Mephis

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Posts by Mephis

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  75

  If you could ask Geoffrey Jackson one question that he had to answer what would it be?

  by jwleaks in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  what question would you ask geoffrey jackson, as a member of the governing body of jehovah's witnesses, to answer?

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  jw leaks.

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  Mephis

  Do you accept any responsibility or accountability in secular law for being part of a group which issues interpretations of the bible which result in dangerous criminals remaining free to re-offend?
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  37

  Australian Branch Stats?

  by Marvin Shilmer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm working on some statistical analysis of child abuse data made public by the royal commission.

  while i'm working on this, can someone here do me a favor and look up the peak publisher figures reported by watchtower for the australian branch for each of the years from 2005 through 2014?

  my thanks in advance.

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  Mephis

  Sorry, Marvin, was addressing when you asked for possible reasons for a bump in the mid-80s. Those are the only things I can think of to explain that. Their habit of torching older elders' letters makes it difficult to establish whether there was anything branch directed, but one would suspect not. The 89/early 90s bump, well, yes, as discussed on other threads over the past couple of weeks.
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  16

  This article indicates the org will consider policy changes

  by defender of truth in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  i think they were just telling the arc what they wanted to hear.. what do you think?.

  couple of interesting quotes:.

  "mr o'brien, co-ordinator of the church's australian branch committee, told the commission the organisation was "open to change".. in evidence, he said the committee would consider the greater involvement of women in child sex abuse cases, clearer guidance for elders hearing allegations and better communication with victims and their families about their legal options.. mr o'brien told the commission the church did not have a redress scheme for sex abuse victims but would consider establishing one.. vincent toole, head of the church's watchtower bible and tract society, told the commission he would seek independent legal advice about the church's obligations to report child sex abuse to the authorities.. justice mcclellan asked mr toole if he understood there was a general obligation for every citizen to report crimes to the authorities.. "coming to this commission has been a wake-up call for me, i can assure you," mr toole said.. www.smh.com.au/nsw/royal-commission-jehovahs-witnesses-to-review-approach-to-sex-abuse-allegations-20150805-gis2fh.html.

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  Mephis

  The perils of running your own internal judicial process which determines 'guilt' for crimes. But I suppose it goes to the heart of how they treat crimes as 'sins', as well as how they have no consideration for the wider community. It also highlights the dangers of their own internal legal advice viewing everything only through the prism of what comes down from the GB.

  There's no change in policy as such for them. It's, as Witness My Fury says, simply they've not had the common sense to report crimes to the police and so have been breaking the law because they 'know', by any reasonable standard, that crimes have been committed and haven't been reporting. Typically they'd try to use confessional privilege to defend themselves from any obligation to report under this law, but they've not been doing that in Oz, and after Stewart's demolition of how it shouldn't be considered 'secret' I wonder whether other common law jurisdictions will take another look at the issue from this angle.
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  13

  shunning verses victamization

  by Sabin in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i know i`ve put this out there before but i want to put it in a different context & see what you think.

  i`ve shunned my parents for 20 years (farther, step-mother) because they victimized me every day of my life as a child, believe me when i tell you that writing this , is unbelievable hard, it is making me shake & cry to be pulling up the memories.

  all of what happened i could have forgiven, but one thing.

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  Mephis

  They say themselves, when it's about people joining the JWs, that people shouldn't be forced to choose between family and belief/religion. Not having people who are harmful in your life is a personal choice. Having your religion emotionally manipulate you into shunning someone solely because eg they believe different things to you is a different thing again from that. There's a very clear difference there to me.
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  37

  Australian Branch Stats?

  by Marvin Shilmer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm working on some statistical analysis of child abuse data made public by the royal commission.

  while i'm working on this, can someone here do me a favor and look up the peak publisher figures reported by watchtower for the australian branch for each of the years from 2005 through 2014?

  my thanks in advance.

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  Mephis

  Marvin - there was a WT article in October 1983 which pretty much encouraged those who'd been abused within the family to go to the elders for 'spiritual help'. 1985 started with the Awake on child molestation. Not sure if that would explain any bump in numbers for the period you mention.
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  27

  Watchtower sued for Racketeering in California

  by under the radar in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  a little birdie informed me that a lawsuit against the watchtower bible & tract society, its legal department, and several individuals (perhaps lawyers in the legal department) has been filed in the superior court of the state of california, county of los angeles for, wait for it.... racketeering!.

  that's right, folks, you heard it here first.

  i have no other information, other than the case was stamped "aug 07 2015" and the docket number appears to be bc590675.

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  Mephis

  the girl next door posted it :)

  INteresting. Representing himself?
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  21

  ARC: why the contstant secrecy?

  by SecretSlaveClass in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  anyone watching the inquiry would have heard the org's attorney asking that the documents outlining the stucture and mechanics of the wbts be kept confidential.

  all this subversive and clandestine behavior is not helping their image.

  what do you all suppose is potentially damnimg in these documents?

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  Mephis

  It's a high control group where 'privilege' is holding a microphone. It's their little internal secrets as initiation. They have special knowledge of the 'truth'. The elders have special knowledge beyond that. Even the segregation caused by the individual schools for different people (eg pioneer school). The great secret reveal in the book could be the sun rises every morning and it would still be top secret because of who is allowed to access it and what they must do to be able to gain access.
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  5

  UK Watch Tower branch financial info

  by paradisebeauty in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  taken from http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/showcharity/registerofcharities/charitywithpartb.aspx?registeredcharitynumber=1077961&subsidiarynumber=0.

  i wonder what exactly the uk charity commission is looking into.

  just financial data or also practices of the watch tower?

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  Mephis

  There are three investigations currently going on. Barry congregation is also undergoing an operational compliance investigation (ie do the trustees know what they are meant to be doing according to law).

  The statutory inquiry into the whole organisation is linked to but separate to the New Moston inquiry.

  The one which is for the whole organisation will cover whether their policies are proper, whether they're legal, whether trustees of JW charities are aware of their legal responsibilities, and whether they're giving the right advice to congregations. So things like hauling people who've been abused to confront the pedophile, just out of prison for those crimes, in a judicial committee run by the CO sent by the organisation are going to be questioned.
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  21

  ARC: why the contstant secrecy?

  by SecretSlaveClass in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  anyone watching the inquiry would have heard the org's attorney asking that the documents outlining the stucture and mechanics of the wbts be kept confidential.

  all this subversive and clandestine behavior is not helping their image.

  what do you all suppose is potentially damnimg in these documents?

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  Mephis

  The documents which they're trying to keep secret are available to be read in older versions. There's nothing there which is smoking gun or improper as such. It's more a revelation on how the GB does micromanage things, the things which are kept secret from your average JW (would they know women write Awake articles but aren't allowed to write anything related to the bible? would they know that there is provision to help cover with things like medical costs but it's to be kept secret from them?), and organisational approaches to things like bad publicity and scrutiny by governments. It's secrecy for the sake of secrecy as others have said. There may be other documents which reveal dubious tax avoidance strategies, or which give a full overview of financial affairs, but these aren't them. Would think that anything truly interesting in those terms would be conducted by letter between branch and Brooklyn in any case.
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  61

  Jwfacts tv appearance

  by sparrowdown in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  shout out to jwfacts.. just saw the drum.

  excellent job !

  !.

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  Mephis

  Youtube link. (via fb)

  https://youtu.be/Pd6B4xAmFfk