Posts by chasson

Several German states are trying to prevent the Jehovah's Witnesses from gaining the same offical status as the main church faiths. But they're unlikely to succeed after the group, controversial because of what former members call "totalitarian methods," won a landmark court case in Berlin.

Marina J. could still be alive today. Her small daughter would have had a mother and her widower wouldn't be a single father. A blood transfusion could have saved her.

On July 3, 2008, Marina J.'s husband took her to the hospital in the town of Lich in the western German state of Hesse. She was 29 years old, the mother of a seven-year-old daughter and a deeply devout member of the Jehovah's Witness church. The doctors diagnosed her with a miscarriage and strong bleeding. A blood transfusion could have been saved her life, but the woman insisted she didn't want one. She was accompanied by several members of her church and she showed the doctor a living will. Two days later, Marina J. was dead.

RELIGION: 'TOTALITARIAN METHODS'

Prosecutors in Giessen, a city in Hesse, are researching the case to see if it is possible to pursue criminal charges. The case of a woman whose life could have been saved has also attracted the attention of politicians and government representatives in state capitals in western Germany. They are hoping the death might provide new ammunition in a two-decades old dispute between the state and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Followers of the religion, close to 166,000 in Germany, believe the end is near for this world of sin. But they also believe that there are only 144,000 places available in heaven for a few chosen ones who proved to be particularly pious and true to the bible in life. People, for example, who distribute God's word by handing out copies of the Jehovah's Witnesses magazine, Watchtower, on the streets.

For years, the Jehovah's Witnesses have been seeking to obtain legal recognition as a church from the German government so that they can enjoy the same rights and privileges as the Catholic and Protestant churches.

They have already had success in the states of Hesse, Bavaria and Lower-Saxony. But the states of Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg have resisted the church. In Rhineland-Palatinate, Governor Kurt Beck of the center-left Social Democrats is dreading a situation in which the group would get church tax revenues in his state or set up businesses in which trade unions aren't given a say. In Germany, tithing for religions recognized by the government is handled by the state in the form of a church tax.

A few weeks ago, Beck called on all division of his state government to "intensively seek out arguments" that could help hinder any official recognition of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Beck said he had "the most considerable doubts as to whether it could be defined as a religious community that is in keeping with Germany's constitution." After all, the intellectual leaders of the centrally organized group discourage members from voting or participating in elections.

Beck's aides have already collected several cases that could be used against the Jehovah's Witnesses. In autumn 1999, for example, a delegation of the Jehovah's Witness community in the state of Bavaria attempted to prevent a life-saving blood transfusion to a school-age child. The child's father, also a Jehovah's Witness, even used physical violence against the head physician. Ultimately, the blood transfusion had to be administered under police protection. And in Baden-Württemberg in 2001, a 16-year-old cancer patient died because his parents refused to permit a blood transfusion, citing the family's faith.

'Very Clearly a Sect'

The statements of former Jehovah's Witness members who claim the organization used "totalitarian methods" is also being considered. They claim the group is permanently demanding donations and endless work on behalf of the organization. They also claim that members who express any doubts about the Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs are subjected to extreme psychological pressure. And they claim that minors who don't want to subject themselves to the group's rules are punished with hard physical "beatings".

Marc Ratajczak, an expert on sects for the conservative Christian Democratic Union party's group in the state government in North Rhine-Westphalia, argues that the Jehovah's Witnesses are "very clearly a sect" who "damn" and "suppress" any other religions or attitudes about life as "Satan's work." In his free time, Ratajczak conducts rescue operations for the Red Cross, and finds it "inhuman" that Jehovah's Witnesses could fundamentally refuse blood transfusions and, by doing so, even allow children to get into life-threatening situations.

The regional member of parliament says he would like to see his state join the initiative to stop the Jehovah's Witnesses that has been spearheaded by neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate. Monika Brunert-Jetter, a fellow CDU member, says her party, the largest in the state government, will resist any attempt by the state government to recognize the Jehovah's Witnesses. The state's parliament would have to vote on any such decision.

But the opponents of Jehova's Witnesses are going to have a hard time. Three years ago, Berlin became the first German state to be forced to award the organisation official recognition as a church. The Berlin city government lost a 15-year legal battle. The Witnesses filed separate applications for recognition in Germany's 15 other states immediately after that. They were able to point to the Berlin court decision as a precedent that gives the other states very little legal leeway.

That's the conclusion regional government officials on church matters reached at a meeting in Bonn last year. All the organisation had to do was avoid breaking the law to make sure that authorities couldn't take away its official status, officials concluded, adding: "The constitution doesn't demand a loyalty that goes beyond that."

Even if individual Jehovah's Witnesses break the law, that doesn't affect the status of the church as a whole.

Recently even the government in Catholic Bavaria quietly recognized the Jehova's Witnesses, as did saxony and Hamburg. In Baden-Württemberg, Culture Minister Helmut Rau had drafted a government document recognizing the church before Governor Günther Oettinger of the CDU stopped it.

The head of the CDU parliamentary group in the Baden-Württemberg regional parliament, Stefan Mappus, went further. "A religious community that rejects democratic elections, looks down on individual freedoms and rejects blood transfusions for example, can't be regarded as loyal to the constitution in our opinion." Oettinger now plans to discuss the matter with the big churches.

The Jehova's Witnesses have so far reacted calmly to such announcements. The legal situation is "unambiguous," says Gajus Glockentin, lawyer for the German Jehova's Witnesses headquarters in the Hesse town of Selters. The group argued successfully in the Berlin court case that the events cited against it were regrettable individual cases that the group couldn't be blamed for.

The Witnesses' policy of abstaining from voting wasn't an effective arguement either, Glockentin says. After all, declining to vote isn't aimed at weakening democracy, he argues. It's simply the result of an "apolitical attitude to life."

91

BREAKING NEWS: WATCHTOWER IS STILL A MEMBER OF UN- SOURCE SAYS.

by Scott77 in

jw
friends

i have read today this quote from one member on facebook going by the name of ruth eeker.. .

based on her quote, she states that "as well in regards to the un, the society has various name versions registered still in the un.

so they are still not completely out of the supposed beast!".

chasson

http://www.iapso.org/pdf/Review2003.pdf

I have still give the link here, in 2003, the Watchtower was still a consumer of IAPSO, another part of the ONU.

Read the condition to be a consumer of IAPSO here: http://www.iapso.org/sc/iapsocondtions.asp:

"Services provided by IAPSO are limited t assisting the UN system, governments receiving aid, organizations cooperating with the UN system as donor government aid organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGO's)"

So in 2003, Watchtower was still a NGO "cooperating with the UN System".

24

Why I'm Happy Ted Jaracz {governing body} is dying! Comments?

by Witness 007 in

he was responsible for the child abuse mess and voted on the blood, organ transplant, nuetrality issues which killed many faithful witnesses and left others with serious mental problems.

he was from all accounts rude, arrogant and i believe he would have sacrificed witness children an an altar if he thought it would help the "mother" organisation as he called it.

he is the ultimate brainwashed freak who would step on brothers knecks just to make sure things are "theocratic.

chasson

Happy for the dying of a men, even an evil men ? No, i can't be happy.

22

Please help me with an educated response to this JW email .....

by troubled mind in

jw
friends

> sujet: fait committee de liaison hospitalier:.

translation -- march 22, 2009 -- garry melchert.

we would like to share with you an experience related by brother baudril, from the hospital liason committee, during a recent circuit assembly in marseille.. .

chasson

Sorry, i have not read this article since now, this is a french JW urban legend. See the answer of the hospital on my blog:

http://temoinsdejehovah.blog.free.fr/index.php?post/2009/04/25/Pr%C3%A9matur%C3%A9s-et-Transfusions%3A-Un-exemple-de-l%C3%A9gende-urbaine-institutionnalis%C3%A9e-chez-les-T%C3%A9moins-de-J%C3%A9hovah

11

HISTORIC EVENT IN FRANCE... JW EMAIL

by whereami in

sorry i should have origanally posted this here.

is there any way to confirm this story?

i smell bs.

chasson

Mwouahaha, this is a typical jw urban legend, i have debugged this one two years ago when it appeared on the french's net, and it has reappeared since...

Take a look at my blog to see the history of this story, and the answer of the hospital:

http://temoinsdejehovah.blog.free.fr/index.php?post/2009/04/25/Pr%C3%A9matur%C3%A9s-et-Transfusions%3A-Un-exemple-de-l%C3%A9gende-urbaine-institutionnalis%C3%A9e-chez-les-T%C3%A9moins-de-J%C3%A9hovah

Charles

1

Is this man a JW ? (to germanjw)

by chasson in

take a look at this site;.

http://www.dreilindenfilm.de/index2.html.

the films proposed by the man called fritz poppenberg are about evolution/creation, bible, against abortion and evidently jehovah's witnesses (blood transfusion and purple triangle).. one is particularly surprising if i have understand correctly, it is called "die aids-rebellen".

chasson

Take a look at this site;

http://www.dreilindenfilm.de/index2.html

The films proposed by the man called Fritz Poppenberg are about evolution/creation, Bible, against abortion and evidently Jehovah's witnesses (blood transfusion and Purple triangle).

One is particularly surprising if i have understand correctly, It is called "Die AIDS-Rebellen"

Here is an automatic translation of the presentation of the film (http://www.dreilindenfilm.de/filme/rebellen.htm)

"Predicate: Particularly valuable

The film "The AIDS rebel" is internationally respected scientists to say that HIV is not the cause of AIDS and AIDS is not a contagious disease. Even more: The sickness will not be correctly diagnosed or treated properly and thus become victims of a questionable medicine.

The Wiesbaden Filmbewertunsgstelle writes:

"The wissenschaftsjournalistische report is a good example of counter-public in the best sense. Compels you to think, raises questions and shows the interconnection of ideology, sexual morality and society.

Although the film is the prevailing opinion about the causes of the disease AIDS severely into question, he avoids sectarian strive and presents theories, some of which are astounding in the media unanimously ignored, in its contradictions cool together.

This creates a network of information, opinions and divergent contexts, which gives the film tension. Especially the cool attitude and the renunciation of the self-conscious Diffarmierung makers of the dominant opinion, or maudlin savor the suffering parties makes this film so poignant and enlightening. "

Despite the flood of information does not overload the film, but he succeeds again and again, time to think about to create."

Someone in Germany to say more about this man ?

Charles

16

Seattle's brother curtis Thompson says HE'S the victim

by Nathan Natas in

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/401457_thompson26.html.

last updated february 25, 2009 11:26 p.m. pt.

serial rapist takes stand, claims he's the victim.

chasson

This one describe perfectly the trial of October 2003:

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/211661_jury11.html

Friday, February 11, 2005

Decision to free felon haunts jurors
Some say it was unfair to be asked if rapist would attack again

By RUTH TEICHROEB AND JESSICA BLANCHARD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS

For two grueling weeks, the 12 jurors heard conflicting opinions about Curtis Shane Thompson.

Was Thompson still a vicious serial rapist who should be locked up indefinitely to prevent him from striking again? Or was he a felon who deserved another chance after finding religion and serving 17 years in prison?

The jury's answer on Oct. 3, 2003, stunned King County prosecutors.

Jurors unanimously refused to commit Thompson, the first jury in the state to take such action since Washington's sexually violent predator law took effect in 1990. Only three other sex offenders facing commitment have been freed, all by judges.

Thompson's second chance was short-lived. Five months ago, he was charged with 14 felonies, including attacking two women in a University District elevator last August and raping a woman after breaking into her Eastlake apartment. He is in jail awaiting trial.

Now jurors from Thompson's civil trial are speaking out for the first time about the difficult decision they made, especially in light of the new charges against him.

"It was very devastating to me -- it will always be," said Kim Gordon, 50, who served on the jury. "I'm just your average mom, a family person, a good person. We all walked in there and did the best we could."

The law has attracted little public debate since Washington became the first state to commit sex offenders. In the last 15 years, 153 felons have been committed to the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island and 91 others have been detained there. Some are still awaiting trial, and some were released before trial.

Fifteen other states have passed similar laws, which so far have withstood legal challenges from civil libertarians who believe it's unconstitutional to imprison people who have served their time.

Jurors in the Thompson case said their task was to apply a civil law that narrowly defines which sex-offenders can be detained -- and that he didn't fit, no matter how much they despised his crimes.

"These guys aren't getting out because people are weak and won't stand up to this," said juror Kathryn Serrano, 28, who broke into tears as she discussed the case. "We are given certain guidelines. It's like a no-win situation."

Jurors also questioned the fairness of the law, saying if the public wants high-risk sex offenders locked up for life, the criminal law should be changed to "one strike and you're out" for specific sex crimes.

"He had served his time and that was it," said juror Anita Veltman, 68, reflecting on her reason for setting Thompson free.

A tough position

Other jurors criticized the state for expecting a jury to predict whether an inmate will commit future crimes when the experts can't agree.

"I think it was ridiculous that we were put in the position of a clinical psychologist," Serrano said. "It was very unfair for them to ask us to decide this."

Convicted in 1985 of sexually assaulting four Seattle women in four months, Thompson met the first requirement for commitment by being charged or convicted of a sex crime.

But clinical psychologists clashed on two other key conditions for commitment: a person must suffer from a mental abnormality or personality disorder and be likely to re-offend if not confined to a secure facility.

Clinical psychologist Amy Phenix took the stand first, saying her examination of Thompson determined that he was a sexual sadist who would likely prey on more victims.

She cited his string of increasingly violent rapes preceding his imprisonment in 1985 as well as his self-confessed history of sexually and physically abusing his stepsisters starting when he was 10 years old. He'd raped them, lit their hair on fire and smothered them with blankets.

Risk factors cited

Other factors that heightened Thompson's risk included his refusal to seek treatment in prison, his inability to sustain any intimate relationships and his relatively young age of 44 upon release, Phenix said.

When he was charged with the 1985 rapes, he confessed he had begun to fear he "might kill someone."

"He was one of the higher-risk sex offenders I've evaluated in my career," said Phenix in a recent phone interview. She has evaluated sex offenders for a decade in California and helped develop that state's 1996 civil commitment law.

She did not expect jurors to release Thompson.

"I've not ever had a case like this," Phenix said. "I was shocked."

Thompson's scores on psychological tests that estimated his risk of re-offending within the next decade predicted he was anywhere from 11 percent to 89 percent likely to commit more crimes, according to an End of Sentence Review written by Department of Corrections clinical psychologist Carla Van Dam. He scored better on tests that left out crimes for which he was never charged, including his juvenile sex assaults.

Becoming a devout Jehovah's Witness while in prison had prompted Thompson to refuse treatment and therefore increased the chance he'd backslide upon release, Van Dam concluded in her report. Van Dam, who did not testify, recommended Thompson be committed.

Inmates who find religion often win the sympathy of jurors who believe they will be less likely to re-offend, Phenix said. But studies have found that religion has no effect on recidivism rates.

None of the jurors who were interviewed acknowledged being influenced by Thompson's conversion.

"I thought that was just exchanging one addiction for another," Serrano said.

Juror Renee Hayes also said she was skeptical of his conversion but suspected some other jurors wanted to believe he'd changed.

"It definitely opened up a big question mark in some people's minds," said Hayes, 54.

Prosecutors should have done a better job of emphasizing that prison conversions are no guarantee of good behavior on the outside, Hayes said.

Jurors also heard from Thompson's victims, including one woman who was attacked in her bed in June 1985 by the knife-wielding rapist.

The rape had lingering effects, even after she moved to California, the victim said in a recent interview. She sought therapy to deal with her fear of being home alone, recurring nightmares and inability to sleep.

The verdict baffled her: "I don't know if I was angry as much as surprised and disappointed," she said.

A spirited defense

Thompson's attorneys mounted a spirited defense -- despite the fact that Thompson tried several times before and during the trial to fire them, according to court records.

Family members and church members begged jurors to give Thompson the opportunity to prove he'd turned his life around.

Thompson embraced the Jehovah's Witness faith while in prison, regularly attending religious meetings and quoting scriptures, said Robert Maulding, a Jehovah's Elder from the Steilacoom congregation who testified at the trial.

"Curtis expressed regret for what he'd done," said Maulding, adding he saw no signs that Thompson would re-offend. "I made as honest an assessment as a human being can."

Clinical psychologist Theodore Donaldson challenged everything other experts had told the jury.

He testified that Thompson was not suffering from a mental disorder, had the ability to control his behavior and didn't pose a high risk.

"I still don't think he had a mental disorder," said Donaldson, in a recent phone interview from California. "He's a big angry guy. He's a criminal." But Donaldson said that didn't mean he fit the commitment criteria.

Donaldson has evaluated 240 sex offenders since he began working for defense attorneys in 1996. Twenty-six of those cases were in Washington state where he has testified at 10 civil commitment trials.

He began working for the defense after being "kicked off" the California Department of Mental Health panel evaluating sex offenders for commitment. "Conceptual disagreements" with state officials after just three months were cited as the reason.

Donaldson said that 90 percent of the time he disagrees with state experts about whether an inmate should be committed.

"There's no science to address the law," Donaldson said. "They win these cases because the juries find these people so objectionable."

Diagnosing mental disorders is still a "very primitive" science and the statistical instruments used to assess the likelihood of re-offending are inaccurate, Donaldson said.

For example, age isn't given sufficient weight in assessing risk, he said. "The older you get, the more the risk goes down," Donaldson said.

While none of the jurors said Donaldson's testimony was a deciding factor, several said he'd raised valid concerns.

A difficult standard

Hayes said the state failed to prove Thompson was at least 51 percent likely to re-offend, the standard for commitment. She also was not convinced that Thompson fit the diagnosis of "sexual sadist."

Serrano also struggled with whether Thompson fit that diagnosis. Experts told jurors sexual sadists "enjoy mutilating" victims and she didn't believe there was enough evidence of that..

"You need to study for years to do clinical diagnosis, yet we were asked to make a decision after two weeks," Serrano said, bursting into tears. "The sad thing is that a rapist is a rapist. Does it matter if he mutilated?"

Thompson's track record in prison, where he'd incurred only minor infractions, swayed some jurors, whose decision had to be unanimous. He was also no longer abusing drugs and alcohol.

"He'd been clean for 18 years," Serrano said. "How does a sexually violent predator act in prison?"

That influenced Gordon as well: "We had to consider his behavior in prison."

But the youngest juror, Paul Beard, 22, said he didn't buy arguments that Thompson had changed.

"If I remember correctly, I was the only one who wanted to find him guilty," Beard said. "We fought over it for a while."

The son of a law-enforcement officer, Beard wasn't impressed that Thompson stayed out of trouble in prison where he had no access to victims and constant supervision. And he worried that Thompson had scored high on some tests that predict who will re-offend.

"I just knew he was going to do it again," Beard said. "I tried to put up a fight."

But gut feelings didn't hold up against other jurors' arguments, so Beard gave in.

"All of us kind of teamed up on him and told him what he had wasn't enough," Serrano recalled.

Prosecutors were caught off guard by the jury's decision -- the first time they'd lost a sex-offender commitment case.

"It was not an outcome we expected," said David Hackett, who runs the sexual predator unit in the King County Prosecutor's Office.

"The evidence in this case didn't look any different than any other."

King County has committed 51 sex offenders since the law went into effect. Two-thirds of those cases were decided by juries. Another two dozen cases are awaiting trial.

Thompson's religious conversion and good behavior in prison were points in his favor, Hackett said.

"People like to believe people change, even if they've done terrible things," Hackett said.

There's a simpler explanation, said Thompson's defense attorney, Anita Paulsen: The jury carefully weighed the evidence to keep him detained and found it lacking.

"I think it's a tribute to them and the whole system," Paulsen said. "Nobody has a crystal ball."

Some of those who went to bat for Thompson are now bitterly disappointed about his new charges.

Maulding, the Jehovah's Elder, said he was disheartened, especially since Thompson's successful challenge of the law had given hope to other McNeil Island inmates. He feels stung that he may have misjudged Thompson so badly.

Jurors too feel haunted that someone else may have been victimized by Thompson.

"I just wish I could apologize and say (to the victims), 'I am so sorry this happened to you,' " Serrano said. "If I could have made a different decision, I would have."

P-I investigative reporter Ruth Teichroeb can be reached at 206-448-8175 or [email protected]

108

BIG NEWS! Leader of German Watchtower History Archives Resignes and Leaves Branch Office!

by GermanXJW in

johannes wrobel, the founder of the watchtower history archives in germany, responsible for the stand firm-video and the stand-firm-exhibitions resigned in november 2008 and left the german branch office.

he was also the responsible person for many of the wt sponsored websites on jw in the 'third reich'!.

there are no further details known yet but this could be big news!.

chasson

http://web.archive.org/web/20050222225917/http://www.briefkarte.de/

Well in fact, he has rented this apartment for bethel tour since 2005, the price has dropped from 35 euros to 105 euros now. That's all.

108

BIG NEWS! Leader of German Watchtower History Archives Resignes and Leaves Branch Office!

by GermanXJW in

johannes wrobel, the founder of the watchtower history archives in germany, responsible for the stand firm-video and the stand-firm-exhibitions resigned in november 2008 and left the german branch office.

he was also the responsible person for many of the wt sponsored websites on jw in the 'third reich'!.

there are no further details known yet but this could be big news!.

chasson

In this page, we can see a link to a certain site called lilaschokola.de. After a brief "who is" search", Wrobel is really the owner of this site:

As we can see on www.archive.org; this site has only be active in September 2007. Is it only a personal site ?