It's a familiar sight in Evansville.

Just like they have since 2003, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are staging one of their summer conventions in town. Thousands flooded the Ford Center last weekend and will do so again June 21-23.

The theme, “Love Never Fails,” is in part meant to help churchgoers recover from past traumas.

Sadly, that’s a relevant problem within the church these days.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses, like the Catholic Church and Southern Baptist Convention, are facing a sexual abuse scandal within their ranks – another example of abusive monsters sullying a church largely filled with good people.

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The church has settled multiple lawsuits over the years, some of which included multi-million-dollar payouts.

This spring, the Atlantic reported the church has spent decades compiling a large database of sex abusers. The document allegedly contains the names of thousands of church elders and congregation members, as well as detailed descriptions of their wrongdoings.

However, the church reportedly failed to share any of this with law enforcement, sometimes choosing instead to punish abusers through “disfellowship” – a kind of diet-excommunication that involves barring the perpetrator from church for certain periods of time, according to The Atlantic.

“Our policies on child protection comply with the law, including any requirements for elders to report allegations of child abuse to authorities,” a spokesperson with the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the nonprofit behind the church, told the Atlantic.

Critics say the Jehovah Witness bureaucracy encourages silence and victim-blaming. In some cases, victims were reportedly forced to repeat their allegations in front of the man or woman they were accusing.

One woman even told the York Daily Record that she was shunned and publicly shamed after coming forward.

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“Our hearts go out to all those who suffer as a result of child abuse,” the church said in a statement to NBC News. “Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide are united in their abhorrence of this sin and crime.”

From California to Australia

Reports have surfaced for years.

In 2012, a California woman was initially awarded $28 million after a jury found the North Fremont Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses sent her on door-to-door ministry with a church member they knew had a history of child molestation. The settlement shriveled to $3 million after appeals.

She says that man, Jonathan Kendrick, repeatedly abused her when she was between 9 and 10 years old.

“(The woman) said she went to local church leaders and told them her story,” ABC News reported. “But she said the elders refused to believe her unless she could prove the abuse happened by providing two witnesses to the alleged abuse.”

Kendrick denies the charges. He's now on the federal sex offender registry after being convicted of abusing a 7-year-old.

The problem isn’t confined to the U.S.

In 2016, a royal commission in Australia unleashed a 107-page report alleging that more than 1,000 Australian Jehovah’s Witness members had been accused of abuse over the previous 65 years, the Washington Post reported.

The commission talked to one survivor they called BCG. When she and her sister accused their father of molestation, church officials marched them into a hearing and forced them to repeat their allegations in front of their dad.

Officials ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to punish the father for the abuse – but they did disfellowship him for an extramarital affair.

The father later admitted to abusing his children, and when she was an adult, BCG reported his actions to police. Her father eventually served three years in prison.

Then there’s Frederick McLean.

The 68-year-old former San Diego ministerial servant has been accused of molesting at least eight children over the last 25 years.

One church member, who said McLean started abusing her when she was only 3 years old, sued and was awarded more than $780,000, according to NBC News.

McLean faces 17 counts of child sex abuse in California – but he may not appear in court anytime soon.

Just before he could be arrested in 2004, he fled California and has dodged authorities ever since. The U.S. Marshals are offering as much as $25,000 for his capture. He’s considered armed and dangerous.

There are many other stories. Here are just a few:

Last year, the church shelled out $35 million to a Montana woman who said national Watchtower officials ordered her local church not to report her allegation against a congregation member.

In Pennsylvania, a woman was awarded almost $2 million when the court found that several church members, including her own father, failed to pass along abuse allegations to police.

And in Wales, a longtime church elder named Brian Jenkins went to jail for repeatedly groping a young girl in the 1970s, when she was between 12 and 14 years old.

“I was a young girl,” Jenkins’ victim told the court. “I felt ashamed and embarrassed. I didn't have the power or the words to avoid it."

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Contact columnist Jon Webb at jon.webb@courierpress.com