If you are an American citizen, please sign the "Protect Americans from Dangerous Cults: Modify USC Title 26 § 501 Tax Exemptions Requirements" petition that I created today on the White House "We the People: Your Voice in Government" website by using the following link: www.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/protect-americans-dangerous-cults-modify-usc-title-26-§-501-tax-exemptions-requirements/ZHpbvHfx . It takes about 2 minutes to register and sign the petition. 150 signatures are needed before this petition becomes live and searchable on "We the People" webpage. 25,000 people must sign the petition within 30 days for the White House staff to review it..
I assume that only Americans can sign this petition, but I do not know.
The petition says the following:
Support revising USC Title 26 § 501 so that all organizations must promote freedom of religion and freedom of speech to their members and employees. Any tax exempt organization, which does not promote freedom of religion and freedom of speech to their members and employees would lose their tax exempt status for not less than 3 years.
The IRS would be responsible for creating web-based tool(s) to help monitor for compliance and to promulgate regulations to ensure that the intent of the legislation is enforced.
Dangerous cults promote using shunning to coerce their members to blindly follow what the organization’s leadership orders and to coerce unrepentant former members. Members must shun unrepentant current and/or former members, as if they are dead.
Hopefully, this petition is very clear that an organization that wants to qualify for tax exemption status must promote to their members that their members are free to believe as they want and to speak freely without fearing retribution from the organization or from other members.
I also plan to promote this petition to former members of other dangerous cults besides the WTBTS.
It would also help if American members of JWN would write their representatives and the Secretary of the Treasury about preventing dangerous cults such as the WTBTS. I have been writing to representatives and the Secretary of the Treasury for the last couple of months. The following is an example of a letter that I have sent:
Mr. Timothy Franz Geithner
United States Secretary
of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20220
Dear Secretary Timothy F. Geithner:
I respectfully ask that the Treasury Department does the following to help protect millions of Americans from dangerous cults such as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (WB&TS) of New York Inc. (EIN 11-1753577), Brooklyn, NY:
1) If possible, revise IRS publications 557 and 1828 to protect individuals from dangerous cults,
2) Inform Congress of possible consequences of supporting organizations with USC Title 26 § 501 tax exemptions without providing specific protections for individuals, and, if possible, request that exempted organizations must promote individuals’ rights of freedom of religion and speech,
3) Investigate the WB&TS (and other dangerous cults) to revoke their USC Title 26 § 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, and
4) Respond to this letter within 45 days.
How can the harm that the WB&TS does to its members and former members justify giving the WB&TS USC Title 26 § 501(c)(3) tax exempt status? Since my 1 st letter to you about investigating the WB&TS (please see attached letter dated February 10, 2012), I have been researching U.S.C Title 26, 26 CFR, IRS bulletins, and IRS Publications to determine how the IRS decides whether an organization provides a charitable benefit, and if harmful acts can outweigh any benefits. According to IRS Publication 557, “Tax Exempt Status for Your Organization” and IRS Publication 1828, “Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations - benefits and responsibilities under the federal tax law”, the IRS maintains basic guidelines to determine whether an organization meets the religious purposes test of section 501(c)(3) “that the practices and rituals associated with the organization’s religious belief or creed are not illegal or contrary to clearly defined public policy”. What public policy are Publications 557 and 1828 referring to?
It has been about 34 years since 909 American citizens were killed in (and around) Jonestown, Guyana and other revelations by Steven Hassan about individual and societal dangers of dangerous cults. James Madison warned us about government protecting religious beliefs of individuals and freedom of speech more than 200 years ago by writing “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments” and writing the 1 st proposals of the Bill of Rights. Congress did not heed those warnings and Constitutional prohibitions when Congress enacted law(s) that created Title 26 § 501 without requiring that tax exempt organizations protect an individual’s freedom of religion and freedom of speech. To understand the magnitude of harm inflicted by dangerous cults and how, please read books by cult experts, such as Steve Hassan’s book “Combatting Cult Mind Control” and visit websites of cult experts, such as www.freedomofmind.com.
So how and why did the WB&TS leaders impose their will on their members (i.e., Jehovah’s Witnesses, JWs) and start sliding down the slippery slope to becoming a dangerous cult? The WB&TS morphed from a quirky religious organization into a dangerous cult slowly during its more than 130 year history. In the April 1887 Watchtower magazine on page 923 Pastor C.T. Russell, the founder of the WB&TS, was against shunning members and wrote “With the implied threat of disfellowship, they urge their ministers and students not to search continually for truth, but to accept the voice of their sect as infallible."
Later turmoil in the WB&TS top leadership seemed to contribute to changes in policies of disfellowshipping and disassociating JWs and enforcing the emotionally destructive practice of shunning. JW family members or friends shun an unrepentant JW (and/or former JW) by avoiding all contact with them as if they were dead, except to discuss necessary family business such as serious illness and death. The October 1, 1955 Watchtower magazine, page 607, announced the change in disfellowship doctrine by stating, “If after sufficient warning the publisher persists in associating with the disfellowshipped person instead of aligning himself with Jehovahs organization he also should be disfellowshipped.” Before 1981 JWs did not shun JWs who voluntarily disassociated themselves from the WB&TS. In 1981 Raymond Franz (former Governing Body member, author, and now deceased) disassociated himself from the WB&TS. Approximately 5 months later the WB&TS changed its policy to shun disassociated JWs, so that Raymond Franz would be shunned by JWs. Once the WB&TS leaders created the “Shun Gun”, the WB&TS was able to coerce JWs to blindly follow its leaders.
In 1971 the IRS issued Revenue Ruling 71-447 to revoke § 501(c)(3) tax exempt status for private schools that racially discriminated, so why are dangerous cults granted tax exempt status that continue to harm millions of Americans? There is a significant amount of information available through the internet to help investigate the WB&TS (i.e., www.jwfacts.com, www.watchtowerdocuments.com) [and other dangerous cults]. I would like to know if the following would be considered illegal or contrary to public policy, and would justify revoking the WB&TS’s tax exempt status:
1) The WB&TS promotes shunning members who are disfellowshipped or disassociated from the WB&TS. Barbara Anderson was disfellowshipped for publicly disagreeing with the WB&TS about not sufficiently protecting children from molestation by JWs. Richard Rawe was disfellowshipped for publicly disagreeing with the WB&TS about changing the policy from local congregations selecting elders to the WB&TS leadership appointing elders to local congregations.
2) The WB&TS promotes that JWs must not bring reproach on the WB&TS, so JW victims are easily coerced/convinced by elders not to file police reports about child abuse, child molestation, and other crimes that were perpetrated by JWs.
3) The WB&TS promotes that JWs and their minor, unbaptized children must refuse whole blood transfusions, even if required to save their lives, which endangers children’s lives.
4) The WB&TS promotes that JWs use Theocratic Warfare Strategy to lie to or deceive “Worldly” people about WB&TS’s doctrines,
5) The WB&TS does not allow women to serve as ministerial servants, elders, and in other leadership positions, even though 60% of JWs are women,
6) The WB&TS uses behavioral control techniques to control its members’ thoughts and behaviors. Some JWs suffer from psychosomatic illnesses because of emotional conflicts caused by being required to absolutely follow WB&TS’s doctrines that are contrary to their personal beliefs, because of their fear of being shunned by JW family members and friends.
Thank you in advance for reviewing and responding to my letter.
Sincerely,
Robert
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert