Posts by Doubting Bro

20

Will Watchtower Bible and Tract Society staff or Jehovah's Witnesses ELDERS be convicted next ?

by Balaamsass in

about an hour ago the first criminal conviction of clergy involved in child abuse cover-up occured!

considering the power of the the catholic church, and the percentage of catholics on the jury this is incredible!!!!!

how long do you think it will be before before elders and bethelites among jehovahs's witnesses are convicted of criminal conspiracy with no jehovah's witnesses in the jury pool ?

Doubting Bro

I think that where the WTS is exposed is in situations where 1)they were aware that an elder was abusing kids yet allowed him to continue and 2) where they delete someone for child abuse then reappoint that individual at some point in the future to a position of authority. By elder, I also mean CO, DO, special pioneer,or missionary.

I wonder how the service desk makes decisions on whether to delete someone or reappoint someone? I know the locals make recommendations that are signed off by the CO but in a reappointment situation, wouldn't the service desk have access to the "database" and have full knowledge of what the individual did?

Does the person on the service desk have the authority or do they have to confer with a branch committee or something? I know the appointments/deletions of elders remain a branch specific task so the main organization isn't involved.

I could really see individual BOEs and likely COs having the most exposure. The case would need to be clear cut like the Lynn case in order to get a criminal conviction.

I think its an overall positive development. If a person's sense of right and wrong doesn't force them into action, maybe the threat of jail time will do it.

33

Penn State pays for covering up Sandusky crimes, BIG TIME

by talesin in

this sends a clear message to other universities who may be harboring child molesters.. excerpt:.

the sanctions by the governing body of college sports, which capped eight months of turmoil on the central pennsylvania campus, stopped short of delivering the "death penalty" of shutting down the sport.

but the ncaa hit penn state with $60 million in fines, ordered it out of the postseason for four years, and will cap scholarships at 20 below the normal limit for four years.. other sanctions five years' probation, and the ncaa also said that any current or incoming football players are free to immediately transfer and compete at another school.. ncaa president mark emmert announced the staggering sanctions at a news conference in indianapolis.

Doubting Bro

Vacating wins was a shot at Paterno. The NCAA doesn't want their all time winning coach to be a person that sheilded pedophiles. It's a PR move for the NCAA. Paterno is dead, so it doesn't really matter to him.

From a PR stand-point, they had to do something. I've been reading twitter feeds from some former PSU players that don't really have an issue with the punishment. While the kids on the current football team will lose an opportunity to play in a bowl, they can transfer if they wish. Also, this is not the first time the NCAA has taken the opportunity to play bowl games away. USC, Ohio State, Georgia Tech have all been punished in the recent past and no one seemed to have an issue with that although kids that didn't do anything were impacted. When you are on a team, the actions of one impact the entire team.

There is no way the NCAA could punish the school for its lack of institutional control and it's callous disregard for the kids who Sandusky used the football program to entrap without impacting students. But, they're free to leave, it's not like anyone is forcing them to stay at the school. That's what I don't really understand about people's objection to the penalty. Playing college football is not a constitutional right. It's a privilege that the majority of high school football players never get a shot at. So, if some of the Penn St players are unable to find another school to play at, are they really going to be scarred for life? If they can't find another program to play in, odds are they were not going to have a professional football career anyway.

114

Watchtower and Anonymous Links, Updates, News, etc.

by DT in

i wanted to consolidate a lot of the information about the attack of anonymous against the watchtower society.

if you disagree with the tactics of anonymous, that's fine.

this information may still be useful as the public is made more aware of the the dangerous policies of the watchtower society.

Doubting Bro

Me too! Can someone copy and paste?? Please??

33

Penn State pays for covering up Sandusky crimes, BIG TIME

by talesin in

this sends a clear message to other universities who may be harboring child molesters.. excerpt:.

the sanctions by the governing body of college sports, which capped eight months of turmoil on the central pennsylvania campus, stopped short of delivering the "death penalty" of shutting down the sport.

but the ncaa hit penn state with $60 million in fines, ordered it out of the postseason for four years, and will cap scholarships at 20 below the normal limit for four years.. other sanctions five years' probation, and the ncaa also said that any current or incoming football players are free to immediately transfer and compete at another school.. ncaa president mark emmert announced the staggering sanctions at a news conference in indianapolis.

Doubting Bro

I think the NCAA should have revoked Penn State's membership in the Association. To me, the penalty doesn't go far enough. The football program made 52 million last year so this is essentially a 1 year salary fine. SMU got a 3 year death penalty for paying it's players and getting caught. How much worse is what Penn St did? The administration at that school is downright evil for having allowed this to go on as long as it did.

51

District Convention Points Saturday 21-07-2012 New Light? Governing Body Is Our Mother?

by Bubblegum Apotheosis in

i have been trying to wrap my head around the talk that introduced the slave as our mother?

the brothers at bethel are worried that we are not treating our spiritual mother with respect.

jehovah is our father, the faithful slave (the governing body) is our spiritual mammy.

Doubting Bro

unshackled - I love that Pink Floyd song! I always thing of the WTS when I hear it because there's really not one word that doesn't apply.

70

JW Longo Story on ABC TV July 11th "Final Witness"

by AndersonsInfo in

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listings/20120611abc02/.

final witness*.

air date: wednesday, july 11, 2012. time slot: 10:00 pm-11:00 pm est on abc.

Doubting Bro

My wife and I watched it. Very sad story and just unbelievable that someone could even commit such a horrible crime. As far as the JW angle goes, seems like they did a pretty accurate job of portraying the meetings and DFing policy.

I'm assuming her sisters are JWs as well. I'm glad they didn't try to witness but rather talked about their sister.

I agree that lethal injection is too good for Longo.

36

Memorial attendance DECLINED by 2.4% in the US from 2011 to 2012!

by sir82 in

jw
friends

the september km is out, here is the thread pointing to it:.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/228224/1/2012-september-kingdom-ministry.

of particular note is the "highlight" on page 4, announcing the attendance at the memorial in the usa.. the 2012 yearbook notes the memorial attendance in 2011 was 2.563,318, while in 2012, per the september 2012 km, it was 2,502,055 -- a decline of 2.4%.. .

Doubting Bro

Guess that invitation campaign really paid off!

Is the Bahamas number right above? did you mean 3,609?

Those are some pretty big numbers.

I know locally, the numbers were down.

42

Avoid Testing God in Your Heart - transcript of talk from District Convention 2012

by wannabefree in

for those who don't care to listen to the talk but would like to know what was said ... here ya go .... .

avoid testing god in your heart.

imagine the ancient israelites as they were slaves in egypt, under an oppressive pharaoh.. god brought nine plagues on egypt and then announced a tenth; the firstborn would be struck down.. can you imagine the cry that went out in egypt when the firstborn died, including pharaoh's own son?.

Doubting Bro

Thanks for posting this. This must have been a manuscript talk because it sounds almost word for word from the one I heard. Horrible.

162

No more 3-day DCs starting in 2013?

by respectful_observer in

apologies if there is another recent thread on this, but i have heard from 4 different people in 3 different geographic areas (including someone who does advance work for the dcs), that beginning in 2013 the three day dc program will be replaced by a second two-day circuit assembly.

some people were passing the info along like a secret, others seemed to think that everyone already knew.. if everyone in j-dub land is already talking about this, how is it not all over this forum??.

anyway, can anyone confirm or deny?.

Doubting Bro

Sir82, I'm shocked they haven't done that yet. I guess they have in year's past done that phone connection for 1 or two talks but it would make sense to do it for a large part of the program if they wanted to.

As for the rumor, it's something many have been thinking about for awhile but I'll believe it when I see it. The only reason they would move it to 2 days is if they could make a bigger profit margin.

Attendance is usually lower on Friday so many JWs have already made this a 2 day deal.

I was more shocked at them downsizing the CBS than any of the other moves we've seen in the last 10 years. I guess I was so shocked at that one because there wasn't a real monetary need to do that. I think that move was due to the shortage of 1) conductors and 2) people willing to host the meeting. That one is real insight into the mindset of the modern day JW (at least in the developed world).

171

Watchtower's Billion Dollars of Property Cannot Be Sold until Outcome of Conti Appeal

by Dogpatch in

30 minutes ago i just got off the phone with some important players in this case, and some things were relayed to me concerning a lot of details of the outcome of the last two days of court.

i am passing this on.

cynthia hampton, one of the main players in the candace conti case (and a close friend of 28 years), just informed me of a further, far more powerful move by the state of california against the watch tower bible and tract society of new york, inc.. by order of the superior court of the state of california - county of alameda (see documents below), until the watch tower's appeal, which won't begin until august 13th and will take up to two years to settle due to due process of law, has forbidden the watch tower to sell any more of its $1 billion in assets in the borough of brooklyn until the appeals case is finished, to assure they won't shelter their monies in the light of this most huge and devastating sexual abuse scandal ever to hit the watch tower society, and perhaps any other single-victim lawsuit.

Doubting Bro

BOTR - Thanks for your insight. In your opinion, do you think the WTS needs to appeal this all the way to the SCOTUS if necessary? I can't see them giving up on this because if it ends up in a loss, the precedent will be set and their ability to defend other suits will be compromised, correct?

Does anyone know if they've posted their appeal bond yet?