Guess What? Elders Can't Get Clergy Insurance !

by metatron 17 Replies latest jw friends

  • Giordano
    Giordano

    Now we just need to be able to sue for misinformation and being misled. From medicine, to education to science and world history....they have outright lied and misled.

    http://www.jwfacts.com/pdf/blood-misrepresented-2005-kerry-louderback-wood.pdf

    Baylor University, Waco, TX) – An essay entitled, "Jehovah's Witnesses, Blood Transfusions, and the Tort of Misrepresentation," found in the Autumn issue of Baylor University’s prestigious Journal of Church and State, published December 13, 2005, exposes the vulnerability of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ religious organization to massive claims for compensation because of the religion’s misrepresentation of the medical risks of blood transfusions. This milestone essay critically examines one of the religion’s main publications for teaching their children and new recruits about their blood beliefs, How Can Blood Save Your Life? The peer-reviewed essay details many misrepresentations of medical facts, which the religion partly relies on to support its blood prohibition, thus denying its members from making fully informed medical decisions.

    *The misrepresentation of secular facts;
    *The misrepresentation of
    historians’ writings;
    *The amplified medical risks of accepting a blood
    transfusion;
    *The misrepresentation of blood’s necessity and the medical
    alternatives to blood transfusion;
    *The organization’s current blood policy misrepresents the scope of allowed blood products; and
    *The organization’s
    blood policy contains contradictions about autologous blood transfusions.
    If
    members of the religion do consent to a blood transfusion, they are shunned by
    the entire community of Jehovah's Witnesses including close family members.

    The essay examines the State’s power to protect its citizens by allowing
    followers and their families to pursue legal action against a religion when it
    misrepresents secular facts which harmed the followers, and suggests possible
    avenues to apply the tort of misrepresentation to the Watchtower Bible and Tract
    Society, Jehovah's Witnesses' corporate organization, and who publishes
    Jehovah’s Witnesses’ literature.
    The effect of these misrepresentations
    leaves both Jehovah’s Witness members, and medical staff treating them,
    ill-advised and Jehovah’s Witness patients more likely to suffer
    harm.
    According to Jehovah’s Witnesses’ sources, thousands of Jehovah’s
    Witness children have died around the world because they refused blood
    transfusions; the number of Jehovah’s Witness adult deaths has never been
    released, but for every child’s death there are likely to be many adult deaths.
    There are therefore a massive number of potential litigants.
    The 38-page
    essay, entitled, "Jehovah’s Witnesses, Blood Transfusions, and the Tort of
    Misrepresentation," is being translated into a number of languages, including
    Polish, Norwegian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian, German, and
    Russian. This important essay was written by attorney Kerry Louderback-Wood
    after her own mother, who was a Jehovah’s Witness, died in January 2004 obeying
    her religion’s blood ban.

  • Island Man
    Island Man

    Don't be giving Watchtower any ideas now or we could have a future letter from Watchtower reading something like this:

    To All Bodies of Elders:

    Dear brothers,

    We live in difficult times hard to deal with. (2 Timothy 3:1) Satan continues to put pressure on Jehovah's loyal servants. This pressure is often put upon you the hard working shepherds in the more than 111,000 congregations worldwide. Many elders have faced and are facing vindictive lawsuits from disloyal former servants of Jehovah who have apostatized. While there exists insurance coverage to deal with such situations, this wicked system under Satan's control debars Jehovah's shepherds from qualifying for such coverage unless they compromise their spiritual integrity.

    Recognizing this difficulty, the Governing Body has therefore lovingly taken the decision to create a special worldwide fund to provide the same insurace coverage currently being denied our brothers by this wicked world. Payment details and other related matters will be fowarded to you in future correspondence. We trust that you brothers will gratefully embrace this new loving provision from Jehovah to contribute to the legal security of your fellow shepherds serving worldwide. May Jehovah bless your generous spirit!

    Please accept our warm Christian greetings

    The Governing Body.

    And voila! Just like that Watchtower could create a new income-generating scheme!

  • DATA-DOG
    DATA-DOG

    I don't think the WTBTS will cover the Elders. They want more distance between them and the expendable locust army. If anything the letter would say:

    Blah, blah, blah... each Elder must make his own decision based on biblical principles concerning the Higher Education needed to qualify for clergy insurance... Jehoobner protects,... blaabbity blah, ..your qualifications may be reviewed by the CO..blah, blabbity, [fart noise].

    DD

  • metatron
    metatron

    Let them start an elder insurance fund, by all means! I wholeheartedly approve. Why?

    It would put brothers on notice concerning how being appointed could ruin their financial lives.

    It would put congregations on notice as to yet another fund they are required to donate to.

    and it would set up a 'target' to encourage future lawsuits. Brother JudgementFree, who lives in a second hand trailer, can be sued because he now has insurance.

    metatron

  • LongHairGal
    LongHairGal

    Metatron:

    Well, I joined the religion because it was represented to me that they had NO clergy class. Sorry, but they can't have it both ways!

    It is bad enough they claim "ecclesiastical privilege" in courts of law when they are protecting a member accused of wrongdoing.

    Sorry to say it, but it seems the unaccountable religion is going to leave them twisting in the wind when things go wrong!

  • hoser
    hoser

    If I am not mistaken clergy insurance is basically the same thing as errors and omissions insurance that you would have if you are a director of a corporation. Any company I've ever been with pays the premiums for their directors. Fat chance with the watchtower doing that.

  • JustVisting
    JustVisting

    A minimum of a Master's Degree in Theology to acquire coverage? LOL! The WTBTS would have zero elders if that were required to qualify for eldership.

    The vast majority of them are qualified for very little except giving form talks and asking scripted questions. Shoot, most of them can remember the names of the people in their own service group. I could go on and on.

  • cultBgone
    cultBgone

    So I googled "clergy insurance" and the companies offering to quote insurance all indicate that you must be a 501(c) corporation. I doubt any jw elders could pull that off.

    There is a group called Church Law and Tax which provides consulting services to churches, and of course their concern is not about the victims either. However, the poster below from their webpage on suspected Child Abuse makes me think that right now, any of us who have reported abuse to the eldubs could turn them in to the authorities if they did not follow through. Think about the impact this could have in the US alone!

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