by alamb 38 Replies latest watchtower scandals
I have the video of the city overseer denying, on the stand, the existence of the custody brochure. I had already secured one and the judge had it on his desk at the time. A true display of theocratic war strategy gone wrong.Gotta' get that tape to Randy. (I'm in the USA!)
What was the response of the judge?
B
Well, the highlights from the day, included the CO refusing to read direct quotes from the literature about the shunning policy. He held the paper in his hand and fired a question at me, the respondent, around my attorney...a big no-no. He asked if I had gotten them off an apostate website. I said, "No, I have the bound volume right here." He got himself on that one. The Judge got miffed at his arrogance in not answering questions and demanded he read the excerpts, which the CO claimed were taken out of context. OK, how do you take IN context:
"We must hate (the Disfellowshipped person) in the truest sense, which is to regard with extreme active aversion, to consider (the Disfellowshipped person) as loathsome, odious, filthy, to detest." (The Watchtower October 1st 1952 Issue, Page 599)
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"In the case of where a father or mother or son or daughter is disfellowshiped, how should such person be treated by members of the family in their family relationship?"
"We are not living today among theocratic nations where such members of our fleshly family relationship could be exterminated for apostasy from God and his theocratic organization, as was possible and was ordered in the nation of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai and in the land of Palestine. "Thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him to death with stones, because he hath sought to draw thee away from Jehovah thy God, . . . And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is in the midst of thee."-Deut. 13:6-11, AS."
"Being limited by the laws of the worldly nation in which we live and also by the laws of God through Jesus Christ, we can take action against apostates only to a certain extent, that is, consistent with both sets of laws."
"The law of the land and God's law through Christ forbid us to kill apostates, even though they be members of our own flesh-and-blood family relationship. However, God's law requires us to recognize their being disfellowshiped from his congregation, and this despite the fact that the law of the land in which we live requires us under some natural obligation to live with and have dealings with such apostates under the same roof."
"...if the children are of age, then there can be a departing and breaking of family ties in a physical way, because the spiritual ties have already snapped."
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Then my attorney asked about the custody brochure and he denied six ways from Sunday that it existed. My attorney said questioning him was like trying to nail Jello to a wall. We got nowhere but his arrogance showed what he was made of. The judge didn't buy any of it and condemned the practice. The order stood for 2 months before my ex called it unconstitutional and jumped behind the first amendment. Now the children are restricted from being around anyone who would shun me. That isn't happening.
There is also a restraining order against both my parents. My mother sends me photos of her with the kids at conventions to rub it in. Contempt of court charges would cost me too much and the JW's would lie for them.
It is now a dead end but we got alot of good theocratic warfare documented. I HAVE to get it to Randy this week.
The Ruling, in part:
"Mr. M. shall not directly or indirectly expose or allow the children to be exposed to shunning of their mother, or to engage in any family contacts or religious activities that directly or indirectly suggest or expose them to teachings, scriptural interpretations or declarations that Mrs. M is anything less than a good and honorable person and fully worthy of designated, implied, inferred, promised, reserved, assumed, or otherwise available, obtainable or receivable, so called spiritual blessings or rewards which might be obtained or available to faithful religious persons, including faithful members of the JW church. This shall include his exposure of the children to family members, church teachers, preachers, or other advocates of the JW church or to any condemning doctrines or activities. Mr. M shall not have, suggest or cause any religious communications with the chidlren, advise them regarding religion or direct or advise them regarding what their personal conduct or religious activities should be, or monitor their activities to determine if they are in compliance with his religious beliefs, while they are with Mrs. M."
"The court believes this conduct negatively affecting the children's relationship with their mother should stop or be condemned. This church judgementalism, coupled with the malicious use of false accusations against their mother and her husband by their father, has nearly frightened these children away from their mother and her husband even though she is a sincere caring mother.
Mrs. M. is treated as spiritually dead by the JW church and the extended family who are members.
This rediculous concept of people judging others appears to be a strong part of the religious judgementalistic doctrin and is apparently required of the members of the church."
"...so long as these children attend church and are indoctrinated in the "only true way" as interpreted by that church, they will continue to be exposed to negative judgmentalism and derogation of their mother...Mr. M's religious zeal has apparently caused him to justify his past gross misconduct in this case...."
My ex's attorney asked for a clarification of the first paragraph. The judge underlined the whole paragraph and sent it back.
I think this is great!!!!
I mean, at least it was shown clearly that this JW was a liar. And I like the judge. WOW!
If you have secured a copy of the custody brochure is there a way you could scan it and make it available electronically ?
bttt
There might be a PDF file of the Child Custody brochure available. --VM44
O M G
"We are not living today among theocratic nations where such members of our fleshly family relationship could be exterminated for apostasy from God and his theocratic organization, as was possible and was ordered in the nation of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai and in the land of Palestine. "Thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him to death with stones, because he hath sought to draw thee away from Jehovah thy God, . . . And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is in the midst of thee."-Deut. 13:6-11, AS."
"Being limited by the laws of the worldly nation in which we live and also by the laws of God through Jesus Christ, we can take action against apostates only to a certain extent, that is, consistent with both sets of laws."
This sounds so much like "If we didin't think we would get caught and thrown into jail we would kill them all"
Interestingly though they put Ceasar's law on equally footing with God's law. This is scary stuff.
I especially liked:
This rediculous concept of people judging others appears to be a strong part of the religious judgementalistic doctrin and is apparently required of the members of the church."Now there's a smart judge!
It would be great if a class action suit were being filed on the blood issue and at the same time there was representation for child and disfellowshipping issues. The lives that have been destroyed and the games that have been played have to stop. I thought some more on the blood issue last night. Although the society is really good at telling people they want you to investigate things for yourself, they brainwash you into believing that if you do it's because you aren't trusting Jehovah and then if you actually do go out and investigate and question, you are labelled an apostate and df'd for it. Scare tactics again. I am really hoping that this is just the start of a thorough legal examination of all of their materials which results in a lot of public interest in the policies around disfellowshipping and anything child related. I'd really like to see every one of the thousands of cases of child sex abuse opened up and brought to court. I also hope the 1975 prediction is brought out and that another suit is filed for the tremendous losses people suffered because Jehovah's mouthpieces assured their followers that they should shed all their worldly possessions since the world was coming to an end anyway. Many people never recovered financially from that fiasco. At the very least the negative publicity will make a lot of the world stand up and take notice and halt new recruits - as well as make current non JW mates take a more aggressive stance on the religious upbringing of their children.
I'm sorry for your situation alamb - harsh words that the world needs to hear. Disfellowshipped persons are now part of the world so it speaks volumes of how they really view every person whose door they knock on. The watchtower has more money and thus more power right now to fight these issues, but let's see what transpires in the future. They may not be so smug then. sammieswife.
