by raymond frantz 74 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
Hmmm...just WHAT do they do which can be considered 'charitable'. I used to attend this cong...
The term 'judicial committee' is quite laughable right now.
Hope that their charitable status gets removed PDQ ...as it should!!
I have family who come under this congregation...all quiet there! lol
substantial movement of capital (or at least a transfer on balance sheets) which may substantially affect potential damages/compensation claims against the organisation.
BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!
yadda yadda 2 - "Strict, fanatical obedience to wrong legalistic Pharasaical interpretations is more important than ousting paedophiles from the congregation. 'Two witnesses, two witnesses, we must have our two witnesses...'"
It is (among many other things) the WTS' roundabout and passive/agressive way of denying there's a problem...
...because if they did acknowledge there was a problem, the inevitable questions of why and how the problem became so institutionalized and endemic would soon follow.
Undortunately, the WTS's defining characteristics and very structure as an authoritarian high-control group are what create and enable the problem.
To acknowledge that, however, would be to inevitably undermine the WTS's claims of legitimacy and exclusivity.
And that is simply unacceptable to them.
Further to my previous post re my submissin to the Charities Commission, I received this response (personal rather than automated) yesterday:
"Dear Mr XXXXXXX
I acknowledge receipt of your complaints about Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain.
We do not enter into correspondence about action that we may intend to take or provide updates on the progress of our investigation.
We usually produce a report published on our website about the investigation once it has been concluded.
Our publication CC46 - Statutory Inquiries into Charities: Guidance for charities and their advisers, although aimed at trustees, contains information about our regulatory role and the framework within which we will be carrying out this investigation which you may find useful.
I will contact you if we need any further information from you to assist our enquiries.
Yours sincerely
Harvey Grenville
Investigations and Enforcement
Charity Commission"
I have today sent the following in response:
"Dear Mr Grenville
Thank you for your response.
You will no doubt be aware of the most recent case of a JW 'elder' (leader/pastor) from Barry, South Wales, convicted of abuse - fully reported in both the electronic and paper media. (R -v- Sewell, Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, conviction date 27 June 2014).
The evidence and the comments made by the trial judge (HHJ Richard Twomlow), and the information which emerged during the trial (but could only be reported after its conclusion) give cause for substantial concern. In particular, that there were organisational factors which led to fellow 'elders' declining to co-operate with the investigation and to records of admissions of abuse being destroyed.
You will, of course, have access to far more detailed information about this case than I do, and I submit that the facts of this case speak eloquently of the concerns I have raised. I commend it to your attention as part of your investigation.
Yours sincerely
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
1 July 2014"
Sorry if the formatting has taken on a mind of its own.
Reported for the information of the forum.
Joe Grundy
BTTT
On June 13, 2014, I wrote to the Charity Commission regarding a Canadian JW molestation victim who was made to appear before a JW tribunal and her molester as was the victim in the Manchester New Moston Congregation of JWs. Today I received this reply:
Dear Mrs Anderson
I acknowledge receipt of your email about Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain and regret not having responded before now.
I think you are aware that the Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry (investigation) into the charity on 27 May. You may have seen our public statement. It is available here: http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/news/charity-commission-investigates-jehovahs-witnesses-charities/
Thank you for offering to provide the investigation with material related to events in Canada. However, given the limits to the jurisdiction of the Commission (England and Wales) and the historic nature of the events, we take the view that the material is unlikely to assist the investigation. We will, however, retain your details on file should we change our view. (Underline mine.)
For your information, please be aware that we do not enter into correspondence about action that we may intend to take or provide updates on the progress of our investigation, but we usually produce a report published on our website about the investigation once it has been concluded.
Our publication CC46 - Statutory Inquiries into Charities: Guidance for charities and their advisers, although aimed at trustees, contains information about our regulatory role and the framework within which we will be carrying out this investigation, which you may find useful.
Yours sincerely,
Jonathan Cooper
Investigator
Investigations and Enforcement
Charity Commission
Here's what I wrote to the Charity Commission back on June 13, 2014:
"I have a copy of a 2012 Canadian news article (not a pdf) about Vicki Boer who hoped to shine a light on abuse within Jehovah's Witness communities when she filed a civil suit against the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada and the elders of her congregation more than a decade ago over how her complaint of sexual abuse had been handled. She was made to appear before a Jehovah's Witnesses tribunal and her molester like in the Manchester New Moston Cong. of Jehovah's Witnesses. Vickie won her case. Would you like to have a copy of the article for your investigation?"
(I then partially quoted a Canadian news article which was primarily about the victorious Candace Conti lawsuit in California in 2012)
Landmark U.S. verdict against Jehovah's Witnesses may prompt Canadian sex abuse lawsuits
... Boer told the court how in the 1980s, between the age of 12 and 16, she was abused by her father. They belonged to a Jehovah's Witness congregation in Shelburne, Ont. and when she told church elders, she was forced go over her allegations in detail in front of her father.
"It was the process that was damaging, them putting me in a room, making me sit in front of my father when I was explaining the abuse, when I went to them first because I was suffering," she said from Fredericton, where she now lives.
The Jehovah Witnesses have a strict rule that the accused produce an independent witness of the alleged wrongdoing. As well, Watchtower policy states that when a Jehovah's Witness is accused of abusing a child, elders must meet with both the accused and the accuser, individually and then together.
"If during that meeting the accused still denies the charges and there are no others who can substantiate them, the elders cannot take action within the congregation at that time," says the Watchtower's online child-protection statement. Why not? As a Bible-based organization, we must adhere to what the Scriptures say, namely, 'No single witness should rise up against a man respecting any error or any sin.'"
According to former members, elders have told children and their families that if there are no witnesses to the alleged abuse then they should not speak about it as that would be slanderous. To do so can be grounds for "shunning" whereby the outcast follower is cut off from friends, family, his or her former way of life.
Boer eventually won the high-profile case, heard in Toronto, but was then ordered to pay the legal costs for all parties. ...
The jah Jireh homes are a big scam - the "guests" pay for their keep, often claiming social security, and the turnover of staff is verry high, as they pay the bare minimum allowed, with no perks.
One good thing is that most of the inmates are more alert and less zoned out than in many other old folks homes.
HB
The homes are businesses with no connection directly to the WT, as far as I understand.
I think too that any Abuse problems within the Charity are not really wihin the purview of the Commisssion's Investgative Team, what is more important is to give them information that shows the so-called "Charitable works" of the WT are nothing more than recruitment drives for more donating members, and are of no benefit to the general public.
"Bible educational work" ? ask any reputable Bible College how educational the work of JW's is.
AndersonsInfo - 'Boer eventually won the high-profile case, heard in Toronto, but was then ordered to pay the legal costs for all parties..."
WTF???
How does that work?
x
I swear, sometimes it feels like the powers-that-be everywhere are almost deliberately in denial of the reality of institutionalized child abuse, like it's the biggest "dirty little (non-)secret" in history.
It's as though they're scrambling way too desperately to keep a lid on a pot, terrified it's gonna boil over or something...
x
Hmmph.
Maybe it is.
Vidiot: Watchtower behaved magnanimously about Vicki paying their legal costs and forgave them. It was a nice gesture, but not enough to make up for all that Vickie suffered, especially the top brass from the Canadian Bethel not exactly telling the truth when they were being cross-examined. We know that for sure because we (Joe, me and Jim Penton) were in the court room and heard their testimony and couldn't quite believe what we heard.
Vicki won only part of her lawsuit against the Watchtower and that's why she was ordered to pay court costs. She was able to prove that the elders made her confront her abuser (Matthew 18) and that this was a Watchtower policy which victims of molestation had to do when bringing forth an accusation. For what it's worth, the elders ivolved in the case denied that this was a Watchtower policy, but Vicki's attorney provided the evidence that showed it was.
Barbara
