Posts by Mephis

25

Media headline:Jehovah's Witnesses did not report 1006 alleged sex abusers to police, royal commission told

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

check it for yourself: .

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/jehovahs-witnesses-did-not-report-1006-alleged-sex-abusers-to-police-royal-commission-told-20150727-gil1u7.

not a good look!.

Mephis

Fading Truth - in countries like Australia and the UK, a commission like this has powers to force people to appear and testify, as well as to demand any and all documents related to the inquiry. The penalty for failing to do this can be imprisonment and/or fines. There is no legal way out of this, beyond some very specific exemptions. It's more akin to Congressional investigative hearings than a civil court case.

The records come from two requests made in February 2015 by this commission. They evidently were held by the Australian branch.

40

Update on Royal Commission

by umbertoecho in

paedophiles repeatedly promoted to positions of authority in jehovahs witness church royal commission told.

1 hour ago july 27, 2015 12:45pm.

counsel assisting the royal commission, angus stewart sc has told the royal commission that church elders could now face criminal charges.

Mephis

Just to clarify something which seems to be confusing people, the 1006 refers to individuals against whom allegations have been made and not individual cases or the number of allegations.

From the opening address.

"During the investigation of this case study, Watchtower Australia produced some 5,000 documents pursuant to summonses issued by the Royal Commission on 4 and 28 February 2015. Those documents include 1,006 case files relating to allegations of child sexual abuse made against members of the Jehovah’s Witness Church in Australia since 1950 – each file for a different alleged perpetrator of child sexual abuse"

[Bolding mine]

And, as others have said, these are the ones which made it onto a file.

40

Update on Royal Commission

by umbertoecho in

paedophiles repeatedly promoted to positions of authority in jehovahs witness church royal commission told.

1 hour ago july 27, 2015 12:45pm.

counsel assisting the royal commission, angus stewart sc has told the royal commission that church elders could now face criminal charges.

Mephis

Imagine instead a town of 20,000 people slowly growing to over 60,000 over 65 years, and having 15 new child sex offenders reported each and every year. That would raise a lot of questions about just what the authorities in that town were up to with their safeguarding policies.

56

The Australian Royal Commission hearings on the JWs handling of child abuse begins here in the US later today. It will be streamed.

by AndersonsInfo in

the royal commission hearing starting on monday, july 27, 2015 - australian day and date - (and it could go on until august 7th depending on how many witnesses testify) regarding jehovah's witnesses handling of child abuse is supposed to be streamed.. it could be that the hearing will only be audio not video although we were informed it will be streamed.

we'll find out in a few hours.. i live in the central time zone of the us and right now here it is sunday, 3: 45 pm.

in sydney, australia, it is 15 hours ahead of us.

Mephis

The 'different procedures now' was covered in the proceedings today. The judge and QC kept referencing them back to the Shepherding book and asking them why their instructions were exactly the same as before and, at one stage, the judge asked the CO directly to give an example of how they have changed. The CO couldn't give one. The CO, right at the end of today's proceedings, introduced the idea of letters from HQ changing things, so it's there to be followed up on. To me though what stands out is the direct evidence of it not having changed - what happened in Australia with regards to the victims being forced to confront their abusers also happened just last year in Manchester, UK - and is one of the reasons why they are being investigated here too.

56

The Australian Royal Commission hearings on the JWs handling of child abuse begins here in the US later today. It will be streamed.

by AndersonsInfo in

the royal commission hearing starting on monday, july 27, 2015 - australian day and date - (and it could go on until august 7th depending on how many witnesses testify) regarding jehovah's witnesses handling of child abuse is supposed to be streamed.. it could be that the hearing will only be audio not video although we were informed it will be streamed.

we'll find out in a few hours.. i live in the central time zone of the us and right now here it is sunday, 3: 45 pm.

in sydney, australia, it is 15 hours ahead of us.

Mephis

LostGeneration - yeah, he did. He said that their publications were support for victims of abuse. He also said someone abused could speak to a 'mature sister', and then got hammered about how that squared with him warning people about gossiping and how that effectively left the poor girl without anyone to turn to for support.

56

The Australian Royal Commission hearings on the JWs handling of child abuse begins here in the US later today. It will be streamed.

by AndersonsInfo in

the royal commission hearing starting on monday, july 27, 2015 - australian day and date - (and it could go on until august 7th depending on how many witnesses testify) regarding jehovah's witnesses handling of child abuse is supposed to be streamed.. it could be that the hearing will only be audio not video although we were informed it will be streamed.

we'll find out in a few hours.. i live in the central time zone of the us and right now here it is sunday, 3: 45 pm.

in sydney, australia, it is 15 hours ahead of us.

Mephis

At least 125 known to have had allegations against them in Australia did not go to judicial committee because of the two witness rule. (source: opening statement pdf).

56

The Australian Royal Commission hearings on the JWs handling of child abuse begins here in the US later today. It will be streamed.

by AndersonsInfo in

the royal commission hearing starting on monday, july 27, 2015 - australian day and date - (and it could go on until august 7th depending on how many witnesses testify) regarding jehovah's witnesses handling of child abuse is supposed to be streamed.. it could be that the hearing will only be audio not video although we were informed it will be streamed.

we'll find out in a few hours.. i live in the central time zone of the us and right now here it is sunday, 3: 45 pm.

in sydney, australia, it is 15 hours ahead of us.

Mephis

This elder is being absolutely skewered here on how grossly inadequate the policies he's been told to follow are. He can clearly see just how bad it is having to answer these questions.

12

How do jw's explain vestigial organs in humans?

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

i only recently became aware of cases of people being born with tails.

having looked into it this is a evolutionary leftover and we have many other examples within each one of us like the appendix, wisdom teeth, and muscles to move the ears.

plus many more, this seems to me to prove evolution completely.

Mephis

I don't recall it being cited from a WT, but the explanation I was given was that the Bible forgot to mention god playing about with human internal organs around the time of the flood. Or words to that effect. Something to do with us needing to be changed from vegetarians to omnivores so body bits needed some rejigging to allow it. I once tried to get a reasonable answer on evolutionary hangovers (snakes' legs, I was curious about the whole punishment of being made to wiggle on their bellies thing) during the time the Creation book was the Tuesday night staple, but was effectively told not to worry my little head about it and to ask in the new system instead.

50

The Report - BBC Radio 4 about Jehovah's Witnesses and Child Sexual Abuse can now be heard

by AndersonsInfo in

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0612hjs.

the report about child abuse and jehovah's witnesses is now live.. jehovah's witnesses handle child abuse cases.

jehovah's witnesses and child sexual abuse, the report - bbc radio 4 .

Mephis

It's very powerful reporting. Damning of the policies they follow.

I'm uploading to youtube (should be available soon), should anyone not be able to listen to this via the BBC.

https://youtu.be/t_aCNB3toPo

28

Did you know WTBTS applied for Holocaust compensation?

by umbertoecho in

did you know that the wtbts applied for these compensation funds?

i had no idea and if this has already been addressed then so be it.

i find it interesting due to the fact that so much is made of the jws being in camps during ww2 and nothing else is expressed about the other millions who died in these camps.

Mephis

From what I recall, it was for both themselves as an organisation and to help JWs who'd suffered too. Both were within the terms of various holocaust compensation schemes. I'd question some of the things they suggest in that letter of application (asking to be considered as heirs for those who died without them, and the educational aspect I'd be concerned about given their exceptionally narrow focus), but they were banned, probably did suffer losses as an organisation which would entitle them to some compensation etc.

I just hope that their arrangements for survivors has never put inappropriate suggestions to those in receipt of compensation just for signposting them to it. There were complaints over the secrecy not permitting proper monitoring of what was happening.

eg http://www.swissbankclaims.com/documents/doc_74.6_hsp_4.pdf

(NB: note that the JWs didn't give a stuff if you'd suffered because of being a JW but were no longer one in the early 2000s....)