Russian Court authorizes seizure of outlawed sect children

by cha ching 39 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  _Morpheus

  Orphan- i would challange you to offer any proof that children are taken away from parents in western lands over the blood issue. Perhaps what you mean is that courts intervene and order treatment. That is very different than seeing children removed from homes permanently. It dosent happen.
• 

  darkspilver

  there's this example:
  
  UK: Boy, 7, taken away from his parents after judge rules he has been damaged by his Jehovah's Witness mother's religious beliefs
  

  A Jehovah's Witness' seven-year-old son has been taken into care because she damaged him with her 'religious beliefs and practices', a family court judge has ruled.

  Judge Clifford Bellamy concluded that the boy had suffered 'emotional harm' from his mother and decided he would be better off with foster parents.
  

  May, 2015: Boy, 7, taken away from his parents after judge rules he has been damaged by his Jehovah's Witness mother's religious beliefs

  http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2015/40.html
  
• 

  cha ching

  thank you DS, and OC, it is quite a tricky thing to put children in foster homes, but where I work, in the medical clinic, I see listings of many foster children. They are not always JWs.

  Mothers and fathers can still visit their children, right? and they also have the possibility of being returned to their parents, it is not always a permanent thing.

  What about our friend here, BlackWolf? She would benefit from being away from her JW parents, and she would not have the guilt of "breaking up her family" she could 'blame it on the government'.

  Of course, any web that gets woven can be tricky, there are always two, three or four sides of a situation to consider. Perhaps this will be the emotional jolt to allow all to start thinking about what WT requires of you.
• 

  _Morpheus

  Dark, very disingenuous to cite this case as the courts taking a child from parents over jw beliefs.

  The FATHER made the claim NOT the state. It was a very contentious divorce according to the courts records and there were huge issues raised by both parents making neither of them viable as gardians in the view of the courts.

  This type of misrepresentation is exactly what i accused of orphan of. Courts absolutely intervene to order medical treatment over a parents religious objections, and not just jw religious objections. What western courts dont do is take children from otherwise competent parents over religious views. You have offrered no proof otherwise.
• 

  darkspilver

  _Morpheus: Dark, very disingenuous to cite this case as the courts taking a child from parents over jw beliefs.
  

  Not really, because the problem/s was as you stated - therefore, are there actually any other examples? Apart from this one?

  But there is a huge diference between short-term 'ward of court' orders made for specific reasons (such as to allow certain medical treatments) with the parent able to remain in contact during that time - and with what the Russians seem to be proposing which is long-term removal of children, with no parental contact.
  
• 

  _Morpheus

  So my question becomes, then, why cite that case? It appeared you were citing it as proof of OC’s claim that these things happen often, in contridiction to my claim that they dont.

  My end game point is that the action taken in russia is extreme and awful. It dosent happen in western lands. Its bizzare and sickening to see posters like brokeback tap dance on these families misery and heartache as if it somehow justifies their hard feelings toward the wt.
• 

  Giordano

  I am going to agree with Morpheus. That 'the action taken by Russia is extreme and awful.'

  You don't pass a broad based law that cites the JW's as an enemy of the people, bad parents etc. and then separate their children from their parents.

  This is Putin honoring a commitment to the Russian Orthodox Church by slamming the JW's.

  The Witnesses blame this on the resurgent power and authority of the Orthodox church which has flourished under Vladimir Putin, and at the same time revived its historical suspicion and, where possible, persecution of Protestant and Catholic churches. The Witnesses, as the Protestant sect that deviates most from the values of the society around it, have been harassed even more than the Baptists. According to Forum 18, an organisation that monitors religious freedom in Russia and the former Soviet bloc, the only other group to have been pursued in this way is a Sunni sect that may not even exist.

  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/25/jehovahs-witnesses-russia-putin-persecution

  edited to add........ we all served with decent ethical JW's and of course the robotic believe it all witnesses. Even so......... they were never unfit to live peacefully in their communities.

  We see their reckless behavior re the blood ban, their educational limits, their heartless shunning. But we don't see them having to give up their children to the state.....they didn't ask that for other religions. Once again............ 'this is extreme and awful'.
• 

  BluesBrother

  I am horrified that some have rushed to post support of the seizure of children from their homes. I can only think that they have not thought it through

  If this actually happens to j w’s it would be totally wrong... more like the Stalin era.
• 

  konceptual99

  Has this news been verified at all?
• 

  Finkelstein

  Doesn't taking a child away from their parents harm the child psychologically ?

  I think this is going over to a extreme measure in itself .