Posts by OneEyedJoe

17

Lets hope the G.B.never learn from their mistakes , refusing to comply with court instructions.

by smiddy in

with the recent case of the watchtower hierarchy defying the court to either produce documents relating to child sex abuse claims within their organisation, and also refusing to produce a governing member to appear in court to answer questions , not only shows their arrogance and defiance of the law , they also show their contempt of the judicial system of the usa .. arent they supposed to be obeying the bible injunction ?

" pay back ceasers things to ceaser ?".

"when you are hailed before the courts , i will put words in your mouth ?".

OneEyedJoe

Honestly, I think they may have the best strategy for their situation - they're screwed either way but they're just trying to make the best of a bad situation. They have documented and OCR'd (thus easily searchable) lists of known pedophiles in their possession that they cannot give up to be made public record. Right now there may be 20, even 100 cases in the pipeline against them, but if they have a list of a thousand pedophiles that they've protected and failed to do anything about, they're better off taking the blows that they get from the victims that come forward.

If a lawyer gets a hold of the list and it becomes public record, they immediately have ammunition for countless more lawsuits, possibly a class-action law suit. A lawyer could easily make a lifelong career off of picking a name on the list, finding his victims (especially those victimized after the WTS was made aware of his pedophilia) and encouraging them to sue. what's 200 million in settlements and rulings when it could easily be in the billions?

47

preface question:

by mohrb in

order of operations is important, so, i'll ask a question before i make assumptions and start "fixing things.".

obviously, the site heavily encourages the viewpoint of former j-dubs and others who have disagreements with the political posturing of the wbts.

i get that, and see your points.

OneEyedJoe

Apognophos: [...] Only a few posters here are promoting tin-foil hat theories about the Society. [...]

I'd just point out that this may not be true from the perspective of an active JW. A large number of us here are well aware of the UN NGO stuff, as well as the way in which the organization protects child molesters and knowingly allows them to exist in the congregation without so much as a word of warning to parents. In some cases it seems they actually assign a known/confessed pedophile to study with a child one-on-one. Then, of course there's the mexico/malawai disparity, etc, etc.

To the eyes of an active JW, all this seems like crazy tin-foil hat ideas that couldn't possibly have even a grain of truth to them. The problem is that they're ALL TRUE (and just the tip of the iceburg). So, yes, the folks who post crazy theories on here are certainly a small minority, to an active and fully indoctrinated JW, it all seems like insane ramblings of bitter appostates (I should know, that's what I thought at first until I saw black-and-white evidence from the WTS and independant sources).

15

Rick Simons vs Irwin Zalkin

by Calebs Airplane in

they're both doing an excellent job... but which lawyer do you believe is currently best equipped to expose the watchtower's child sex abuse scandals and cover-ups?.

.

OneEyedJoe

Why do we need to choose?

This.

And also what Simon said. Their goal isn't to take down the WTS, that's just a nice windfall for us if it happens. For our purposes, going after individual congregations/elders has a place too because it will reinforce the apparent shortage of "qualified brothers" to "reach out" when they start to see that this results in liability on their part. Going after the entire org (and winning) hits them where it hurts and forces further consolidation and shady business practices that will only serve to wake up more of the R/F. Also, for the few who actually will find out about the abuse lawsuits, by winning against the WTS it shows that the problem is systemic, not just a few "imperfect men."

Both are great, and I have a feeling that once a few of these cases are completely closed out and money is paid to the victims (and the lawyers) there's going to be more victims and lawyers taking shots at the cult. Normally I'm the first to jump on the lawyer-bashing bandwagon as there's too many frivilous lawsuits and exorbidant payouts being thrown around these days, but in this case I'm happy to make an exception.

28

ARE JEHOVAHS WITNESSES CREATIONISTS OR EVOLUTIONISTS?

by Viva la Vida in

the answer to this question is not that easy or obvious as you might think.

if your answer is "creationists" you are wrong, they are evolutionists a rare breed of evolutionists, but evolutionists at last .. at this stage of my argumentation you might think i have lost my mind for stating jehovahs witnesses are evolutionists, but this might be because you are thinking as the wt has taught you to think.

the wt has presented a distorted view of the theory of evolution.

OneEyedJoe

They're not so much creationist or evolutionist as they are throw-crap-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks-ists.

The problem with that is you tend to end up with an enourmous pile of crap at the base of the wall.

Their view that evolution happens within "kinds" is not unique to the JWs. This is commonly called microevolution by many fundamentalist groups and is primarily the result of how slow evolution happens. It can be observed happening on a small scale, and folks who claim to deny "macroevolution" just lack the imagination (or are willfully ignorant) to see how small changes ("microevolution") might add up over time to create a wholy new species.

47

preface question:

by mohrb in

order of operations is important, so, i'll ask a question before i make assumptions and start "fixing things.".

obviously, the site heavily encourages the viewpoint of former j-dubs and others who have disagreements with the political posturing of the wbts.

i get that, and see your points.

OneEyedJoe

Mohrb:

Welcome to the site. Your posts reflect a lot of what I myself thought internally at one point. However, after a little research I realized that it was I who had been mislead and the JW religion is hopelessly broken, and always was. It's not an old car that just needs to be fixed up, it's a hunk of metal that never drove in the first place.

That said, if you think you can defend the truth, I invite you to head on over to this thread and enlighten us all. I've always said I'd much rather lose an argument than win one, because I'd rather not spend any more time being wrong than necessary. If you think you can provide evidence that the JW religion is the way to go, I invite you to do so.

10

Even if the WTS wins its appeals, it loses

by sir82 in

jw
friends

the thought occurs to me that even if the wts wins its appeals, it loses.. suppose that conti, lopez, the other 8 cases tied to campos, and even dozens more cases to come are overturned on appeal.. (1) the wts will have built a reputation of secrecy & mishandling.

a lone crackpot or 2 might file a case against a big corporation in hopes of getting something out of a settlement, but if there are dozens & dozens of litigants, most of whom prefer to go to court to air the "dirty laundry" instead of seeking a settlement, what does that say?.

(2) it's not exactly an appealing message for the wts to say "ha ha!

OneEyedJoe

If half of what the lawyer said about their behavior is true, I don't see how they can possibly win the appeal. At this point they're throwing good money after bad.

They're definitely earning a reputation for secrecy and obstinance that is unbecoming of the position that they claim to hold, though I somehow doubt that many JWs will be affected personally by the news. Even if they see it, they'll just assume its "imperfect men" in the congregaion and won't bother to read enough to realize that it's a systemic problem, or that it's their donation money that's going to pay these victims (and indeed their money helping to fight against compensating the victims). Sadly, I well know that if I had seen the headline "Jehovah's Witnesses to pay $13.5M to sex abuse vitim" I would've just assumed that it was a civil case against an individual in the congregation and the reporter made a mistake in using the plural "witnesses." I certainly wouldn't have bothered reading the article.

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think the average JW is sufficiently keyed into the goings-on of the world that they'll notice this at all. Sure, they'll lose some due to this, but I don't think the loss in membership will hurt as bad as the loss of money. I think these lawsuits need to win and bleed the org dry of money to have any hope of resulting in a rapid decline of the cult. Maybe I'm just in a pessimistic mood, though.

Edit:

I just thought of one caveat that might make all this have a much bigger effect. If the late-night shows pick up this news and make jokes about it, that will personally impact a lot more JWs than just having it on google news or CNN or whatever. People will turn off the news if they're not interested, but a 20-second long joke on letterman (that's over before you know it) will hit home and plant seeds.

44

New JW Podcast Show - Amazing Interview with Irwin Zalkin!

by God_Delusion in

jw
friends

hello guys & gals!.

we've just launched our brand new episode, s01e01 - irwin zalkin, which we recorded last night.. you can listen to it right here - http://www.jwpodcast.org/2014/11/03/s01e01-irwin-zalkin.

in this ground-breaking bumper show, we interview irwin zalkin, the lawyer who filed and won this new child abuse case against the watchtower organisation, which saw the victim, jose lopez awarded $13.5 million.. i think you'll agree with me (after listening to the interview) that irwin really knows his 'watchtower' stuff!.

OneEyedJoe

So I guess you guys stumbled upon the only thing that they'll never get noo lite on - pedophiles are to be protected at all costs!

24

BU2B comments on "Are you convinced you have the truth? Why?" WT article.

by BU2B in

i want to start doing a wt review on certain articles.

i think we need as much discussion as possible breaking down these mind control sessions.

i cannot compare with blondie, but i will do my best.

OneEyedJoe

Tornapart - I liked oubilette's comment in the other thread on this article. One paragraph presents the fact that magazines are free as a line of evidence that is the truth - by that logic it has only been the truth since the 90s

4

In Rutherglen, - Scotland Police will not tolerate religious hate crime against Jehovahs Witnesses

by Sol Reform in

'offensive leaflets circulated in rutherglen target religious group'.

"hundreds of leaflets have been issued in the rutherglen main street area, claiming to reveal the frightening truth about jehovahs witnesses.. .

they make several false and offensive claims against the religion.. .

OneEyedJoe

This could actually end up being good in the long run. If someone is arrested for making "false accusations" they'll get their day in court and will actually be allowed to prove that they're right. Maybe even getting testimony from higher-ups from the local branch forced to admit that they hide known molesters.

41

Has anyone actually read the study wt for sun nov 2nd????!!!

by stuckinarut2 in

o m g...(yes that is a very childish reaction...but i couldn't think of a more appropriate expression!).

if you haven't yet read it...please do so..... it is so ridiculous!

so leading, so distorted, and full of "bait and switch" techniques.. "prove you have the truth"..by seeing how neutral witnesses were in war times?

OneEyedJoe

BU2B posted a pretty good review of the article a few days ago (I'm on my phone....perhaps someone else will be kind enough to link to it)

You hit it on the head though -its one long bait and switch. The title asks one question, then the article answers a bucnch of questions no one was asking. Then the end (by the time everyone's tired and ready to go home) it just asserts the answer to the original question without any evidence, and indeed even presumes to tell us how we feel about the matter - it doesn't say we should be convinced, it just says we (you) are convinced you have the truth. It implies that you can't be a jw if you have doubts.