Should We Form A Committee?

by Englishman 35 Replies latest forum suggestions

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  ozziepost

  Just do it!
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  Englishman

  I'm happy to be part of a committee. However, I have some doubts as to whether or not I would have the patience to organise it all. I'm too much of a "scrapper", I like to work in bursts and feel that I could quickly lose interest in all the detail that would be required. So I'm not your man to put in as chairman.

  I would suggest that someone like Dansk or Alan F or Scully or maybe a trio of folk together should chair such a set up.

  Englishman.
• 

  XQsThaiPoes

  The Watch Tower Inc. is a government in search of a world to govern. It functions like a government, acts like a political party and looks like a book printing business.

  True but went did this become illegal, unethical, or immoral? I notice a few people I heard from on the net are outraged at the activity you are discribing saying that the WTS should be persecuted because they use the governments services for "free", but do not praticipate in it. Namely JWs don't vote, join the military, and the WTS doesn't pay taxes. When I ask should they make this illegal most people say no. The WTS is a lobbist. It seems that laws aimed to bind them would bind more powerful entities, and puppet masters than the WTS.
• 

  Lady Lee

  The Watch Tower Inc. is a government in search of a world to govern. It functions like a government, acts like a political party and looks like a book printing business.

  and calls itself a religion

  True but went did this become illegal, unethical, or immoral?

  Isn't it fraud to be one thing and claim to be something else and to manipulate and coerce people to participate in something when you have lied about the true purpose?

  Isn't fraud illegal, unethical and immoral?
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  XQsThaiPoes

  Actually thats not fruad, but I swear it seems like people want to bring a racketeering case against the watchtower. They keep using the agurments used to bring down the mob. Either nobody has tried or they know they don't have a case and it is just saber rattling. I am not being offensive I am just saying this is accusing the watchtower of illegal activity, how come no one will prove it? Make the racketeering case. Call the FBI if you want, but I doubt it is provable.
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  yxl1

  Sounds like a good idea on paper, but I'm far too lazy busy to help.
• 

  wednesday

  I very much want to help. Some issues mean more to me than others, but i see value in any way to force taxation, get them negative publicty , stop KH form being built, expose their hatred and family destroying activites., get some of our horror stories publicity, so count me in.
• 

  Sirona

  I think that one of the first things to be addressed in the UK is this:

  http://www.rickross.com/reference/general/general306.html

  The commission is at odds with other European countries, who think that the Jehovah's Witnesses are a destructive cult. On the contrary, the commission continues to believe that the Witnesses are `charitable in concept', with the untold tax advantages that brings. And yet we in Britain can't quite agree with the Americans, who approve of the Church of Scientology. Our charity commissioners say there is no deity central to Scientology's beliefs, and therefore John Travolta and others do not hold to a proper religion, and certainly not one that qualifies for charitable status.

  No wonder, in the current confusion, that Tom Spring, the American lawyer retained by the Scientologists, is arriving this week in London to challenge the ruling against his peeved clients. He believes the classification is unfair and prejudicial and contrary to the new Human Rights Act, and who shall say he is mistaken? He has only to look at what the Jehovah's Witnesses have achieved to see how the intellectual fog can be exploited. We think of the Witnesses as mumsy housewives in crimplene and shiny-faced, smiling men in neat Sixties suits and polyester ties calling at homes to warn the occupiers that Armageddon is about to strike (but not before they've bought a magazine or book). They are the butt of endless jokes and are considered harmless - loopy but harmless.

  A growing number of countries within the EU are beginning to see things differently. The movement was classified as 'a dangerous cult' by the French government two years ago and was consequently denied charitable status in that part of the European Community. A penalty of FF300 million was imposed for non-payment of backdated taxes, and a lien was declared on all French property belonging to the organisation.

  The case went to appeal, but judgment was upheld on 4 July. More than six million followers of the movement swamped politicians on both sides of the Atlantic with letters of protest. Full-page announcements appeared in the New York Times and principal newspapers across France seeking public sympathy and support. Twelve million copies of a leaflet -- `People of France, You Are Being Deceived' - were delivered by `Les Temoins de Jehovah' as thousands marched through the streets of Paris calling for an end to `the defamatory statements spread about us'. Witness children were insulted and harassed at school, and some adults lost their jobs and were threatened because of their religion.

  President Clinton has appealed for `tolerance toward religious sects', while President Jacques Chirac declared that the subject would not be on the agenda in future bilateral talks. Alain Vivian, chairman of the ministerial committee which sat in judgment on the Jehovah's Witnesses, accused the Clinton administration of compromise and deference towards ' religious sects in exchange for political finance.

  Developments in Europe have been constantly monitored from Watchtower Headquarters, the Brooklyn-based nerve-centre of the Witnesses' billion-dollar printing and publishing empire. In an effort to ward off further discord on the subject between Washington and some EU countries, a team of Jehovah's Witness accountants and lawyers have made legal 'readjustments' which will utilise the UK's expansive charity laws. Arrangements are now in hand to transfer `substantial amounts' of cash from the American headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses to the London branch, to be invested in tax-free UK-based holdings. Additionally, legal connections with the `mother organisation' have been severed. The British arm will be used as a safe haven for staggering amounts of money, protecting the war chest from a slew of `class action' lawsuits threatened by dissenters in America.

  Opposition to the French government's crackdown on cults will, in future, be mounted, sustained and financed directly from London.

  What does our Charity Commission say about all this? `There are stringent tests and controls which are applied to all religious charities in the UK. Any mere disapproval of the tenets and practices of a religion does not amount to grounds for withholding registration. In the absence of clear and adverse public-interest factors, the commission cannot decline registration of a religious charity. The choice of religion is a personal one and capable of provoking strong feeling. The Watchtower Society [of Jehovah's Witnesses] is established for religious purposes and there is no legal requirement for it to help people in need.' Try telling that to Chirac.

  The Witnesses perform no recognisable charitable work which benefits the public; members have even been excommunicated for making contributions to the Red Cross. Does a charity merely have to advance religion, or does it have to advance religion in so far as it is beneficial to the community? A high-ranking tax inspector commented on the lucrative tax-free status of certain religious charities which actually perform no charitable acts or recognisable public service: `Unless it can be shown that the Exchequer is wilfully and unlawfully being deprived of funds, the Inland Revenue is powerless to act.' What is needed is legislation to clarify in law just what 'charity' is, and whether religious belief without `charitable works' can be deemed charitable in itself.

  So what are the charity commissioners going to do? What results can we expect, after two years of contemplation of their 187,200 beneficiary organisations? Mr Stoker isn't saying, and has refused repeated requests for an interview.

  One of his few actions has been to excommunicate the Pagan Federation - an organisation which embraces a loose understanding of druids, witches and the Viking god Odin, in conjunction with an affiliated Pagan Hospice and Funeral Trust. Under the old rules this organisation was granted tax-free charitable status ten years ago; but the Charity Commission has recently decided that paganism does not now constitute a religion `in the charitable sense'. But if the Pagans do not qual\ify, why do the members of the Panacea Society? If the Scientologists are off-side, why do the Jehovah's Witnesses meet with Mr Stoker's approval?

  It is time for Stoker to stand forth and explain his reasoning, and he might begin by making a special pilgrimage to Bedford, where the Panacea Society's annual net income - from property and investment - is currently in excess of L540,000.
• 

  alamb

  I'm in. Children's and Human Rights Director please? I've got ammo. and friends.
• 

  gods vigilante

  I have a question. Do we have in mind to help the ones stuck in the "borg"? I know that by letting the public have more awareness about the Witnesses will help, but I believe that in some way if we can let all the ones in the organization know about the Society's falseness we can bring it down harder. Like the Trojan Horse. I know that this idea is way hard to do, because many of us have tried to let JDubs know about it. But, if somehow we could figure a way together to undermine the Rank-and-File publishers' minds, then we could bring down the whole foundation of the WTS. We all know that the main foundation of Jehovah's Witnesses is not the teachings from the Bible. It is however, the persecution they receive from such ones who would try to stop their preaching work. Other people will see their "genuine" faith being tested and feel that this may be the right religion.

  I know for a fact that when I was in the "truth", that when I saw people picketing the KHs from being built, I felt that we were indeed being persecuted. This made my faith stronger and caused me to be even MORE diligent to preach the good news.

  All in all, I do believe if we are to even bring this "Corporation" down, we would have to reach to the Witnesses on the inside. I know this is nearly impossible, but it's just my observance.