Posts by shepherdless

14

Meetings

by pontoon in

so remember how assembling together is a command and no man or government can stop us, even if it means going 'underground', even if means being arrested, jailed, beat....can't stop us from assembling together----until covid.

now it's "false regligion" fighting for their constitutional right to meet together while the jws seem to be perefectly happy zooming their lives away..

shepherdless

I am really hoping that they do switch to Zoom meetings permanently. Long may they continue. They may be helping Watchtower in the short term, but in the long term they will make Watchtower less relevant to everyday life.

Also, most people are there for the social aspect, even if they don’t admit it, or realise it. Zoom is a poor substitute for that, and adherents will find other connections over time, in place of that.

My prediction (just a guess) is that once the pandemic is well and truly under control, they may decide that KH meetings are to resume, but mid-week meetings will be by zoom, and the “preaching work” won’t include door-knocking.

8

Another Rainbow explained....

by snare&racket in

due to the many variables involved it has been difficult for science to predict how proteins fold to form their uniquely functional state.

proteins are built from individual amino acids up, coded by dna.

protein function is dictated by its shape and amino acid make up.

shepherdless

The JW literature used this knowledge gap in science to insert god.

Wasn’t aware of this. Has anyone got a link to the 2008 article?

23

Australian jws/branch warned of possible loss of charity status.

by Holey_Cheeses*King_of_the juice. in

jw
friends

hello all interested persons,.

whilst driving to work this morning listening to the radio, my ears pricked when the presenter began talking about jws.

it was on a programme which airs between 8.00 and 8.30 entitled am, and broadcast on the abc national radio.

shepherdless

As to the Watchtower coughing up $$$ through asset sale it cant happen. The Watchtower society in Australia has minimal assets of printing equipment and office equipment. Everything else is owned by separate(legally separate) entities that cant be drawn into the compensation.Every congregation is a poor charity with less than $5k in the bank and their hall is owned by a Private Non-charity company run by the WTS. Their whole restructure from the early 200's has been geared to avoid financial responsibility for their actions.

My understanding is that this is the “Ellis Defence”. My understanding is that laws have been introduced to combat this. Here is a media report on it:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-01/catholic-church-ellis-defence-scrapped-from-new-years-day/10675890

B.t.w. Fully agree with the rest of your post.

23

Australian jws/branch warned of possible loss of charity status.

by Holey_Cheeses*King_of_the juice. in

jw
friends

hello all interested persons,.

whilst driving to work this morning listening to the radio, my ears pricked when the presenter began talking about jws.

it was on a programme which airs between 8.00 and 8.30 entitled am, and broadcast on the abc national radio.

shepherdless

According to this article, as of June 2020, only 10 victims came forward referring to abuse by Jehovah's Witnesses:

I am surprised the number isn’t zero. The article mentions the number of jw victims (10) who have applied under the national redress scheme. Not much point in applying if Jehovahs Witnesses hasn’t even joined. Presumably the 10 anticipate they will join. The number 1600 is the number of jw victims revealed by its own records subpoenaed by the Royal Commission. The number could be higher.

That being said, I did read elsewhere that overall, claims against those institutions that DID join the national redress scheme lodged so far is well below what was estimated.

23

Australian jws/branch warned of possible loss of charity status.

by Holey_Cheeses*King_of_the juice. in

jw
friends

hello all interested persons,.

whilst driving to work this morning listening to the radio, my ears pricked when the presenter began talking about jws.

it was on a programme which airs between 8.00 and 8.30 entitled am, and broadcast on the abc national radio.

shepherdless

1. By now joining the redress scheme, they aren't going to pay anything to anyone.

Actually, it had been previously reported that organisations that join the redress scheme are paying on average A$80,000 per victim. The idea of the redress scheme is that, on the one hand it reduces the amounts payable per victim, but on the other hand saves the victim of having to go through the delays and risks of court as the government administratively assesses each claim.

I think the main reasons that the Borg hasn’t joined is that 1600 x A$80,000 = A$128,000,000. The Borg simply can’t afford the payments, without a massive sale of Australian real estate (ie Kingdom Halls). The Borg has a ridiculously high number of victims for an organisation of its size.

9

Watchtower to be stripped of Charitable status

by Diogenesister in

australian senator anna rushton has said that all orgs who "don't take reasonable steps to join the redress scheme" will be stripped of their charitable status come feburary 2021.. https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/k1pur7/the_jehovahs_witnesses_will_be_stripped_of_their/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share.

shepherdless

Good question, Smiddy. Don’t have a good answer for that.

Here is an ABC radio interview with a lawyer involved in suing the Borg on behalf of victims:

https://www.abc.net.au/radio/newsradio/federal-government-sets-another-deadline-to-join/12926734

The last minute and half is probably the most interesting.

Another point about the interview with Senator Anne Rushton is that she appears to confirm that the effect of the Borg losing its charitable status is that the Borg will have to pay tax on all donations by its adherents.

167

Trump Says Biden “Won” The Election But It Was Rigged

by minimus in

jw
friends

that’s the latest!.

shepherdless

Do you think it's a coincidence that Esper is on record for opposing the use of US Troops on US soil for any reason?

Another coincidence is that Trump has just sent a tweet firing Chris Kreb, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. He was the one who said, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

11

I don't believe there are 8 million JWS

by Hotpepper in

jw
friends

with all the closing of halls.

and all the csa cases.

and all the jws not only slipping out the back door.

shepherdless

Thanks Corney for that link to that interesting article.

By the way, it supports Neat Blue Dog’s assertion, in that there are around 20 million people who self-identify as JW’s.

41

Prime Minister of Australia announces intention to revoke Jehovah’s Witnesses charity status

by jwleaks in

today, marking the second anniversary of the australian national apology to victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, the prime minister of australia has announce in federal parliament the intention to place sanctions against the jehovah’s witnesses in relation to child sexual abuse.. quote from prime minister:.

the royal commission [into institutional response to child sexual abuse], the [national] apology [to victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse] and these yearly reports are about accountability: bringing the truth into the light ... we still have, reprehensibly, four institutions that have been named publicly and that have blatantly refused to join the redress scheme.

they are jehovah's witnesses ... it's not acceptable.

shepherdless

Sorry, I'm not much versed with Australian law and economy. Losing charitable status vs. joining national redress scheme Which one is more financially damaging?

I was actually listening to some speeches in Parliament about the matter. (The Government and Opposition are very much in lock step on this issue, by the way.) One of the Ministers stated the average payout per victim so far under the national redress scheme is just over A$80,000. From memory, there were about 1600 jw victims, so the potential liability to the Borg would be around A$128,000,000.

Losing charitable status would mean the Borg would have to pay income tax. From listening in to zoom meetings, our congregation has to pay $7.20 per publisher per month for the Worldwide ~~Pedophile Protection Racket~~ Preaching Work fund. The Borg would probably have to pay 30% tax on that income, less deductions. 0.3 x 7.2 x 12 x 60,000 = $A1.6 million per annum. In addition, the Borg and it’s congregations hold a significant amount of real estate, and may find itself liable for local government rates, without concession or deduction. These are significant amounts, probably bigger than income tax in total. There would probably be a few other taxes that they would be liable for.

41

Prime Minister of Australia announces intention to revoke Jehovah’s Witnesses charity status

by jwleaks in

today, marking the second anniversary of the australian national apology to victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, the prime minister of australia has announce in federal parliament the intention to place sanctions against the jehovah’s witnesses in relation to child sexual abuse.. quote from prime minister:.

the royal commission [into institutional response to child sexual abuse], the [national] apology [to victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse] and these yearly reports are about accountability: bringing the truth into the light ... we still have, reprehensibly, four institutions that have been named publicly and that have blatantly refused to join the redress scheme.

they are jehovah's witnesses ... it's not acceptable.

shepherdless

When they say "Commonwealth" they don't mean the whole Commonwealth, do they? That would be brilliant! Or is "Commonwealth" a term for all states/Australia?

The formal name for Australia is the “Commonwealth of Australia”. Depending on context, “Commonwealth” usually means just the Australian federal government, not state governments.