Awesome!
I'd read those articles.
Awesome!
I'd read those articles.
They are!
Some Points to Ponder:
The modern judicial hearing procedures of Jehovah's Witnesses are based on a Bible account. It's a fairly familiar account. You'll recognize it immediately:Do you recognize this account? Does it sound familiar? As a model for modern day Judicial Hearings of Jehovah's Witnesses, who does the individual represent? Who do the judges represent? Do you think the results of that Biblical judicial proceeding were just or not? Why or why not?
Which side would you have wanted to be on in the Biblical account? Which side, if any, do you find yourself on today?
[Originally posted by 00DAD]
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.
Years ago I used to edit JW related articles on WP with a pro-JW. It was a result of doing that that I discovered that many of my beliefs and behaviors as a JW were indefensible.
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!
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!
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]
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.
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.
.
if someone should show compassion to jackson those are his gb pals.
Can you imagine what Angus Stewart and Mr. Peter McClellan would do to Herd, Morris or Lett?
I'd pay to see that!
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?.
Indeed, the RC is trying to get Jackson to testify.
See this thread:
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.
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.
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!
wednesday 5 , day 7 live hearing.
case study 29, july 2015, sydney.
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