Posts by Corney

92

Montana jury awards two women $35M in sex abuse lawsuit against Jehovah's Witnesses

by AndersonsInfo in

https://missoulian.com/news/local/montana-jury-awards-two-women-m-in-sex-abuse-lawsuit/article_1bcabb7c-7381-574b-a2ba-e011cc0250a6.html.

montana jury awards two women $35m in sex abuse lawsuit against jehovah's witnesses .

a jury in northwestern montana awarded two women $35 million wednesday in their lawsuit against the local jehovah’s witnesses congregation and its worldwide headquarters.. .

Corney

AbusedandPissed
It is actually 15 million dollars as punitive damages are maxed at 10 million dollars or 3% of the defendant's net worth whichever is least.
One article does say that there is a challenge to the punitive max that is going in Montana but that case probably won't be resolved before the trial judge enters the final decision.

In 2014-15 three MT district court judges defied this rule due to its alleged unconstitutionality. Since Hyundai and Kelly Logging cases were settled before the state Supreme Court and in Masters Group International the Court avoided deciding on the issue, it's uncertain whether a judge in this case will reduce the award.

cobweb
Apparently the net worth of the org was revealed at the court session. Jason Wynne who has been tweeting about the details of the case over the last few days just said this:
Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York has a net worth of $1.6 billion. The Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses has a net worth of $50 million #MontanaCSA

Nothing new or informative

https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/111753577_201708_990T_2018022215185394.pdf

67

Russia Uses Nerve Agent to Assassinate Spy

by cofty in

what started as news of a man and woman being found unconscious on a park bench 12 days ago is escalating into an international incident.. sergei skripal had worked as a double agent for british intelligence mi6 before he was discovered and imprisoned in russia in 2006. he was later flown to england as part of a spy-swap in 2010. on sunday 4th march he was discovered along with his 33 year old daughter yulia close to a shopping centre in salisbury.. since then the story has become increasingly bizarre.

a policeman who was first to attend the scene also became critically ill and remains in hospital.

government scientists at porton down have confirmed that the cause is a russian military-grade nerve agent novichok.

Corney

You took my joke too seriously

5

Germany- 321 Congregations Dissolved/Merged...

by Newly Enlightened in

the german government requires watchtower to publish their own demise.

any changes to congregations has to be published on their website.. https://www.jehovaszeugen.de/amtsblatt.44.0.html .

since 2006 321 congregations have been dissolved and merged into others.

Corney

careful,

>> Were they examples of a "new" cong C formed from the now defunct congs A and B? Or maybe a cong D formed from old congs A, B, and C?

They totally weren't

>> How can one know such details? New names could reflect the changing realities of territorial adjustments or just a broader geographical name that encompasses more area. Who knows?

Did you open the first link in the OP? Notices of renaming are published separately.

>> Could they be at least partly because of immigration, a huge issue in Germany?

Or of Watchtower's expansion into new fields. Yes. >95℅ of created congregations are foreign- or sign-language.

67

Russia Uses Nerve Agent to Assassinate Spy

by cofty in

what started as news of a man and woman being found unconscious on a park bench 12 days ago is escalating into an international incident.. sergei skripal had worked as a double agent for british intelligence mi6 before he was discovered and imprisoned in russia in 2006. he was later flown to england as part of a spy-swap in 2010. on sunday 4th march he was discovered along with his 33 year old daughter yulia close to a shopping centre in salisbury.. since then the story has become increasingly bizarre.

a policeman who was first to attend the scene also became critically ill and remains in hospital.

government scientists at porton down have confirmed that the cause is a russian military-grade nerve agent novichok.

Corney

- There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers. Well, you think our country is so innocent?

- Our relationship with Russia has never been worse thanks to many years of U.K. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!

Or, as popular blogger having connections with state security agencies wrote, there is no evidence of the suspects' involvement with military or intelligence after 2014. Maybe they are retired, or maybe they were set up by MI6, who knows?

5

Germany- 321 Congregations Dissolved/Merged...

by Newly Enlightened in

the german government requires watchtower to publish their own demise.

any changes to congregations has to be published on their website.. https://www.jehovaszeugen.de/amtsblatt.44.0.html .

since 2006 321 congregations have been dissolved and merged into others.

Corney

- 300, not 321, congregations were merged

- During the same period, 194 new congregations were created

- In fact, we don't know whether all 135 KHs were sold. Some KHs could be rented (so they couldn't be sold), their methodology could be changed etc.

113

EU Court Ruling Against WT on Data-Protection

by cofty in

today's london times reports on the july ruling of the eu court that forces the organisation country to comply with data protection.. the action originated in finland but the ruling will affect every eu country.

the cult tried unsuccessfully to argue that the notes taken by jws in the door-to-door work were personal and not accessed by the congregation.

the court ruled that they are acting under the auspices of the congregation and therefore they must comply with data-protection laws.. keeping lists of do-not-calls also falls under this ruling.. why does the cult always feel that it is above the law?.

Corney

Listener
From my understanding of the legislation, if you wish to make a record regarding someone then you must get their permission. If you don't want to get their permission then making records about another person is none of your business.

This is true only in relation to sensitive data (i.e. revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation etc.). Processing of other personal data, according to art. 6(1)(f) of GDPR, is allowed without consent of the data subject when "processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject". Taking into account that The Article 29 Working Party mentioned exercise of the right to freedom of expression or information, conventional direct marketing, and unsolicited non-commercial messages, including for political campaigns or charitable fundraising, as possibly being legitimate purposes of data processing (Opinion 06/2014, p. 25), it will likely be necessary for national supervisory authorities (aka departments of 'it depends') and courts, CJEU and other national and international bodies to determine whether and to what extent this provision is applicable to JW door-to-door ministry and similar activities (e.g., political canvassing).

carla
The public should know that potential pedophiles are knocking on their doors and keeping records about their home and members of their family.

Preaching JWs are no more potential pedophiles than anyone's relatives, friends, neighbors etc. The org's mishandling of CSA doesn't justify portraying adherents of the religion as dangerous criminals and incitement of moral panic.

11

Raise a beer jug to our German activists!

by Darth FayDehr in

https://youtu.be/ps00pof7lj4.

Corney

At the end of 2007 there were nearly 2225 congregations in Germany (see 2008 Yearbook). Since 530 out of them were foreign-language (FLC), ≈1700 were ones German-language (GLC). Notices of creation, renaming and dissolution of congregations are published in Amtsblatt. Thanks to this, it is possible to count that the number of GLC has decreased by ≈210 whereas the number of FLC has increased by ≈90 over the past decade. So, now there ≈1490 GLC and ≈620 FLC.

11

Raise a beer jug to our German activists!

by Darth FayDehr in

https://youtu.be/ps00pof7lj4.

Corney

I have only a quote from Watchtower Library - Deutsch (available on jw.org):

*** km 2/08 S. 7 Können wir den veränderten Bedarf im Gebiet berücksichtigen? ***
In den letzten Jahrzehnten sind viele Menschen aus den verschiedensten Ländern in unser Land gekommen und haben hier die Wahrheit kennengelernt. Jehova hat seinen Segen ausgegossen, sodass als Ergebnis heute 531 Versammlungen und 272 Gruppen in 30 Sprachen existieren. Insgesamt sind über 36 000 Verkündiger im fremdsprachigen Gebiet tätig. In Arabisch, Chinesisch, Türkisch und Vietnamesisch gibt es noch Bedarf; an einigen Orten auch in Deutscher Gebärdensprache, Persisch, Polnisch, Tamil und Tigrinja.

Google translate:

In the last decades, many people from different countries came to our country and got to know the truth here. Jehovah has poured out his blessing, resulting in 531 congregations and 272 groups in 30 languages today. In total, more than 36,000 publishers work in foreign-language areas. In Arabic, Chinese, Turkish and Vietnamese there is still need; in some places also in German Sign Language, Persian, Polish, Tamil and Tigrinja.

113

EU Court Ruling Against WT on Data-Protection

by cofty in

today's london times reports on the july ruling of the eu court that forces the organisation country to comply with data protection.. the action originated in finland but the ruling will affect every eu country.

the cult tried unsuccessfully to argue that the notes taken by jws in the door-to-door work were personal and not accessed by the congregation.

the court ruled that they are acting under the auspices of the congregation and therefore they must comply with data-protection laws.. keeping lists of do-not-calls also falls under this ruling.. why does the cult always feel that it is above the law?.

Corney

Adam Chapman (Kingsley Napley, Partner and Head of Public Law Department) described the CJEU's approach as "maximalist, and probably to many people a counter-intuitive". "The obvious and immediate consequence of the two [on Facebook pages and D2D note-keeping] decisions is that a considerable number of organisations which, up until now, had not considered themselves to be joint data controllers will have to review that assessment", he added.

Another interesting legal blogs:

CJEU rules on joint controllership - what does this mean for companies?

Is Data Protection Coming Home? The CJEU on data protection law and Jehovah’s Witnesses – and political canvassing?

CJEU further clarifies key concepts of data protection law

11

Raise a beer jug to our German activists!

by Darth FayDehr in

https://youtu.be/ps00pof7lj4.

Corney

Bitterly disappointing. To spend 10 minutes talking in platitudes about two simple facts - and to fail to mention the number of created congregations and distribution of merged and created ones by language (not to mention that the correct number of mergers is 300, not 321). Remember, it was always possible to know how the number of congregations changed since these figures were published in Yearbooks (now in annual reports). The really interesting fact is that the number of German-language congregations has reduced by 1/8 during the past decade (compare the data from 2009 Yearbook, Amtsblatt, and German February 2008 Kingdom Ministry (p. 7)) - whereas the number of foreign-language ones grew and now they make up nearly 30% of all German congregations.