I knew a couple of JWs in Britain who were police officers (I believe they were in the police force before becoming JWs). They are not required to carry firearms here, and there was no conflict with neutrality I can think of 20 years ago. Perhaps things have changed, but would appear not for Aussie JWs.
Mephis
JoinedPosts by Mephis
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Can JWs be police in Australia?
by Larrikin inhi everyone, i'm new here, i've been following the rc reports, and i was hoping you could help, my question is are jw allowed to be police, i heard the jws saying in one report with enthusiasm that they had jw in the policeforce.
and would there be any conflict from the force with any of their teaching, that would be contrary to duties..
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Would a Class Action Lawsuit against Watchtower work - Breach of Privacy?
by Tazemanian-devil inthe 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.
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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.
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Will his holiness Jehovha Jackson appear before the ARC?
by punkofnice inyes or no.......what say you?.
i'll start - no!.
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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. -
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Branch Manual 2015
by Marvin Shilmer inapparently 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.
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Mephis
mega upload link should anyone ever need: http://www.megafileupload.com/4Wfd/EXH.029.028.0001_R.pdf -
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If you could ask Geoffrey Jackson one question that he had to answer what would it be?
by jwleaks inwhat 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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Australian Branch Stats?
by Marvin Shilmer ini'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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This article indicates the org will consider policy changes
by defender of truth ini 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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shunning verses victamization
by Sabin ini 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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Australian Branch Stats?
by Marvin Shilmer ini'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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Watchtower sued for Racketeering in California
by under the radar ina 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?