when i was affiliated with the witnesses, there were barely 6,000 who profess to be of the anointed remnant.
i recently read somewhere that today there are over 20,000 who profess to be anointed.
that figure may be more when you consider those who meet and partake privately for fear of the stigma of claiming to be anointed.
Unity is whatever the Watchtower wants it to be.
Having a bunch of men called Elders sitting around gossiping about everyone when ord. Pubs can't do this is not unifying unless everyone accepts it because the GB says that is the way it is.
If so called anointed ones wanted to get together for a chin wag that would also be fine and unifying if the GB said it was ok. Since they say it's not, then it automatically becomes disruptive if they are to go against that command.
https://www.oxygen.com/the-witnesses/crime-news/how-clergy-penitent-privilege-may-protect-sex-offenders.
how clergy-penitent privilege may protect sex offenders | crime news.
it’s a practice that is centuries old: confessing one’s sins to a trusted clergy member.
I wonder how common it is for a pedo to confess to the Elders, I would be surprised if many do. It's more likely that a victim is doing the reporting and that hardly could be seen as a confession.
just in case you needed these.. 2019-11-08-kingdom hall trust.
https://docdro.id/gvdxn0c.
petra!.
They state that they are going to send out bills to the Congregations for things like electricity due to the change of ownership.
What's the chance of them to start charging rent?
They were only too eager to charge them interest on the loans and made the congregations pay these loans back. Then they were made aware that they can't legally charge the interest and possibly loan the money as well.
They announced that they were lovingly 'forgiving' these loans in theory.
Now they want to own the Halls and since they own them, there's nothing to stop them from charging rent or even disguise that bill to the congregations as an 'allocation for future major renovations/repairs. Or maybe bill the congregation after renovations have been carried out. I doubt most Elders would think twice about it since they will be receiving bills from the Watchtower Trust anyway.
just in case you needed these.. 2019-11-08-kingdom hall trust.
https://docdro.id/gvdxn0c.
petra!.
Thanks.
I love how they say that of course they are expected to maintain the buildings even when the Watchtower owns them.
The Watchtower is getting richer and richer. From the sale of property going into their pockets and now to the ownership of millions of dollars worth of properties.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/judge-orders-blood-can-be-administered-to-jehovah-s-witness-girl-1.4157892.
a teenage girl who urgently requires surgery can, if necessary, be administered blood or blood products against the wishes of herself and her parents, all members of the jehovah’s witness faith, the president of the high court has ordered.. mr justice peter kelly said he was satisfied, notwithstanding the views of the girl and her parents, the orders are necessary for preserving the girl’s life and not to permit them would be “hazardous”.. the orders take immediate effect, he directed.. david leahy bl, for the hse, sought the orders in an ex parte application, one side only represented, on friday afternoon.. a solicitor for the hse told the court he had informed the girl and her parents of the court application and the parents had indicated they were not attending court to oppose it.. the solicitor said the parents were not objecting to surgery but, should a situation arise where the medical team wanted to administer blood or blood products, they could not agree to that and wanted the team to explore all other alternatives.. they had also said they wanted the best for their daughter and would not stand in the way of a court order.. mr justice kelly said court applications for leave to administer blood or blood products against the wishes of members of the jehovah’s witness faith, while not a regular occurrence, are not unusual.. he referred to a number of decisions permitting that to be done in “exceptional” circumstances.. on the medical evidence, including that antibiotic therapy had not reduced the infection and the serous risk of sepsis if surgery is not carried out, he was satisfied she needed the surgery.. read more: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/judge-orders-blood-can-be-administered-to-jehovah-s-witness-girl-1.4157892.
It comes down to the fact that they will accept the court order. In effect, they are obeying mans law above Gods law.
i was looking at my hall the other day some of the upper elders who are retired now have had some pretty good jobs and lives of relative comfort.
i am not exactly sure what the education levels were but they were white collar.
most likely started in a world where you didn’t need a lot of education to get a head.
This is a works based religion, pioneering and living in poverty because of it means they are doing so much more.
Elders are happy to support their pioneer kids living at home, it's their way of doing 'works' until they retire and pioneer themselves.
so in this past week i came across a stash of my old elder stuff.
i've scanned a bunch of notes and agendas, and public talk outlines.. check out an agenda and my notes from the meeting here: https://imgur.com/gallery/qqmyczn.
i’ve put an explanatory note on each image in imgur.
I think that CO had gone bananas.
Actually, his garden of vegies was pretty cute. I wonder if he made that up himself?
on 14 november 2018, australian-based barristers david bennett ac, qc and james gibson presented to watchtower australia and the jehovah’s witnesses organisation their commissioned review and opinion on the findings and recommendations of the royal commission into the institutional responses to child sexual abuse as it related to jehovah’s witnesses.. .
the review entitled “review of the commission’s investigation into jehovah’s witnesses and its ensuing reports” was divided into four parts, as follows:.
part one considered the history and powers of royal commissions in general.. .
The crazy thing is, the Watchtower was very worried about its own reputation but they have their own platform where they can address their own concerns and that's their website JW org.
But they won't use it because they don't want to draw attention to it for JWs to examine and determine for themselves as to whether the Watchtower is worthy of criticism or not or even far more guilty than that.
on 14 november 2018, australian-based barristers david bennett ac, qc and james gibson presented to watchtower australia and the jehovah’s witnesses organisation their commissioned review and opinion on the findings and recommendations of the royal commission into the institutional responses to child sexual abuse as it related to jehovah’s witnesses.. .
the review entitled “review of the commission’s investigation into jehovah’s witnesses and its ensuing reports” was divided into four parts, as follows:.
part one considered the history and powers of royal commissions in general.. .
I was hoping that they had engage Dr Applewhite again since they could trust she would write a report in their favor but it seems they found another couple of guys who were paid to do the same.
The summary report doesn't really say much and certainly not much could be substantiated, they are, after all, simply opinions. Weather the Commission went outside the terms of reference by including abuse cases within families is debateable but one the Watchtower wanted addressed again anyway. It doesn't matter, the fact is, it did, and the Watchtower was shown to be badly lacking in properly dealing with accusations of child abuse.
In the summary report, Bennett and Gibson state -
I understand that while Jehovah's Witnesses · did not agree with the Commission's reasons, they did not wish to exacerbate the trauma of either of the survivors or of their own witnesses and did not consider that their interests would be advanced by such a 6 challenge - which would only have added to the damaging publicity surrounding the Commission (Review 5.25).
2.24 As noted in our Review (5.11 and following and 6.24 and following}, a substantial proportion of the Case Study 29, concerned the experiences of two Jehovah's Witnesses who were sexual abused in the 1980s and to the policies and procedures in place in the 1980s and 1990s (when the incidents were investigated}. 2.25 Jehovah's Witnesses chose not to cross-examine either witness. We understand that the decision was taken as Jehovah's Witnesses did not wish to exacerbate any trauma they suffered both as a result of their experiences and which may arisen from further questioning.
there's a post on exjw reddit stating that the ibsa are planning on building a media operation at the sydney bethel.. the estimated cost is $10 million aud and this in spite of the fact that they still have not joined the redress scheme or attempted in any monetary way of assisting abused victims within the organization.. the link below includes detailed plans.
they will be converting part of the current printery into a media complex.. they also propose to build a theme park in the form of a historical biblical site, including a man made mound and what one person suggests is a temple.. its not surprising that a bunch of old men in new york has dreamed all of this up - film sets in new york, england and now australia.
they are bonkers but it's a novel way of getting money from their followers.. https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/ernz3y/new_media_centre_at_the_australian_sydney_bethel/.compact.
I would think that the JWs who were kicked out of Bethel will feel even worse with all this exciting activity about to start.
