by belbab 18 Replies latest watchtower scandals
Tijkmo -
According to Mapquest, it's about 75 miles from Bethel to Derby, CT.
It would be interesting to talk with Jordan, though he may be wrapped in gag orders.
ELSEWHERE -
Fark.Com points to the Australian Herald Sun as the source of the story, BUT it is not on-line any more - it may be available from NEWSTEXT.com (subscription) which is an Ozzie Archive service.
| (Herald Sun) |  | Jehovah's Witness attacked by "dangerous and ferocious" ram named Shit For Brains |
Elsewhere - who loves ya, baby?
RAM BUTTS BIBLE MAN
AFTER a day of door- knocking the last thing Jehovah’s Witness Kenneth Hawthorn expected was to be attacked by one of God’s creatures
But that is exactly what happened. Despite a gate marked "Private - Keep Out" Mr Hawthorn entered a farm only to be confronted by a four-year-old ram.
He attempted to shoo it away with a briefcase containing Bibles but was knocked to the ground and suffered a broken shin.
In the South Australian District Court, Mr Hawthorn and his wife Pamela, of Tea Tree Gully, reached a confidential settlement with the ram’s owners for loss of earnings after the incident in July2001.
The Hawthorns sued Ronald and Julie Goldfinch, of Paracombe, in the Adelaide hills. They claimed they were forced to sell their hose-fitting business as a result of the injuries Mr Haw thorn suffered.
They alleged the ram was a “dangerous and ferocious animal” and the Goldflnches were negligent for not keeping it confined and failing to warn visitors.
The Hawthorns also sued the Adelaide Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses for failing to provide proper instruc tions about doorknocking in rural areas.
In the Hawthorns’ statement of claim, Mr Hawthorn, who was door- knocking with his daughter, said they opened a gate on the Goldfinch property and walked towards their house to “engage in bibli cal discussion”.
“AS they did so a ram appeared and charged (Mr Hawthorn) to the ground and the ram continued the attack pushing him to wards the fence,” the court documents said.“At this time the defendants appeared and assisted (Mr Hawthorn) back into his car.
Mr Hawthorn claims he now is able to walk only small distances and “his capacity- to enjoy life has permanently diminished”.
In their defence, the Goldflnches said the Haw thorns entered their prop erty “uninvited, unwanted and without notice”. They said their hand reared pet ram had never attacked anyone before nor had it shown a “violent disposition”.
In its own defence, The Adelaide congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses said doorknocking was voluntary and followers were not obliged to do it.
Mr Goldfinch said yesterday he was glad the case was over but disappointed with the result. ‘We’re just totally disappointed that they should have got anything,” he said. “He walked into an area where he knew animals would have been, why should we pay.”
The ram, which was affectionately known as “S-- for brains”, has since died. The Hawthorns declined to comment.
By CHRISTOPHER SALTER Melbourne Sun.
BAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! (now you've got the approximate date!)
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/27/1043533999915.html
If you want to repel evangelists, become one of the flock
January 28 2003
By Andrew Masterson
Let us now praise famous sheep. News emerged in the South Australian District Court last week of an incident involving a farmer, a Jehovah's Witness, and a ram.
It seems that the Jehovah's Witness, doing the rounds in the Adelaide Hills one day, decided that the caution "Private - Keep Out" nailed on a farm gate did not apply to toiling proselytisers. Entering, thus, into trespass, the uninvited visitor promptly encountered the farm's pet ram, moving at high speed, forgiveness not in his ruminant heart.
Despite mounting a spirited defence with a briefcase full of Bibles, the JW nevertheless got a rude shock, a broken shin and, quite possibly, an urgent desire to take the Lord's name in vain.
Now, it would have been nicer, of course, if the man's injury had been less severe, but it's possible to view the sheep's involvement in the matter as an ovine expression of a human desire.
It is one of life's nagging problems - working out how precisely to deal with the periodic arrival on one's doorstep of people who feel that the only way to secure their own place in Heaven is to try to flog you a ticket for the journey as well. Some folk opt for the smart-arse defence and attempt a spirited assertion of some of the more glaring contradictions in the Testaments. This is a no-win tactic, however, since people convinced of their own salvation are, by definition, blind to the inconsistencies of faith.
Simply slamming the door shut is undignified. My mother, many years ago, used to thrust a poker through the letter-slot and demand the religionists decamp. This was certainly effective, although the possibility of subsequently encountering a personal injury civil action was worryingly high.
Dire consequences, too, were implicit in the strategy employed by two Melbourne men a couple of years ago. They courteously invited their visitors inside and offered them - in the spirit of politeness - some lovely homemade biscuits. They failed to mention, however, that the warm and enticing cookies contained rather a lot of cannabis.
My own last encounter was with two lovely old biddies intent on selling copies of Watchtower. They were polite, but persistent, and seemed unwilling to believe that the nice man on the other side of the flyscreen door really did want them to leave. Only when the nice man declared himself, in suitably Saxon terms, to be an atheist and invited the pair to make closer acquaintance of his bull terrier did they finally admit defeat.
Forced into making veiled threats, I felt diminished by the experience and was depressed for hours afterwards.
If Witnesses, Mormons, and other evangelists, such as mobile phone salespeople, provided some notice then things would be different. Forewarned, you could answer the door wearing a Charles Manson T-shirt, carrying a copy of Aleister Crowley's The Book of the Law in one hand and a dead chicken in the other, with Alice Cooper's Welcome To My Nightmare blaring out of the stereo. Or you could answer the door dressed as a Teletubbie, gently cradling a tissue box full of chopped liver. Either strategy would work.
This is wishful thinking, however. Evangelists never publish their travel schedules. God's shock troops, like all good soldiers, prefer to retain the element of surprise. This, of course, puts the innocent householder at intentional disadvantage, leading to all sorts of regrettable outcomes, such as ruined risotto, missed wickets on the telly, and cold fish and chips.
Perhaps, then, the Adelaide Hills ram has a lesson for all of us. When theology fails, try farm-yard impressions. The next time the Saints come marching in, try to meet them in the garden. Lower your head, scrape one foot in the dirt, emit a fearsome bleat (which is the tricky part), and charge. The chances are they'll be out of the gate, hurling gospels in self-defence, long before you make contact.
Word will no doubt then spread along the goddist grapevine that the bloke at Number 42 is odd, cranky and, quite possibly, needs shearing. With any luck you'll be marked down as an unrepentant bestial sinner and thenceforth left alone.
OK, it's not a particularly graceful way of repelling boarders, but it's a devil of a job, and somebody has to do it.
say "uncle!"
From this link: http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5876608%5E662,00.html
Ram butts Bible man
By CHRISTOPHER SALTER
23jan03
AFTER a day of doorknocking the last thing Jehovah's Witness Kenneth Hawthorn expected was to be attacked by one of God's creatures.
But that is exactly what happened.
Despite a gate marked 'private - keep out', Mr Hawthorn entered a farm only to be confronted by a four-year-old ram.
He attempted to shoo it away with a briefcase containing Bibles but was knocked to the ground and suffered a broken shin.
In the South Australian District Court, Mr Hawthorn and his wife Pamela, of Tea Tree Gully, reached a confidential settlement with the ram's owners for loss of earnings after the incident in July 2001.
The Hawthorns sued Ronald and Julie Goldfinch, of Paracombe, in the Adelaide hills. They claimed they were forced to sell their hose-fitting business as a result of the injuries Mr Hawthorn suffered.
They alleged the ram was a "dangerous and ferocious animal" and the Goldfinches were negligent for not keeping it confined and failing to warn visitors.
The Hawthorns also sued the Adelaide Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses for failing to provide proper instructions about doorknocking in rural areas.
In the Hawthorns' statement of claim, Mr Hawthorn, who was doorknocking with his daughter, said they opened a gate on the Goldfinch property and walked towards their house to "engage in biblical discussion".
"As they did so a ram appeared and charged (Mr Hawthorn) to the ground and the ram continued the attack pushing him towards the fence," the court documents said.
"At this time the defendants appeared and assisted (Mr Hawthorn) back into his car.
Mr Hawthorn claims he now is able to walk only small distances and "his capacity to enjoy life has permanently diminished".
In their defence, the Goldfinches said the Hawthorns entered their property "uninvited, unwanted and without notice".
They said their hand-reared pet ram had never attacked anyone before nor had it shown a "violent disposition".
In its own defence, The Adelaide congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses said doorknocking was voluntary and followers were not obliged to do it.
Mr Goldfinch said yesterday he was glad the case was over but disappointed with the result.
"We're just totally disappointed that they should have got anything," he said. "He walked into an area where he knew animals would have been, why should we pay."
The ram, which was affectionately known as "S--- for brains", has since died.
The Hawthorns declined to comment.
The Hawthorns also sued the Adelaide Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses for failing to provide proper instruc tions about doorknocking in rural areas.
I wonder how long until they got the royal df treatment!
In its own defence, The Adelaide congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses said doorknocking was voluntary and followers were not obliged to do it.
Obviously, the congregation is right! And the congregation simply has a high concentration of people who naturally love to door-knock. In fact, it's the case for the whole religion: the WTS attracts those who instinctively desire going door-to-door. They can barely be restrained.
bebu
Dire consequences, too, were implicit in the strategy employed by two Melbourne men a couple of years ago. They courteously invited their visitors inside and offered them - in the spirit of politeness - some lovely homemade biscuits. They failed to mention, however, that the warm and enticing cookies contained rather a lot of cannabis.
Now that's the way to go If I ever have some advance warning of a nice friendly elders visit, I will have to prepare them a special batch of the Cape's 4:20 brownies. Let's see them keep a straight face spewing out their dogma with a nice buzz going on.
Dire consequences, too, were implicit in the strategy employed by two Melbourne men a couple of years ago. They courteously invited their visitors inside and offered them - in the spirit of politeness - some lovely homemade biscuits. They failed to mention, however, that the warm and enticing cookies contained rather a lot of cannabis.
lmao! That's what you call Spiritual Food at the Proper Time!
Oh wow I'm still laughing ... but that part about not being required to go door knocking... oh please... not only is it required but you're also timed for it.
Mr Hawthorn claims he now is able to walk only small distances and “his capacity- to enjoy life has permanently diminished”.
Permanently?
Isn't the new system just ... Oh. That wouldn't help his case any, I guess.
-Aude.
