Rebel said-
I've been talking on this forum for hears about the UN Declaration of Human Rights and wondered if anything could be done to enforce it. I still wonder that, seeing as how the UN apparently has no power to enforce it. The petition is also directed towards US authorities who would also have no authority to enforce it.
Of course, organized religions are incredibly BIG-BUSINESS in America, and you can just hear the outcry from pastors, preachers, bishops, priests, elders, etc, all stirring up their flocks on Sundays since they won't voluntarily give up a good thing when they see it, and aren't about to let a bunch of Godless liberals in the UN tell THEM how to worship Gods!
To take action against only the JWs on shunning would involve trampling on ALL freedom of religion, and you'd have all churches submitting donations and amicus curae (legal briefs) to the Courts, IF an initiative ever managed to get to a court case (much like the JWs submitted amicus curae on behalf of their buddy Jimmy Swaggert, as they were interested parties effected by the outcome of his case).
Governments are not going to meddle into religious practice UNLESS the religions start breaking civil laws (eg murder, by offering child sacrifices to Gods). Why would they do that, when they've got a good thing going already?
Heck, the 'Duck Dynasty' family patriarch is now back after A&E kicked him off the show, but it stirred up such outrage from the religious right that A&E caved. It was perfectly within their legal right to do so, since they weren't infringing on his freedom of speech. But most believers don't see it that way: instead, they (wrongly) claimed A&E infringed his religious expression, so more idiots are proudly waving their idiot flags (and I wouldn't put it past A&E doing it as a publicity stunt, getting TONS of free publicity after the story went viral).
The difference is, trying to get a company to cave into pressure works when such media consumer-driven companies are sensitive to public opinion. But governments? Not so much, for the most part, since they're generally quite reluctant to rewrite doctrines of Constitutional law based on only 4,000 signatures.
And to the resistance from the religious right, add people who actually understand the principles found in the Constitution; then all you have left are a bunch of people who SHOULD see the importance of accepting personal responsibility for their actions, instead of demanding that the Nanny State bail them out at every turn and kiss every boo-boo to their egos, even if it means trampling all over the rights of everyone else.
(BTW, it's interesting to look at a few of the petitions that are trending on the change.org site; that should give a sense as to what issues gain traction, and actually manage to garner attention to their causes, like the lady who wants to get 911 calls to be dialed from hotel rooms, etc.)
It's another manifestation of the same narcissistic desire for some pipe-dream that's not so far-removed from engaging in preaching work to gain eternal Panda Petting sessions on a paradise Earth. Same underlying dynamic at play, based on only one's hopes and dreams.
Apparently many ex-JWs are still clinging to thinking their actions and opinions actually matter to others, as if there's "something" that can or should be done, so an easy answer is to sign some random poorly-worded petition that pops up since signing a petition is helluva lot easier than trudging from house-to-house, door-to-door, etc. Such ill-conceived tactics only end up going nowhere, and since it's so easy to sign a petition online, it's more of merely venting rather than anything, and only causing some loss of credibility for all those involved (which plays into the GB's hands).
As stated elsewhere, JWs aren't going ANYWHERE, since a sucker is born every minute to replace those who die, and unfortunately most people are hell-bent on learning life lessons 'the hard way' via personal experience, telling themselves "it'll NEVER happen to me!" (until it actually does happen to them....). Part of the human dynamic, I guess....
Adam
...OUTLAW