Watchtower Instructs Followers to Breach Professional Confid

Sosthenes

Watchtower Instructs Followers to Breach Professional Confidentiality.

"Mary works as a medical assistant at a hospital. One requirement she has
to abide by in her work is confidentiality. She must keep documents and
information pertaining to her work from going to unauthorized persons. Law
codes in her state also regulate the disclosure of confidential information on
patients...."

So begins a September 1,1987, Watchtower magazine article that goes on to
instruct Jehovah's Witnesses (J.W.'s) to "breach the requirements of
confidentiality because of the superior demands of divine law." In spite of
solemn oaths and laws to the contrary, the four-page article instructs J.W.'s
to "bring a matter to the attention of the elders" in the Witness congregation,
even if they learned of the matter in a context of professional confidence.

"Mary" in the article is a hypothetical case, but the newly enunciated
policy is already making itself felt in concrete terms in the lives of
Watchtower followers around the world. And it has stirred considerable
controversy in the press over public concern that confidentiality will be
shattered in hospitals, law offices, tax accounting firms, and other sensitive
fields where Jehovah's Witnesses are employed. The Los Angeles Times (Aug. 27,
1987) devoted 28 column-inches to the subject, including quotes from a
telephone interview with Watchtower headquarters spokesman William Van De Wall.
According to the Times, Van De Wall said that individuals "who seek out an
attorney or doctor would know if they were of the same religion. If a Witness
wanted to avoid telling him something, he would seek someone else." This fails
to take into consideration, though, the possibility that a J.W. secretary,
typist, or clerk working for a non-Witness professional might also be in a
position to leak confidential information to sect leaders.

For example, one disgruntled Witness known to CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL,
who had been secretly purchasing Christian literature from an ex-J.W. ministry,
now finds that checks he had written are being offered as evidence against him
as he is called to stand trial before an internal Watchtower "judicial
committee." Did a J.W. working at his local bank turn the records over to the
sect? Or had the Watchtower sent a loyal follower to work at the bank where
the ex-J.W. ministry's funds are kept, to keep track of who might be
contributing? The victim of this breach of bank secrecy does not know who
informed on him, but he does know that continued contact with lifelong friends
and family-and even his marriage-could be terminated depending on the outcome
of the closed-door "trial" where the checks are presented as evidence.

"The objective would not be to spy on another's freedom but to help erring
ones and to keep the Christian congregation clean," the Watchtower article
insists. These "erring ones," though, could include not only Witnesses
receiving medical treatment for venereal disease, AIDS, or pregnancy out of
wedlock, but also individuals subscribing to forbidden publications (such as
CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL), donating blood, or receiving a transfusion-all of
which actions would be viewed as error threatening the "cleanness" of the J.W.
congregation.

Other information on Witness patients/clients likely to be reported by
fellow Witnesses having access to records include:

* Donating sperm or an ovum to a fertility bank.
* Artificial insemination (which the Witnesses view as adultery).
* Use of tobacco.
* Contributing to the campaign fund of a political candidate.
* Receiving income from a military or religious organization.
* Giving birthday or Christmas gifts.
* Receiving a speeding ticket or other fine.
* Divorce proceedings on grounds other than adultery.

Since the official policy of breaking professional confidentiality was
promulgated only a few months ago, it si yet too soon to see lawsuits from the
victims of such invasion of privacy. But some newspaper articles appearing on
the subject see this as an inevitable fallout, with employers reaping potential
problems from violations by their Jehovah's Witness employees. Long viewed
by many as exemplary workers, the Witnesses may gain a different reputation in
the work place as they begin to obey their organization's new instructions to
break oaths and laws protecting client/patient confidentiality.

- David A. Reed

"Christian Research Journal"
Volume 10 Number 2 Fall 1987

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