Hi everyone,
As many of you know, in July 2007, we basically started the website, Watchtower Documents, LLC, to make available 5,000 pages of court documents from twelve lawsuits involving victims of child abuse that Watch Tower secretly settled out-of-court with since 1999. Nine of these cases were settled out-of-court with sixteen plaintiffs in the spring of 2007. http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com/docs/jw-secrets.html#free
These court documents can still be downloaded without charge. But, if anyone rather read these documents on a CD, one can be ordered for a small charge from Lulu, titled, Secrets of Pedophilia in an American Religion. Last week, Lulu notified us that after September 19, 2011, Lulu will no longer be selling CDs and that means that the Secrets CD will not be available anymore through them.
We also added to the Watchtower Documents, LLC website back in 2007 many Watch Tower-related historical documents and misc. material that historians, researchers, and anyone interested in such things can download without charge. This data is so useful to understand the past, and perhaps, present-day activities of those connected with the Watch Tower. For instance, see in the "1880's" Document Archives section the exclusive download of George Storr's 96-page book, published in 1850, titled, "The Watch Tower or Man In Death and the Hope of a Future Life." A copy of this newly discovered book has never before been seen on the Internet before we were given a gift of it.
We're happy to say that in the past four years that Watchtower Documents, LLC has been in existence, many, many people have expressed their appreciation for the Document Archives. So during the past few weeks, we have added to the "1800's" and "1900-1919" Archive sections nearly 200 more documents that have come our way.
http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com/documents/1800.html
http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com/documents/1900-1919.html
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Something else:
Another interesting section of the Watchtower Documents website is where we post former JW life stories, or their personal research material. http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com/jw-stories.html .
A poster on JWN, Lester Kite, (Jookbeard) recently sent us his story which we added to the "Stories" section of the website. Scroll down to the end of the linked page to access Lester's story that he began this way:
"I was a 'born in.' My father and mother got the 'truth' very shortly before I was born 44 years ago. They were very young parents but both took to the teachings of the WTS very easily. My father made ministerial servant grade and became an elder when the arrangement was started sometime early in the 70's. Childhood memories are very grim because of the ostracizing and isolation my sister and I suffered being virtually the only kids in our respective schools who were Witnesses. We had to constantly sit out assemblies and religious instruction class which took a toll on me. I found myself desperately unhappy even at this ridiculously young age. Also my father took extreme measures when applying the 'rod of discipline' command and thrashings became a weekly occurrence. He had a particular fondness for a thick leather belt, but a thick stick, his hand, or anything that came to hand, would generally do. Sickeningly, his punishment habit developed into a sick sexual thing, when he would bare my buttocks and his pants would fall down to his ankles while he was thrashing me. To this day, these memories turn my stomach." http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com/jw-stories.html
If you want your story posted on Watchtower Documents, LLC, please PM us through this discussion board or send us an email through the WD website. http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com/contact.html
Our warmest regards.
Barbara and Joe Anderson