Menlo Park Kingdom Hall 3

by Juan Viejo2 43 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Juan Viejo2

  For those of you that have been following the ongoing story of the forced take over of the Menlo Park, California Kingdom Hall, please go to:

  http://ex-jw.com/fear-and-loathing-in-menlo-park

  I'm sorry, the article is still a little rough and still needs a lot of editing, but I wanted to get it up by today at the latest. The two plaintiffs in this case are supposed to have met with the defendants and their attorney today in a court ordered arbitration and deposition meeting.

  If you manage to read through all of the very long article, you will see that all of the following come to play in this story:

  An historical pattern of racism in both large cities and smaller communities by Watchtower leaders.

  Nepotism and favoritism for some, strict and unbending adherence to the rules for others.

  Clear evidence of gerrymandering in the location of Kingdom Halls and the assignment of servants/elders.

  There is so much going on with this case that sometimes it is hard to get my hands around everything. About the time I think I've got a clear vision of the story, I get a phone call or email that tosses a new wrench into the mix.

  As soon as I get some feedback on any arbitration results, I'll post an update.

  One thing that came out of this investigation was that the existing membership of the Menlo Park Kingdom Hall (prior to the merger with Redwood City) was divided on the administration of the long-time elders. Some felt they were loving, selfless and devoted servants to the congregation. A minority felt that the elders had become entrenched and often arbitrary. I heard an unconfirmed rumor that a Spanish language congregation moved out of that Kingdom Hall and shared space with another Spanish language Hall in Redwood City. They felt they were treated unfairly and did not like the leadership of Menlo Park.

  

  There is a Japanese congregation that meets there too, but they seem to be keeping a VERY low profile.

  I also received information from two unrelated sources that there had been "bad blood" between the leadership of Redwood City and Menlo Park that went back for many years. You'll see a comment in the article where I was told that Redwood City had been trying to take over that hall for years.

  I'll let you know as soon as I get more info. Feel free to post your comments here or over there, or both. You'll see that I also have received support from JWs and ex-JWs in Spain that might be quite wide-spread.

  JV
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  wasblind

  Thanks for the Update JV2
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  stuckinamovement

  Great Work John,

  I hope I see a newspaper/ magazine article on this.

  SIAM
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  moshe

  From the looks of the flimsy signs, it appears the JWs are ready to move out at a moments notice.
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  rebel8

  I read several pages worth of stuff on your site and the Fabled Vision site.

  I don't get the legal angle.

  I mean, there is a lot of stuff there that just sucks and is wrong, of course.

  The legal issue seems to be limited to stealing money and squatters taking possession of a building that isn't theirs to take. Why not handle that with the police instead of filing a suit? I mean, if there's truth to this theft and squatters thing, call the cops and take it back, end of story.

  Even the "gerrymandering"....are churches prohibited by law from that? Gerrymandering is a term for a scheme to get voters in certain districts--not a church term. Are churches prohibited from deciding which church member goes to which church of theirs? Other churches do that too.

  I guess I'm missing something here.
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  Juan Viejo2

  Stuck - There is a newspaper reporter working on this story. We share leads. They won't talk to me because I'm an exxie apostate. They don't want to talk to her because they're afraid that if it looks like they made the internal fight public, they would get punished for that. Of course they filed a law suit in Federal District Court (all filings are public domain), so I don't know why talking to a legitimate reporter would make anything worse. So yes, there may be a newspaper article coming out sometime soon.

  Moshe - I took that photo and others. Actually the signs are quite substantial and look like they are fairly new. They are just very thin. Look at the larger carved sign - someone put some righteous work into those. No, the building is well taken care of and looks nice. You can see why the existing congregation and elder body did not want to spend a lot of money on upgrades and refurbish. I haven't been inside, but my contacts tell me that it is in decent condition. The biggest problem with the location is that the street is just two lanes with a blind curve (enlarge the map and you'll see what I mean. I have no idea where everyone parks, especially in the evenings when all the neighbors are home. There's room for maybe six cars in the lot in back and maybe a dozen cars parked along the street on either side. This is definitely not a location where you want a combined congregation of 125-200 members.

  Rebel8 - They did go to the police. They went to the DA. Neither wanted to get involved and basically told the local JWs that it was a civil case and involved religious issues. They suggested that they file a civil law suit. And that's what they did and that seems to be their only option. Realistically their chances are slim because they do not have any real legal representation, just the advisor. So they are outmanned and outgunned - and the court will most likely rule that church ownership disagreements are church matters. They'd have a better chance of winning if they actually sued for damages, but these elders do not want to "hurt the Watchtower Society in any way." They can't seem to get it in their heads that the Watchtower wants to squash them like irritating little gnats and be done with them.

  JV
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  Juan Viejo2

  Rebel8 - RE: Gerrymandering.

  That was my use of the term. Yes, it is a political term and dates back to the 1800s. It was used by "carpetbaggers" after the Civil War to create unbeatable voting districts.

  California and Texas were famous during the '60s and '70s for creating voting districts that had no relationship to reality and only provided safe havens for incumbents. Districts that were one mile wide and 100 miles long, stuff like that.

  My point in the article was that it is obvious that Menlo Park was located so that all of the black Witnesses would be locked into one corner of the region, thereby keeping the upper-scale areas of Redwood City and Palo Alto "lily white." Yes, this is a tactic used by churches, but if the Watchtower is supposed to lead the brothers and sisters without regard to their color or ethnicity, it is clear that the WTBS is not as "color-blind" as it appears to be.

  I'm sure that we will get many comments on this particular issue - maybe even heated ones.

  In the article, I mentioned that as a teenager I saw this very thing happen in my area of Riverside, CA in the late 1950s and 60s - the same time frame as Menlo Park. I went to the Riverside Central Kingdom Hall at 5th and Park, an old Pentecostal church that had been bought and paid for. Like Menlo Park, the WT didn't give us a dime and we paid the mortgage and every bill entirely from local funds. It was on the east side of the railroad tracks, in an old neighborhood just blocks from warehouses and fruit packing plants. Although my family was white, we lived right next to the black, Mexican and Asian neighborhoods of Riverside.

  Two new construction Kingdom Halls were built within a few miles of each other in the south Riverside communities of Magnolia Center and Arlington. The dividing lines were set far enough away from their locations so that there would be no chance of any minorities going to those Halls. I remember visiting those halls in those days and realizing that everyone was white, while my KH was about 50/50. Of course, within a few years, the minorities busted out of that old ghetto and moved all over the city -so the issue became moot.

  Los Angeles was a classic situation, very much like the Menlo Park situation. Kingdom Halls would be within a few blocks of each other, but one would be primarily white and the other mostly black. They even set up early "assembly halls" that followed the same pattern.

  JV
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  Bangalore

  Thanks for the updates Juan.

  Bangalore
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  jookbeard

  Wow! I went to the Redwood City cong while on vacation to the USA many years ago
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  Anony Mous

  @Juan: It is well known that for years the Witnesses maintained segregated congregations, somebody even has a paper on it somewhere online. There are still some congregations that have continued growing historically that way, even in NYC (close to HQ, melting pot city) there is a hall where there are multiple congregations - one predominantly (almost exclusively) black the other predominantly white.

  The main thing here is that the original paperwork stated that the 'owners' of the building were a group of trustees of the local JW's (before the RBC etc. existed). When the prices skyrocketed into the millions of dollars that parcel is now worth, WTBTS wanted to build a new one a little bit outside that area (where it is a lot cheaper even though it inconveniences a lot of people that live there (further drive, worse neighborhood)) and sell the building from under their collective @$$3$ by going to the local county clerk and trying to get the deed to the property since they thought they were (or wanted to be) the 'trustees'. The local elders thought that wasn't fair and went to the judge. They most likely will get disbanded and DF'ed by the religious organization but the question remains by the legal frameworks - who were the original trustees and how/where did this historically move hands. Was it to go down to the local BoE or did they ever intend it to be or sign it over to the WTBTS.

  That's a problem in most KH's built before the 70's. Most congregations however just 'give up' control over the deed. Nowadays, the RBC just keeps the deed - you 'donate' your money in the Kingdom Hall Fund, you also contribute to the Kingdom Hall Assistance Arrangement (calculated per publisher) and then when you want to build a KH, you just loan the money you donated back from the WTBTS which you then pay back (with interest of course) over 10 years. The WTBTS doesn't ever lose money on this deal. It's also suggested that your congregation keeps extra funds not in a savings account but in a no-interest deposit with the WTBTS which is actually not supposed to be used for large purchases (like down payment to a KH).