http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-28978655.
a five-year-old boy with a brain tumour has been taken without consent from hospital by his parents, sparking a major police hunt for the family.. ashya king was taken from southampton general hospital and is now believed to be in france with his parents and six siblings.. police said he needs constant medical care and there are "serious concerns" for his life if he is not found today.. brett king, 51, and naghemeh king, 45 removed him from the ward on thursday.. ashya's father was pictured taking him from the hospital"everyone is sending their love now.
we love you so much and we want to see you very soon and i love you so much and can't wait to see you.".
The Guardian article says that the family are JW's.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/29/parents-take-boy-brain-tumour-hospital-southampton
I hope their found soo, my children have severe health problems so I know just how dangerous for the child this could be. If they don't find him soon it could turn into a murder investigation.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2400938/jehovahs-witness-wife-died-refusing-blood-transfusion-jailed-13-years-child-sex-abuse-covered-religions-elders.html .
a jehovah's witness who sexually abused a child and then had his wrongdoing covered up by the church has been jailed for 13 years.. gordon leighton, 53, admitted sexually abusing a child when he was confronted with the allegations by church elders at washington, tyne and wear.. the elders knew about the 53-year-old's admissions for three years but refused to co-operate with the criminal investigation, and said what they had heard was confidential.. leighton hit the headlines in the 1990s when his wife yvonne, 28, died after refusing a blood transfusion after childbirth on religious grounds.judge penny moreland said that he had subjected his victim to 'untold damage' as she sentenced him at newcastle crown court today.. the judge said: 'you manipulated her with a combination of affection and attention and violence and threats.
'the defendant was found guilty of two charges of indecency with a child and six of indecent assault after a trial.
The misleading thing about the whole case is that because he is now disfellowshipped people will assume the elders took action to protect the congregation. What actually happened is that after confessing to the elders he was reproved, and was only later disfellowshipped for something else (possibly bringing the congregation into disrepute?).
church officials hushed up a child sex scandal in their ranks and refused to co-operate with police.. .
jehovah witness ministerial servant gordon leighton admitted sexually abusing a child when he was confronted by his church elders, a court heard.. but during the official police investigation, the 53-year-old who made headlines in the 1990s when wife yvonne, 28, died after refusing a blood transfusion after childbirth on religious grounds denied any illegal wrongdoing.. and when detectives asked elders simon preyser, harry logan and david scott to make statements about the confession, all three refused and said what they had heard was confidential.. for three years, the elders refused to co-operate with the criminal investigation and kept up that stance when the case was brought before newcastle crown court after the victim made a complaint to police.. each was issued with a witness summons which they fought to overturn before being ordered to testify by judge penny moreland citing public interest.. their barrister richard daniels said the men had a duty to god not to breach confidence.. he added: privileged communication between members of the congregation and ministers is an absolute right and duty and there is no power in law to breach such a confidence.. judge moreland said: it is apparent that the three elders who were present when this conversation took place are in possession of relevant evidence as to a point which is of real significance in this case.. they claim the right of confidentiality, they claim that what they heard said by the defendant during the course of that meeting ought to be subject to privilege, as ministers of religion.. judge moreland refused to withdraw the summonses and said: public interest is clearly in favour of this evidence being given.. what was said by the defendant on that occasion is of great significance in the trial.. despite the judges ruling, the men still refused to make statements to police until just hours before they were called before the jury.. leighton, who has since been expelled from the church at lambton kingdom hall in washington, denied two charges of indecency with a child and seven of indecent assault.. he was yesterday found guilty of two charges of indecency with a child and six of indecent assault.
he was found not guilty of one indecent assault charge, on the direction of the judge.. he was remanded in custody until he is sentenced next month but warned he is facing a lengthy spell behind bars.. prosecutor katherine dunn told the court the victim, who is now an adult, broke her silence in 2009.. the court heard how at a special church meeting, leighton admitted sexual abuse and made excuses for his behaviour.. miss dunn said: the elders conducted their own investigation.
This is about 10 miles from me. Some of the names ring a bell, but only vaguely as its over 10 years since I left.
so where do you start?.
i've been reading peoples experiences for several months now trying to figure out what i want to say but how do you put your whole life into a few words?.
i was a born in but have been happy and free for 5 years and luckily for me my husband felt the same way and we have freed our children from being brainwashed.
I'm glad you both made it out ans managed to look after your daughter. I used to work in the food tent at murrayfield too, packing the fruit bags.
i wonder if bethelites are sent here for research, but i can't see any being sent here for research in which it wouldn't awaken them at the same time.
even the governing body themselves may awaken if they were at this board haha.
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I know for definite that there was a bethelite active on exjw boards in 2004/5/6.
After I was df'd in 2003 I was regularly on here and some of the other boards that were going at the time, JWO, slippys, etc. After a while I recognised a poster as somebody I knew when I was a witness. I sent him a message to say hello as his posts showed he was having doubts, but once he realised who I was he disappeared from the boards. Last year I found out that the poster had joined the IT department at bethel not long after I was df'd, about the time he started posting, and he's still there now.
for those who still show up at the meetings, how do you manage?.
do you still offer comments and how do you actually muster up the boldness to gave talks and still do all of those craps?..
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I've just had another thought about this and want to propse another angle.
To me there is a difference between the religion/belief of the Jehovahs Witnesses and the organisation. I think the organisation is a cult which is controlling and uses unethical methods of persusion to retain and control its members but differentiate this from the relision side i nwhich people are free to beleive what they want. There are some like the JWRB who recognise this and are trying to change form the inside, making the jw's less cultish and more mainstream.
for those who still show up at the meetings, how do you manage?.
do you still offer comments and how do you actually muster up the boldness to gave talks and still do all of those craps?..
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To answer the initial question, when I was still attending meetings I found I could shut it out to a point but then it got too much and I stopped going. I've since found out this is a classic example of cognitive dissonance theory. The body regulates itself by homeostasis and an imbalance between what a person internalises as beliefs and externalises as actions causes instability. Longterm instability causes functional problems so the body corrects it by either changing the internal beliefs or the outward behaviour so they are once again in balance. How long someone could keep up a pretense would depend on the individual but you would hope it would be long enough to reach those important to them. When I was regular on here there were a few doing this, and most of them seemed to end up being out within a year or two.
Bigmac, it may seem like they're living a lie but would it not be more accurate to say they're taking a hit for the team for the sake of their family? As for your comment that any man as head of the house should be able to make a common sense arguement and have a chance of saving his family I find it frankly ridiculous and misinformed. Have you ever tried using common sense in arguing with a true believing fundamentalist? If thats all it took there wouldn't be any jw's anymore. When you were a true believing jw I'd bet there were facts you ionterpretted very differntly to how you interptret them now as an ex'jw. To me it takes a bigger man to choose a difficult route for the long term good of his family then to let the testosterone take over and put your foot down.
From your first comment it seems to me that you think that people putting their family beofre themselves makes a pathetic thread and they should get a life. If you truly believe this then its your own choice and good luck to you. But if you've only said them to stir things up, as you stated on another forum, then its a bit below the belt imho.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/16607015897/10150816482450898/
theres a very lively facebook site for uk ex's--.
ex jehovah's witnesses uk.
well worth a look--already lots of us on it.
i ransacked entire dusty volumes of watchtowers in search of an answer to this vexing question.
imagine that a jw has been disfellowshipped for apostasy .
would the watchtower accept such bequests?.
If I remember right there was a question box in the kingdom ministry about something similar to this. I think it was after the new arrangment for offering liturature for a donation rather than a fixed charge, and said that before a donation could be accepted you had to consider the source of the money and stated what sources it would not be appropriate to accept from. However, I don't have the WTcd anymore to check if my memory is correct!
That said, I think the main criteria they would use to decide whether to accept or not would be if anyone would ever find out about it..........
