Class action suit for pain, suffering & discrimination

by lettib74 55 Replies latest jw friends

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  Will Power

  We need Erin Brockovich!!!

  I believe one person can make a difference.

  VERY INTERESTING info at this site

  http://www.icsahome.com/idx_articles.htm

  especially this one called "Cults in Court"

  http://www.icsahome.com/infoserv_articles/van_hoey_sara_cults_in_court.htm

  Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1993

  The Group Psychological Abuse Scale: A Measure of the Varieties of Cultic Abuse

  William V. Chambers, Ph.D.Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.Arthur A. Dole, Ph.D.James W. Grice, M.A.
  

  Abstract

  The Group Psychological Abuse (GPA) scale was developed from a factor analysis of 308 former cult members' characterizations of their groups. Four subscales were derived: Compliance, Exploitation, Mind Control, and Anxious Dependency. Reliability and validity findings suggest the GPA should be useful in characterizing the varieties of abuse and in differentiating cults from innocuous groups.
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  Will Power

  Maybe Step One could be:

  WT org officially classified as a DHCG, (dangerous high control group) They easily fit all the models - even to the extreme in some areas.

  Charitable status removed.

  from the above article Cults in Court

  The cult problem, however, is ongoing and ever-growing, and remains a threat to America's young people. One anti-cult organization estimates that there are more than 2,500 cults and other "destructive totalist" organizations now active in the United States, and these groups control approximately six million members. [2]
  
  Combating the cults presents its own problems. Those seeking to hold cults accountable for their actions against individual members inevitably clash with the cults' assertion of their fundamental right to religious liberty. The courts have tackled these competing interests in several recent cases with results that may give hope to critics of cult groups. But the battles are far from over.
  
  Cults [3] are coordinated programs that systematically apply undue influence and behavior control techniques to produce in members substantial modification of fundamental modes of thought, world view and conduct. Margaret Singer, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco and an expert on the impact of cultic influences on individual personality, defined cults as:...

  and this one:

  Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2006, pp. 351-373

  The Psychobiology of Trauma and Child Maltreatment

  Doni Whitsett, Ph.D., L.C.S.W.

  Abstract

  The exploding field of Neurobiology has provided a new dimension to our understanding of child neglect and abuse. The effects of early stress on the developing brain and nervous system is now well-documented in the literature. Many of the symptoms experienced by former cult members and observed by clinicians can now be conceptualized as a sub-optimal stress response resulting in affect dysregulation in its various forms. Due to the inadequate and often abusive parenting practices to which members were often exposed it is not surprising that symptoms such as anxiety, depression, rage, dissociation, emotional constriction, and substance abuse/dependence might occur. This article seeks to explain how these symptoms develop and what might be done to repair the harm.

  Full text available through ICSA E-Library.
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  sammielee24

  WT org officially classified as a DHCG, (dangerous high control group

  Very good point. Remove the charitable status by removing the shadow religious affiliation and it will be forced to begin dismantling itself. sammieswife.
• 

  lettib74

  Here is an article where they explain & justify shunning:

  Appeared in The Watchtower April 15, 1988 Discipline That Can Yield Peaceable Fruit

  http://www.watchtower.org/e/19880415/article_01.htm
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  sammielee24

  There may be a legal window in that a clergy who is also providing counselling may be open to abuse of privilege. In addition, employers with a minimum of employee's can be sued for the actions of the employer if the employer was providing direction or assisting in sexual harassment and did nothing to stop it. Should the WTBTS as a legal entity be the employer, then it may be possible that there would be accountability. I'm not certain how that works. If it was a young man being sexually harassed by an Elder for example while at the KH and performing volunteer work for the church, then it may be a legal issue with the victim claiming the right to sue. I just don't know.

  sammieswife.
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  lettib74

  I have emailed the ICSA for some advice and assistance on this. Love / Norris contacted me and said that this is not something they specialize in nor do they deal with anyone who does this kind of work....When one door closes another one opens. I am still try to contact the attorney Lawrence Levy. He was the lawyer that won a similar suit in California but I think he may no longer be practicing.....to be continued.....