Can any PIMO elder confirm whether this is true?
I am POMO. I spent 46 years in the cult, and I was PIMO for a very short time (once you wake up, you simply can’t stomach that much hypocrisy anymore).
I downloaded a copy of the elders’ book, updated in September 2025.
This paragraph seems to show that a confessed child abuser, a criminal, if he is repentant, can simply be “reproved…” REPROVED? Is that it? Is disfellowshipping really too much punishment for a criminal pedophile? Of course he isn’t reported to the police! Because in the cult, pedophiles are protected… but he isn’t even disfellowshipped? He is merely REPROVED?
Please, can any PIMO elder confirm whether this is actually in the elders’ book?
If you openly say that you don’t trust the Governing Body, you are disfellowshipped for apostasy.
But if you are a confessed child abuser—you disgusting, despicable excuse for a human being—you are reproved?
Apostate: disfellowshipped
Homosexual: disfellowshipped
Fornicator: disfellowshipped
Adulterer: disfellowshipped
CONFESSED PEDOPHILE: possibly reproved (note that the paragraph says that if he is reproved, an announcement must be made at the next meeting). Maybe he isn’t even reproved…
Child sexual abuse being exposed “brings reproach on Jehovah’s name.” So let’s cover it up…
Does adultery not bring reproach on Jehovah’s name?
