Article in The Australian: Jehovah's Witnesses facing tax turmoil

by AndersonsInfo in

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/.../64acd93d531eb6b7301d.... .

sorry, the article is behind a paywall.

however, here's a copy of it without the photo:.

AndersonsInfo

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/.../64acd93d531eb6b7301d...

Sorry, the article is behind a paywall. However, here's a copy of it without the photo:

Jehovah’s Witnesses facing tax turmoil

Former Jehovah's Witness Lara Kaput says revocation of Watchtower’s charity status would be a ‘watershed moment’.

Picture: Rob Leeson.

EXCLUSIVE

KIERAN GAIR JOURNALIST

@KieranGair

• AN HOUR AGO APRIL 18, 2021

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have taken legal action against Australia’s charity watchdog after it revoked the organisation’s tax-exempt status over concerns with the religion’s opaque global donations structure and alleged failure to protect vulnerable people.

The organisation’s charitable arm, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia, which posted an income of $32m in the year to August 31, has been - accused of pushing cash offshore after directors splashed $16m of its total expenses on undisclosed donations and “overseas aid”.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission informed Watchtower in November of its intention to revoke the organisation’s charity status, citing a litany of concerns about alleged contraventions of the Corporations Act and a failure to comply with a host of governance and conduct standards.

Lawyer and abuse survivor Alec Spencer, a PhD candidate at James Cook University, said the ACNC’s decision was comparable to the abolition of the socalled “Ellis defence” in NSW in 2018, which ended the Catholic Church’s longstanding immunity to lawsuits.

“If registration were to be removed, it would serve as a wake-up call for many other religious charities who have systemically failed to protect sexually abused children,” he said.

“The removal of charitable registration would be an extraordinary outcome, both for the commission and the religious charity sector in particular.” The charity, which is seeking judicial review of the ACNC’s decision in the Federal Court, has been accused of “operating outside of Australia” and breaching its requirement to protect vulnerable people, including children, when conducting operations overseas.

In a statement, Watchtower director Terry O’Brien denied the ACNC had moved to strip the organisation of its charity registration. “The ACNC has assured the - directors that they do not intend to revoke Watchtower Australia’s charity status,” Mr O’Brien said.

However, court documents filed last week reveal the ACNC sent a notice to revoke Watchtower’s charity registration to the group’s directors in November.

The ACNC has accused Watchtower’s directors of failing to comply with key conduct standards, including a requirement to disclose conflicts of interest and a requirement to protect children who are accessing benefits under the charity’s programs.

If the court upholds the ACNC’s decision, Watchtower will lose its status as a registered charity and will not be entitled to receive tax concessions, including lucrative tax breaks.

According to an application for judicial review filed by Watchtower, the ACNC’s decision is “unlawful” and an “unreasonable and inappropriate exercise” of its discretion.

The organisation, which has nearly 70,000 members in Australia, has allocated almost $120m from 2014-20 to “donations and overseas aid”.

“As a donor, I would be very troubled by this,” Mr Spencer said. “And as a regulator, their hands are tied due to the differential treatment bestowed on basic religious charities.

“The ACNC could deregister a charity but the decision and why that occurs is not disclosed,” he said. “It allows them to operate in a cloud of secrecy.”

Watchtower argues that the decision contains multiple errors of law, including that the legislation confers “no function with respect to child protection” on the ACNC.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse warned that there were systemic problems within the Jehovah’s Witness religion in dealing with abuse, including a failure to report credible allegations to the police.

The commission heard Jehovah’s Witnesses had documentation of abuse allegations by 1800 children involving more than 1000 perpetrators since 1950.

Former church member and child abuse survivor Lara Kaput said revocation of Watchtower’s charity status would be a “watershed moment” if it were upheld by the Federal Court.

“They were reticent to revoke their charity status because the charity commission knew it would set a precedent, and they don’t want that to happen,” Ms Kaput said.

An ACNC spokeswoman said it was unable to comment on the “particular circumstances of a charity” and whether or not a charity was being investigated.

JOURNALIST Kieran Gair is a reporter at The Australian. He has previously reported and produced for the ABC, Sky News, Sky News Business, and The Sydney Morning Herald. He studied Law and Journalism at UTS.

6

Article: Passing the Time By Firing Back at Jehovah’s Witnesses — With Letters

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/under-the-sun-why-a-local-woman-wants-to-nail-the-jehovahs-witnesses-11545704.

kayleigh had run out of postage stamps and was waiting for new ones to arrive.

it was slowing her assault on a local congregation of jehovah’s witnesses.. she pointed to a stack of letters she’d already written to what she liked to call “the jws.”.

AndersonsInfo

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/under-the-sun-why-a-local-woman-wants-to-nail-the-jehovahs-witnesses-11545704

Kayleigh had run out of postage stamps and was waiting for new ones to arrive. It was slowing her assault on a local congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

She pointed to a stack of letters she’d already written to what she liked to call “the JWs.”

“These are ready to mail. I’ve got 16 letters written and 34 to go, but it’s only Tuesday. I’m way ahead.”

After she lost her waitressing job last year, Kayleigh contracted a nasty case of COVID. “I was bored, I couldn’t work, and my after-thingies kind of laid me out,” she said of the post-COVID vertigo and lung damage she’d been left with. “And then I got this JW letter in the mail and I knew my purpose in life.”

That purpose, she explained, was to do battle with people she thought were forcing their religion on her. Her former brother-in-law’s ex-wife used to be a Jehovah’s Witness, and back when they’d both been married to the Jones boys, she’d filled Kayleigh in on how things worked in that religion.

“They go door to door to preach, right?” she asked no one in particular. “But then the pandemic hit, and they couldn’t do that. So they started writing to people. I don’t mean like emails or texts. I mean, they wrote letters. To strangers. With a pen!” (Fact check: It's true.)

13

Australia Update

by Pants of Righteousness in

jw
friends

article .

AndersonsInfo

https://www.smh.com.au/national/church-charity-and-cult-refuse-to-join-national-child-sex-abuse-redress-20210104-p56rmi.html

2

Article: I Was Raised To Believe The Apocalypse Was Upon Us. 2020 Is The Year I Stopped Believing

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jehovahs-witness-armageddon-covid-19_n_5fe22338c5b6acb53454b2b9.

“death is nothing when you anticipate a resurrection — just blink your eyes and awake in perfection.”.

rebecca woodward, guest writer.

AndersonsInfo

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jehovahs-witness-armageddon-covid-19_n_5fe22338c5b6acb53454b2b9

“Death is nothing when you anticipate a resurrection — just blink your eyes and awake in perfection.”

Rebecca Woodward, Guest Writer

When I was a child I was taught that I would never die. In April of this year, testing my sense of smell with a bottle of bleach to my nose while alone in my Brooklyn apartment, the constant peal of ambulances echoing in the streets below, I wished I still believed.

I was raised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses to think Armageddon was something to look forward to. God would destroy the wicked world as we know it, to be replaced with a theocracy in which people like my family could live in eternal peace. We didn’t believe in heaven, but that the dead would be resurrected on a perfected Earth free of sickness and death. If I was very good, and went door to door warning neighbors of their impending doom, I would survive even when the world I knew was wiped away.

Most of my peers avoided college because a degree would be useless in paradise. Some even put off marriage or children, waiting for a perfect world to make a perfect family.

This was a difficult year to stop believing in Armageddon. But in truth, I’d gradually outgrown a faith built on the same sort of blind adherence that helped the outgoing president build a devoted and dogmatic base. I had admitted it to myself, but not my family. And so while many New Yorkers were fleeing the city to shelter with their families out of state, I was dodging my parents’ phone calls.

2

Article: Pope Francis for the Supreme Court?

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/sexual-intelligence/202010/pope-francis-the-supreme-court.

marty klein ph.d.. pope francis for the supreme court?.

the pope speaks for sexual rights more than the supreme court nominee.

AndersonsInfo

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/sexual-intelligence/202010/pope-francis-the-supreme-court

Marty Klein Ph.D.

Pope Francis for the Supreme Court?

The Pope speaks for sexual rights more than the Supreme Court nominee

Posted Oct 25, 2020

You know the world is upside-down when the Pope is the spokesperson for progressive sexual politics. And that’s where we are today.

In the same mind-boggling week, Pope Francis publicly endorsed legal protections for same-gender couples, while presumptive Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett refused to honor Obergefell v. Hodges, the Court’s 2015 decision affirming same-sex couples’ right to marry.

In last week’s Senate confirmation “hearing,” Barrett also refused to say whether Lawrence v. Texas, decriminalizing same-gender sex in 2003, was correctly decided. Indeed, she has sidestepped all questions about preserving LGBT non-discrimination protections.

The day after Election Day, the Court will hear a very important case which addresses a central conflict in American society: between religious rights and anti-discrimination laws.

Fulton v. City of Philadelphia has been brought by Catholic Social Services. Philadelphia’s city officials ended CSS’s contract to provide foster care services because the agency will not accept applications from married same-sex couples.

The Supreme Court accepted the case after an appeals court ruled in favor of the city and its anti-discrimination law.

When do religious organizations deserve exemptions from anti-discrimination laws that the groups say would cause them to violate deeply held beliefs, such as what constitutes a marriage, or a “moral” home environment? The Court may choose this case as its chance to issue a historic ruling that expands the rights of religious groups at the expense of protecting the fundamental rights of other groups.

While America is far from perfect, the last half-century has seen an increasing number of its citizens guaranteed the rights enjoyed by the majority.

It is now illegal, for example, to deny contraception to single people; marriage to mixed race couples; jobs to people in wheelchairs; equal pay to pregnant women; classroom resources to autistic children; and commercial services to black people.

Every one of these now-illegal behaviors used to be routine and legal.

Unfortunately, while America has marched toward increasing legal equality based on outlawing more and more forms of discrimination, it has also marched to a relentless expansion of rights based on claims of “religious freedom.” In particular, individuals and organizations—with the encouragement of major political figures and deep-pocket religious groups—are claiming exemption from an ever- expanding range of antidiscrimination laws.

These demands to be excluded from various laws are supposedly guaranteed by our beloved First Amendment.

In what is called the Establishment Clause, the First Amendment prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”

This was a radical idea in the 18th century, when one of the perks of every monarch was deciding which would be the state religion (i.e., theirs)—meaning that following any other religion was treason, punishable by death.

The Establishment Clause not only forbids our government from establishing an official religion (as in Tudor England or modern India), it also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another (as in Turkey). And it prohibits our government from preferring religion over non-religion (as in Austria).

So in America, we are free to believe what we like. Simple. Elegant. Life- affirming.

The problem comes when people decide that in order to follow their religious beliefs, they have to violate the legal rights of their fellow Americans. Does the Establishment Clause give “believers” more rights than everyone else?

This idea is particularly repulsive since government itself defines “religion”—as opposed to, say cult, hallucination, or mental illness. So for example, our government does not recognize the right of XYZ hypothetical religion’s followers to marry schoolchildren. But it does recognize the right of several other religion’s followers to circumcise babies (Jewish, Muslim) and withhold medical care from children (Christian Scientist, Jehovah’s Witness).

2

NYTimes: In South Korea, Draft Resisters Still Go to Prison. But Now It’s a Job.

by AndersonsInfo in

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/world/asia/south-korea-draft-conscientious-objectors.html.

in south korea, draft resisters still go to prison.

but now it’s a job.. a court ruled that conscientious objectors must be allowed to serve their country in other ways.

AndersonsInfo

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/world/asia/south-korea-draft-conscientious-objectors.html

In South Korea, Draft Resisters Still Go to Prison. But Now It’s a Job.

A court ruled that conscientious objectors must be allowed to serve their country in other ways. The government says they’ll still have to do so behind prison walls.

South Korean conscripts in April. Mandatory military service is seen as a rite of passage for able-bodied men in South Korea.

By Choe Sang-Hun

· Oct. 24, 2020

SEOUL, South Korea — Like thousands of other Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused to join the military because of their religious beliefs, Lee Seung-ki will serve time in a South Korean prison.

But unlike those before him, Mr. Lee will not enter as a convicted criminal. He will be among the first conscientious objectors in South Korea allowed to perform alternative service — jobs like cook, janitor and clinic assistant — behind prison walls.

For three years starting on Monday, Mr. Lee and 63 others will work, eat and sleep in prisons, though they will live apart from the inmates and will be allowed several weeks of leave. And unlike Jehovah’s Witnesses who served prison terms for their beliefs, they will have no criminal record to trail them for the rest of their lives.

Alternative service is a seismic shift in a country that considers conscription crucial to its defense against North Korea, with which it is still technically at war. Military duty is seen as a revered rite of passage for able-bodied young men, who are required to spend 21 months in uniform, usually between the ages of 18 and 28.

South Korea has imprisoned more conscientious objectors than any other country. Its Military Service Act requires up to three years in prison for those who refuse the draft without “justifiable” reasons. For decades, hundreds of young men, almost all of them Jehovah’s Witnesses, were put behind bars each year, usually for 18 months. As inmates, they did much of the same work that Mr. Lee will be doing.

“The difference is that the old objectors did it for 18 months wearing a prisoner’s uniform, but we will do it for three years as legalized conscientious objectors,” Mr. Lee said. “I am grateful that I am finally given this chance to serve the country without violating my conscience.”

9

Belgium: Jehovah’s Witnesses to face trial for discrimination and incitement to hate

by AndersonsInfo in

jehovah’s witnesses to face trial for discrimination and incitement to hate.

https://www.thebulletin.be/jehovahs-witnesses-face-trial-discrimination-and-incitement-hate?fbclid=iwar3wroaxyiadw0lomgmway-jkwzgzqxtswsid1d2lxhjgtndnfvvclqboo0.

"while jehovah’s witnesses have been the target of civil court cases before, this is the first time an entire congregation has ever been charged with a crime.".

AndersonsInfo

Jehovah’s Witnesses to face trial for discrimination and incitement to hate

https://www.thebulletin.be/jehovahs-witnesses-face-trial-discrimination-and-incitement-hate?fbclid=IwAR3wROAXyiAdW0LOMGMWaY-jKwZgzQXTSWSID1d2lxHJGTnDnfvvcLqboO0

"While Jehovah’s Witnesses have been the target of civil court cases before, this is the first time an entire congregation has ever been charged with a crime."

The Belgian congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses attended a hearing yesterday in criminal court in response to charges of discrimination based on religious beliefs and incitement to hatred. It is the first time that the Jehovah’s Witness are being tried in a criminal court anywhere in the world.

The congregation, which is based in Kraainem, is being given several months to prepare their case; the trial begins next February. The case follows a five-year investigation by a court magistrate in Ghent in response to complaints filed by Patrick Haeck, an ex-member.

“It’s an important precedent,” Haeck told VRT. “How is it possible that a religious community can commit a crime under the guise of freedom of religion?”

Haeck was a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses for 35 years and was an elder – someone with considerable authority within his local congregation in Ghent. When he exposed a case of sexual abuse within the congregation, he was officially shunned.

‘Shunning’

Jehovah’s Witnesses use shunning as a tactic to keep members from being disloyal to the group, he claims. “It’s worse than just being excluded,” Haeck told Het Nieuwsblad. “From the highest levels of the organisation comes the order that no one is allowed to talk to you, not even your own family. They declare that this person must be avoided because they have a mental illness that is contagious.”

Several more former Witnesses have joined the complaint, and stories have flowed out from former members who have been shunned. Cecile Temmerman was a Witness for 35 years when her son began to ask critical questions of the congregation's elders.

“I knew hundreds of people in the congregation; almost every day someone came over to visit,” she told Het Nieuwsblad. “From one day to the next, everyone turned their back on me.” She means that literally and figuratively: Witnesses physically turn away from members who are being shunned.

‘In the hands of Satan’

7

The Guardian: Former Jehovah's Witness elders call for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse

by AndersonsInfo in

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/10/former-jehovahs-witness-elders-call-for-mandatory-reporting-of-child-sexual-abuse?fbclid=iwar13k3rzferkzvjj5lbxegzhjr1dkfw34gqchgms4gdmhjufcv24hpzjcco.

two former jehovah’s witness elders have called for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, saying the organisation believes it is “answerable only to god”.. duncan corbett, who was an elder for 18 years, told the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse that the protection of minors and the handling of abuse claims must be taken out of the church’s hands.

“let them deal with the sin and the authorities handle the crime,” he told a hearing in london.. lloyd evans, another former elder who now campaigns against religious fundamentalism, said: “this is a group that feels they are answerable only to god … they don’t feel as though they need to yield to any regulations that are imposed on them.”.

AndersonsInfo

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/10/former-jehovahs-witness-elders-call-for-mandatory-reporting-of-child-sexual-abuse?fbclid=IwAR13k3rZFeRKZVJJ5LbxEgZhJR1DkFw34GqCHGmS4gDmhJUFcV24HpzJcco

Two former Jehovah’s Witness elders have called for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, saying the organisation believes it is “answerable only to God”.

Duncan Corbett, who was an elder for 18 years, told the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse that the protection of minors and the handling of abuse claims must be taken out of the church’s hands. “Let them deal with the sin and the authorities handle the crime,” he told a hearing in London.

Lloyd Evans, another former elder who now campaigns against religious fundamentalism, said: “This is a group that feels they are answerable only to God … They don’t feel as though they need to yield to any regulations that are imposed on them.”

The pair, along with another former Jehovah’s Witness and a survivor of abuse, Sarah Davies, painted a picture in evidence to the inquiry of an organisation that demanded that its leaders be unquestioningly respected and obeyed, and that shunned members who failed to comply with its strict codes.

2

See Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) Hearing on avoidjw.org

by AndersonsInfo in

https://avoidjw.org/en/news/csa/iicsa-jehovahs-witnesses/?fbclid=iwar1ibvhdumafd53ufe7l4oy2itzjoug2xr54opgwdy2jtei_wgs2chh0iuy.

sarah davies, duncan corbett, lloyd evans and paul gillies give evidence to the independent inquiry child sexual abuse (iicsa) on monday august 10, 2020. paul gillies gives further evidence on tuesday august 11, 2020. the public hearing on the aforementioned dates examines the child protection policies and safeguarding culture in jehovah’s witnesses in england and wales..

AndersonsInfo

https://avoidjw.org/en/news/csa/iicsa-jehovahs-witnesses/?fbclid=IwAR1IBvhDuMafd53UfE7l4OY2ItzJOUG2XR54OpGwDy2jteI_WGs2ChH0IuY

Sarah Davies, Duncan Corbett, Lloyd Evans and Paul Gillies give evidence to the Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) on Monday August 10, 2020. Paul Gillies gives further evidence on Tuesday August 11, 2020. The public hearing on the aforementioned dates examines the child protection policies and safeguarding culture in Jehovah’s Witnesses in England and Wales.

13

France's Miviludes moved quietly

by yalbmert99 in

a real conspiracy to destroy anti-cult miviludes in france.. therefore, a question arises that burns the lips of all our interlocutors: who wants the skin of the miviludes?

"this disintegration of the fight against cults is carried by occult influences, at the highest level of the state.

the miviludes disturbs, "says georges fenech.

AndersonsInfo

Joe and I have great admiration for the work of MIVILUDES, and, to put it mildly, it would be outrageous if their attackers were victorious.

In Paris in 2009, former JWs arranged for me to speak about JWs and their problem of child sexual abuse to those who worked at the National Union of Associations for the Protection of the Family and the Individual (UNADFI) headquarters on June 22nd in the morning.

We were welcomed with open arms and after my talk to about ten people, we were told that the Association arranged a conference at another place in Paris to be held that afternoon. There were about fifty people in attendance including France's Minister of Education. I spoke about the dangers of becoming a Witness. I also answered many questions about the Watchtower and JWs. Later that year, my visit and lectures were mentioned in the Association's newsletter.

After returning from Europe, I sent an email to friends about what transpired in Paris and included the UNADFI anti-cult organization's report of what took place as reported in French. The following is a rough English translation:

Barbara Anderson met in Paris – the 22nd of June in the morning, at the headquarters of the National Union of Associations for the Protection of the Family and the Individual (UNADFI). Mme Catherine Picard its president, surrounded by members and employees of her association. The 22nd of June in the afternoon, initiated by the ADFI Paris Ile de France, many ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses met at the home office of the ADFI Association of the 18th subdivision. Ms Anderson held a conference that attracted a great deal of attention, followed by a debate on the topic: “Why is it dangerous to become a Jehovah’s Witness?”, followed by interviews. On June 23, in the afternoon, she met in the National Assembly rooms, with a member of Parliament representing the parliament group of studies on cults; On the 24th in the morning, she met in the offices of the MIVILUDES, with the general secretary of that interdepartmental commission who reports to the Prime Minister.

I also added the following information to the email:

"I was astounded by who in the government attended the meeting on the 24th, which was the last meeting during the visit. I gave the MIVILUDES officials material proving that the Governing Body of JWs knew about the serious problem of child sexual abuse within the organization since the early 1990s. This is something that the Watchtower organization always denied when contacted by European government officials after abuse victims would come to the government seeking medical and other sorts of assistance. I was told that because of my visit, the gap was bridged between the US and France in this matter of proving JWs were a dangerous cult.

"FYI, MIVILUDES is charged by the Government with observing and analyzing "sect" or "cult" movements that constitute a threat to public order or that violate law, coordinating the appropriate responses to abuses by "cults," informing the public about potential risks, and helping victims to receive aid. MIVILUDES was created by presidential decree in 2002 and exists as an independent body in which the Prime Minister appoints the director.

"The French government agency called MIVILUDES is unique in Western countries. Its job is to track and counter those religious and other groups it considers as being sects. MIVILUDES is an acronym of the French phrase ‘Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires, i.e. ‘Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviancy.’ A sect is defined here as being any religious organization which can be characterized as employing any of the following methods:

"Mental destabilization, exorbitant financial demands, a rupture with members’ original environment, power in the hands of one person, the invasion of a person’s physical integrity, the recruitment of children, antisocial preaching and troubling public order, activities which lead it to be tried in a court of law, using parallel economic structures, attempts to infiltrate the workplace, schools, and public powers. There are around fifty religions or groups which are being tracked, the most commonly known of which are Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientology, Mormons, The Universal Church, Raelians, and The Unification Church (Moon.)"

Barbara

AndersonsInfo

Posts by AndersonsInfo

Pope Francis for the Supreme Court?

The Pope speaks for sexual rights more than the Supreme Court nominee

Jehovah’s Witnesses to face trial for discrimination and incitement to hate