link to article.
a legal bid by the jehovah's witness church to get out of being part of the royal commission of inquiry into abuse in care has been dismissed by the high court in wellington.. after nearly three years of behind-the-scenes legal wrangling to avoid scrutiny from the inquiry, the church applied for a judicial review in june.. at a hearing, held earlier this month it argued it was beyond the inquiry's scope because it did not operate institutions that cared for children or vulnerable people and the inquiry had uncovered no evidence of abuse in that context.. lawyers representing the inquiry argued that jehovah's witness elders - equivalent to ministers or pastors - exercised a level of control over the congregation that allowed them access to children.. the inquiry informed abuse survivors who gave evidence to the inquiry in relation to the jehovah's witnesses of the news this afternoon.. "we have received advice from the high court that none of the causes of action brought by the jehovah's witnesses has succeeded and the application for judicial review has been dismissed.
the judge's reasons are not yet available, but are expected in the near future," the email to survivors, seen by rnz, said.. the church was the only faith-based institution in the country to legally challenge its involvement in the inquiry, although it had attempted to challenge its status in other countries where similar inquiries have also been carried out.. the inquiry said, in a statement, that the dismissal "means the royal commission can continue to investigate the jehovah's witnesses, and all other faiths, in accordance with the pastoral care approach we have been applying since 2019".. "reasons for the high court's judgment are not yet available but are expected in the near future.
They act as though their organization is above being investigate and question by the higher authorities. They justify that Jehovah's name must be sanctified.
Yet when it comes to the scathing conclusions these higher authorities make against their organization they don't even bother to use their own website to defend and sanctify his name. The only conclusion that can be made is because they can't.
selena vertolomo, former jehovah's witnesses who was sexually abused in watchtower, went to visit tony morris in north carolina.
selena and her sister call in and explain their position.
callers dial in from around the world and ask plenty of questions.
I forgot to mention that the video above was uploaded a month ago. I haven't heard of anything since.
selena vertolomo, former jehovah's witnesses who was sexually abused in watchtower, went to visit tony morris in north carolina.
selena and her sister call in and explain their position.
callers dial in from around the world and ask plenty of questions.
Not that I know of and excellent that you ask. Some ex JWs don't even bother to do any research before they believe her, even going to the point of making video's supporting her claims.
About a month ago Youtuber, Jimmy Bell did a couple of interviews with her. He asked her some great questions but she presented absolutely no evidence. Some of the excuses were that we don't deserve to know, things must be kept hidden for the time being, she will share it later as she see's fit and she doesn't want to share insurance documents about her house's burning down. Funny that, but you would think there would be a police report or two about this. I've seen absolutely nothing so it would be good to see anything that might support her crazy claims.
On one of Jim's Youtubes a poster commented that she had made claims that "she's an "apostolic descendent" and part of a secret group inside the JWs that is above the Governing Body that cares about apostolic bloodlines, which sounds pretty non-sensical."
Here's a link to the interview with Jimmy Bell but it's not worth watching other than for the fact that she is really clever in avoiding answering anything factual or proving any of her more weird claims other than what is already public knowledge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhreBV9L3eQ&t=4335s
She's very intelligent and it sounds like she had an awful childhood but some of her ideas are whacky. It's such a shame, not only for her but for the naïve ex JWs that believe this stuff.
there has already been much discussion about how the watchtower society has declared in australia that going door to door is part of a personal ministry.
this seems to be a lame attempt to avoid liability considering that they require time reports and have formal meetings for field service at the kingdom hall.. this is a bit of a dilemma.
reporting time and formal meetings for field service are important methods of control, however it's not clear if the organization is willing or able to handle the potential liability that may come from this.. imagine what would happen if they lost these methods of control.
Are JWs still assigned to field service groups headed by the one Elder? I understand they didn't get rid of this when the weekly book study groups were stopped.
If they are looking at the legal issues then I would think that they would stop this arrangement as well and possibly just have something like a ten minute service meeting every morning at the Kingdom Hall instead.
an announcement to all congregations those with legal experience please come and work for free to cover up child abusers.. i mean what else would it be for?.
the cheek of it.. so the direction was always don’t go for advanced education and careers but now they are looking for such ones to give if their time and education for free?.
They stopped sending chosen, clever Bethelites to Uni to become lawyers now they are stuck with whatever they can get. That one worked out well for them.
no more watchtower and awake mags every 2 weeks to place.
no private home book studies.
no more "essential" spiritual food meals 5x a week.
Dreary weather - what is a 'sincere one' in this instance?
I'm surprised that there is no reaction in your congregation. Surely there are many who have questions, even the Elders? Do you mean to say everyone just shuts up and aren't interested enough to ask how the change affects things?
this is going to break the hearts of a lot of uber-jw's!
reddit has now removed the video link of samuel herd telling jw's they will no longer have to report time or placements - just tick a box which says "active.".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akdshyx79rm&t=13s.
Are they reasoning that Jehovah is no longer judging them on the amount of hours that they witness but is still doing so when it comes to pioneers and others?
In another part they talk about giving your best which has no connection with giving 10%.
They also talk about the pioneers being like the Nazarene's because they made a vow to commit (to certain requirements, as in hours). Later they mention something no longer being applicable because there is no type/antitype. But the organisation still sees counting time as an important part for them and that monitoring time is still a requirement even though they just said that Jehovah doesn't require it and that it's not an important part.
They've created a new class of JW, one that doesn't need monitoring and one that does.
this is going to break the hearts of a lot of uber-jw's!
reddit has now removed the video link of samuel herd telling jw's they will no longer have to report time or placements - just tick a box which says "active.".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akdshyx79rm&t=13s.
Are they going to pressure Elders and MSs to auxillary pioneer often? It will mean going from 10 hours a month to 15.
They will be keeping a record of those that sign up for it and it's possible it could be the new bench mark for potential Elders. Being vague as to how often they would need to auxillary pioneer would pressure them further.
this is going to break the hearts of a lot of uber-jw's!
reddit has now removed the video link of samuel herd telling jw's they will no longer have to report time or placements - just tick a box which says "active.".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akdshyx79rm&t=13s.
Breaking News on the NEWs section JW.org
BREAKING NEWS | Adjustments to Field Service Reporting
On October 7, 2023, at the annual meeting of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, the following exciting announcement was made. Beginning November 1, 2023, congregation publishers will no longer be asked to report the amount of time they spend in the ministry. Nor will publishers be asked to report their placements, the videos they show, or return visits. Instead, the field service report will simply have a box that allows each publisher to indicate that he or she shared in any form of the ministry during the month.
There will be one more box where publishers can report the number of different Bible studies they conduct.
Missionaries, circuit overseers and their wives, special pioneers, regular pioneers, and auxiliary pioneers will continue to report the number of hours they spend in the ministry, along with the number of different Bible studies they conduct. Further information about this adjustment will be provided to all congregations in the coming weeks.
this is going to break the hearts of a lot of uber-jw's!
reddit has now removed the video link of samuel herd telling jw's they will no longer have to report time or placements - just tick a box which says "active.".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akdshyx79rm&t=13s.
Of course, not one of us believe the reasons that the Governing Body gave for the change.
They are not honest men.
If their reasons were true then they would apply equally to those that are still required to report such as pioneers/missionaries etc.
If their decisions don't make sense from a human viewpoint then it's only because they are lying as to the reasons why they made them.
