in-law and his own daughter while they were children.
I encourage you to read it especially all those who wish to understand how high control religious organizations operate.
By
Tommy Lions - See all my reviews
This is a wonderful story about a real life event. Ms. Sage does the unthinkable and goes back to Jehovah's Witnesses so she may rescue her daughter. Only if one is truly acquainted with the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses can one appreciate the delicate nature of such an adventure. Ms. Sage not only had to fool the members of various congregations in order to accomplish her task but she had to have a will of steel not to get absorbed once again in the Witness culture, which is truly all consuming. Nancy Sage is a remarkable woman that had to do an extraordinary thing in order to save her daughter. I highly recommend this quick read.
By
Theresa (New York) - See all my reviews
The extreme form of shunning that Jehovah's Witnesses are forced to practice on anyone, including life long friends and family members, is heartless, cruel and not based on the what the scriptures actually say. In reality, this extreme form of shunning is not to "keep the congregation clean", but to try and limit contact with anyone the Organization deems as a threat to exposing their wacko doctrines and endless manmade rules that they try to pass off as God's.
This story is a wonderful example of a mother's love for her daughter and the long process it took in getting her out of this very destructive cult.
Read an excerpt from the book here
Nancy and her granddaughters
I knew this would be an excellent way for us to spend time together privately. I made use of every opportunity, most importantly it gave me time to talk to her about her husband. Yes, to me this was paramount for her to understand that her husband was a child molester. I started by reminding her of the time when Tami was 15 years old and told her how her husband touched her inappropriately when she was 11 also how she took her daughters and left him, even moved in with us. This occurred in about 1980-1981, before we resigned and my husband was still an elder. Gloria said, of course she remembered because she was going to divorce her husband right then. At the time, my husband re-acted like all the elders, with the same mind set, advising her to give her husband the benefit of doubt since there were no eye witnesses. He encouraged her to go back to her husband. This is a classic example of how brainwashed, not only Gloria, but all members respond to an elder’s advice. The members respond by complete obedience, looking up to an elder like he is God and automatically obeying, not be giving the right to make any conscience decisions on their own, so please take note of how hard this task of deprogramming Gloria was, I could only chip away little at a time. I knew exposing her husband as a child molester was something that had to be addressed first, not only for justice, but to help Gloria break away from his dominate control, there by helping her to start seeing reality, which eventually would lead to seeing this religion as a Cult.
I proceeded to bring her up to date by mentioning later on, after Tami was married and had her two boys, her memory about her incident with Gloria’s husband came back to her in the middle of the night. She started to remember all the horrifying details. Not only did he touch her inappropriately, but took her to work one day at his construction site early in the morning when no one was around and raped her. That was a revelation for Gloria, she was so devastated to hear this and went straight to her elders. The elders advised her, saying: “Since Tami was not a Jehovah’s Witness, she could not be believed.” The elders continued on to explain to Gloria, she needed two eyewitnesses for each molestation occurrence, two for Tami and two for Gina. In reality, when two victims comes forward to make an accusation against someone, that alone provides two witnesses, but the elders would not accept that version. The elders concluded their meeting with Gloria by advising her to believe in God revealing everything in His due time. Yes, God will reveal everything in time and the time was then, because I was there to make it happen. Thankfully, Gloria started the process to pursue it on her own, she confronted her husband privately and told him of my charges. He did not approach me that very day, he waited the following night, the day before I was to leave on an important trip out of town and would be gone for about a month. That night, he came into the living room where I watching TV. First, he went over without asking and turned it off, then he came over to sit on the couch next to me. He proceeded to tell me he was aware of my accusation and went into a long speech about how he could never do such a thing. Gloria and Julie came in and sat down on the floor next to the coffee table in front of us and listened intently. I told him of my concerns and when I return from my trip out of town, we would have time to address it then. I knew the history of his bad temper and I didn’t want to leave Gloria and Julie in any kind of danger, so I didn’t follow through and force the issue, I had to think of their safety. Surprisingly, he wouldn’t drop the subject, he continued on trying to convince me of his innocence and went to the point of standing up and saying: “I want Tami to come here and tell me to my face that I molested her, I will even pay for her flight out here”. When he said that, he sealed his fate, now we will bring this issue to its ugly head, not only for Gloria but Gina and Tami as well. Can you imagine how excited I was feeling?
When the elders were confronted what happened?
The elders, three of them, asked Julie why she wanted to leave home, in tears, she said: “I do not want to go to the Kingdom Hall anymore, especially now, with what happened to my father”. They then directed their attention to Gloria and reminded her if she stayed with her husband this would not be happening to Julie. They also brought out to her, that the scriptures says to forgive 77 times I sat there absolutely stunned, almost with my mouth wide open. I looked at Gloria, wondering, what on earth is she going to say now, what response would she give to that remark? I didn’t have to wait long, her face got red and said in a loud voice: “Are you asking me to believe that God wants me to forgive him 77 times? To live with him, knowing he molested my daughter and sister and God only knows who else, for the rest of my life?”. Not to my surprise, the elders responded by saying: “ Your husband was not charged with the crime of molestation.”. Gloria said: “Whether you believe it or not, does not really concern me, I know it, God knows it and that is all that matters.” I drew a big sigh of relief, I could hardly believe what she said to her own elders. Yes, that spark of courage came to the surface again, this is what I wanted to see, because this sign of courage is what she is going to need from then on. I was without a doubt so proud of her, I wanted to jump up right in front of the elders and hug her. The elders did not have anything to say after that, so they excused themselves.
Read the letter that Nancy Sage's daughter wrote to the Jehovah’s Witness home office about abuse below
To order your copy click on this link,
http://www.amazon.com/Going-Undercover-Rescue-My-Daughter/dp/0941813053