Posts by Drearyweather

78

The handling of child abuse allegations

by Landy in

there's a lot of criticism surrounding the jw's handling of chiild abuse within their ranks with a lot of it being well deserved.

but i'm interested to know how people on here think child abuse allegations should be handled.

there's a few scenarios below, the first couple are easy then it gets a bit more complex.

Drearyweather

Regarding mandatory reporting, I was interested to know the following details:

1. Can a concept of "Universal Mandatory Reporting" be brought into effect to curb this problem?

2. What are some reasons why certain states/countries do not have mandatory reporting law?

3. Are there studies that highlight the increase/decrease of reporting of child abuse cases in states with mandatory reporting laws vs states with no mandatory reporting laws? If reporting rates increase, how much percent of it are substantiated and how many non-substantiated?

4. In cases where individuals are legally required to report child abuse upon "reasonable suspicion" to the authorities, how many of such cases turn out to be unsubstantiated?

78

The handling of child abuse allegations

by Landy in

there's a lot of criticism surrounding the jw's handling of chiild abuse within their ranks with a lot of it being well deserved.

but i'm interested to know how people on here think child abuse allegations should be handled.

there's a few scenarios below, the first couple are easy then it gets a bit more complex.

Drearyweather

Iown Mylife,

By "solving", the parents meant that Elders should have investigated and disfellowshipped the person, without getting the police involved in the process.

The Elders did disfellowship the person, but once the police got involved, the case became public and dragged on in the courts, sadly leading to social ostracism to the girl, threats by the abuser's family members, financial strain on the family and in turn leading to a situation where no one could give timely help to the victim. All of this ended in an out of court settlement, between the Victim’s and the Accused's families.

So my point was, what should the elders do if parents do not wish that their case to go to courts?

78

The handling of child abuse allegations

by Landy in

there's a lot of criticism surrounding the jw's handling of chiild abuse within their ranks with a lot of it being well deserved.

but i'm interested to know how people on here think child abuse allegations should be handled.

there's a few scenarios below, the first couple are easy then it gets a bit more complex.

Drearyweather

Shepherdless

You mentioned, Make it clear to the congregation that only those with the relevant clearance are allowed unaccompanied with children.

I wanted to know the impact of the clearance. I can understand the clearances for kindergartens and schools.

As a rough statistics that I read, 89% of child abuse cases are by someone the child knows (39% parents & 50% relatives/church members). How can clearances be provided to known relatives and family members? Is having an appropriate clearance a surety that that person won’t indulge in child abuse?

Regarding reporting to the police, I know of a case where Elders reported the abuse case to the police against the parent’s wishes. However due to rampant corruption in the legal system here, the case became messier day by day eventually causing much financial and emotional distress to the victim and her family. To this day, the family and many congregation members accuse the elders for not investigating and solving the case themselves and pushing their job to the Police.

22

India ... what's the latest?

by no-zombie in

we haven't heard much recently about india.

whats the current situation over there?

.

Drearyweather

alanv

The point is the vast majority of Indians have no idea about the JW message

JW's are not unique. In reality, with over millions of deities in Hinduism itself, vast majority of Indians have no idea about their own religion, let alone a foreign American religion like JW’s. Vast majority of these Indians have no idea about the other Christian religions too, even after 2000 years of missionary and conversion activities and many Christian ministries have far more vigorous preaching methods than JW's.

A third of the world has never heard their message. This can be easily checked in the 2017 Yearbook

Yes, a third of the world has never heard their message. There are many countries in the world who have not allowed this kind of missionary activity in their country and thus probably will never hear the JW message and in fact messages of other Christian ministries too. If they allow, I feel results would be different.

The org cant say the preaching has been completed in all the earth if that is so.

Sorry, I’m not completely sure about this. Do JW’s claim that they have ‘completed’ their preaching in all the earth? I hear them saying that they have ‘reached’ to all parts of the earth. I feel there is a great difference in these two terms.

22

India ... what's the latest?

by no-zombie in

we haven't heard much recently about india.

whats the current situation over there?

.

Drearyweather

Steve2

45,000 after more than 100 years in a land of nearly 1.5 billion is peanuts - no matter how you dress it up Drearyweather .

True, numerically, 45,000 in 1.5 billion after 100 years are peanuts. But for me, measlier is the number of other combined Christianity figures: Only 2.3% of 1.5 billion after 2,000 years of missionary activity. It fell down from 2.6% in 1971 to 2.3% in 2011 even after continuous inflow of foreign funds and foreign missionaries. A group of Bible Students broke after CT Russell's death, but they number only 2,500 now.

It is no coincidence that a good third of Witnesses live in Kerala - the state that is perhaps the most "Christianised" in all of India. JWs - like other heterodox Christian groups - ride on the coat tails of the hardwork of Christendom's missionaries - NOT their own missionaries.

In all states of India, Kerala ranks 8th in the total number of Christians. The first five most Christianized states in India have very little JW presence. In fact only 4 congregations exist in all of these states combined (Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram & Arunachal Pradesh). The branch office is located in Karnataka, which has only 1% of Christian presence (18th in line). So I find it difficult to agree that JW’s thrive only in Christianized states and were able to grow due to Christendom.

Christendom’s missionaries used the then prevalent casteism, social stigma, denial of education, religious discrimination and untouchability to convert masses to Christianity. Christendom and JW’s both were introduced to India in different ages of time (almost 2,000 years apart) and in different political and religious climates. Both did their hard work. Ultimately, now both are existing side by side in affluent metropolitan cities of India, with JW’s even reaching up to the Supreme court to enforce their rights.

But still, you are entitled to have your opinion in this matter, and I welcome it.

However, as a citizen of India and breathing the ever intolerant religious and cultural situation of the country, I still feel that JW’s have done pretty well with their numbers.

22

India ... what's the latest?

by no-zombie in

we haven't heard much recently about india.

whats the current situation over there?

.

Drearyweather

joe134cd

The greatest concentration of JW's is in Kerala: around 30%.

South India has around 67% of the witnesses

Central India has around 20% and North has around 13%

Yes, preaching is done very carefully in India. In some states it is more difficult to preach than in banned middle eastern countries. It won't take long for a mob to trash you into pieces if they smell religious conversions. Even in affluent states.

22

India ... what's the latest?

by no-zombie in

we haven't heard much recently about india.

whats the current situation over there?

.

Drearyweather

steve2,

Comparing religious membership in India is very complicated task. You are right. Adventist Church in India has around 3000+ churches and number around 917,000.

The main reason for the growth of Adventist Church in India is because of the educational institutions and health institutes started by the Adventist churches during their early missionary stages from foreign contributions. Church structure began to grow around clinics and hospitals founded by early missionaries.

Not to disrespect the Adventist movement - In India, it is easy to recruit people in your denomination if you promise to provide them material benefits.

Majority of the Christian denominations in the country did this to increase and sustain membership. Some local churches provide monthly stipend to the families in their churches to avoid them falling prey to other Christian denominations. In fact, in remote areas, when JW’s approach them during door-to-door knocking, people simply say that they are ready to become JW’s if they give them more money than what their current churches give.

In a remote area, around 50 people turned out for a JW memorial expecting to get a free meal, since a zealous publisher invited them for ‘the Lord’s evening meal’.

In my opinion, with zero charity, zero schools, zero medical institutions, its impressive that JW’s managed around 45,000 in a country like India. No wonder, Lloyd Barry once called Edwin Skinner (JW British Missionary in India) as the ‘dean of missionaries’.

22

India ... what's the latest?

by no-zombie in

we haven't heard much recently about india.

whats the current situation over there?

.

Drearyweather

Steve2, for your comment:

At the current ratio of Witnesses to numbers in the population, it is nigh impossible to "cover" the territory.

Yes, it is impossible to cover the territory, hence as I mentioned, there are campaigns every year to cover these territories.

Due to strong religious fundamentalism, over 80% of the Indian Territory is closely guarded by the Branch office and even local publishers are not allowed to preach there without the branch’s approval. Hence, only the Branch decides when these territories need to be covered.

Still, considering the strong political, religious and socio-cultural scenario in the country, and now without foreign contributions and missionaries, in about 100 years, local publishers have managed to establish themselves in all the major cities in India; and in some areas at par with other Christian denominations who have been present in India for more than 400-500 years, some more than 1000 years.

Sir82

In other words, out of those 1.4 billion people, maybe 1.38 billion or so have never even so much heard the name "Jehovah's Witnesses"…

I must disagree to this. The Bijoe Emmanuel Supreme court case of 1986 has brought Jehovah’s Witnesses to the forefront of the Indian Legal system. Almost every prestigious educational institution in the country knows about this case and thus they do not interfere in cases related to students not singing the National Anthem. All Legal schools of the country discuss this case in their syllabus and have mock court sessions discussing it. The recent National Anthem ruling has again brought JW’s to the limelight.

So have Indian people heard about Jehovah’s Witnesses? Yes. At least they know that JW’s are those who do not sing the National Anthem.

Those who have not heard about JW’s are maybe the less educated masses who must not have even heard about Donald Trump.

Snakesinthetower,

In 06 I spoke with Service Dept in India. They acknowledged that local congregations often do things differently than Brooklyn. Bribes and payoffs to avoid DF and get position recommendations often occurred.

I feel India is not unique to this. This happens in all other countries as well.

22

India ... what's the latest?

by no-zombie in

we haven't heard much recently about india.

whats the current situation over there?

.

Drearyweather

Due to financial strain, Printing has been stopped and all literature is brought in from other countries. Supply and Distribution of Public Edition Watchtowers and Awakes have been stopped in India. But yes, they are translated and updated on the website as they are printed and distributed in other countries.Only tracts and brochures are placed in the field.

NWT - Last year New World Translation was simultaneously released in 6 Indian languages. (3 Complete NWT and 3 Greek Scriptures). So in a span of 6 years, NWT has been released in all major Indian languages. Focus has been in getting all NWT’s out in all Indian languages.

Even though the printing has stopped, translation has been going on in full swing, partly because NWT translators have become free for other assignments. JW Broadcasting is now available in major Indian languages and publications are regularly translated in Indian Sign Language and Regional Conventions are being held in ISL as well.

Since foreign missionaries are not allowed in the country, every year, there are 3 month or 5 month campaigns to reach unassigned territories and many groups have come up in those parts. Some of these campaigns and the recently released NWT’s are responsible for the continuous growth (consistent 5%) despite financial strain.

Witnesses are present now in all metropolitan cities of the country and over 80% of the congregations have their own Kingdom Halls. RTO’s are present in affluent cities of the country and hence many local witnesses are signing up as volunteers.

Legal situation remains the same- no foreign contributions. So everything done is supported by local publishers.

16

A Perfect Life Isn't Worth Living?

by Sorry in

think of your favorite tv shows.

what do they all have in common?

the answer is they revolve around some type of problem or conflict.

Drearyweather

Sorry,

Wanted to check from you:

You said:

It would get boring very quickly if there were no problems, if everyone was smart and nice, if everyone had that same perfect personality.......Nothing would be interesting since we'd all be the same perfect people

Do JW's believe that in Paradise all living there will have the same perfect personality? i.e. the same qualities, habits and knowledge?

Your only purpose is eating fruit, petting tigers and singing Kumbaya all day. No motivation to change or grow.

Again, do they believe that in Paradise all will have perfect mind and knowledge, i.e. that will know everything and hence there won’t be anything more to learn than just living? I know that they believe that all will reach a state of perfect physical bodies. But, do they also believe that one day all will reach the same plane or state of a perfect mind and knowledge?

According to me, perfection means a state of being flawless or faultless. I can understand the perfect state of human body. But a perfect mind? Perfection has a sense of transcendence and hence a perfect person with a perfect mind will always look for more avenues of fulfillment and satisfaction.