supposing you were called to give evidence by an inquiry.
how would you answer?
are you concerned that you may end up being called to give evidence for past involvement in judicial committees to future inquiries?
I am with punkofnice. No real involvement in any cases, and in my case- too long ago to be worried.
But if I were called now for some old involvement as a prior elder, I would just be as honest as I could be.
"I was following orders, not given complete information. Regardless of what the other elders say, we always reported to Headquarters and they gave directions. As far as I know, the Governing Body has the largest impact on policies."
while i'm glad that the practices of the wts are under review and the australian commission is taking them to task, i'm not really expecting huge changes in the long run.
oh, they may have to agree to some changes in how they report crimes brought to elders' attention, but this excitement over the supposed expose of wt practices shall pass, and jws will soon be canvassing neighborhoods and rolling their carts, looking for converts.
conventions will go on.
Freddo makes a great point:
Instead of people leaving in shame because they've shagged each other or had a cigarette or wanked to porn they can take the moral high ground and go up to the trolley dollies and their minders and embarrass them and say "How can you profess to be a representative of the creator when your leaders are defending child abusers? You white washed grave!"
I can see that happening in Australia. I read of, even met a few people who left the Catholic Church after their problem. I read on here all the time about MS's and elders looking for a fairly honorable way to resign. Maybe they won't wait for such an honorable way and just say they don't want to be called out for these things.
I think the hype here is always to be expected, but I like the "moral high ground." We keep shouting that they are a dangerous mind-control cult and people who were never JW don't care. "Get over it," they say. But tell them how JW's have been worse (by percentage) than the Catholic Church and children are in danger. Now, they want to know more.
in joe134cd's recent thread, he mentioned the myth that apparently one should be able to fade or become inactive without repercussions from the community.
he mentioned about the 'dropping-you-like-a-hot-potato' phenomenon from social media sites, even when you've not told anybody why you're not coming any more.. i propose that it may be good to record such a phenomenon when it occurs so that this lie can be readily rebuffed.
i'm not out yet, but when i do, i shall be only to willing to record the response on social media sites.
I am not quite sure what the point here is, nor what Joe134cd was saying, as I tried to find his comments but did not.
But anywho, if you fade, you can't control the gossip. You need to avoid JW's altogether on social media. If you have JW family on Facebook, you can have a generic site with photos and ordinary stuff. If you need an ex-JW life, you will have to have a fake name just like JWN.
And forget your JW friends. Drop them or they drop you. Fading is for keeping family.
while i'm glad that the practices of the wts are under review and the australian commission is taking them to task, i'm not really expecting huge changes in the long run.
oh, they may have to agree to some changes in how they report crimes brought to elders' attention, but this excitement over the supposed expose of wt practices shall pass, and jws will soon be canvassing neighborhoods and rolling their carts, looking for converts.
conventions will go on.
It probably will pass without much change. But many children should be safer in Australia. The RC might go a bit further than just making them report allegations. One child getting justice makes it all worthwhile.
Still, I know what you mean. Ex-JW's get all excited, but in the end, it does little to retention and recruitment. Most JW's don't even hear about it, and when someone tries to tell them, they refuse to listen to lies from Satan's media and governments.
But just suppose another possibility. Suppose recruitment in Australia becomes zero and retention is so far down that they experience negative numbers. It is highly possible.
Watchtower may reach a tipping point where growth is just impossible after enough negative press and money problems. I am confident we won't see the end of Watchtower in our lifetime, but we might just see that tipping point.
the royal commissions public hearing into the jehovahs witnesses will recommence in sydney on friday 14 august 2015 at 11:00am.. it is anticipated that the hearing will hear from one witness, mr geoffrey jackson, a member of the governing body of jehovahs witnesses.. .
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www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2015-08/public-hearing-into-the-jehovah%e2%80%99s-witnesses-to-rec.
BUT, if he is indeed gods own mouthpiece, ......
stuckinarut2, you made me laugh. You and I know that he won't depend on that teaching.
He'd fall back on "spirit-directed, not inspired" even though it's meaningless garbage.
the royal commissions public hearing into the jehovahs witnesses will recommence in sydney on friday 14 august 2015 at 11:00am.. it is anticipated that the hearing will hear from one witness, mr geoffrey jackson, a member of the governing body of jehovahs witnesses.. .
.
www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2015-08/public-hearing-into-the-jehovah%e2%80%99s-witnesses-to-rec.
I will personally be surprised if there are no sudden reports of Jackson's father's health taking a nosedive.
If my prediction comes true, then it was a prophecy.
If he does appear, he's got lawyers running things past him this whole week to prepare him for the answers he could give.
as the shepherd the flock book is now in the public domain, if the .org decides to create a new manual, how soon will it be leaked?.
this is mostly a question for wifibandit, but anyone else who may know is welcome to answer.
would it be a matter of days before we get a .pdf?
What's the difference? If something similar to the Australian Royal Commission had only the "old" elders manual to refer to, they would. If the JW's questioned said that they have new policy that overrides that, then they would be asked to produce the new policy.
Even if they don't have a new elders manual, the Royal Commission will want to know what the exact policy adopted in Australia will be. Watchtower will be compelled to tell them.
mr. jackson, we have heard testimony from mr spinks and mr. obrien that women will never have leadership positions in the congregation.
as i understand it mr. jackson, you interpret revelation 7 to mean that only 144,000 will go to heaven and that these 144,000 will rule the earth.
i also understand that your organization teaches that women are part of this "remnant" of 144,000. can you explain why jesus christ is willing to put women in leadership over the entire earth but you are not willing to permit them to have anything to do with helping victims of pedophiles in your congregation?
yes or no.......what say you?.
i'll start - no!.
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I would like to say NO. I would like to say that he will have lawyers drag this out and they will insist that he stay by his father's side 24 hours a day. I would like to say that this will be dragged out until the RC is concluded.
I would like to say NO. But Australia and the RC are not at all like the United States where one could easily do just as described above. The RC is addressing a very serious issue and seems to be determined to arrive at proper answers. They may not even begin to allow for lawyers to interfere with Jackson's appearance. They may allow for live video feed or arrange for the absolute shortest time of interference with a sick family member. They may ask the doctors if the father is stable "right now" and able to live long enough for his son to return to him within 12 or 24 hours. My suspicions are that all my reasons to say NO are very much oriented to the slow justice system of the U.S. and they won't work in this case.
My bet is that the RC forces the issue this week, Jackson appears and says as little as possible. Heck, they may even have his father fake a sudden turn-for-the-worse while the RC event is going on, in order to hasten Jackson's exit.
i was raised a witness, baptized at 16, vacation pioneered, got married, etc.
i was very much your typical witness and believed it was the truth until last summer.
a very close relative of mine left the witnesses.
Oh, I made my response all about me. Sorry about that.
You say you are living in limbo. That's just a situation with the congregation. It sounds like you are moving on with some difficulty in finding a workable situation. You say you and your husband "are spending time together again and he does not nag [you] about going in field service or to meetings."
Nobody knows if it will work out, including you and your husband. But you have a better gauge of that than anyone else. Your husband either really means he has no plans to divorce you or feels he has to say that as a JW knowing that "Jehovah hates a divorcing" unless you cheat on him. Only you can decide whether to stay with him if that is the case. When the elders come after you, you will see some of your husband's true colors. And I don't mean whether he supports the elders' side of things, he probably will. I mean, you will be able to see if he supports you despite agreeing with them or wants to throw you under the bus and do more for them than just agree with them.
If you want to stay in your marriage, you can work on it now before that judicial committee happens, then see how he handles that. Best of luck to you.
