shout out to jwfacts.. just saw the drum.
excellent job !
!.
Great job, Paul! One can see that there would be so much more to say but the time is always being squeezed in TV, but the amount of information that you could provide in such a short amount of time was amazing. Thumbs up for the public awareness that you generated.
Eden
https://www.revealnews.org/article/jehovahs-witnesses-cover-up-child-sex-abuse-and-oust-a-victim/.
jehovahs witnesses cover up child sex abuse and oust a victim.
topics: criminal justice / religion .
Amazing article.
Two points I have found particularly sickening:
a) How sick is that the same elder that abused her, was the one who conducted the JC to disfellowship her for "immorality".
b) While Elders strongly discourage any reports of sexual child abuse within the congregation to the authorities, the Watchtower legal department was prompt to instruct the Elders to report to the authorities a rumor that a DF mother of a Witness child might have made a comment that might have been interpreted as an invitation to sexual misconduct with a minor. How hypocrite!
Eden
are we likely to see a definite drop in new bible studies , interest in the religion ,a drop in meeting attendance ,especially in lands where this is widely reported ?
or even an exodus from many in the congregations who may view this as the last straw ?.
their have only been 3 days of this inquiry so far and the incompetence of the elders to articulate their position is painful to observe , they are ignorant to the extreme .showing a total disinterest in the whole proceedings.. when questioned , they have not bothered to understand the purpose of the commission , nor read any of the previous days proceedings ,nor have they bothered to read the victims statement ,and have shown a total disregard for the whole procedure .. surely any thinking person with half a brain would back away from any involvement with this religion .. i am overjoyed that this inquiry is getting worldwide media attention ,i hope you are too .. i commented on an article in ghana africa that ran with this story , so the sexual abuse of children within the jehovah`s witness organization is getting worldwide coverage .. what do you think ?.
The only objective reason why Elders discourage / don't encourage abuse victims to report to the authorities the crime they were victims of, is solely to protect the reputation of the Organization, to keep selling the fantasy that there's a 'spiritual paradise' that the Jehovah's Witnesses enjoy as God's chosen people, where everything is clean and pure, because God's holy spirit ensures that no wrongdoing is allowed to endure.
This fiction is more important to the leadership - the Governing Body and their worshippers - than the well-being and protection of the flock, especially the most vulnerable amongst them, the children. They may issue statements to the effect that they 'abhor sexual abuse of children', but their actions say that they love their idolized Organization's reputation above everything else. The increasingly embarassing display of incompetence, arrogance, disdain and utter ignorance from those appointed Elders before public scrutiny, is the biggest shot in the foot for the Jehovah's Witnesses. For an organization obcessed with 'not dragging Jehovah's name in the mud', there is no PR capable of erasing the stench these men, who call themselves "faithful and discreet slave", stirred in the public eye. By chosing to arrogantly call themselves after the (supposed) name of the Almighty God, they now parade that name in the mud pool of infamy and shame.
"They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and disqualified for any good work." - Titus 1:16 ; fits them well.
They will, sooner or later, make positive changes to their policies. They will call it spirit-directed 'refinements'. They will say they are keeping pace with the celestial charriot. When, in fact, they have challenged the so-called 'Satan's World', got caught up, and lost the armwrestle.
Witnessing will become more and more difficult; the regular rank-and-file publishers, pioneers will face increased hostillity in the territory as public awareness grows about this bronze-age-minded cult. Numbers in new converts will drop. Contributions will drop. The radical Witnesses will become more radicalized, fueled by the complex of persecution, and the doubters and 'spirtually weak' will leave in droves.
The epilogue of this, might well be a sad one: A "new light" that the Armageddon is nigh, and some sort of dramatic climax worldwide, break it or make it, by which the blind, radicalized faithful will rather die than admit they were wrong.
Eden
listening to the first survivor testify to the australian royal commission really brought back some feelings i had put aside.. the feelings of guilt you feel for doing the right thing is extremely hard even when you know it's illogical it doesn't stop the abuse you do to yourself with these toxic thoughts of "dragging jehovah's name through the mud" i guess it doesn't help that you have the elders freaking out saying "reproach, reproach...this is bad!!
it took quite awhile for me to come to terms with how completely ridicules it is to think jehovah would want this hidden.
the truth is the religion wants it hidden and they are perfectly fine with destroying lives along the way!!
From the actual transcript of the first day:
Mr O'Brien will testify that the Governing Body is not
47 involved in the administration and implementation of child
sexual abuse policies and procedures in branch offices of
2 the Jehovah's Witness Church.
How can they go before an official authority and make such a preposterous, false claim ?? Sorry for the horrid editing, I'm doing it from an ipad.
Eden
listening to the first survivor testify to the australian royal commission really brought back some feelings i had put aside.. the feelings of guilt you feel for doing the right thing is extremely hard even when you know it's illogical it doesn't stop the abuse you do to yourself with these toxic thoughts of "dragging jehovah's name through the mud" i guess it doesn't help that you have the elders freaking out saying "reproach, reproach...this is bad!!
it took quite awhile for me to come to terms with how completely ridicules it is to think jehovah would want this hidden.
the truth is the religion wants it hidden and they are perfectly fine with destroying lives along the way!!
It's not redundant when by 'name' is implied "reputation".
Eden
07/23/2015russiacossacks attack, throw stones at jehovah's witnessesby nina achmatova.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/cossacks-attack,-throw-stones-at-jehovahs-witnesses-34845.html.
jehovah's witnesses were meeting in congress on 10-12 july in krymsk, krasnodar region.
Totally unjustifiable.
Eden
if ray franz would have kept his mouth shut and not disfellowshipped, and remained part of the governing body how many of us ex-jw would still be trapped in the cult?.
would we have come this far?.
It was the respectful tone on which Ray Franz wrote about the Watchtower Society and his former GB colleagues in "Crisis of Conscience" that lend credibility to his message and kept me calm while I was reading all that damning information. When I read the first page it felt like I was walking barefoot on a path of broken glass. I felt so scared. Every minute I felt I was on the brink of mentally shutting down and never look at it again, but that quiet, respectful tone had the ring of truth about it. I remember sitting in my car, reading it on my iPad and finally saying to myself : "No, God and the Holy Spirit can't be behind this organization. This is just like any other human business venture. It's all the work of men. Bastards! You're nothing but lying bastards!"
When you realize that, then the chains fall and you are fee to investigate further, because that's the moment when you feel that whatever they say or write has NO AUTHORITY over you, because it's not endorsed or directed by GOD. (This, in a time where I still believed in the Christian God). Then you are free to go on and investigate freely what you want to know.
In retrospect, I think "Crisis Of Conscience" had the tremendous power to, through a simple autobiography, break the thickest mental bond that the WTS keeps a Witness captive with - that they represent God and thus to disobey them is to disobey Jehovah God and Christ and you are therefore jeopardizing your prospects of an eternal life. I owe Ray Franz a great deal - even if I didn't bother to read his second book, "In Search of Christian Freedom", because by then it was too late for me to even believe in Christianity, in whatever flavor.
Eden
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0612hjs.
the report about child abuse and jehovah's witnesses is now live.. jehovah's witnesses handle child abuse cases.
jehovah's witnesses and child sexual abuse, the report - bbc radio 4 .
Very interesting, very accurate, very balanced. Quality work by the BBC, as is their usual hallmark. Certainly this will raise public awareness in the UK and will be a reference for future legal cases and give courage to other victims to come up and speak.
If I have one very slight criticism to make is that it should have been made more obvious the connection between the Elders' course of action and the legalistic directions coming from the Governing Body - the Elders 'spiritual career' and 'status quo' are dependant upon towing the corporate line thick and thin, and they regard the words of the GB as authoritative as the Bible itself, if not more. Aside this, it's a great piece of journalism.
Damning information to the WTS from credible sources - not lone wolf loonie-like types with a payback mission on the web - is the key to raise public awareness to this problem.
btw Mephis, thank you for your link. It worked for me.
Eden
i highly recommend you watch this video.. it is superbly researched.
you know all the things in this video already--but.
watching it will create an impression on you which.
Good video, well researched.
Personally I wish that it wasn't delivered as part of someone's Christian Ministry, as it would put some JW's automatically on guard against it.
Eden
may be some of you will be shocked by this question.
however, when i was studying the bible with critical eyes i detected that paul ( or saul of tarsus) misquoted the hebrew bible in order to get false support for his arguments.
of course, this tricky kind of use of the "scriptures" was not only used by him, but others, like the author of the gospel of matthew got unsupported doctrines misquoting verses.
Even the Bible is clear that the most prominent among the apostles that walked with Jesus weren't exactly fond of Paul ... and he wasn't too fond of them either.
Eden
