Posts by Mephis

3

Would a Class Action Lawsuit against Watchtower work - Breach of Privacy?

by Tazemanian-devil in

the branch manual reveals the following:.

chapter 3., par 62 data protection policy, section c: if a data subject request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal data or sensitive personal data about himself, the organization will fairly consider granting the request by balancing the interests of the individual in gaining access or correcting or deleting data against the legitimate religious interests of the organization, including whether granting the request would endanger the organization's right to religious freedom and practice."d.

"the organization has an interest in permanently maintaining data regarding an individual's status as one of jehovah's witnesses.

Mephis

I've been looking at this issue for the past couple of months, and the branch manual's data protection policies certainly seem at odds with British law on such things, especially so far as an implied consent for them to reveal highly private information to whoever they choose for all eternity is concerned. In Australia, it's probably worth noting that there is also evidence in the documentation handed over to the commission that the WBTS deliberately attempted to massage its accounts to avoid Australian data protection legislation applying to them.

Currently writing up a letter to the Information Commissioner's Office here in Britain. What may get more traction is a subject access request to WBTS here in London (not registered with the ICO) and seeing whether they provide the files requested. Intriguingly, IBSA is what is registered in Britain to handle data. My ability to subject access request them is severely limited by not having been through a JW judicial procedure nor done anything to generate a file at HQ.

58

Will his holiness Jehovha Jackson appear before the ARC?

by punkofnice in

yes or no.......what say you?.

i'll start - no!.

.

Mephis

There's no 'if' now. Only 'when'. He will appear of his own free will or he'll appear because the Aussie police have dragged him there. I can think of circumstances where it would be delayed, but I can't think of a situation where a Royal Commission judge would let this pass now. It's a test of the authority of the Commission, and even Prime Ministers and ex-Prime Ministers bow to that.

32

Branch Manual 2015

by Marvin Shilmer in

apparently the backroom arguments have been heard and decided.

the royal commission finally uploaded a redacted version of the 2015 branch manual.

watchtower lawyers were looking to have as much redacted from this manual as possible.

Mephis

mega upload link should anyone ever need: http://www.megafileupload.com/4Wfd/EXH.029.028.0001_R.pdf

75

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

by jwleaks in

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

.

jw leaks.

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?

37

Australian Branch Stats?

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
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.

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.

16

This article indicates the org will consider policy changes

by defender of truth in

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.

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.

13

shunning verses victamization

by Sabin in

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.

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.

37

Australian Branch Stats?

by Marvin Shilmer in

jw
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.

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.

27

Watchtower sued for Racketeering in California

by under the radar in

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.

Mephis

the girl next door posted it :)

INteresting. Representing himself?

21

ARC: why the contstant secrecy?

by SecretSlaveClass in

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?

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.