in the posts about the australian royal commission there have been several references to discussions on jw-archive.
i'd not heard of that site, so checked it out.
it seems to be used by many active jws - its tumblr style archive is full of pictures of jws doing their thing.
My OP was inspired by following this link that was provided by Mad Sweeney on a thread about the Australian Royal Commission.
I was just intrigued to see that there seems to be at least some genuine discussion on what, as far as I can tell, is a site used by active, believing JWs. There's a fair bit of apostate name calling as well, of course.
in the posts about the australian royal commission there have been several references to discussions on jw-archive.
i'd not heard of that site, so checked it out.
it seems to be used by many active jws - its tumblr style archive is full of pictures of jws doing their thing.
In the posts about the Australian Royal Commission there have been several references to discussions on jw-archive. I'd not heard of that site, so checked it out. It seems to be used by many active JWs - its Tumblr style archive is full of pictures of JWs doing their thing. However the discussions contain a lot of dissent, some apparently from active JWs.
A brief exchange that caught my eye:
i have discussed this with a few jw relatives.
all have tried to pass this off as a case to review a few bad cases.. highlight to them the name of the inquiry:.
royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
Indeed - it's easy to forget what the focus is. Thee Org's appalling practices are being held up for all to see,
Many of the 1006 cases in Australia led to dis-fellowshipping, so presumably the elders were convinced in these cases at least that criminal activity had taken place, but not once did they inform the police. The abusers were left to carry on their activities in wider society. Absolutely shocking.
i'm not sure if this has been covered but i'm wondering why none of the gb are being requested at or formally summoned to any of the australian abuse commissions or other investigations that are taking place around the world?
they after all are the ones single handedly responsible for making and enforcing all the rules that are the sole cause of all these abuses and problems.. why are they just keeping their silent distance and leaving all the ill-equipped and sadly incompetent local elders exposed to take the full public blast, criticism and humiliation for all that is now being brought out in these investigations?
how are they seemingly able to sit cosy in their ivory tower immune and unaccountable?.
The Royal Commission is investigating the activities of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia, which appears to be a corporate entity. The Commission therefore has no mandate to call in GB members.
However as a corporate entity (and assuming Australian law is similar to the UK), the local officials will be fully and wholly responsible for the WT's actions in Australia. It won't be an acceptable defence to say that the GB told them to do something.
you can refer to me as a still in mole.
anyway, i've been getting texts from jw's about the australia news.
the general census is that the jw's are very, very confused.
'I've had a few even say that this is the same thing that happened to the Catholic church!'
Perhaps you could point out (in a very confused and upset way of course) that there are over 5 million catholics in Australia but well under 100k JWs, so relatively the problem for the WT is much worse!
there is so much information on the website of the hearing.
you can find the full transcripts of each day there as pdf.. but also the evidence list is very interresting.
it contains many confidential letters from congregations but also from the hq to branch offices.. the full list can be seen here: http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/exhibits/636f01a5-50db-4b59-a35e-a24ae07fb0ad/case-study-29,-july-2015,-sydney.
(let me know if anyone thinks my assumptions are way out of line, or if i've forgotten anything).
basic facts:.
the australian royal commission has 1000+ documented cases of child abuse over 65 years.
The opening submission to the Royal Commission says that there are 817 congregations in Australia.
It's hard to say how many of the alleged abusers will still be active - less than half? If we guess 400 then there would then be one alleged abuser per two Australian congregations. How many unknown abusers there are is anyone's guess.
has anybody confronted any jws with the royal commission reports on the news yet?
i showed my 8-year old daughter a newspaper headline about it, and when she told my jw wife that the jws in australia were in trouble for not reporting over 1,000 child abusers to police, her response was "oh, really?
well, i don't know what the rules are over there.
It's on the BBC web-site. I imagine UK newspapers will pick up on the story too.
just wanted to share some good news.
my daughter has just got her first job as a school teacher, she starts in september.
another daughter will be starting university in september, and one of my sons also.
at some point in the future, it has to finally dawn on people that something is seriously flawed about the idea of jesus coming in the clouds to save everyone who believes- and kill everyone who doesnt..
will people still believe in jesus in another 1000 years?
will people still be saying in the year 5015;.
In the UK, regular churchgoers account for about 12% of the population. Some of the other 88% may tick 'Church of England' on the census form out of habit but I think it's reasonable to conclude that a significant majority of the population of the UK doesn't believe that Jesus was the son of God.
As for "Jesus coming in the clouds to save everyone who believes- and kill everyone who doesn’t", I would say less than 1% believes that - this isn't a doctrine that the Catholics or the Church of England actively preaches.
I'm hearing people talk very negatively about religion as a result of the rise of Islamic State. It's not just Islam that is coming in for criticism but all religions with their received wisdom and absolute certainties. People seem generally far more sceptical and prepared to challenge these days and while no doubt there will be some believers for many, many years yet, at least in the UK I would expect Christians to become an ever smaller group.
JWs may not suffer as badly because of their shunning policy holding people in. Even then, it's one thing subscribing to a particular religion when most other people are religious, but quite another when almost everyone else is secular - the feeling of otherness must grow for the still-in Witnesses.
