thank you, everybody here, for introducing me to this.
no, no i had not heard of this.
child abuse issues have been roundly dismissed as apostate attacks in the congregations i've attended in the last decade.
It is possible that during his questioning, Bowditch was, for the first time, presented with ideas he had never thought of before - ie. ... that children outside of the religion also need protecting from JW sexual predators.
Maybe some seeds were planted that day. I like to think so. I also think he was trying to figure out how not to perjure himself but at the same time, not get DF'ed from the religion. Oh what tangled web they weave.
my local public radio station today had a piece about dia de los muertos, and after all this time, i was surprised to learn that this day was actually moved to november by the spanish from september.
so much for all that "halloween/all saints/day of the dead celebrates the flood!
" nonsense.
Hallowe'en is the Witch's New Year called Samhain. Some say it is pronounced 'sow-in' but in Gaelic mh is pronounced as a 'v' so it is likely to be more like 'sav-ahn'. It is their festival or sabbat marking the end of the harvest, beginning of winter or 'the darker half of the year', and a time to honour one's ancestors. They believe it is a time when the parting of the veil occurs - where the worlds are thinnest and spirits can pass through into our world with ease.
i thought it would be fun to get to know each other's background a little better.. what brought you into the "truth"?
were you born in?.
what caused you to have doubts?.
This info would be good to put in your profile bio. Here's what mine says:
"Born-in, never baptized. The problem of theodicy, why an all-loving, all-powerful God allows suffering and evil, began when I was around the age of 10 due to the Ethiopian famine in the early 1970s and God's inability and/or indifference to resolve this massive scale of suffering. As I moved into my teen years, I began to disagree with Watchtower doctrine and beliefs, as well as the Bible itself. Misogyny does not sit well with a teenage girl. I was also having difficulty with Watchtower's doctrinal flip-flops - one that I recall was about Evolution. For 15 to 16 years of my life my mother vehemently and adamantly denied the Theory of Evolution and then one day said to me "You know Heaven, there may be something to Evolution after all." I was gobsmacked. I definitely did not agree with Watchtower's blood policy. Even as a teenager, I could not reconcile elevating a symbol of life above life itself."
thank you, everybody here, for introducing me to this.
no, no i had not heard of this.
child abuse issues have been roundly dismissed as apostate attacks in the congregations i've attended in the last decade.
LUHE, thank you for posting that clip of Bowditch. I do commend him for at least finally, and truthfully, answering the question. You can tell from his body and facial reactions as well as his tone of voice that he knows not protecting children outside of the religion doesn't look good at all.
It was many times difficult, painful, and infuriating to watch these proceedings. A couple of times Angus and Peter McClellan had to get themselves back under control as they started to get angry. They know the emotions have to remain separate to be effective. It must be brutal having to do this work.
thank you, everybody here, for introducing me to this.
no, no i had not heard of this.
child abuse issues have been roundly dismissed as apostate attacks in the congregations i've attended in the last decade.
Grreat Teacher said: I would love to see the content of that letter.
I know many sent letters so perhaps others would like to share theirs here as well. I have removed my real name and replaced it with my JWN id. Here is my email:
Dear Mr. Stewart,
Thank you so very much for all you, Hon Justice Peter McClellan, and the rest of the Royal Commission team are doing in the investigation of institutional responses to child sexual abuse within the Jehovah's Witnesses. I am very impressed with your professional manner and depth of knowledge of this organization. Remaining composed during this is an amazing task you all manage to accomplish very well. This must be very difficult, if not exhausting.
I was raised in this religion but chose not to join for a number of reasons, misogyny being one of them. It has been a tough road where my Witness family are concerned.
I once started to document the known child abusers within this religion reported online from various news sources and after page one I had to stop as I was becoming physically ill.
Most Witnesses are unaware of the magnitude of the issue of child abuse as it is kept secret from them. They are not warned that there are abusers amongst them and are encouraged not to listen to outside sources of information including the news media. When they do hear of it, they believe these sources are telling lies or that the cases are very few. Preventing the "dragging of Jehovah's name through the mud" is really more important to this group than actually protecting people.
My Father once told me that children in Africa born with HIV must be pre-destined to be sinners in Jehovah's eyes after I challenged his idea that Jehovah is loving but then allows a child in utero to contract HIV. My parents also accused me of provoking a man at work who was harassing me. They felt I must have done something for this man to be behaving this way. I assured them I had not.
I have always hoped that the laws of various countries would change to remove the harmful, damaging, and destructive aspects of fundamentalist type religions and groups. There is more than child abuse going on within many of these, the Witnesses included.
I wish you and the RC much success in bringing about positive change. When a group is based on outdated principles such as Patriarchy, various abuses seem to abound. If laws are not enacted, though, as a result of these investigations, The Watchtower will not adopt any changes. Their authority is their interpretation of the Bible unless there is a law which prohibits them from using the Bible literally. They will view this investigation as persecution by Satan.
Regards,
Heaven
thank you, everybody here, for introducing me to this.
no, no i had not heard of this.
child abuse issues have been roundly dismissed as apostate attacks in the congregations i've attended in the last decade.
And the rambling! Oh god, answer the question you politicking bastard.
They are Teflon Men. Smarmy, slimy, it's-not-my-problem, f*ck-tards.
When I found out the extent of the pedophilia going on in this religion, and how the men of authority in it dealt with this, it sickened me. I am embarrassed that some of my family are in this putrid cult.
Angus Stewart did an awesome job. In my email to him I commended their work. I wondered how they had the energy to deal with all of this. If you are interested, I will post the content of my letter.
From Angus Stewart, I learned of the conditions, what Angus called 'a perfect storm of conditions within Jehovah's Witnesses', that allow pedophilia to flourish. I have to say that I've added Angus to my list of heroes. Here is a graphic I created of that info:
apart from the interesting block color change for the title strip on the front page.... the new 2017 wt mag has some new (updated printing figures):.
2016: produced each issue: 58,987,000 available in 282 languages .
2017: produced each issue: 61,651,000 available in 294 languages.
To put their numbers in perspective.... to supply just 1% of the world's population, they would have to be publishing 800 million copies of litter-a-trash.
I don't think these people have received their ragazines yet, do you? I wonder how they download from jw dot borg?
i grew up in this religion, i was baptized at 14, married at 27, and now i'm 31. i'm also evolutionist and atheist.
i wanted this to be the truth.
i spent years as an apologist trying to reconcile everything.
Schnell said: @Heaven, heh, Christmas. Never had any desire to celebrate it but I do love my Christmas Vacation and Krampus was freaking awesome!
The whole holiday thing is just weird. I seriously saw a conversation on Facebook where a brother asked if Bosses Day has pagan origins......
Yeah, blame everything on the pagans. Or anyone else they feel aren't worthy... which is pretty much everyone who isn't a JW. If Christmas isn't your thing (it's not particularly mine either) then celebrate Yule/Winter Solstice. At least that is real.
i grew up in this religion, i was baptized at 14, married at 27, and now i'm 31. i'm also evolutionist and atheist.
i wanted this to be the truth.
i spent years as an apologist trying to reconcile everything.
Welcome schnell. Interestingly, your randomly appointed Avatar looks like a Christmas tree with arms, legs, eyes, a rather large proboscus, and Medusa type hair. Perfect for an apostate.
poopie said: Don't elders have spiritual based discussions with df ones. Do not parents have spiritual discussions with do children living in home
'Discussions'? No, there are no discussions. It's Botchtower's way or the boot-in-the-ass-shun-them way,
