MEDIA ALERT: Press Conference Wednesday, July 31, 2013, 11:00 am
Civil Lawsuit Filed Against Ohio Jehovah’s Witnesses Congregation and National Organizations by Sexual Abuse Victim Childhood Victim Suffered Sexual Abuse from Congregational Leader Over a Four Year Period What: ? Press conference to announce child sex abuse lawsuit, which will be filed against West Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in nearby Lorain, OH; the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. and the Christian Congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Inc.
? The suit will be filed by Elizabeth McFarland, a victim of sexual abuse when she was a child at the Lorain, OH congregation.
? Q&A will follow opening remarks.
? Copies of the complaint and other relevant documents will be available. Who: ? Konrad Kircher of Kircher, Arnold & Dame and Irwin Zalkin of The Zalkin Law Firm, attorneys for Elizabeth McFarland.
? Elizabeth McFarland will also be in attendance. When: ? Wednesday, July 31, at 11:00 a.m. EST
Where: Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center Erie Room
Address: 127 Public Sq. · Cleveland, Ohio 44114
Location Phone: 216-696-9200
AndersonsInfo
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New Child Abuse lawsuit to be filed tomorrow in Ohio against WT and congregation
by AndersonsInfo inmedia alert: press conference wednesday, july 31, 2013, 11:00 am .
civil lawsuit filed against ohio jehovahs witnesses congregation and national organizations by sexual abuse victim .
childhood victim suffered sexual abuse from congregational leader over a four year period .
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AndersonsInfo
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Good Friend of mine gets a response to his letter about Russell...
by confusedandalone inso a good friend of mine who had an issue with the fact that charles taze russell was given the understanding of 2520 and 1914 etc.. and was not of the faithful slave.
he asked how could it be possible that jah would bless someone who was not part of his organization to have such understanding after reading the july 15 wt.
he read me the letter as a way to help me understand and accept the watchtower.
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AndersonsInfo
confusedandalone: What a revealing letter your friend received from Writing Correspondence. So this is the way that the present-day "spokesmen for Jehovah" are going to overcome what we former-JW have been saying on the Internet and in books -- that Russell wasn't the first one to reveal all that “progressive revelation” or new "truths" he presented in his literature.
WT writers are so transparent. We know what they are doing – Reacting to books, books presently published and more coming with lots of proof that all along Russell was nothing but a pretentious talker pushing old religious ideas that flopped, primarily about the second coming of Christ and the end of the world. They think if they admit the truth (using half-truths), it will save their organization. They should think again because it won't work. Time has run out for them and their lies. And I’m of the opinion that they are the ones to put the last nail in their own WT coffin by admitting what we have known all along and which many of us have been disfellowshipped for saying.
Wow, this is great! We have forced them to admit that we have been right all along - Russell copied his religion from lots of 18 th- and 19 th -century folks!
Incidentally, I've been calling the religion of JWs a "Re-Run" religion for quite some time but didn’t know that the WT agreed with me.
Russell should be known not for inventing a new American religion but for regenerating the failure of those old apocalyptic millenarian religious ideas! He was a windbag that really offered nothing new, nothing of substance, only failure of fantasy ideas just as those in Russell's past offered and so is the group he founded still doing 132-years later.
I’m going to utter prophesy: And I’m confident that I’m right. I foresee that it won't be long now when the Watchtower’s Writing Correspondence’s reply to your friend will actually become a Watchtower magazine study article. Oh, this is going to be fun to watch!
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Danish book now in English: Judgment Day Must Wait: JWs-A Sect Between Idealism and Deceit, Poul Bregninge
by AndersonsInfo injudgment day must wait: jehovah's witnesses- a sect between idealism and deceit [paperback]poul bregninge (author)publication date: july 16, 2013fear of the apocalypse that never comes!
it is what holds a jehovah's witness power-bound by the watch tower society in brooklyn.
armageddon is always just a little way around the corner.. .
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AndersonsInfo
I just ordered Poul's book through Amazon.com and am looking forward to reading it. I understand that next year there will be more books on the "exciting" history of the WT coming out. The more the merrier, I say!
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Danish book now in English: Judgment Day Must Wait: JWs-A Sect Between Idealism and Deceit, Poul Bregninge
by AndersonsInfo injudgment day must wait: jehovah's witnesses- a sect between idealism and deceit [paperback]poul bregninge (author)publication date: july 16, 2013fear of the apocalypse that never comes!
it is what holds a jehovah's witness power-bound by the watch tower society in brooklyn.
armageddon is always just a little way around the corner.. .
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AndersonsInfo
Press Release
Background Story
The author, Poul Bregninge, was born in Copenhagen in 1936. In 1938 his parents went over to the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW). In 1964, Poul was ostracized by a judicial committee because he wrote articles on JWs for the press. However, he recorded everything on his hidden tape recorder . Poul published subsequently his first book in Danish, Jehovas Vidner under anklage ( Jehovah’s Witnesses Accused) . First in 1990 he got the idea to reissue the old book. But it became a brand new one, that is, Judgment Day Must Wait , which first was published in Danish in 2006 by Gyldendal in Copenhagen, Denmark. Afterwards, from 2007 to 2011, Poul translated JDMW into English. Simultaneously, he explored his subject further, which resulted in that, through one of his contacts, he came into possession of a forgotten pamphlet that headquarters in New York had belittled since 1903, when it was first published . This pamphlet can now be read in its entirety in JDMW ’s Appendix . I n 2011 he presented the manuscript for YBK Publishers, N.Y., but it was rejected because of linguistic imperfections. In short: It needed an Americanization. This was carried out by Dawn Johnson, Word Edge, Stillman Valley, Illinois. A little year later, YBK Publishers was again presented to the manuscript, and the publisher , Otto Barz , accepted it immediately.
About the book
JDMW is a comprehensive account of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ history that has to be seen in the light of the Adventists’ “Great Disappointment” in 1844. Out of the reorganized revival movement ’s smoldering embers stepped a young man , Charles Taze Russell, who was the founder of Russellism. Russell’s ideas attracted many people who saw him as the “wise servant” in Matthew. 24:45; that this role was difficult to fill is deepened by means of a virtually unknown pamphlet, which the founder’s wife, released in 1903.
After Russell’s death in 1916, Judge J. F. Rutherford, a lawyer, immediatelyseized the power of the founder’s various companies and secured his new presidential position for life. Critics called Rutherford ’s reorganization, “ Rutherfordism .” Result: About 1931, 70 percent of the original Bible Students had left the organization. Russell’s original idealistic movement developed under the successor to dictatorship and regimentation, a development that has continued up to the present time.
Following the 1914 debacle, new years for the world’s destruction were identified: 1925, 1954 and 1975, and now 2034 lurks on the horizon. What the movement’s leaders would do without this “doomsday machine,” is a good question. The alternative is decreasing growth curves. The theme of the world’s end therefore still appears to be the inevitable pattern that is necessary to keep the movement going.
Dawn Johnson , the editor who has successfully Americanized JDMW, says in an introduction to JDMW: “As I Americanized Poul’s self-translated manuscript I was reintroduced to a religion that I—like most Americans—often find at my front door and hastily dismiss. Poul’s treatment of sect history, members’ experiences and disquieting statistics was, without doubt, enlightening; it also braced my long-held suspicions about Christian denominations’ use and misuse of biblical text for their own ends. JDMW is a sometimes-academic, often-documentary and endlessly human examination of a wholly manmade theocracy and its apocalyptic crimes of ideological and religious folly. Reading this book will make you wiser.”
Professor Mogens Müller , the University of Copenhagen, says about JDMW: “Poul Bregninge’s background as a former member makes him an especially sensible analyst of a mentally isolated and paranoid universe only sustained by its own logic. His patient reading in the literature is extensive and his attempt to confront the interpretations of the Witnesses with a historical-critical reading of the Bible is innovative and shows how the whole construction of their universe is possible only because they have replaced a historical understanding of the Bible with an arbitrary fundamentalism.”
Jan Stilson , author of Biographical Encyclopedia: History of the Church of God Abrahamic Faith,says : “Poul Bregninge has written a brilliant work outlining the rise of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Bregninge exposes hidden secrets of the movement in good taste and with professional analysis. Bregninge paints a human picture of faith and endurance in the face of hardship.” Jan read the first proof of JDMW.
Crucial to the book’s credibility : Many Americans too numerous to mention have contributed to this book. Also, many helpful people in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Italy have contributed, which has been crucial to the book’s credibility and completion.
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Every so often I receive a very uncomplimentary email thru my website from a JW. Want to read it?
by AndersonsInfo intheir email address is: xxxxx.
and their message is:.
you probably would say, 'i didn't abandon him, i can still serve him on my own.
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AndersonsInfo
New Message from Website Reader: "what were you thinking''
Their email address is: XXXXXAnd their message is:
I was trying to figure out when you started to deviate from the truth. I remember seeing parts of that program and I said to myself, 'that's like the jews going on Canaanite TV to expose all the problems of the levitical priesthood.'
I wondered if you ever apologized to Jehovah for smearing his name all over the public media because you 'just couldn't help yourself.'
After reading about your Bethel history and all the wonderful privileges Jehovah bestowed upon you, you really never presented or left JEHOVAH\'s name or organization in a positive light. You talked mostly about corporate structure and politics, competitiveness, injustices and policy.
Nothing spiritual. And then portrayed yourself as this humble person filled with righteous indignation. I hope you didn't compare yourself to Jesus filled with righteous indignation when he threw out the money changers from the temple.
Because in reality you were just one of these strong women who didn't know how to stay in your place and faithfully serve Jehovah. Since when does Jehovah need any one human to straighten out his organization on policy?
When did you start seeing it as a man's organization and not Jehovah's? When did you abandon Jehovah in your heart? You probably would say, 'I didn't abandon him, I can still serve him on my own.' But abandon him you did. And serve him on your own--I don't think so. And over what -- Policy!
You exchanged a 'rich spiritual heritage', like Esau, for a mere 'bowl of stew.'
I don't remember any christian women in the first century being involved with the Governing Body and the decisions made about circumcision, or threaten to go to the Roman Court Officials if they couldn't get a hearing ear. How absurd!
Please don't tell me. You would argue there is nothing wrong with sitting in on those meetings and formally offering your opinions. Then I would have to say you were an apostate-in-the-making long before you ever left Bethel. You just didn't read the signs along the way or differentiate between a personal opinion and a formal statement. And you 'argued' and 'intelectualized' yourself right out of the truth. And you are still doing it through this website.
I would suggest you either come to your senses and actually be that humble person you portrayed yourself as and ask Jehovah's forgiveness and be restored to the congregation, or join another religion.
But I'd forget the website. Better yet, maybe you and Diane Wilson should get together and share notes and start your own religion. -
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Rutherford's Paradise - Film Footage of Beth Sarim
by RayPublisher ini just added this to my youtube channel, jwstruggle.
i know that we have some resident authorities on the history around jf rutherford and i am anxious to see what they make of it.
(leolaia i'm talking to you lol!).
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AndersonsInfo
The tongue story is gross and I have to work up the courage to write it. It goes against my grain to repeat the story that I heard directly from a source in the Writing Department who was closely related to the Heath family.
If you want to identify Bonnie Boyd Heath in photos, look for a woman with an outlandish hat on. I was told that in the Atlanta, GA area where she attended meetings in her last years, she was famous for her hats.
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Danish book now in English: Judgment Day Must Wait: JWs-A Sect Between Idealism and Deceit, Poul Bregninge
by AndersonsInfo injudgment day must wait: jehovah's witnesses- a sect between idealism and deceit [paperback]poul bregninge (author)publication date: july 16, 2013fear of the apocalypse that never comes!
it is what holds a jehovah's witness power-bound by the watch tower society in brooklyn.
armageddon is always just a little way around the corner.. .
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AndersonsInfo
I did not write the blurb about the book. I found it on Amazon where the book is being offered for sale.
This book is the English translation of an important Danish book about JWs that came out in 2006 and updated in 2009 in Denmark published by an important book publisher in Denmark. I was contacted by the author of the book back in 2005 and asked to write a chapter about WT's child abuse problem which I did. Then the book publishers contacted me and asked me to write 40 or 50 pages about myself and my discoveries which they then posted on their website both in English and Danish. Out of that endeavor came my essay named, Discoveries of Barbara Anderson, that can be found on the Freeminds site and also on my Watchtower Documents website. if you do a search here on JWN for a thread with the name Poul Bregninge in it, perhaps you can find the announcement of the publishing of the book in Danish circa 2006. Poul is a former JW and an excellent writer and from talking with him, I believe he knows his subject well. However, I can't vouch for a book that was written in Danish which I couldn't read, but I did read a number of pages in English when it was being translated some time ago. Poul is a respected author in Denmark and this book is not his first.
I'm ordering a copy from Amazon and after I read it, then I can critique it. If you're curious what Poul has to say about the JW religion, especially from a European point of view, you'll have to order a copy.
Barbara
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Danish book now in English: Judgment Day Must Wait: JWs-A Sect Between Idealism and Deceit, Poul Bregninge
by AndersonsInfo injudgment day must wait: jehovah's witnesses- a sect between idealism and deceit [paperback]poul bregninge (author)publication date: july 16, 2013fear of the apocalypse that never comes!
it is what holds a jehovah's witness power-bound by the watch tower society in brooklyn.
armageddon is always just a little way around the corner.. .
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AndersonsInfo
Judgment Day Must Wait: Jehovah's Witnesses- A Sect Between Idealism and Deceit [Paperback]
Poul Bregninge (Author)
Publication Date: July 16, 2013 Fear of the apocalypse that never comes! It is what holds a Jehovah's Witness power-bound by the Watch Tower Society in Brooklyn. Armageddon is always just a little way around the corner.
Poul Bregninge in this, his second book on the Witnesses, presents a complete history and ideology of the Society and why it keeps a keen focus on the Day of Judgment. He tells of multiple "days of reckoning" that pass uneventfully and how each failure of Christ to reappear is reevaluated by the Society to foretell of yet another apocalypse still to come. It is the fear of that moment that keeps Witnesses firmly in the fold. Judgment Day is the carrot dangled before them.
Every American knows the Jehovah's Witnesses, right? Those somber people who appear at our doors, offering literature and the everlasting salvation of our souls? What do we know about them? We see at our door their facades-their Society-devised disguises-directed to convert anyone willing to follow their Witness-ways of believing and living. In this book you will confront the thinking that motivates those beliefs.
Poul's book is a comprehensive view of JW history, its upheavals and struggles, and a raw demonstration of the manipulation and cruelty dealt those it charges with expanding its membership. By keeping Judgment Day ever coming, the Watch Tower Society ensures a ready supply of workers to proclaim the ever-coming coming.
The author dismantles their main biblical storage battery, Matthew 24, from which the movement takes their many "signs" of the impending end. His reinterpretation of these readings is a virtual bomb beneath the understanding they find in those key biblical texts.
Poul Bregninge was born and presently lives in Copenhagen. He was raised a Witness but informally left the movement in 1959. In 1964 he published several letters, articles, and features about the Society that the Witnesses deemed unacceptable. A three-man committee expelled Poul. Two years later he published his first book, Jehovas Vidner under anklage (Jehovah's Witnesses Accused) in Danish. This book, Judgment Day Must Wait, is a massive reworking (two and one half times its size) of his first book, now propelled by many years of continuing investigation that brings the history to the present in a text edited for the American reader. -
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Rutherford's Paradise - Film Footage of Beth Sarim
by RayPublisher ini just added this to my youtube channel, jwstruggle.
i know that we have some resident authorities on the history around jf rutherford and i am anxious to see what they make of it.
(leolaia i'm talking to you lol!).
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AndersonsInfo
While I'm on a roll, here are two more anecdotes from Arthur Worsley about Rutherford:
Arthur would be assigned to go to the Staten Island house once in a while, where WBBR was located, to cook for Rutherford. We’ll never forget the evening Arthur bitterly told us that when he grilled steak for Rutherford on the patio, something which the Bethel Family were never served, Rutherford would throw extra steak to the dogs that lived on the property.
Another time, Arthur related the tale of how Rutherford threw tacks all over the driveway in front of the Staten Island house because he was tired of people turning into the driveway by mistake and then using it as a turn around. He had forgotten that was the day that one of the Bethel secretaries was coming to work in the WBBR office. Soon after she arrived, all four tires on her car went flat.
I have a few more stories to tell, but they are quite lengthy so I’ll tell them later when it's not so late in the evening. One is another “tongue” story that is awful and takes a bit of nerve to write about, but needs to be told.
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Rutherford's Paradise - Film Footage of Beth Sarim
by RayPublisher ini just added this to my youtube channel, jwstruggle.
i know that we have some resident authorities on the history around jf rutherford and i am anxious to see what they make of it.
(leolaia i'm talking to you lol!).
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AndersonsInfo
Glenster: That photo that you're thinking of where Rutherford, at the side of a pool, is sticking his tongue out at the camera to my knowledge has never been seen outside of Bethel where I saw it. I think you're thinking of the story I told about Rutherford and his tongue which can be found in "The Life and Discoveries of Barbara Anderson" that has been on Freeminds website and also watchtowerdocuments.com website since around 2006.
Today, when I saw the film footage once again of Beth-Sham that RayPublisher posted, I noted Rutherford sticking out his tongue many times and couldn't help but be reminded of the photos I discovered in an old desk drawer in an unused storage room at Bethel where Rutherford was prancing around on a terrace by a pool with the ocean in the background that I described in my "Discoveries" story. In one of the photos, Rutherford was sticking out his tongue at the camera in a close-up head shot. What a grotesque photo that and the other photos were because his very unattractive body was garbed in a one-piece form-fitting bathing suit that covered him from chest to thighs! Funny, how a person can never forget a photo like that when it's of someone who is sort of a god-figure! Ugh!
I think it would be safe to say that Rutherford must have had some sort of tongue fetish when he was relaxed and playful and slightly inebriated.