Oubliette

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Posts by Oubliette

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  21

  Mandatory reporting and misprision

  by Xanthippe in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  day 7 of the australian royal commission has chair justice peter mcclellan raising the point that i have been wondering about all along, which is, how can these elders not report child abuse to the authorities especially when a full confession has taken place?.

  justice mcclellan asked toole, the wts's lawyer, if he is aware that there is a difference between an organisation being required to have mandatory reporting of child abuse to the authorities and misprision which is the concealment of a felony, itself a criminal offence?

  toole says he is aware of it now but he wasn't before!

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  Oubliette

  [double post]
  
• 
  21

  Mandatory reporting and misprision

  by Xanthippe in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  day 7 of the australian royal commission has chair justice peter mcclellan raising the point that i have been wondering about all along, which is, how can these elders not report child abuse to the authorities especially when a full confession has taken place?.

  justice mcclellan asked toole, the wts's lawyer, if he is aware that there is a difference between an organisation being required to have mandatory reporting of child abuse to the authorities and misprision which is the concealment of a felony, itself a criminal offence?

  toole says he is aware of it now but he wasn't before!

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  Oubliette

  Here's the irony that the RC has duly noted:

  All JWs are in effect mandated to report any wrongdoing to the elders,

  But the elders don't report even criminal activity to the police even when it is mandated.

  Note point #69 from the Opening Address:
  

  #69. Evidence will be put before the Royal Commission that of the 1,006 alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse identified by the Jehovah’s Witness Church since 1950, not one was reported by the Church to secular authorities. This suggests that it is the practice of the Jehovah’s Witness Church to retain information regarding child sexual abuse offences but not to report allegations of child sexual abuse to the police or other relevant authorities.- [Emphasis and highlighting added]
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  10

  Jehovah Witness Wikapedia written by the same people who write the publications?

  by thedepressedsoul in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i took a look at the jehovah's witnesses wikipedia page for the first time and i couldn't help but notice it was worded very closely to how jw's publications are.

  the good stuff seems to be very positive while the negative items seem to be very downplayed.

  the talk of persecution is enough to get your average jw wet.

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  Oubliette

  Anyone can edit a Wikipedia article. You can too.
  
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  15

  If Jackson is not available due to compassionate reasons, can other GB member take his place?

  by Viva la Vida in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i would think the only christian organization on this planet would be more than willingly send another gb member to australia in order to answer rcs questions, taking the place of jackson who is taking care of his ill farther.

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  if someone should show compassion to jackson those are his gb pals.

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  Oubliette

  Can you imagine what Angus Stewart and Mr. Peter McClellan would do to Herd, Morris or Lett?

  I'd pay to see that!
  
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  13

  Why aren't the Governing Body members being investigated in the ARC?

  by Illuminated in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  when there's a malfunction in a product that causes an injury or death, the head of the corporation is held accountable not the salesmen selling the product.

  .

  why aren't the governing body members being investigated when they are the root cause of the child abuse issues and the re-victimization that takes place after?.

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  Oubliette

  Indeed, the RC is trying to get Jackson to testify.

  See this thread:

  Did you hear that!? His Honour is insisting that Jackson attend the Royal Commission

  
  
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  30

  We can now estimate the absolute minimum number of child abuse cases

  by Viviane in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  vincent tool said that he is exclusively working the phones for child abuse cases, but never said he is not the only one.

  for now, let's assume the rate of abuse cases averages over time to the three or four cases he gets per month.

  let's further assume that, since he isn't the only person working the phones and is on vacation at some point, the number is 4-5 per month, or 4.5 per month.

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  Oubliette

  A couple of important points to keep in mind, the majority of sexual abusers do not limit themselves to a single victim. Dr. Monica Applewhite acknowledged that in her testimony. Also, it is likely that there are abusers whom the WT Australia Branch is unaware. This means that the 1,006 known abusers represent a much larger number of victims. How many, it is impossible to know.

  Let's extrapolate this to the Worldwide Work, shall we?

  There were 66,484 publishers in Australia last year and 7,867,958 average publishers total (source: 2015 Yearbook).

  A little quick math suggests that there likely has been more than 100,000 abusers in the organization over the last half century. This suggests that there has been many hundreds of victims of their abuse, possibly in the millions!

  Obviously, this mental exercise involves a certain amount of conjecture and speculation, but I don't believe there is any valid reason to believe the problem in Australia is unique or significantly different to any other area or culture. Are Australians more depraved than other people? Nothing suggests this. On the contrary, that the Australian government is leading the way in addressing it suggests the opposite if anything.
  

  Also, I have not made any attempts to adjust for various growth rates of the religion throughout the world over the last 50 years. But I don't think that is important or necessary to understand the point.
  

  What is important is to allow the significance of the known facts to really sink in. Take some time with this and ponder what it really says about this religion, particularly in light of its history of pointing their finger at other religions meanwhile denying their own moral failing. Really consider the magnitude of this problem.
  

  The facts speak for themselves, JW/WT's own internal records document "more than one child abuse allegation every month yet in 60 years has never reported them to police."

  Not one single report in more than half a century with more than 1,000 opportunities to do the right thing. Never. Not once. This is one of the most stunningly spectacular failures I have ever seen!

  Then, let's review: It's not just a cult, it is one of the worst, most damaging and destructive religious cults in the history of mankind!
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  239

  Royal Commission Live Hearing Now

  by LostinJapan in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  wednesday 5 , day 7 live hearing.

  case study 29, july 2015, sydney.

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  Oubliette

  Angus Stewart Paraphrase: "Individual congregations take their direction from the Australia branch which in turns takes its direction from the Governing Body"
  

  Toole: That's right
  
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  239

  Royal Commission Live Hearing Now

  by LostinJapan in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  wednesday 5 , day 7 live hearing.

  case study 29, july 2015, sydney.

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  Oubliette

  Angus is establishing with Mr. Toole (how appropriate) that the GB ultimately determines all policies and procedures.

  This is gonna be good!!!

  
  
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  10

  Yesterday I posted a topic with personal details of one of the RC staff.

  by umbertoecho in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i posted a topic with personal contact information on it.

  such stupidity and i do deeply apologise to the person and the commission.. it has been taken down thank fully.. this morning i came skulking out of my cave, and with trepidation started the computer and checked my emails.............. there was a lovely compassionate email from the staff at rc telling me not to be too upset at what i had done.

  they said they understood and it was important that i not get too distressed at the error.. then they said they were thankful for all the support and gratitude being shown to them from various parties and other places.

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  Oubliette

  I have learned my lesson and it is an important one.......

  Yes, worldly people are usually much nicer than hardcore JWs, especially the elders.
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  10

  The Guardian: JWs Church says it will comply with mandatory reporting of child abuse

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/04/jehovahs-witness-church-says-it-will-comply-with-mandatory-reporting-of-child-abuse.

  august 4, 2015. australian associated press .

  the jehovahs witness church says it will comply with mandatory reporting obligations when they learn about sexual abuse crimes against children in their congregation.. a royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has heard that the theocratic church records more than one child abuse allegation every month yet in 60 years has never reported them to police.. in the second week of a hearing into the churchs handling of abuse incidents, the head of the communitys service desk, rodney spinks, acknowledged they dealt with matters internally and did not encourage reporting to police.. the service desk under the auspices of the churchs legal entity, the watchtower bible and tract society australia, is the first point of contact for elders looking for advice on how to deal with child abuse reports.. spinks said the first issue addressed is the safety of the child, and elders are referred to watchtower publications on the matter.. they are also given generic advice based on a handbook that says they should never suggest not reporting the allegation to police.. spinks acknowledged they had not had a practice, against the wishes of the victim or otherwise, to directly report to police.. the commission chair, peter mcclellan, pointed out there were mandatory reporting obligations when a crime had been committed.. spinks said he had been made aware of this in these hearings and the church would accept and comply with mandatory reporting, regardless of our strongly held religious belief that individuals should have the right to decide what is done with that information.. he said when there were mandatory reporting requirements with some sort of uniformity across the country we will happily and willingly comply.. mcclellan pointed out that uniform laws were not yet in place and they would differ from state to state but they would impose a criminal sanction on a person who knows [about an abuse crime] and does not report.. spinks said he understood that.. mcclellan said the church needed to have a very good look maybe with the help of the churchs lawyers at what the law provides.. the commissioner also pointed out that what the jehovahs witnesses were doing was different to what other churches might be doing because you might be taking allegations and resolving, as you see it, the truth of the allegation by reason of your process.. the commission has heard that the jehovahs witness process is based on a biblical rule that the wrongdoing is only proven when there are two witnesses, and expect the abuse victim to confront the abuser..

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  Oubliette

  The facts speak for themselves, JW/WT's own internal records document "more than one child abuse allegation every month yet in 60 years has never reported them to police."

  Not one single report in more than half a century with more than 1,000 opportunities to do the right thing. Never. Not once. This is one of the most stunningly spectacular failures I have ever seen!