LambsRoar Reply to Mr. Bill Bowen - Slander &am...

by RevMalk 65 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

  • RevMalk
    RevMalk

    To those of you who have had the misfortune of receiving Mr. Bowen's silentlambs Newsletter. Unfortunately Mr. Bowen feels the need to lie to you all, and slander the name of Abuse Survivors he claims to protect and serve. A copy of his most recent attack is below my short response. This will not be allowed the hurt the Abused any longer, and I'm ashamed to have known the man who uses you all as his pawns in this gain for Glory. I apologize to you all, for what you've had to deal with for the endurance of Mr. Bowen's reign of terror, where apparently no-one is safe. Not the Abuse Survivors, nor those who attempt to support the cause. I will be making a further response to this ridiculous, slanderous email as soon as my Attorney returns my call. I don't want to make an official statement without his consideration. But for now, I can only say this is full of lies, and proof will be forthcoming. Also, depending on the response, I will resign from LambsRoar if needed. These are all untrue statements, and I WILL NOT allow this to hurt the Abuse Survivors any further. I am an Abuse Survivor myself, who is once again being abused by a man who claims to defend and protect us. Since when is it ok to insinuate an already Abused person is "mentally unstable" in a public arena? Mr. Bowen should be ashamed of himself. Like I said, an announcement and reply is forthcoming. I apologize to anyone and everyone out there that is forced to deal with this mess. For now, there has been a public record of what's been happening at this URL: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.aspx?id=42651&site=3&page=5 It's apparent to me that he's doing everything in his power to destroy LambsRoar, and again, I will not let problems between Mr. Bowen and I stand in the way of a potential key resource in the aid to Abuse Survivors. I would rather die than have that happen, or walk away and leave this effort in the hands of someone Bill doesn't have a personal vendetta against. I urge one and all of you that have emailed me in the past week to come forward. There is no need to keep yourselves silenced any longer, it only serves to hurt the cause, and to hurt those that you care about. NOW is the time to speak up. NOW is the time to lay everything out on the table. If you REALLY care about furthering the cause, and benefiting the cause, you will do your part to expose the man who RUINS what we've been fighting for. Stay silent NO MORE! We've been silenced for too long by the WTBS, are we to allow it to happen again? We left to be free, NOT to encounter the same types of abuse we've encountered most of our lives! Speak up! Let's hear you Roar! All of you.....Every single one of you that was kind enough to email me in private this week, speak up, and be FREE once again! Mr. Bowen's Slanderous Newsletter:

    Due to circumstances that have developed I am forced to clarify certain matters regarding silentlambs.org. As you may recall I wrote in my last email, Many of you may not believe this but I really am a peaceful person. It is far easier to make peace than war in my opinion. I have found this generally the best solution to a problem and helpful to moving on with important issues. I can recall a few years back forgiving a $10,000 debt from a brother for the simple reason above. There are those who have taken advantage of silentlambs financially and other ways but we have endeavored to take the high road and work for peace as a better objective. In some cases there are those who do not want peace but instead use our good will and benefit of the doubt to take advantage and hurt the reputation of silentlambs along with discrediting the goals and purpose of the organization. One example of this is in the recent matter involving , I tried to offer a peaceful way out of this. When we spoke on Tuesday night of this week he agreed to give all rights and ownership to silentlambs, inc and provide all passwords first thing Tuesday morning, at that point I would make a comment to the email list about us making peace. I got to thinking about the scripture about the sun not setting in a provoked state and decided as a measure of good faith to go ahead and send the email that night before I got anything from . Sadly this was a mistake, to my surprise the next morning did not keep his word. Again trying to give him the benefit of the doubt I sent him upload information to upload the website as agreed on Wednesday. When I again asked for passwords I was given a flimsy excuse, he could not find it at the moment. I then asked about the upload on Wednesday I was assured it was 69% complete and would be finished soon. In the process of doing this I was also sending communications to the new webmaster and again in good faith carbon copying the messages to . When questioned one of the messages only sent to him and the webmaster I gave him a truthful explanation. This person had not read the large email earlier sent out as he is not on the silentlambs list, so my comment about finding new light was just a simple way to explain to someone who could care less as long as we were getting cooperation. Now I find that this private email was posted publicly by and a huge issue has been made about it? Is that working for peace or for war? I am contacted by others that many false assumptions are being made publicly as well as accusations against silentlambs. Again I went back and simply requested the passwords and release of silentlambs from any copyright agreements. Thursday morning I find the website has not been downloaded at all and I still did not have the information that was promised. I also find extensive comments are being made about this on public forums in a negative manner. I finally had to say to that I would provide no further information till he delivered what was promised. I was finally after lunch today given passwords and a licensing agreement for the website requiring certain modifications for the life of the website. I never agreed to any licensing or copyright agreement if I had been presented with this on day one it would never have been agreed to and would never have worked for silentlambs. Silentlambs is owned by silentlambs, inc and will not be encumbered by licensing agreements. In the new arrangement that is understood going in and there was no problem whatsoever, just the same as it was and understanding when I started working with . When a person does not keep their word repeatedly after you give them a second chance, it is time to cut your losses and move on. For the sake of peace I tried to give every benefit of the doubt but that still does not erase the fact that he hijacked the silentlambs forums by locking me out of my own forums, hijacked the silentlambs website by locking me out of my own website for six days, was paying commissions to himself on book sales from the site, ignored or did not follow through on numerous requests to properly care for the silentlambs website and to communicate with me directly. I found it interesting that after the new webmaster spent the day Monday reviewing how the website had been built he asked me, Are you sure this guy is not working for Jehovahs Witnesses? It appears he is trying to destroy your website. I find this disturbing that an outsider who knows nothing about all this would even think of asking that type of question. Why did he make that statement? As he showed me most of the information was not actually on the website and the design of the site seemed purposely built to prevent it from being easily accessed by search engines. Interesting also is the fact a large forum that previously linked to silentlambs as a non profit organization solely dedicated to protecting children now links to Lambsroar a for profit forum that is ran by . Do they suppose to present this as a new organization for abuse survivors? I think of an example of a son who begs his father to use the car. When the father finally gives in and provides the keys the son goes out and promptly wrecks the car. When the father becomes upset the son says, It is your fault you should have never gave me the keys. Much time and effort was wasted due to my putting the keys of silentlambs in the hands of a person who should have never have had it to begin with. The change back to the old web server was delayed by 48 hours by not keeping his word given to me on Tuesday night this left the old site with critical links not working while we tried to give him every chance to keep his word. I do not know if is mentally unstable, a con man or working for Watchtower, but in any case I no longer trust him in anyway to care for matters relating to abuse survivors due to his treatment of the silentlambs website, his pubic posts of misinformation, and repeatedly breaking his word to me. Silentlambs will look to endorse legitimate forums that are managed in a stable manner, if you have suggestions we will be glad to accept recommendations. I wish to finish this up by stating as I did in the beginning there needs to be peace and I am happy to work in that direction with anyone. In the last ninety days several individuals have tried to destroy silentlambs by their actions and comments. They have attacked me personally and used that as a basis to also discredit silentlambs. Oddly this has come from the most part out of the xjw community. Whatever their motivation in my opinion it certainly is not helping abuse survivors and is not pursuing peace. Time proves where the truth lay and where this evil is coming from but silentlambs remains on course as an organization that stands up to any bully or group of bullies who try to discredit the issue of abuse in the JW community and hurt abuse survivors by their comments. I hope those of you who read this will understand you are what really matters to silentlambs and we will continue to be there for you and offer assistance and support.

    I will return to respond to each and every statement made in this email. Mr Bowen will NOT get away with his lies and deception any longer! edited - To remove my name once again scattered out to thousands!

    Edited by - RevMalk on 20 December 2002 1:1:7

  • Brummie
    Brummie

    Rev I just pasted this on the other thread I wrote to you here, tried to resist coming back in until I saw that email in my home email account. I had previously posted it on lambsroar too!

    Your message and mine have the exact same time of posting so looks like great minds....

    Have a cuppa and relax for a couple of hours, you dont need to refute that email mate, everyone knows already.

    Drat I'm trying to break away for a couple of months...

    Brumm

  • RevMalk
    RevMalk

    Thank You Brummie, I appreciate it. I guess I should take my name out of my own post eh? haha, I request that on others then completely forget in my own.

    I just can't believe I was played for such a fool. All the warnings in the world didn't keep me away, and yet I fell right into the game. I'm so ashamed of myself for not knowing better, BUT, I will never regret the time and energy I've spent trying to support silentlambs, and silentlambs.org, NEVER.

  • Brummie
    Brummie
    I will never regret the time and energy I've spent trying to support silentlambs, and silentlambs.org, NEVER.

    Niether will the SLs regret the time and energy you put into it, its appreciated, your hearts in the right place Rev.

    I just can't believe I was played for such a fool...so ashamed of myself for not knowing better

    You wasnt played mate, dont be ashamed! Everything set out on the right foot, it was for the SL remember.

    Brummie

    Edited to say: Is it possible that someone else could have sent out this email under the banner of BB? It was done before? Just wondering.

    Edited by - Brummie on 20 December 2002 1:23:0

  • DannyBear
    DannyBear

    Rev,

    There is no need for you to seek an attorney, Bill Bowen is doing quite well in self destructing. A mouthpiece will only cost you $.

    It is very sad, that many here on jw.com and other boards have suffered so much from this 'elder', without a bit of common sense. People holed up, in the process of leaving, or afraid to utter a word. Former friends ignoring each other, shunning perhaps a better word for it.

    All because this haughty man, believes that he is above critique.

    From the moment he 'burned rubber' in the Kingdom Hall lot, there in Arkansas.....I knew where he was headed. Every event, every Silentlamb post he made...........was grandstanding, just look at the titles 'Meet Silentlambs in Person'....The man has a lust for glory. A need to prove everyone else is wrong.

    The unfortunate thing is that so many have been injured, perhaps beyond repair from his assinine actions.

    What every 'elder' hates the most, is to be ignored. It is time for you to do so with Mr. Bowen. Five or six years down the road..........Mr Bowen will be regretting most if not all of his actions in the last 60 days or so. Mark my words.

    Any accomplishments he makes from this time forward, will always carry with them this legacy of 'disdain'.

    Danny

  • Simon
    Simon

    I think getting attourneys involved would be a mistake personally (maybe it's that I'm British )

    I think Bill is abusing the SL mailing list for personal, un-thought-out attacks (and also for sending out unverified personal info). You can hardly blame RevMalk for trying to reply to the same audience.

    Re: the 'making money from book sales'. I know I have been accused of this on this forum so although I don't know anything about the SL book sales, I can go off my own experience:

    Hosting cost per month: $179
    Amazon associates earnings: $10

    Bottom line? The book sales buy me a DVD or a book every three months but I don't think I would describe it as making money (unless I had an Enron accountant). This is with a lot more traffic than the SL forum so I don't imagine RevMalk is 'raking it in' and, like me, probably just tries to offset some of the costs of the hosting which I believe he has provided to SL for free.

    Interesting also is the fact a large forum that previously linked to silentlambs as a non profit organization solely dedicated to protecting children now links to Lambsroar a for profit forum that is ran by <Rev>. Do they suppose to present this as a new organization for abuse survivors?

    As this appears to be directed at me then I will answer it. We are not presenting any organisation, I don't think JWs even like the word 'organisation' to be honest, but are simply offering a resource that people can use to communicate, share experiences and stories. Nothing more. The reason the link was removed was that I think I cannot personally recommend Silentlambs to an abuse survivor at the present time. I am linking to LambsRoar as it is run by abuse survivors for abuse survivors.

    Silentlambs will look to endorse legitimate forums that are managed in a stable manner, if you have suggestions we will be glad to accept recommendations.

    There was a legitimate forum that was being managed but we seem to have ended up here for some reason?!

    In the last ninety days several individuals have tried to destroy silentlambs by their actions and comments. They have attacked me personally and used that as a basis to also discredit silentlambs. Oddly this has come from the most part out of the xjw community. Whatever their motivation in my opinion it certainly is not helping abuse survivors and is not pursuing peace.

    I've said it before and I will say it again. Bill - you decided to follow the 'advice' of someone that was totall misguided and started attacking Ray Franz and I think it has gone downhill from there. I believe you are correct that someone is working behind the scenes to undermine SL and also any other exJW group they can but it isn't the people you think it is.

    Edited by - Simon on 20 December 2002 3:47:8

  • Trauma_Hound
    Trauma_Hound

    Holy Makrel Simon, I know hosting companys that charge less, and you get unlimited bandwidth.

  • Simon
    Simon

    Thanks TH

    I know that there are *cheaper* but when you add up the disk and database space they often are not as cheap as they first appear and my current host do provide an excellent service in terms of features & reliability.

    As for 'unlimited bandwidth', I don't think this exists. What it normally means is 'unmanaged' or non-guaranteed bandwidth and you normally take your chances competing for the same bandwidth that everyone else (wanting to use the unlimited bandwidth) competes for.

    I think the hosting on this site has been pretty reliable and the 40Gb bandwidth allowance is one of the biggest that hosts tend to provide (guaranteed).

  • searcher
    searcher

    What on earth is happening ?

    First Bill Bowen alienates appproximatly 50% of Ex JW's by his apparent 'attack' on Ray Franz, now he 'fires' his 'portal to the world'.

    If I had to create a profile of someone who was out to destroy the silentlambs cause, I would not have to look far for someone to fit it.

    Everytime Mr Bowen opens his mouth it seems like he is attacking one or more of the people who are supporters of silentlambs/ExJW's.

    Can anyone CONFIRM that Mr Bowen has actually LEFT the WT?

    Also can anyone confirm that Mr Bowen has told people/recomended that people stay away from this site, that (if true) sounds like, read only what we publish, a familiar phrase.

    I am very confused here, it seems to me that Mr Bowen is directing all his anger at the SUPPORTERS of silentlambs, and at ExJW's, why would he do that? (if that is the case)?

    searcher.

  • DazedAndConfused
    DazedAndConfused

    Bill, because of his personality, is an ass and should not be in the forefront talking to others. Just my opinion. Also, it has to be said that NO ONE has been there and personally witnessed any of this stuff. We are all making opinions based on who is in "our faviour." No matter what...if we are not there to see what has happened....we really don't have a clue. This should have all been taken care of behind the scenes if you ask me. IMHO.

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