Posts by Village Idiot

the royal commissions public hearing into the jehovahs witnesses will recommence in sydney on friday 14 august 2015 at 11:00am.. it is anticipated that the hearing will hear from one witness, mr geoffrey jackson, a member of the governing body of jehovahs witnesses.. .

.

www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2015-08/public-hearing-into-the-jehovah%e2%80%99s-witnesses-to-rec.

Village Idiot

I emailed the commission a copy of Ray Franz's book Crisis of Conscience and had Angus Stewart reply a thank you. I just recently received this other response:

Dear xxxxxx,

Thank you for your email of 3 August 2015 to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Your email has been passed to the Royal Commission’s Case Study 29 (Jehovah’s Witnesses) public hearing team for their consideration.

Thank you again for your email and for your words of support.

Yours sincerely,

Philip Reed
Chief Executive Officer

GPO Box 5283 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia
www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au

I sure hope they can use it.

20

Movies/Books for Cult Survivors

by Brighid in

for me, there have always been special movies or scenes in movies that trigger my old jw experience (fiddler on the roof and little mermaid touched me deeply when i watched them as a young jw).

later as a survivor, it was more donnie darko, thx 1138 themes that struck me in particular.. anyway, looking for suggestions on great movies, books (art of any kind, really) that especially speak to or move you as a jw survivor?

there are reasons beyond purely entertainment that i ask..

Village Idiot

Worlds Apart. It's a Danish film and one of the videos has English subtitles. I previously watched the full free subtitled version but now I can't seem to find it. There is a link for those who live in Australia but I don't know if it's the subtitled version or free.

Here is their description:

"Based on a true story, a young girl is torn between her conscience, religion and passion when she is forced to make a choice between her faith and her feelings for a man who does not belong to her family's church, the Jehovah's Witnesses. Nominated for three Bodil Awards in 2009, including Best Film. Directed by Niels Arden Oplev and stars Rosalinde Mynster, Pilou Asbæk and Jens Jørn Spottag."

17

'Jehovah is using the Royal commission'??.. Ok, let's work with that.

by defender of truth in

what do you think of the following line of reasoning for helping a jw start to think about what they are admitting.. (essentially, the organisations way of handling child abuse has been wrong, harm has been caused, god is now putting it right.).

reply:.

"i appreciate your honesty, in admitting that child abuse has not been handled in the right way in the past.

Village Idiot

cofty:

"If they don't admit blame they will look like fools."

Not necessarily since they are in control of any information that reaches the Witnesses. They will probably scapegoat some of the elders claiming it was all their fault and that Jehovah guided them in doing so.

"My guess is that arrogance will prevail."

Yeap.

26

Depressing chat to my still-in brother about the RC

by Lemonp in

here is a quick breakdown of our conversation (by text message).

me: "have you read about the royal commission?

the org has been covering up child abuse.

Village Idiot

Lemonparty, off topic but why the hell did you include a porno website as your name?

11

Why don't they just lie about the numbers?

by Sour Grapes in

jw
friends

why doesn't the wtbts just lie and increase the published amount of people who attend the memorial?

who would know the difference?

the same with the amount munching on the crackers and sipping the wine.

Village Idiot

I wonder if the Governing Body even reads their own numbers. Someone below them must be mindlessly cranking them out without a second thought.

53

What is their official explanation for not allowing beards?

by keyser soze in

jw
friends

i ask because my gf, who knows all about my jw upbringing, convinced me to grow a goatee, just to see how it looks.

we both decided it looked good so i decided to keep it.

i tried to explain to her that as a jw, i wasn't allowed to grow one, but then drew a blank when she asked me why.

Village Idiot

I recall an elder telling me that the reason behind the beard ban was that they wanted to respect community standards. I responded by bringing out that there were male models with beards in a Sears catalogue that I had.

31

Jw kids setting off fire alarms in hotels

by purrpurr in

a friend of mine is staying at a hotel next to one of the big convention sites this weekend.

yesterday she tells me one of the hotels had to be evacuated and the fire brigade called when the fire alarm went off.. it turned out to be a bunch of jw kids having a prank.

she had been speaking to the hotel manager who told her that this happens every year and only when the jw's come to stay!.

Village Idiot

steve2:

"One sister adorned in a very revealing miniskirt who was about to do her part on the Ministry School..."

They should have let her wear that miniskirt and then put a fan pointing in her direction.

43

G.B. & J.W.'s Becoming Clap-Happy

by The Searcher in

at the regional convention (national!!

) for scotland, mark sanderson elicited 13 rounds of applause during his closing talk, (for the least little things!

) plus a final one for his closing prayer!