Front page of Edmonton newspaper
berrygerry
JoinedPosts by berrygerry
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24
Naked JW's day in court
by Moster inthe latest from the 'tea' drinkers in canada.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/police-were-monsters-who-would-kill-them-details-emerge-in-alberta-naked-kidnapping/ar-aaab1wh?li=aaggfp5&ocid=calheader.
i can hear them chanting now.
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15
Update on my life as a Jehovah’s Witness Teen after running away
by Letty inhey.
without them i felt...so...alone.
so i went back.
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Ireland
by berrygerry inhttps://www.businesspost.ie/news/concerns-grow-jehovahs-witnesses-irish-child-sex-abuse-files-421695.
concerns grow over jehovah’s witnesses irish child sex abuse files.
the sunday business post (ireland), sunday, july 22, 2018 - page 11. the jehovah’s witnesses have been urged to give the authorities potentially hundreds of documents related to child sex abuse in ireland over fears the organisation could be forced to delete them after a recent european court of justice ruling on the religion’s data-handling practices.. this month, the european court of justice ruled that the jehovah’s witnesses church was not exempt on any religious grounds from certain elements of the newly introduced gdpr data protection laws.. the jehovah's witnesses had argued that its practice of door-to-door preaching was covered by an exemption to the data protection law, but the court upheld an earlier decision by the finnish supreme court.. it now leaves the religion's irish and british headquarters - known at the watch tower - with a conundrum in relation to the potentially thousands of documents related to child abuse allegations in both countries, according to jason wynne, a former jehovah's witness who is now a campainger for awareness about instances of abuse within the religion.. wynne told the sunday business post that while the new law allows current and former jehovah's witnesses to request the deletion of files containing sensitive personal information, it could also "have a knock-on effect to their child abuse policies.".
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berrygerry
https://www.businesspost.ie/news/concerns-grow-jehovahs-witnesses-irish-child-sex-abuse-files-421695
Concerns grow over Jehovah’s Witnesses Irish child sex abuse files
The Sunday Business Post (Ireland), Sunday, July 22, 2018 - page 11
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have been urged to give the authorities potentially hundreds of documents related to child sex abuse in Ireland over fears the organisation could be forced to delete them after a recent European Court of Justice ruling on the religion’s data-handling practices.
This month, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Jehovah’s Witnesses church was not exempt on any religious grounds from certain elements of the newly introduced GDPR data protection laws.
The Jehovah's Witnesses had argued that its practice of door-to-door preaching was covered by an exemption to the data protection law, but the court upheld an earlier decision by the Finnish supreme court.
It now leaves the religion's Irish and British headquarters - known at the Watch Tower - with a conundrum in relation to the potentially thousands of documents related to child abuse allegations in both countries, according to Jason Wynne, a former Jehovah's Witness who is now a campainger for awareness about instances of abuse within the religion.
Wynne told The Sunday Business Post that while the new law allows current and former Jehovah's Witnesses to request the deletion of files containing sensitive personal information, it could also "have a knock-on effect to their child abuse policies."
According to Wynne, the organisation currently retains data about child abusers and victimes as part of their own internal investigations into allegations of abuse.
These files may potentionally become material for Garda [police] investigations, and "if they delete the data because an alleged child abuser requests their data be deleted they [might inadvertently] commit a crime by deleting evidence of a possible crime, historic or recent."
Wynne has written to the Watch Tower's legal department asking them to hand over files related to alleged criminal activities to the appropriate authorities for further investigation.
Wynne's view is shared by Kathleen Hallisey, a solicitor at the London-based firm of Bolt Burdon Kemp, who is currently acting on behalf of 15 alleged victims in Britain.
"I was very concerned when GDPR was being introduced," Hallisey told The Sunday Business Post.
"We already know they have this database. We know it from the US from cases there and also from Australia from the Royal Commission.
"Watch Tower UK's child safeguarding policy covers Ireland so documentation related to allegations of sexual abuse in Ireland is likely to be held here in London," she said.
Hallisey pointed out that an ongoing child abuse inquiry in Britain has issued directions to religious institutions like the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Catholic Church and the Church of England ordering them not to destroy any documents related to ongoing inquiries into institutional child sexual abuse.
"I think the aim of GDPR was noble but I don't think the drafters took into account the kind of situations we're taling about."
Files related to a number of internal investigations carried out in Ireland - from child sexual abuse to domestic violence to 'disfellowshipping' members after perceived violations such as infidelity - are likely held both by the local congregation and by Watch Tower in London, according to Hallisey.
When asked by The Sunday Business Post what it intends to do with files related to child sexual abuse allegations - whether they are the sbject of police investigations or not - a spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses said: "The European Court of Justice has issued a judgment on what is a complex area of law. Jehovah's Witnesses will analyse the decision carefully and look as how governments within the European Union interpret that judgment."
The Jehovah's Witnesses religion has come under increasing critcism in Britain and Ireland for its handling of child abuse allegations.
Professor Geoffrey Shannon, Ireland's special rapporteur on child protection, told this newspaper n October last year that there was 'a growing concern internationally that within the hierarchy of the Jehovah's Witnesses, in some cases, there is a premium placed on the institution to the detriment of the welfare of children."
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Just a mosquito ? Netherlands
by berrygerry inhttps://www.trouw.nl/home/-dit-is-ons-geheim-als-je-je-mond-opendoet-zal-ik-je-wat-aandoen-~ab65b525/.
from reddit.
the first in a series of 8 articles / reclaimed voices / "this is our secret.
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berrygerry
"This is our secret. If you open your mouth, I'll do something to you. "
Marinde van der Breggen and Rianne Oosterom - 2:00, July 21, 2017
The way in which Jehovah's Witnesses deal with abuse cases is traumatic for victims, according to Trouw's research. Victim Marianne de Voogd was given lessons in the elder's tongues.
Marianne the Guardian is thirteen years old when the elder, for the first time, massages her two peas, as she calls her novice breasts. He also squeezes in when they are sitting together on the back bench of a Bible study of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Meppel, says Marianne, now 53. She must keep the Bible for it.
She looks at Elder Derk, one of the leaders of the Jehovah's congregation, startled. He looks back and does not stop. When she holds the Bible over her lap, he strokes her thigh with his fingertips, she says. The man of around fifty slowly goes up and touches her crotch. She holds her breath. Should she say anything?
Marianne only recently came to live in Meppel with her parents and two brothers. The house of 'Ome Derk' is the meeting place for young people from the local community. They can watch TV, chat and learn to garden. And Derk can make jam as the best. Because Marianne starts puberty and there is often a fight at home, his house becomes her refuge.
Peeing behind a tree
Marianne does not think much about her contact with Derk after what happened in the pew, she says. "I did not dare to say anything about it either. He was an important man in the municipality. "So Marianne plays in his garden and makes pots of jam. Okay, she finds it strange that he goes upstairs when she has to change clothes. Or that he wants to watch when she goes peeing behind a tree during a forest walk.
On a Sunday afternoon, Marianne and her brother Marcel go with Derk and his wife on 'field service' outside the city. They trudge from farm to farm to win souls for Jehovah, Marianne and Marcel remember. Halfway they split up and Marianne and Derk walk together to a farm with a long driveway. After a testimony to the farmer, they walk back past the bushes, says Marianne.
Derk asks if she is already on time, she recalls. "No," she says. Whether she knows what boys are going to do, he asks, according to her. "No," she says. Whether she already has a boyfriend or kissed. "No," she says again. "I still played hide and seek outside. When I was thirteen I had never been alone with a boy I liked, "she says.
Derk pulls her behind the bush and kisses her, says Marianne. "First on the lips. He explained that boys were going to do that with me, that I should like it. Then he put his tongue in my mouth and told me what to do with my tongue. He forced me to have five French kisses with him. I remember hoping somebody would see us. "
Her brother Marcel now remembers the strange atmosphere in the car back to the center of Meppel: Marianne quiet, Derk silent.
When Marianne is at home again at Derk, his wife and daughter go away for a moment. The other young people are already gone. Derk forces Marianne to caress the bulge in his pants, she says. Then she has to put her hand in his pants. She is saved by the bell - a church member comes to do a cup.
'This is our secret'
Marianne begins to puberty more severely. When there is a fight at home, her parents say: "Otherwise, go to Derk, you can do so well?" But Marianne prefers to avoid the house. On a weekday afternoon, she collects all courage and goes by. To say that it must stop. But Derk is not at home.
After that Marianne does not dare anymore. Derk also threatens her, she says. When he sits down to him, he says, according to Marianne, "This is our secret" and "If you tell this, nobody will believe you: I am an elder and very popular in the church" and "If you open your mouth, I will do something. "
She knows that all that caress is not good. It feels annoying as if something is not right. "But it also released feelings that were kind of tasty," she says. That is what makes her most embarrassed at that moment: she has to be aware of everything that has to do with sex before marriage, she has learned.
A few months later, when Marianne is once again with Derk, she sees how he makes a jam with her friends in the kitchen. She fills glass jars with her hips against the kitchen counter. He stands behind her and tries to stretch his arms under her arms to feel her breasts. "My mouth fell open, Derk saw me looking and stopped," says Marianne.
That night she stays with the same friend, who later marries her brother. The girls tell each other everything that night: Derk turns out not only to abuse Marianne, but also her girlfriend. Marianne's girlfriend decides to inform her mother. At that moment she is fourteen and Derk is abusing her for a year and a half.
The next day there are elders from the congregation on the sidewalk, who listen to her story. Marianne does not dare to tell everything, the elders are suspicious according to her. Her father tells them that a child of fourteen does not invent such details, she recalls.
Afraid to report
The elders who questioned Marianne must, according to the policies of the Jehovah's Witnesses, work on the matter. Because Jehovah's Witnesses do not like to use the world court, they have established their own rules for dealing with undesirable behavior. These are recorded in the elders' book, which is secret to ordinary believers.
The main rule when it comes to abuse: there must be two witnesses before a 'committee case' comes, the Jehovah equivalent of a lawsuit, in which the elders act as judges. Because both Marianne and her best friend Derk accuse of abuse, there are two witnesses.
Marianne's father has little faith in the elders and takes his daughter to the police station. But if he hears what kind of questions Marianne must answer - whether she has given Derk cause to commit to her by wearing seductive clothes, for example - he scribbles back. Afraid of filing a complaint, Marianne and her brother Marcel say.
In the elders' book, it says that Jehovah's witnesses cannot stop each other from going to the police, but also that the 'dish of the unbelievers' is not the best choice. In addition, whoever puts a person or the community in a negative light, can be accused of slander and be condemned internally. That is what Marianne's father is most afraid of, and fourteen-year-old Marianne is just as good.
Derk is called on the mat by the elders and confesses the abuse. He shows deep remorse. The elders follow the prescribed rules: if a perpetrator of sexual abuse confesses and regrets, he may not be expelled from the community of Jehovah.
He must offer his excuse and his privileges as the function of elder and the opportunity to speak in the meetings are denied him. Marianne: "From the stage, it was announced that Derk stopped as an elder, but not why." At Marianne that week a small note is on the mat. She has kept it all those years.
End of Part I
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Just a mosquito ? Netherlands
by berrygerry inhttps://www.trouw.nl/home/-dit-is-ons-geheim-als-je-je-mond-opendoet-zal-ik-je-wat-aandoen-~ab65b525/.
from reddit.
the first in a series of 8 articles / reclaimed voices / "this is our secret.
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berrygerry
From reddit
The first in a series of 8 articles / Reclaimed Voices / "This is our secret. If you open your mouth, I'll do something to you. "
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A concise list for my therapist...any suggestions?
by Straw Man inbeen a lurker here for a long time.
i am just now starting to deal with the issues from my witness upbringing.
it's been about 10 years since i was df'd.. just recently i started to see a therapist and i am trying to get across the depth of the effects of growing up a witness.
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berrygerry
https://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Cult-Code-Therapists-Therapist/dp/1546894683/
People who have been subjected to manipulation, isolation and thought control in cults and who work up the courage to leave, do so with many psychological and emotional wounds. Many of them seek out therapy to help recover from the damaging after-effects. Unfortunately, cult victims often report that therapists just do not seem to 'get' all that they endured in the cult, and all the challenges they face now out of the cult. In fact, many cult victims abandon therapy, feeling that their therapist just did not understand the the degree to which they had been controlled, repressed, exploited and abused. Many recount that they felt their experience seemed to be discounted as something they just needed to put behind them. Due to the advent of the Internet and the easy access to information it provides, more and more cult members are discovering just how much they have been deceived, coerced and abused. As they make their exit from high-control groups, extremist religions and cults, a whole new psychotherapy client population is looking for help to recover their emotional well-being, intellectual independence and ability to function in the world outside of the cult. Since most psychologists and psychotherapists do not receive much, if any, instruction about cult dynamics and the destructive effects of such intrusive dynamics on cult members, therapists may be ill-equipped to truly understand and help this unique and growing client population. With this book, Bonnie Zieman, a former cult member, a recently retired psychotherapist, and the author of four other books on recovery from high-control abuse, provides a useful reference tool for therapists who need to inform themselves about cult abuse and its aftermath. This one-of-a-kind book offers a summary outline of typical cult controls and the probable resulting effects on those subjected to them. Therapists can use this book as a primer to bring themselves up to speed on the topic - until such time as they decide if they want to take more formal training in order to help former cult members reclaim their authentic self and rebuild a self-directed life.
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Canadian Donations
by Lost in the fog ini stumbled upon this charitable status page for canada and thought that i would look for the watchtower society of canada.
as they say the report is incomplete because it lacks the normal auditors process details.
but donations received $64.4 canadian dollars!
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Undue Influence
by Lee Elder inthis is what "undue influence" looks like.
it's how you train someone to abandon their children, become a martyr, and drink the kool-aid.
watchtower november 15, 2013. p.19, para.
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berrygerry
The irony about "the Assyrian"
Assyria’s mighty army was maneuvered by Jehovah and used by him as a symbolic “rod” to execute judgment on apostate Samaria, as described at Isaiah 10:5, 6: “Aha, the Assyrian, the rod for my anger, and the stick that is in their hand for my denunciation! Against an apostate nation I shall send him,
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For Those Claiming That the GB are Simply Naive - Another Philly Story
by berrygerry inhttp://www.philly.com/philly/news/jehovahs-witnesses-child-sex-abuse-stephen-lett-chessa-manion-20180620.html.
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