GB asks every JW to give Putin their home address (page 3)

waton

Putin will be tickled pink for all that worldwide fan mail, his policies are working. his approval rating in Russia will soar. he can even make the fd&s of 1919 do his bidding.

They want to be persecuted. They want the purple triangles. Duh.They probably figure since Putin and Trump are "apparently" in cahoots that maybe they can get the majority of JWs on Trump's radar of oppression, to-so he can do to JWs what he is doing to every other dodgy group. You know-like women, immigrants. People who look like they are not descended from Mayflower passengers, disabled people. People who didn't vote for him, most people who did vote for him, republicans, democrats, actors and actresses. . . really, Trump has expressed his disdain for SO many groups, but has he ever said a word about JWs yet? I don't THINK so. How can JWs be oppressed when they are such a miniscule group that they don't make it on trumps radar? Piss off his buddy! That'll do it. They really ought to just tweet something that pisses him off mildly. More direct. He'd start threatening them and then they could claim persecution..

tor1500

@JWdaughter,

Exactly, they want to be persecuted...and it's been a long time since they have....they couldn't spin the ARC situation as persecution...folks would eventually see through that....

Does anyone know if other religions are being banned as well ? Is this story just propaganda from the org and it's not a big deal in Russia?

Tor

hoser

Jws will have an easy way to count time.

OrphanCrow

tor1500: Does anyone know if other religions are being banned as well ? Is this story just propaganda from the org and it's not a big deal in Russia?

I believe the JWs are the only religion facing a complete ban. But they certainly are not the only one that has been told to obey the law in Russia concerning religious activity.

This has not happened out of the blue because Putin was upset when he was woke up early on a Saturday morning by JW door knockers.

The JWs in Russia have consistently, over the past two decades at least, ignored the law concerning religious activity and they have deliberately broke that law over and over and over again. The JWs have refused to respect Russia. Deliberately.

The JWs in Russia have been warned over and over again to stop breaking the law by bringing in banned literature and their website has been banned but they have continued to ignore that and have put up mirror sites so that they can continue spreading their anti-government apocalyptic literature in Russia.

As per usual, the WTS wants to force their brand of pseudo religion/politics on Russia and force changes by pretending to be politically neutral when they are anything but that.

Russia isn't stupid - they know very well that they aren't dealing with a religion but instead are dealing with something made up to look like a religion for political and financial gain.

For good background and details on the situation Russia and elsewhere:

http://www.forum18.org/

http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2261

In an analysis of available court verdicts, Forum 18 has found a total of 53 prosecutions (12 of organisations, 41 of individuals) since the new parts of Administrative Code Article 5.26 came into force on 20 July 2016. Only three women are known to have been charged (as well as two people whose gender is unknown), all other prosecutions being of men.
There were: 11 prosecutions (nine of organisations, two of community leaders) under Part 3 ("Implementation of activities by a religious organisation without indicating its official full name, including the issuing or distribution, within the framework of missionary activity, of literature and printed, audio, and video material without a label bearing this name, or with an incomplete or deliberately false label"); 35 prosecutions (three of organisations, 32 of individuals) under Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity"); and seven prosecutions of individuals under Part 5 ("Foreigners conducting missionary activity").

Prosecutions have involved individuals or communities belonging to the following religious communities: independent Protestants – 18; Jehovah's Witnesses – 13; the Society of Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna devotees) – 7; Baptists – 5; Seventh-Day Adventists – 4; Buddhists – 2; New Apostolic Church – 1; Ukrainian Reformed Orthodox Church – 1; and Salvation Army – 1. One village elder who permitted an independent Protestant church to display a banner at a village festival in the Mari-El Republic was also charged.

For anyone who wants to find out more about the situation in Russia, and how the Russian courts have tried and tried to get the JWs to obey the law - with no success, of course - this is a blog written in Russian that has several court transcripts, etc concerning the JWs:

http://roman142.blogspot.ca/p/blog-page_07.html

The above link is in Russian but it translates not too badly using google translate.

For everyone who thinks that Russia knows nothing about the JWs and that this is just a knee jerk reaction by Putin, I think you are quite mistaken by that position - Russia knows things about the WTS that we don't even have our hands on in the Western world. I have read transcripts where the Russian court obviously has had access to elder/HLC letters two decades ago that are still not leaked/released here.

UnshackleTheChains

OMG. What about the thousands of letters sent to the GB from everyone affected by THEIR policies. Do the GB listen to people's heart felt pleas. Clearly No!

As much as I disagree with Putin and I really do. I think his policies are a disgrace when it comes to religious freedom. BUT It's a little like the pot calling the kettle black!

tiki

Crazy....remember all those letters to Malawi? What glorious effect did they garner? But this is just plain absurd.

wannaexit

My opinion about letter writing campaigns is that they seem rather childish to me - like kids sending letters to Santa in the North Pole!

Many of these letters not only appear childish but they are actually written by children. I've seen on social media, kids who can barely print their name are writing letter. I kid you not! What a circus!!!!!

Mum

It sounds like a set-up to trigger persecution. The GB gets some free publicity, and JW's get to feel like martyrs. The world sits up and takes notice of JW's. It's a win-win for the old guys at the top.

OrphanCrow

Unshacklethechains: I think his policies are a disgrace when it comes to religious freedom.

That may be.

However, I think that what is missing from the Western notion of "religious freedom" is the concept of "freedom from religion".

The generation of people, that the WTS is dealing with in Russia, understand that concept. They grew up in a country whose philosophies were "godless". Many Russians were raised in a Soviet Russia without a "god". It is a foreign concept.

But what isn't a foreign concept is the right and the freedom to choose. In fact, 100 years ago, the people of Russia made a choice. A big one.

To them, the freedom to choose your religious belief is exactly that - a personal freedom. And one that respects other people's right of choice. And to also choose no religion.

That is what the JWs violate. The freedoms of everybody else. Everybody else's freedom is at stake.

GB asks every JW to give Putin their home address

Share this