Posts by oneofmany

16

ExJW Dad Sues Watchtower Over Deception Causing Murder

by oneofmany in

dead girl's dad sues jehovah's witnesses.

by bill graveland.

canadian press.

oneofmany

Dead girl's dad sues Jehovah's Witnesses

BY BILL GRAVELANDCANADIAN PRESS ? A Calgary man suing the Jehovah's Witnesses, claiming they contributed to his daughter's death by encouraging her to avoid life-saving blood transfusions, said today his lawsuit is for her and for his family.

"The Jehovah's Witness church stole away my family, friends and 20 years of my life," Lawrence Hughes said outside 's Court of Queen's Bench, where he filed the lawsuit. "I paid a high price to give my daughter a chance to live.

"This lawsuit is for and if 's listening, I want her to know I love her," he added as he choked back tears.

Bethany Hughes died at age 17 on , after being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of blood cancer seven months earlier.

In his statement of claim, Hughes says his former wife Arliss Hughes and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society ? the organization that represents the Jehovah's Witness religion ? "overtly influenced to believe that blood transfusions were wrong and would not help cure her cancer."

The lawsuit also alleges "the defendants committed the (civil wrongs) of deceit and undue influence, all of which contributed to and led to the circumstances causing the death of ."

's illness and death tore the family apart and renewed public debate over how to determine when a child should be able to dictate his or her own medical care.

When was diagnosed with leukemia at age 16, Lawrence Hughes split with the Jehovah's Witnesses and his wife over her treatment. He said the transfusions should be undertaken if that was the only way to save her.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that it's against God's wishes for one person to take blood from another.

The fight over 's care was bitter. The government stepped in and won temporary custody of her and against her wishes she was given 38 transfusions until they were deemed ineffective. She died less than two months later.

Lawyers for the Jehovah's Witnesses fought in court for the teen's right to decide her treatment.

The Charter of Rights allows those 18 and older to decide. Medical ethics dictate that all mature children should be allowed to decide unless their competence has been compromised.

Even though five pediatricians and psychiatrists found to be mature enough to decide her own treatment, the courts ruled she was pressured by her religion and didn't have a free, informed will.

The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal.

The statement of claim, which contains allegations yet to be proven in court, said was encouraged to not question her beliefs during prayer services held in her hospital room. At one point, said the document, Arliss Hughes tried to pull intravenous lines from 's arm.

"These defendants unduly influenced Bethany to prevent her from questioning her belief system ? that it was against God's law to take a blood transfusion and that if she did, she would be eternally damned by God and not survive Armageddon," reads the statement.

The lawsuit names lawyers David Gnam and Shane Brady as defendants.

Brady, reached today at his office in , Ont., said the allegations have already been raised in the Hughes' divorce proceedings.

"Mr. Hughes is entitled to his day in court. I don't say he shouldn't have his day in court but he's already had his day," he said.

Lawrence Hughes, who brought his family to from their home in , Ont., in the late 1990s, said that because of the dispute, he has been shunned by his family and the Jehovah's Witness community.

He said he hopes his lawsuit will help others. "I just want to stop the deaths of innocent people and hopefully to prevent my (other) daughters from dying as well."

He is also suing the Cross Cancer Institute in .

After the transfusions were stopped and was released from the government's care, Hughes said the mother and the Jehovah's Witnesses secretly took her to the Cross Cancer Institute, where she was given treatment that didn't include transfusions.

By keeping him in the dark, said Hughes in the statement, they prevented him from taking steps to get her treatment that may have helped save her.

41

Do JW really spy on people in the congregation?

by wordlywife in

jw
friends

i have so many questions, i don't know where to start...i am new here.

do elders or any other members of a congregation actively spy on others?

is this encouraged if so?

oneofmany

The elders stay away from words like "spying" but in fact say you must turn in those you think may be doing wrong, and those who are elders in congregations with child molestors try to find out who may be talking about the molestors. I have often had things told to my marriage mate in the bedroom told back to me by elders.

And since I know my mate did not tell those most intimate details to the elders and was assured of this, I have no doubt that some among Jehovah's Witness congregations stoop to wiretapping. The regular eyeball type of spying is far more rampant and, as explained, taught as a matter or routine "to keep Jehovah's congregations clean" but isn't called spying but doing detective work, or being observant, being awake, being alert and the like.

It's worse, as said, when the elders themselves have fear we may talk among ourselves about child molesting they themselves or ministerial servants have done. It's good to see so many others talking about this here too. I wish Randy Watters and Bill Bowens would address this issue or else get somebody else too. I've also known elders and ministerials doing the Peeping Tom stuff another person mentioned earlier.

I am ashamed to say it, but following talks on the need to do so, I myself did once turn in another Jehovah's Witness whom I spied on. That's the only word for it "spied", not just observed or reported or did a little detective work.

Forgive me.

61

LOCAL JW BUSTED FOR KIDDIE PORN

by new light in

i just saw on the local news that a jw i have personally met and whose family i know was arrested for child pornography.

he is only about 30 years old.

this is the second case in 2 months involving an arrest for a child sex crime within the same congregation (the man on the news actually moved away a few years ago).

oneofmany

Bill had emailed those getting silentlambs.org emails about Foran days ago.

As to there being more JW elders who are pedophiles, the organization itself has a policy which helps pedophiles hide their inclinations and past doings. Clearly there are also more Catholic priests who are pedophiles because of policies or doings that have helped them hide their doings too. We know there are about 24,000 pedophiles in Watchtower's own files for the U.S. and Western Europe. There's about 90,000 congregations earthwide. Statistics indicate there's a hidden pedophile in every third or fourth kingdom hall. Most always those JWs arrested for the crime are elders and some are ministerial servants. Hardly any are or have been NON-elders and ministerial servants, meaning regular JWs (called Publishers in Watchtower jargon).

177

Charles T Russell -a freemason and the connection to the illuminati...

by dolphman in

jw
friends

ok, i'm not one for conspiracy theories but lately i've uncovered some interesting facts that i think warrant some attention.. first of all, russell was a freemason.

all the early watchtower and books he authored have freemason symbology and art throughout them.

not a big deal i thought, until i read more about freemasons and the so-called "illuminati", a group of 13 families that supposedly control the world.. supposedly these 13 families, such as the duponts, mcdonalds, kennedys, .

oneofmany

I once saw a picture of Russell dressed in Mason's apron in an old history book on Masons, and wish I could find that same book again. He sometimes called himself a Mason, at others times did not. It is definite that in confines of Barbara Grizutti's (spelling?) book on Jehovah's Witnesses she states (may be in an end-note) that Russell's father and the father of his wife Maria were both Masons.

He is indeed buried across from an enormous building complex of the Masons with a huge pyramid near his small tombstone which pyramid is a Masonic emblem, and the "Arch" Masons group focuses on the divine name Jehovah. In fact in parades put on by the Shriners (Masons) they often carry banners saying for example "Jehovah-Jireh" (Jehovah of Armies) etc. I've seen pictures on the internet showing Russell's pyramid and right across the road from it the Mason buildings.

Masons like George Washington have done excellent work for which they deserve commendation, but there is also a darker side with which some have been involved negatively. Although odd-ball-ish, some of the Bible Student groups that split in the very early 1900s have done some humanitarian work that is commendable while not killing members as has the Watchtower's no-whole blood teaching.

9

"Volunteer Ministers" - Background checks?

by Uzzah in

i am very active as a volunteer with an international relief organziation.

a few weeks back i attended a volunteer management seminar hosted by this group.. even in times of disaster, any and all volunteers have to go through a screening process, including 2 interviews plus a police background check.

this is not a 'suggestion' but it was inferred that canadian law requires this to be done for any volunteer based organization when the volunteers would have direct access to the public or be put in a position of trust.. bethel proudly declares their force of volunteer ministers at the branch as well as calling publishers by the same name.

oneofmany

In many if not most or all states in the United States of America persons who have day to day access to children are required by state law to go to a police station and request that the police do a background check then provide a printed statement that they found you had committed no crimes in the past greater than, say, a traffic ticket, after which you must take the document back to the potential employer who can then consider you for employment.

Therefore I believe you have an excellent point which the attorneys and others need to consider carefully. It could remove a lot of pedophiles, murderers and other dangerous persons from going to people's doors under mask of ministry etc even as it has served to protect people, including children, from for example camp counselors of criminal backgrounds, school teachers and so forth.

1

Attorneys: Challenge WT's Nonprofit Tax Exempt Status

by oneofmany in

.

to stay nonprofit watchtower must not just be working some "for the public good" but being doing so without killing their members (blood issue), denying consitution-granted rights and responsibilities (freedom of speech etc).. therefore why not challenge their tax-free exemptions and get them removed from non-profit status.

oneofmany

Although Watchtower is a non-profit organization, this can be revoked due to its demonstrated malignant nature abetting child molestation, murder and the like. Bill Bowen can direct you to an official Watchtower letter to a congregation telling the local elders not to report to the police a fugitive murderer. What more do you need?

1

Attorneys: Challenge WT's Nonprofit Tax Exempt Status

by oneofmany in

.

to stay nonprofit watchtower must not just be working some "for the public good" but being doing so without killing their members (blood issue), denying consitution-granted rights and responsibilities (freedom of speech etc).. therefore why not challenge their tax-free exemptions and get them removed from non-profit status.

oneofmany

To stay nonprofit Watchtower must not just be working some "for the public good" but being doing so without killing their members (blood issue), denying consitution-granted rights and responsibilities (freedom of speech etc).

Therefore why not challenge their tax-free exemptions and get them removed from non-profit status.

26

Danish accuser admits it was all just lies!

by TheOldHippie in

the danish newspaper which has told so many stories about youths being molested in denmark by jws recently, today brings the story that the woman who came forth with the most sensational ones of these stories, how she and others were molested by groups of elders during baptismal preparations etc.

- to the police has admitted it was all nothing but lies.. i just wonder if silentlambs and the danish posters here will be as quick to bring these news and the translation out to the people just as quickly as they did when the original story was given by the newspaper?.

it is very boring to say "what did i tell you?

oneofmany

She was intimidated by Watchtower attorneys to recant what she had said = coersion. This makes Watchtower all the more reprehensible for its bullying victims to try to shut them up.

17

jehovah's witnesses can serve as police??

by candidlynuts in

i know this is from 2003 but i havent been here that long.

anyone recall this or comment?

secret order banishes religious minorities from police.

oneofmany

They can work desk jobs in a police department which do not call for carrying a gun. For example they can be dispatchers.

10

BLOOD -- WTS Questions and Sound Answers 3

by Marvin Shilmer in

blood -- wts questions and sound answers 3

w91 1/15 p. 29 the pure language unites a great crowd of worshipers ***: ?jehovah?s witnesses abstain from blood?

do jws abstain from blood?

oneofmany

In a recent Watchtower magazine it says all fractions of blood can now be accepted by Jehovah's Witnesses including hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is 97% of blood.

So, no whole blood but 97% of whole blood is okay, says the Governing Body over Jehovah's Witnesses.

The ajwrb.org website notes this too.

People will, however, still continue to suffer wrongful deaths due to Watchtower policy on this, so their hands are still full of ... blood.