jwleaks
JoinedPosts by jwleaks
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Judicial committee questions
by slimboyfat inwhen the elders invite someone to a judicial committee does the person under scrutiny have the right to ask beforehand what evidence will be adduced against him and what witnesses will be called?
in other words is there pre-trial disclosure within the watchtower's quasi legal process?
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$2 Million Property Sold by Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia | March 26, 2013
by jwleaks inno stairs but two-storey darjeeling in bowral sells for $2 million.
by jonathan chancellor .
tuesday, 26 march 2013. .
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jwleaks
No stairs but two-storey Darjeeling in Bowral sells for $2 million
By Jonathan Chancellor
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Darjeeling, an historic 1880s stone NSW Southern Highlands homestead, has been sold for $2 million to Phil Purnell and his wife, Stephanie.
It come with views to the north towards Mittagong and to the south over Retford Park, Burrawang and Moss Vale.
The stone homestead has two bedrooms downstairs and room for another two bedrooms upstairs but it's currently without a staircase.
The 56-hectare holding had been listed through Philip Barron at LJ Hooker Bowral.
It was sold by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia, the legal organization in use by Jehovah's Witnesses, who'd been willed it in 2004 by the late Jessie Crichton-Smith.
When auctioned in 1963 it had recently had 2000 pounds spent on improvements.
It comes with mixture of pasture, woodland and native forest, plus four dams and two creeks.
For much of its history, it has been owned by the Smith family who feature on the Old South Road website undertaken by Helen Erskine for her local genealogy club.
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Interesting Article from Australia Community Blog
by LisaRose inhttp://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/slamming-the-door-on-jehovah-witness-cult-et-al/.
this is a story about a young woman who left the jws after being molested as a child..
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Australian Royal Commision in child sexual abuse - 1st sitting Sydney April 3
by l p inhttp://www.facebook.com/#!/royalcommissionchildabuse/posts/228501367296466.
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lp.
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jwleaks
First Public Sitting
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Commission) will hold its first sitting at 10.00 am on Wednesday 3 April 2013 at the County Court of Victoria, 250 William Street, Melbourne.
All Commissioners will be present. The Chair, Justice McClellan AM, will provide information on the work of the Royal Commission including the future conduct of public and private hearings. Senior Counsel assisting will also deliver an opening statement. There will be no evidence taken at this first sitting and there will be no appearances for the purpose of seeking leave to appear.
The sitting will be streamed live to the public via webcast on the Commission's website at www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au
__________
JW Survivors is a victim advocacy group for survivors of the Church of Jehovah's Witnesses within Australia.
JW Survivors is a volunteer not-for-profit community based victim advocacy group for survivors of the Church of Jehovah's Witnesses within Australia.
November 26, 2012
JW Survivors lodged today a submission, written and prepared by Steven Unthank, in reply to the Australian government's request for stakeholder consultation for the establishing of the "Terms of Reference" for the Child Abuse Royal Commission.
Among the 9 recommendations made to the Royal Commission by JW Survivors was that "the Royal Commission investigate religious and other organisations in relation to their response to working with children laws as legislated in various jurisdictions across Australia." The submission explained that "working with children laws and child safety legislation are the frontline of physical and sexual protection for children within the community", and that "a failure, or refusal to comply with working with children laws, by an organisation, religious or otherwise, may be an indicator of the systemic failure of such an organisation to view the physical and sexual safety of children, with whom they work with, as a priority." The submission also cited the Church of Jehovah's Witnesses as an example of one religious organisation engaging in the "wholesale" criminal breaching of working with children laws.
On 12 November 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that she will be recommending to the Governor-General the establishment of a Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Australia. Following this, the government requested the input of stakeholder organisations in making recommendations for the 'Terms of Reference' for the Child Abuse Royal Commission. JW Survivors was one of those organisations who made a submission.
A copy of JW Survivors' submission for the 'Terms of Reference' can be downloaded from their web site.
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AUSTRALIA | Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia | Corporate Governance Documents published in PDF (March 2013)
by jwleaks injw leaks has published a large number of the latest (march 2013) corporate governance documents relating to the watchtower bible and tract society of australia, jehovah's witnesses congregations (australia), and watchtower travel (australia).. .
these documents, all available to download in pdf, include:.
official company extract (9 page australian government report)company summary (including current list of all directors)australian business number detailswatchtower bible and tract society of australia trading as "watchtower travel"watchtower bible and tract society of australia trading as "jehovah's witnesses" .
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jwleaks
JW LEAKS has published a large number of the latest (March 2013) corporate governance documents relating to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia, Jehovah's Witnesses Congregations (Australia), and Watchtower Travel (Australia).
These documents, all available to download in PDF, include:
- Official Company Extract (9 page Australian government report)
- Company Summary (including current list of all Directors)
- Australian Business Number details
- Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia trading as "Watchtower Travel"
- Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia trading as "Jehovah's Witnesses"
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Raphael Aron in The Age newspaper: Jehovah's Witnesses 'a cruel cult'
by WinstonSmith inthis popped up on the age website today, might have to buy the paper tomorrow..... http://www.theage.com.au/national/jehovahs-witnesses-a-cruel-cult-20130315-2g5x3.html.
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Raphael Aron in The Age newspaper: Jehovah's Witnesses 'a cruel cult'
by WinstonSmith inthis popped up on the age website today, might have to buy the paper tomorrow..... http://www.theage.com.au/national/jehovahs-witnesses-a-cruel-cult-20130315-2g5x3.html.
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jwleaks
Vincent Toole said . . . shunning was a "myth."
Jehovah's Witnesses say . . . "he or she will be shunned."
http://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/shunning/
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VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA | The Age newspaper | March 16, 2013 | Slamming the Door on Jehovah's Witnesses
by jwleaks inthe age newspaper | fairfax media | saturday, march 16, 2013. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/slamming-the-door-on-jehovah-20130315-2g6fo.html.
slamming the door on jehovah's witnesses.
she is an apostate, which sounds like a strange disease, and in many ways it is.
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jwleaks
"Company records show the company's income for the 2011 tax year was nearly $19 million and mostly came from donations. It earned nearly $350,000 in interest."
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VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA | The Age newspaper | March 16, 2013 | Slamming the Door on Jehovah's Witnesses
by jwleaks inthe age newspaper | fairfax media | saturday, march 16, 2013. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/slamming-the-door-on-jehovah-20130315-2g6fo.html.
slamming the door on jehovah's witnesses.
she is an apostate, which sounds like a strange disease, and in many ways it is.
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jwleaks
The Age newspaper | Fairfax Media | Saturday, March 16, 2013
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/slamming-the-door-on-jehovah-20130315-2g6fo.html
Slamming the Door on Jehovah's Witnesses
She is an apostate, which sounds like a strange disease, and in many ways it is. According to the Jehovah's Witnesses, Bec Taylor of Traralgon, since she escaped from them, is unable to have a life worth living.
In 2011, The Watchtower, the scripture magazine for the bizarre yet outwardly benign Christian sect, described those who abandon the church as "mentally diseased" outcasts, or apostates, who "seek to infect others with their disloyal teachings".
They can be "shunned" - cut off from their families and, according to ex-members, subjected to bullying, threats, harassment and stalking to lure them back. Families are told that if they mix with their apostate children, they are traitors too.
Even minor infringements within the Jehovah's Witnesses such as smoking can result in "disfellowshipping", and disfellowshipped people can also be shunned.
Critics of the religion call the practice psychologically and emotionally harmful.
Many ex-members do not speak publicly for fear of reprisals. But not Taylor, 29. She was a Jehovah's Witness in South Australia and then Queensland for most of her life until just a few months ago. She was born into them. Now she cannot speak to her family and was not invited to her late mother's wedding.
Her story covers two most troubling aspects of the religion she calls the "Jo-Ho's" - shunning and the harm it can cause and, more disturbing still, persistent allegations of sexual abuse and even paedophilia by church elders and members.
Victoria's current state inquiry into how churches handle child sex abuse has submissions from former Jehovah's Witnesses.
One includes allegations from four states including rape, sexual assault, blackmail and death threats. There will also be a national royal commission.
"I don't need an apology from them," says Taylor, "and I don't need their love or forgiveness."
She has started an arts degree in anthropology. Education is discouraged within the sect. "It is my final victory over them," she says. "It is a giant f--- you."
Taylor says she grew up in a dysfunctional family and was sexually abused as a child by a teenage boy who was not a Jehovah's Witness. This was in remote South Australia. She says her mother, a devout but erratic Witness - she never knew her father - was also abused as a child and nothing was done or reported, so the pattern continued.
The church's rule for dealing with complaints or suspicions of sexual abuse is that generally there must be two witnesses. The Jehovah's Witnesses consider they are the only ones who know the truth, or "The Truth"; they are suspicious of government, police and media when it conflicts with their doctrine.
British sociologist and author Andrew Holden, who has written books on the religion's culture, calls this a "world-renouncing" approach. Members are not allowed to vote, celebrate Christmas or birthdays, get blood transfusions, sing the national anthem or salute a flag.
But, also, if a member or an elder hears of illegal behaviour, such as abuse or violence, it is usually kept internal. "To protect Jehovah's name," says an insider.
Taylor says in her teens she was again sexually assaulted, this time by a devout Witness. Nothing was ever reported to police. Taylor says she stayed with the church because she had low self-esteem and the Jehovah's Witnesses offered her some hope: "the illusion of a better life," she says. "I didn't want to break Jehovah's heart."
She began caring for her ill mother, was baptised as a Witness and doorknocked every day to fulfil a quota set for her of 90 hours a month. Doorknocking, also known as "pioneering" or "publishing", is the recruitment front line; most Australians have answered their door to a pair of Witnesses offering The Watchtower or Awake! magazines.
By the age of 18, Taylor, a smart and feisty young woman, had begun working as a South Australian advocate for Young Carers Australia and had contributed to policy developed by senator Amanda Vanstone, the then Minister for Family and Community Services. Taylor was also offered work experience and training as a journalist with ABC radio in Renmark. But she says "pressure and hatred" from her fellow Witnesses, and suspicion of her being too educated or upwardly mobile, forced her to turn down the offers in order to stay door-to-door preaching. She got a part-time job cleaning toilets instead.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are puritanical Christians who think they have God's messages to themselves. Only they are "in the Truth". They have 8 million members worldwide and 64,000 in Australia, in 800 "congregations" or parishes located in "Kingdom Halls".
The religion's proper name is the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. It was founded by American draper Charles Russell in 1872. They believe in the end of the world and also the paradise beyond and have predicted five times that Christ would come again to signal it. The last time this happened was 1975. More than 1 million devotees abandoned them in the following six years. In America the Jehovah's Witness have the lowest retention rate of all religions.
They also believe Satan has ruled the earth since 1914. The only way to make things better is by creating a heavenly kingdom on earth of a small number of believers. The Jehovah's Witness' trait of being aloof and "separate" comes from this idea that Satan runs things, so the best way to survive is to avoid society.
Membership has flatlined against population growth in most developed countries. The reach of the internet has had a big impact as whistleblower groups, ex-Witness forums, websites, "leaks" sites and negative publicity abounds.
The church is run by a "governing body" in Brooklyn, New York. In Australia there is a headquarters for the "branch committee" where all the senior officials live, in Ingleburn in the southern suburbs of Sydney. It is known as "Bethel".
Former "ministerial servant" (a trainee church elder) Paul Grundy, of Sydney, lived there for four years in the 1990s. "It's like a big four-star hotel," he says. Another former member who visited Bethel says: "It's nice, but it's like a bubble. They walk around like robots." People involved in the church's administration, publishing business and legal affairs live there too, about 400 people in total. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Australia is a public company; the directors are president Harold "Viv" Mouritz, vice-president Donald MacLean, Gordon King, Terrence O'Brien and Winston Payne.
Mouritz, who was born in Nagambie in country Victoria, is aged 86. MacLean, a Canadian, is 90. Company records show the company's income for the 2011 tax year was nearly $19 million and mostly came from donations. It earned nearly $350,000 in interest.
There is no suggestion the directors directly profited. Insiders say they live frugally and money is spent on investment properties. Every country's branch committee is answerable to the cabal in Brooklyn, who they believe God communicates through, but within each country the national branch committee, local elders and more senior men called overseers are authoritative. Elders can form judicial committees to investigate either each other or members of the congregation.
Kingdom Halls are plainly decorated, like school classrooms, with no iconography or adornment. Congregations meet twice a week to listen to Biblical passages. The structure for disciples to live by is uniform and rigid. Moral conservatism (anti-gay, anti-abortion, no sex before marriage) is strictly enforced.
The British sociologist Andrew Holden says the church has a "quasi-totalitarian" approach in which converts "defer unquestioningly to the authority of those who are appointed to enforce its doctrine". The individual, he says, "becomes the property of the whole community".
To defect is to embrace Satan because Satan lurks outside the church's insular micro-communities. Homosexuality, drug addiction and disease are used as warnings of what can become of the apostate. It is considered a betrayal and heresy to want to leave, which is why the practice of "shunning" plays such a large and controversial part in the lives of those, like Traralgon's Bec Taylor, who are connected to the religion.
The director of Cult Counselling Australia, Raphael Aron, a psychologist, says the Jehovah's Witnesses are not a cult. However, they "display symptoms common to numerous cults" with "a warped view" of family.
From his office in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield, he counsels ex-members and also families trying to regain contact with those lost to the sect. He says the Witnesses appear as "almost mainstream" but some of their practices appear to be "draconian, cruel and callous".
For a Christian religion, he says, they lack a "spiritual touch" and also lack tolerance and acceptance. "Shunning means that any member who chooses to leave the church for their own personal reasons will be totally cut off from the family that remains there - zero contact with parents, children, siblings, aunts, uncles or grandparents for the rest of their lives."
Aron says new recruits are often unaware they will go without birthdays and Christmas. "It's a religion without a soul." A young person flirting with the religion can suddenly find him or herself offered accommodation - a sharehouse or a flat - with Witnesses. Young disciples can be physically moved far from their parents, interstate or overseas.
Shunning comes in many guises. I met a man in his mid-40s now living in country Victoria who says when he was a teenage Jehovah's Witness in Queensland in the 1980s, he confessed to having the beginnings of a consensual but frowned-upon sexual relationship - fondling - with a teenage girl in the same congregation.
An elder ordered that he sit in a glass room at the back of the Kingdom Hall at every meeting, twice a week, for four months, for two hours at a time. The glass room was called the fish bowl and members of the congregation were allowed to humiliate him while he was in there. The man says the same elder had sexually assaulted both him and his brother.
Another middle-aged woman, from Melbourne, says that among people she grew up with in the church there was a "conscious class" - she knows about 40 - who only attend so they can keep seeing their families.
They do not believe in the teachings any more but live a complex lie in order to maintain family ties. The woman, who would not give her name for fear of retribution, wants to ''break the cycle'' for her own children and last year held a secret Christmas at her home for them.
She was baptised into a congregation in Melbourne's south-east despite that congregation later being exposed by Channel Nine for harbouring men - one later convicted of paedophilia offences - involved in sexual abuse and domestic violence.
Another country Victorian man (and ex-Witness) says when two young girls were abused by the older son of a local elder, the elder was moved to another congregation on the fringes of Melbourne.
Congregations in NSW and SA have also held convicted paedophiles. Meanwhile, in Melbourne, a former elder, Richard Hill, recently faced court charged with two counts of indecent assault on a six-year-old girl in 1981.Police and ex-Jehovah's Witness sources say congregations on the Gold Coast and Adelaide and in Cranbourne, Skye, Traralgon and Langwarrin in Victoria remain a concern.
The church's spokesman in Australia, solicitor Vincent Toole, says if the church knew of an elder committing or covering up child sexual abuse he would be removed ''from serving in that capacity''.
''Witnesses abhor child abuse and consider the protection of children to be of the utmost importance,'' he says. He also says shunning is a myth and that baptised members who drift away are not treated badly.
Toole supplied a statement from the Frequently Asked Questions on the Jehovah's Witnesses website which reads in part: ''We reach out to them and try to rekindle their spiritual interest.''
He said the religion did not have a distrust of the wider community but that ''the permanent solution to humankind's problems ultimately rests with God's government''.
A Victoria Police taskforce, Sano, is investigating allegations of abuse and cover-ups within church groups on behalf of the Victorian government inquiry into the church's handling of such allegations.
One allegation before Sano and also the Victorian Health Services Commissioner is that a Traralgon elder was allegedly able to get into a young girl's hospital ward at Latrobe Regional Hospital in Gippsland without the permission of the girl's parents and without the right access cards.
''The complaint raised with us by the Health Services Commissioner in connection with the Latrobe Regional Hospital has nothing to do with sexual abuse,'' Toole said.
''We have never heard of taskforce Sano.''
Whistleblower Steven Unthank, meanwhile, a carpenter and ex-Witness from Toongabbie in Gippsland, has given the Victorian parliamentary inquiry a submission claiming his family were persecuted after he tried to tackle child abuse. He says the church has covered up widespread abuse and violence over four decades.
''It is a paedophiles' paradise,'' he says. Unthank has also waged a long campaign to make elders and door-to-door preachers get Working With Children police checks, which the church has now begun to comply with.
In Traralgon, Bec Taylor says she is now a ''work in progress'' after cutting all ties late last year with her ''brainwashed'' family and with the church she once loved and pledged loyalty to. She had found herself living in Brisbane, worshipping at the Newfarm congregation and working in a call centre.
She was mugged early one morning walking to work. It took a month for anyone from her congregation to telephone, she says. Then when she finally went back to the church and had a massive panic attack, an elder drove her to hospital and dropped her at the door.
Suffering from post-traumatic stress and the effects of being abused as a child, she ideated suicide alongside the Brisbane River several times. Again, no support from her fellow Witnesses. And that was that. She began to quit, was ostracised further by her family, then quit entirely and moved states.
Too many cover-ups, she says, too little compassion.
''At least now I can say what I hear in my head is actually coming from my own head. I just hope others start to speak out too.''
Read the feature article:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/slamming-the-door-on-jehovah-20130315-2g6fo.html
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VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA | The Age newspaper | March 15, 2013 | Jehovah's Witnesses a 'cruel cult'
by jwleaks inthe age newspaper | fairfax media | friday, march 15, 2013. jehovah's witnesses a 'cruel cult'.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/jehovahs-witnesses-a-cruel-cult-20130315-2g5x3.html.
christian sect the jehovah's witnesses - with 64,000 active 'disciples' in australia - are a cruel religion with no soul, according to melbourne cultbuster raphael aron.. his warning comes as the federal government considers tightening the definition of a charity to prevent some cults and quasi-religions keeping their tax free status.
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jwleaks
The Age newspaper | Fairfax Media | Friday, March 15, 2013
Jehovah's Witnesses a 'cruel cult'
http://www.theage.com.au/national/jehovahs-witnesses-a-cruel-cult-20130315-2g5x3.html
Christian sect the Jehovah's Witnesses - with 64,000 active 'disciples' in Australia - are a cruel religion with no soul, according to Melbourne cultbuster Raphael Aron.
His warning comes as the federal government considers tightening the definition of a charity to prevent some cults and quasi-religions keeping their tax free status. Independent senator Nick Xenophon has renewed calls for a national cult-busting agency.
Mr Aron, a psychologist, counsellor and director of Melbourne's Cult Counselling Australia, said the Jehovah's Witnesses had a policy of "shunning" members who left or wanted to leave by cutting them off from family members who remained.
"I am still waiting for a justification for someone to be able to rip away a five or six year old child from their extended family because Mum or Dad have decided to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses," he said.
Former members say shunning can involve bullying, threats, harassment and stalking to lure the 'apostate', or lapsed member, back. The religion's scripture magazine The Watchtower describes 'apostates' as "mentally diseased" outcasts who "seek to infect others."
Mr Aron says shunning is "draconian, cruel and callous." Religion and faith were supposed to provide support, comfort and warmth but shunning could crush self-esteem and give feelings of guilt, especially in children.
Late last year the federal government set up a body called the Australian Charities and Not For Profits Commission (ACNC) to regulate charities with tax-exemptions. It can de-register charities. A treasury spokesman said the government could soon redefine charities and boost their requirement for 'public benefit.'
"At the moment groups like the Jehovah's Witnesess and Scientology are subsidised by the taxpayer," Senator Xenophon said. He said the French government's cultbusting agency Miviludes had been effective.
Victoria's current state inquiry into how churches handle child sex abuse has submissions from former Jehovah's Witnesses. One includes allegations of rape, sexual assault, blackmail and death threats. Others include allegations of paedophilia.
A spokesman for the church in Australia, Sydney solicitor Vincent Toole, dismissed the allegations and said shunning was a "myth."
Mr Aron, who has written two books on cults and has investigated them for thirty years, said the Jehovah's Witnesses were an outwardly benign group but they withheld information from potential recruits. Jehovah's Witnesses cannot celebrate Christmas, Easter or birthdays. They are not allowed to have blood transfusions, sing the national anthem or salute the national flag.
"They come to your door on a Sunday morning and you have a wonderful discussion about God but they never tell you that once entrenched in the religion you may never be able to say happy birthday to your children again."
They don't celebrate birthdays because they say there are no birthdays in the Bible, which Aron, an observant Jew, maintains is not true. "There's no Moomba in the Bible either," he says. "And no football. Does that mean we shouldn't do those things either?"
Jehovah's Witnesses believe they have God's messages to themselvces, that all other religions are wrong, that the end of the world will come and only those in 'The Truth' will survive. They have predicted the end of the world five times. They also believe Satan has ruled the earth since 1914.
Read the full story in tomorrow's Saturday Age. (March 16, 2013)
RELATED
Jehovah's Witness Child in Court Bid | The Age newspaper | Victoria, Australia
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/child-in-jehovahs-witness-court-bid-20130217-2elcg.html
Ex-Jehovah's Witness Elder Facing Sex Charges | The Age newspaper | Victoria, Australia
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/exjehovahs-elder-facing-sex-charges-20130218-2enj4.html
Watch Tower Society v. Jehovah's Witnesses | jwnews.org
JW NEWS extensive 2 Part Report on the charity status of Jehovah's Witnesses in Australia:
http://jwnews.org/2012/04/08/watch-tower-society-verses-jehovahs-witnesses/
