Last spring Norweigian state refused to give public contribution to JWs (religious organisations can apply that in Norway and previously WTBS has been granted that). The decision was caused because of practise of disfellowshpiping.
Now there is a new twist.
25.10.2022 authorites in Norway send a letter to WTBS and told them that they have four weeks to fix that practise.
If they don't do that they will loose their status as a religiouse organisation.
Intrestingly JWs did not "understand" what authorites meant by that and requested more time.
How can they not understand? The monentary contribution was denied crystal clearly because of shunning policy...
In their letter to authorities they refer - rather ironically - to ECHR (The European Convention on Human Rights). Well, they themselves do not give their own members any rights what so ever what it comes to religiouse freedom.
JWs are also puzzled about the fact that some action now is taken considering that they have had their status for decades...well shunning people might not be the greatest of reasons to bragg to...
Here is a link to Norweigian newspaper that wrote about the case (google translator works pretty well):
Statsforvalteren har sendt Jehovas vitner varsel om tap av registrering som trossamfunn – Vårt Land (vl.no)
Here is another link to another activist "johanneksenpoika" aka "son of John" in Finland (neighbourgh country) who also comments the case. Societys letter (in English alsol) can be found from his site:
Johanneksen pojan kotisivut - Tietoa Vartiotorniseurasta ja Jehovan todistajista (johanneksenpoika.fi)
PLEASE READ THIS AS WELL: about this Finnish activst (bitoff topic)
My understanding is that he is the person who approached the local data ombudsman in Finland at 2012 what it comes to "field service notes". What happened is that "the case" went throug all legal levels in Finland and finally end up at EU court. EU court was not favorable for witness.
So grass root can - and wil - pay off.
Link (google translate) :
Jehovan todistajat rikkovat henkilötietolakia tekemällä muistiinpanoja ovenavaajista kysymättä heiltä lupaa (johanneksenpoika.fi)
