Just this afternoon CNN started running this news clip at the bottom of their screen. Does anyone know what it's about? Are there abuse/molestation cases against the WTBTS in Russia?
CNN - "Prosecutors in Russia state JWs destroy families and foster hatred"
by lilacs4everr 16 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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twinkletoes
This is interesting, we have just seen it on a newsclip, I think it was Fox news. It also mentioned that the Canadian lawyers are going to appeal the decision. It didn't take the Russian authorities to find out just how they break up families did it! I hope that some-one has a little more info on this subject.
Twinkletoes
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lilacs4everr
I hope this cut and paste works. Thanks talesin for the link !!! Russian court bans religious activities of Jehovah's Witnesses from Moscow
By Anneli Nerman Canadian Press March 27, 2004
MOSCOW
A Moscow court has banned the religious activities of Jehovah's Witnesses from the Russian capital in a move that critics called a step back for democracy and religious freedom.
Prosecutors claimed the religion destroys families and fosters hatred. Moscow's Golovinsky district court on Friday granted their request that it be outlawed in the capital under a provision that allows courts to ban religious groups believed to incite hatred or intolerant behaviour.
John Burns, a Canadian lawyer for the group, pledged to appeal the decision to higher Russian courts and to pursue it in the European Court of Human Rights.
"Religious minorities are often a litmus test for where a society is going ... this is an ominous signal," Burns said.
Defence lawyer Galina Krylova argued that the decision has no legal foundation, as the prosecutor simply cited the denomination's religious literature.
"The activities of Jehovah's Witnesses weren't the subject of the court trial ... the subject was the religious beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses ... doctrinal arguments," Krylova said.
Among Jehovah's Witnesses doctrine is a prohibition against blood transfusions, based on an interpretation of the Bible, and an obligation to share their Christian faith with others.
The U.S. State Department also criticized the Russian court decision.
"We deplore the recent decision ... to ban the religious activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow and to liquidate their legal entity," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday in Washington.
"We urge local authorities and the Russian government to honour their commitments to respect the right of all faiths to religious freedom," he added.
The Moscow group has been fighting for survival since 1998, when proceedings were first launched to shut them down. In 2001, a local court threw out prosecutors' attempts to ban the group in a ruling hailed as a sign of increased religious tolerance.
But another court later ordered a new hearing in the case and the second trial began in the Golovinsky court in the spring of 2002.
The ongoing legal battle and a refusal by justice authorities to re-register the group as required by a 1997 law already have hampered the activities of the capital's estimated 10,000 Jehovah's Witnesses.
"Hearing today's verdict, I think we returned to the Soviet Union of 50 years ago," said Vasilii Kalin. In 1951, at age four, Kalin was sent into exile in Siberia with his family and another 10,000 Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to renounce their faith during Stalin's state-atheism campaign.
Russia's 1997 religion law enshrines Orthodox Christianity as the country's predominant religion and pledges respect for Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, but places restrictions on other groups.
Christian Presber, a spokesman for Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, said Saturday the denomination has more than 133,000 members nationwide. He expressed concern about the ramifications of the court's decision for communities outside Moscow.
"We anticipate it's going to unleash a whole plethora of new attempts by local and regional authorities to impede our activities," Presber said.
Also Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he favoured drafting a bill on state support "to the spiritual leaders of traditional religious confessions," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
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sf
Yep, just saw it scroll by on CNN newsbar. "...destroys families and fosters hatred".
Then I log back in here and see that FOXNEWS has the sexual abuse item up on its site!
So there we have it....JWS destroy families, fosters hatred and has an epidemic of child/ sex abuse in their churches. And both major news organizations are covering it.
There day is coming up and the snowball is gonna mow them down!
sKally, off to yahoo to start pasting up the foxnews item, as I've already brought to them the Moscow news...they are like ants whose hill was just stomped I tell you...klass
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Special K
Wow.. this is awsome stuff.
Thank you diggers for posting it up here to read.
Incredible.
special K
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talesin
sKally
Actually, this is the "National Post" website, not FOXNEWS.
If you click on the 'Sound Off' icon, you will go directly to the "National Post". There, you may find some interesting comments from readers. (heheh)
t
(durn, said 'comments' have been posted but are not yet showing up on the website)
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DevonMcBride
I just saw it on Fox News but it wasn't scrolled on the bottom. The newscaster mentioned it while showing a clip of a Government building in Moscow. They said JW's are considered to be a hate group who destroy families.
Devon
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Kenneson
I, too, saw it on Fox news.
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sf
Begging your pardon tale, it was clearly FOXNEWS I was watching as the reporter did his report. I'm talking tv news on the ban in Russia.
The FOXNEWS (website) has the sex abuse issue, yet has not done a tv report, yet:
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,115410,00.html
Jehovah's Witnesses Hold Caucus on Sex Abuse
Saturday, March 27, 2004
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Present and former Jehovah's Witnesses ( search ) who claim they were sexually abused by congregation leaders gathered in their first national caucus Saturday, sharing grievances about the religion's handling of abuse complaints and discussing legal strategy.
William Bowen ( search ), former leader of a Kentucky congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, said Saturday that more than 6,000 alleged sexual abuse victims have contacted a group he founded in 2001 to express "outrage at being silenced by the bad institutional policies" of the faith.
The religion's procedures "can decimate the lives of the innocent and empower predators to get away with the crime of rape," Bowen said.
Bowen's group, called silentlambs (search), was holding the caucus, which runs through Sunday and drew about two dozen participants.
A key participant was Kimberlee Norris, an attorney from Fort Worth, Texas, whose firm represents 47 alleged abuse victims in civil cases against Jehovah's Witnesses organizations and individuals. Since getting involved in 2002, she said, she has spoken with more than 2,000 victims.
J. R. Brown, public affairs spokesman at world headquarters of the Witnesses' Watchtower Bible and Tract Society ( search ), in New York City, said the religion agrees with silentlambs' goal "to minimize or eliminate the sexual abuse of children," but disputes the group's specific allegations.
"We do not view them as our enemies," Brown said.
Bowen contends that the Witnesses organization is a "pedophile paradise" because of the strong authority exercised by local elders and their overseers and the unusual way in which cases are handled.
As members of the faith understand biblical teaching, an accusation of wrongdoing must be supported by two people with direct knowledge, which silentlambs says is impossible in most molestation cases. Without such corroboration, the accused person is deemed innocent, silentlambs says, and victims and parents can be "disfellowshipped," or excommunicated, for slander if they speak up.
For a Witness, excommunication is a very harsh punishment. It means being cut off from relatives, friends and business associates. Bowen and other whistle-blowers have been excommunicated for raising abuse complaints against the organization.
Brown disputed the silentlambs' contention that Witnesses are discouraged from taking abuse complaints to secular police. Official policy says elders should report abuse allegations to police if state laws require this, as is now the case in many states.
Silentlambs, founded in 2001, has formed a loose interfaith alliance with two older groups that emerged from the Roman Catholic abuse scandals: The Linkup, based in Louisville, Ky., and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, with offices in Chicago and St. Louis.
Linkup leader Susan Archibald is joining the silentlambs board and Bowen is joining Linkup's board.
The issue has international ramifications for the Witnesses, who report about 1 million U.S. followers and 6 million worldwide.
One silentlambs speaker was Anders Kristensson, visiting from Sweden. He said when he told his local elders about his abuse they simply gave him copies of the religion's Watchtower and Awake magazines, said "trust in Jehovah, everything will be O.K., and that's it."
Roger Carlson, a former Witnesses elder in Sweden, said that since a national television report last year about abuse among Witnesses, 60 new victims have come forward.
"It's the same in every country," he said.
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