from a story in the jewish press:.
quote: "the city of david excavations of the jerusalem hebrew university on mount ophel, at the foot of the southern wall of the temple mount compound, have yielded a sensational discovery: a seal (bulla) with the name of king hezekiah (727-698 bce).".
"king hezekiahs bulla was discovered in a garbage heap that was dumped during or shortly after hezekiahs time, from a royal building that was used to store food.
What? Pagan worship in Israel? I am shocked! Shocked I tell you!
Despite his imperfection, Hezekiah was a man of faith. He knew that his God, Jehovah, is a real person who has feelings. When under pressure, Hezekiah prayed fervently to Jehovah, and Jehovah answered him. Jehovah God granted him peace for the rest of his days, and for that, Hezekiah was grateful.
http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/downloadfile.ashx?guid=359d7249-0d4f-4c51-9265-1c40aa6b3b21&type=transcriptpdf&filename=submissions-of-senior-counsel-assisting-the-royal-commission&fileextension=pdf.
just having a quick read through, the findings are damning.
mr toole is being reported to the law society of australia.... a few highlights so far:.
Why doesnt the media pick up on this? Are we to small in the USA to matter?
is it just me or as my wife says it doesn't matter.
just curious.
need your thoughts please.
How about every chapter being full of compete speculation. Like this week "Abraham may have been preaching to the Canaanites." The there is a reference scripture that in no way implies that!
“Do not go beyond the things that are written,” will never be a scripture used for the Year Text :)
san bernardino california.
up to 12 people have been killed.. the center a private non-profit agency that assists people with developmental.
disabilities.
all sorts of suspected deception going on surrounding the cutbacks and the reasons for them.
but hard to pin down a direct falsehood.
sure, they initially said they were reducing the magazines so the brothers had less to read, then later said it was to save money.
i, like many others, was furiously emailing about deborah when the issue of only male elders came up.. it seemed curious that angus didn't address deborah, as he surely knew of it.. thankfully, ol' geoff, and wt, cannot resist trying to get in a last word, which opened the door for angus.
(he's one cool customer.).
341 in his written statement provided to the royal commission following the close of thepublic hearing, mr jackson offered the relevant scriptural references to which headverted but was unable to provide during the hearing.
Thats true about pressure - its not like the bible is in Bro Jacksons field right?
I think thats Bro Letts field if I am not mistaken. (spoken with silly over emphasized gestures)
at the beginning of the may broadcast stephen lett said this was a historic broadcast.
he explained that every member of the governing body had hosted a show and they were starting over again.
that was all the explanation he gave.
all sorts of suspected deception going on surrounding the cutbacks and the reasons for them.
but hard to pin down a direct falsehood.
sure, they initially said they were reducing the magazines so the brothers had less to read, then later said it was to save money.
I think the big reason is that donations are drying up. This could be a combination of different convergent things. JWs are poor, the few who are getting baptized from "the world" are also poor. This equals less money per publisher coming in. You also have a shrinking group of old timers who would religiously give money ever month. The younger crowd is 1: not as disciplined 2: poor money managers 3: more likely to use the $20 in their pocket for a double frap soy latte 4: Then you have other factors like the continued flow of changes causes confusion in the ranks, making it a little less likely to give up hard earned money - stupid things like cart witnessing produces lots of unproductive hours in service, with just about no chance for donations - and every hall having to buy giant TV's, computers, video equipment and so on diverts the money going to the big house.
What do you think?
the royal commission is not yet over.
the summary of findings on jws is not the end of the story.
the legal process is unfolding and the only open question is the extent to which jw organization in australia will be legally mandated to change its policies and procedures on child sexual abuse.. (on the question of shunning those who leave, the commission is well intended but has strayed beyond its legal brief.
One comment from the first post.
And even before the Royal Commission, the organization loosened the hitehrto literal interpretation of the two-witness rule as applying to two different incidents involving the same alleged offender.
This is a heinous change not a loosening. This assures that at least 2 people (kids) need to suffer first, before something is done. Just think of how this would work? Most people don't come forward ever - so the 2nd abuse victim could easily be the 3rd 4th or 5th. Still there is no protection of the congregation, or the public in general, since even a DFing does nothing for the neighbors of the abuser.
Your Brothers
UnChristian Congregation
of JDubs
