Witnesses are devoid systematically of real empathy, or they are taught at least to suppress it in favor of promoting the recruitment for the publishing company as empathy. Yes. Its sick.
freemindfade
JoinedPosts by freemindfade
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Sickening opportunists!
by username inok so i just had to go over to the darkside (jwtalk) and see what is the latest buzz.
i wish i hadn't now because i'm blazing mad at the jw's reply to the current refugee crisis.. am i the only one who thinks this is really sick?.
op:.
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The bridge burning has begun.
by sparrowdown ini was feeling particularly hopeless about the whole jws being assholes thing and sick to death of pretending so ....
i rang my sister and told her that i no longer believe jws have the truth and the phone went silent, when i asked her to say something she just said if that was the case then she would have to hang up on me and then proceeded to indeed hang up..
so i texted her back immediately with fu..
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freemindfade
Good job, I've had to go through it likewise, it just gets exhausting not being able to be your true self -
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New Trey Bundy Article Discusses "Theocratic Warfare"
by HomebytheSea inhttps://www.revealnews.org/article/jehovahs-witnesses-can-hide-the-truth-in-court-to-protect-religion/.
another great article by trey.
hope it gets a lot of publicity!
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freemindfade
Just finished reading it as well. Very good.
Jehovah’s Witnesses can hide the truth in court to protect religion
Topics: Criminal Justice / Religion
By Trey Bundy / September 23, 2015
Vincent Toole, the head of the Watchtower’s legal department in Australia, said he had heard of the “theocratic warfare” doctrine but was “not really sure what it means.”
Credit: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
On a Friday morning in August, one of the Jehovah’s Witnesses top leaders sat before an Australian government commission investigating whether the organization hid child sexual abuse from secular authorities.
That Geoffrey Jackson, one of the seven members of the religion’s Governing Body, was being grilled in public captivated a global community of former Witnesses that watched the live stream on their home computers.
During two weeks of hearings, Jackson and members of the organization’s top brass in Australia gave hours of sworn testimony, but at least one big question remained: Were any of them telling the truth?
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Since the 1950s, the Witnesses have preached a doctrine allowing Jehovah’s followers to deceive anyone outside of the religion if doing so protects the organization. They call it “theocratic warfare.”
The policy has taken on a new significance today as Jehovah’s Witnesses are coming under scrutiny across continents for enabling and concealing child sexual abusers. Top leaders are being questioned under oath as judges and investigators try to get to the bottom of a global scandal.
A 1957 article in The Watchtower magazine – named for the Witnesses’ parent corporation, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York – grants permission to Jehovah’s followers to hide the truth from “enemies” of the religion. The religion teaches that the world outside the organization is controlled by Satan.
“So in a time of spiritual warfare it is proper to misdirect the enemy by hiding the truth,” the article reads. “Today God’s servants are engaged in a warfare, a spiritual, theocratic warfare, a warfare ordered by God against wicked spirit forces and against false teachings.”
The theocratic warfare doctrine teaches that refusing to cooperate with criminal investigations involving Jehovah’s Witnesses is sanctioned by God because outsiders are not entitled to the truth.
Although the term theocratic warfare appears in Watchtower literature less and less over time, the organization’s leadership still teaches that secrecy is a crucial method of avoiding the scrutiny of the justice system. And there’s reason to believe it’s still in practice.
For 25 years, Watchtower policies have directed elders in all U.S. congregations to hide cases of child sexual abuse from law enforcement agencies as well as their own congregations, according to confidential documents from inside the organization.
Reveal looked at more than a dozen lawsuits and discovered evidence suggesting that Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders have either lied under oath or refused to cooperate with secular authorities on the hunt for abusers. In some cases, those elders remain in positions of power in their local congregations.
‘These three brothers lied in court about this and much more’
Three Jehovah’s Witnesses elders lied under oath about their role in enabling a known child molester to continue abusing children, according to another elder who claims to have knowledge of the events.
In a 2011 lawsuit, Michael Clarke, Gary Abrahamson and Larry Lamerdin, elders in the North Fremont congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, took the stand to face questions about why they didn’t report to police that one of their members, Jonathan Kendrick, had confessed to sexually abusing his stepdaughter.
Clarke and Abrahamson testified that they had brought together all of the congregation’s elders and instructed them to watch Kendrick closely to make sure he did not abuse more children.
But in a series of 2013 letters to Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders, Rod Francis, who was an elder in the North Fremont congregation in the 1990s when the abuse occurred, accused the three elders of lying under oath.
“None of the other elders, including myself were aware that a child sexual predator was in our midst even though the offender was in my book study,” he wrote. “Because of this the congregation and our own families were unable to be adequately protected resulting in catastrophic outcomes for other young girls and damage to my own family. These three brothers lied in court about this and much more.”
Francis declined to comment for this story. Reveal obtained his letters from a third party.
Clarke, Abrahamson and Lamerdin did not return calls seeking comment.
Former Jehovah’s Witness Candace Conti, who claimed that she was sexually abused by an elder in the 1990s, sued the organization in 2011. The court awarded her $28 million in damages, a number later reduced to an undisclosed amount.
Former Jehovah’s Witness Candace Conti, who claimed that she was sexually abused by an elder in the 1990s, sued the organization in 2011. The court awarded her $28 million in damages, a number later reduced to an undisclosed amount.
Credit: Adithya Sambamurthy/Reveal
The 2011 case was brought against the Watchtower by Candace Conti, who claimed the Witnesses could have prevented her abuse by Kendrick in the 1990s by warning the congregation that he had previously abused a child. The court awarded Conti $28 million in damages, a number later reduced to an undisclosed amount.
Kendrick has confessed to molesting two girls but denies abusing Conti. He was never criminally prosecuted for his alleged crimes against her and remains a Jehovah’s Witness in good standing.
Why a judge called the Watchtower’s omissions ‘reprehensible’
In another California lawsuit against the Witnesses last year, one of the organization’s top leaders, Governing Body member Gerrit Lösch, refused to testify.
In that case, a San Diego court looked at allegations that an elder named Gonzalo Campos had sexually abused a Jehovah’s Witness boy named Jose Lopez in the 1980s.
Lopez’s attorney, Irwin Zalkin, subpoenaed 17 years’ worth of records collected by the Watchtower containing the names of known and suspected child sexual abusers in its U.S. congregations. The Watchtower acknowledged that the records existed but refused to hand them over.
Zalkin also subpoenaed Lösch to testify to the Governing Body’s role in forming the organization’s child abuse policies. On Feb. 5, 2014, Lösch submitted a sworn declaration explaining why he should not have to testify.
“I am not, and have never been, a corporate officer, director, managing agent, member, or employee of Watchtower,” Lösch wrote. “I do not direct, and have never directed, the day-to-day operations of Watchtower. I do not answer to Watchtower. I do not have, and have never had, any authority as an individual to make or determine corporate policy for Watchtower or any department of Watchtower.”
Although Lösch claims he has no power over any department of the Watchtower, internal Watchtower documents show that, as a Governing Body member, he oversaw one of two Watchtower departments that deal with allegations of child abuse, at least until 2014.
Lösch’s declaration also directly contradicted the testimony of Watchtower officials in which they said that the Governing Body reviews and approves all Watchtower policies, including those pertaining to child abuse.
Allen Shuster, a senior Watchtower official, said as much during his testimony in the Candace Conti case. When Conti’s attorney asked whether the child abuse policies came from the Governing Body, he answered, “That is an accurate statement, yes.”
Shuster continued: “On a high level, review, the Governing Body does establish policies.”
San Diego Superior Court Judge Joan Lewis, who heard the Jose Lopez case, threw the Watchtower’s defense out of court for refusing to comply with court orders.
“Watchtower’s actions or omissions were ‘reprehensible,’ ” she wrote in her decision.
She also dismissed Lösch’s declaration that he, as a Governing Body member, had no power over the Watchtower.
“The award of punitive damages against them will hopefully send a message to Watchtower and its managing agents, the governing body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, that their handling of sex abuse cases within their congregation was absolutely reckless,” she wrote.
Lewis awarded Lopez $13.5 million.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are also facing pressure outside the U.S.
The investigation in Australia has been the most sweeping government inquiry into the Watchtower’s child abuse policies to date. Prior to the hearings, investigators uncovered 1,006 allegations of child sexual abuse against Jehovah’s Witnesses in Australia since 1950. None were reported to the police.
Requests to interview Geoffrey Jackson and other Watchtower officials were denied.
The commission lacks the power to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators but has referred some cases to criminal authorities and plans to issue recommendations to the government.
During the hearings, Vincent Toole, the head of the Watchtower’s legal department in Australia, was asked whether he was aware of the theocratic warfare doctrine.
“Well, I’ve heard the expression,” he said, “but I’m not really sure what it means.”
He was then asked whether Witnesses were allowed to lie to protect Jehovah’s name.
“We are truthful,” he said. “To be a Christian, you have to be truthful.”
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Does anyone pray and if so to who?
by duc007az init's been years since i've prayed and the last one i prayed to was the god known as jehovah.
just wondering.
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Does anyone pray and if so to who?
by duc007az init's been years since i've prayed and the last one i prayed to was the god known as jehovah.
just wondering.
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freemindfade
hahaha caleb we need to start a brand
"Prey"
dont forget to prey...
let us prey...
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Annual Meeting Speculation Open Thread
by cappytan in- tony morris will rant about apostates anonymously sending him pink socks.. - david splane will say that though types and anti-types are no longer jw doctrine, that doesn't mean that the gb can't bring them back anytime they want.
obey, or else we'll bring them back!.
- sam herd gives a talk about "wimmen, whisky and makin' whoopie".
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freemindfade
But seriously...
I think the more positive members will have a don't look at the man behind the curtain part, like patting on the back, look at whats going on in warkwick! Jw broadcast...aren't we great... and so forth. I think TM3 will find it irresistible to go on the attack against the apostates, 2015 was a bad year for the org, there is gonna be more talk about not doubting, obeying, and so on. Oh yea... give money
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Annual Meeting Speculation Open Thread
by cappytan in- tony morris will rant about apostates anonymously sending him pink socks.. - david splane will say that though types and anti-types are no longer jw doctrine, that doesn't mean that the gb can't bring them back anytime they want.
obey, or else we'll bring them back!.
- sam herd gives a talk about "wimmen, whisky and makin' whoopie".
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freemindfade
Jackson has been downgraded and relocated to the Australian branch.
Lett can finally count to potato, he stopped eating crayons, and pooped today.
AMIII now is the GB, new light, its not a composite he is the 'Slave'
Loesch tells anecdotes
Herd talk about latest thoughts on women's brain sizes
Splane distances himself from the others
And whats his name keeps his chubbly little moth shut so as not to invoke the wrath of TMIII, the Tight Pants Terminator
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New here!
by Mandy97 inhi guys !
hm.. i'm new in this website !
my name is mandy and i just want to meet new people!
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freemindfade
Welcome, feel free to private message me, i speak some french occasionally -
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Anthony Morris III: Jehovah Blesses Obedience
by wifibandit inhttp://tv.jw.org/#video/vodprogramsevents/pub-jwbmw_201509_1_video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf9j7qs7bvm.
obey.
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freemindfade
His accent has more of a upper midwest to buffalo new york sound, not to be mistaken at all with various NYC accents. its somewhere between Chicago and buffalo. -
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Anthony Morris III: Jehovah Blesses Obedience
by wifibandit inhttp://tv.jw.org/#video/vodprogramsevents/pub-jwbmw_201509_1_video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf9j7qs7bvm.
obey.
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freemindfade
More prequestioned. More discreet. More...composited...more...overlapping?...
