Court reverses $35M verdict against Jehovah's Witnesses

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MATT VOLZ

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed a $35 million judgment against the Jehovah’s Witnesses for not reporting a girl’s sexual abuse to authorities.

Montana law requires officials, including clergy, to report child abuse to state authorities when there is reasonable cause for suspicion. However, the state’s high court said in its 7-0 decision that the Jehovah’s Witnesses fall under an exemption to that law in this case.

“Clergy are not required to report known or suspected child abuse if the knowledge results from a congregation member’s confidential communication or confession and if the person making the statement does not consent to disclosure,” Justice Beth Baker wrote in the opinion.

The ruling overturns a 2018 verdict awarding compensatory and punitive damages to the woman who was abused as a child in the mid-2000s by a member of the Thompson Falls Jehovah’s Witness congregation. The woman had accused the church’s national organization of ordering Montana clergy members not to report her abuse to authorities.



FILE - In this Dec. 9, 2015, file photo, the iconic Watchtower sign is seen on the roof of 25-30 Columbia Heights, then world headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The Montana Supreme Court has reversed a $35 million judgment against the Jehovah's Witnesses for not reporting a girl's sexual abuse to authorities. The state's high court said in a 7-0 decision Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, that the church is not required to report because its doctrine requires that clergy keep reports of child abuse confidential. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)


Read more: https://apnews.com/95b03b21a0c86f7ec1dfa25372e36f39

[bitterross]

1. Religious Freedom at Its Best

Freedom from responsibility for actions or lack of them.

Freedom from following the laws that apply to everyone else.

Disgusting.

[lonely bird]

2. More bullshit

Clergy are not special. They are not exempt from secular law.

[iluvtennis]

12. + 1. nt

[angrychair]

3. This is complete bullshit

That allows "clergy" to act with impunity in any manner they please.

This ruling makes no sense though. She is the one that reported the incident.

If clergy members were aware but were not part of the confession or any administrative staff were aware, its impossible to assert that it was a privileged conversation anymore and they should have a duty to report, regardless of how they found out.

I don't understand this ruling at all.

[marble falls]

4. The law is screwed up. It needs to be rewritten.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. When they visit and want to hangout all day

I tell them they're trespassing and Jesus will punish them for slothfulness. These guys were the business model for televangelists - guilt, donations, no work.

[radical noodle]

7. No work?

If you mean they don't hold jobs, I'd have to disagree with that. I know several members of that church who are wonderful people and work hard, just like everyone else.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Then why do they have the spare time to go canvassing people who don't care what they do?

Because they will stay for hours if you let them

[radical noodle]

9. I see mostly women and children doing that

but they do it in off-hours. They always stopped at our house on Saturdays.

As a matter of fact, a Jehovah's Witness is cleaning my house as we speak, and she does a wonderful job. Not only that, but she's one of the sweetest persons I've ever encountered.

[radical noodle]

10. BTW, it's not only them

Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and even some mainline protestant churches do that sort of canvassing. It's part of the "go and preach the gospel" doctrine. When I was very young and just started college, I let two good-looking young Mormon men into my apartment. So cute, but they could talk until the cows came home. I learned a lot about Mormonism but they didn't get a convert.

[packman]

6. So, the take-a-way on this is the following:::

"The church is not required to report because its doctrine requires that clergy keep reports of child abuse confidential" Remarkable, so what Montana is giving is carte blanche to ANY industry, any organization, any group to write its own doctrine and protect its abusers from the law.

Religion - man's worst mistake

[Lonestarblue]

13. And the Supreme Court has made it okay for corporations to claim a religious exemption.

The Hobby Lobby case was a disaster and just confuses religion with secular law. So if the Montana law holds, then can Hobby Lobby executives cover up sexual abuse of an employee because they learned about it in confidence?

[Javaman]

11. I'm glad I told those crazy ass cult members to get lost

when they came to my door last week.

[Democrats_win]

14. Truly sad.

After so many years of hearing about sexual abuse of minors, most people understand that such cases must always be reported to authorities. Evidently there is an exception for clergy in Montana. That is certainly not right. Jehovah's Witnesses and any other religious institutions should consider it their moral duty to report such cases to authorities. Religion ALWaYS disappoints me. And I consider the Jehovah's Witnesses to be better than most----not so anymore. Is the Holy Spirit truly guiding them?

[LiberalLovinLug]

15. So actual law passed by the House/Senate is "trumped" by any individual church's private "doctrine"?

Did not know that