steve2 - fair enough! You know me, I revel in backing the underdog!
Cedars
URGENT: Please Sign White House Petition to "Protect Americans from Dangerous Cults: Modify USC Title 26 § 501 Tax Exemption Requirements"
by ABibleStudent 130 Replies latest members politics
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ABibleStudent
To all who have responded to this thread and especially those who have signed the petition at www.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/protect-americans-dangerous-cults-modify-usc-title-26-§-501-tax-exemptions-requirements/ZHpbvHfx .
Thank You!!
I do understand that the petition could have been worded better and that it will take a lot of effort to collect 25, 000 signatures in a month, but I feel that it would be far worse if I didn't try. I tried to write the petition to avoid singling out any one dangerous cullt and to have the IRS involved in judging tactics that a dangerous cult uses to coerce its members. Also, I can always write a better petition after 30 days, so please keep on commenting on how to improve it and let everryone know whether you have signed it.
In the last 18 hours since I wrote the petition, I have written to various administrators of variious recovery forums, www.jwfacts.com , www.jwnews.net , www.watchtowerdocuments.com , www.freeminds.org , and www.freedomofmind.com asking them to post links to this petition. Steven Unthank even posted a link to the petition on jwNews facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/jwnews . I hope that all of you will write to former members of dangerous cults and ask them to sign this petition or pass it on too people who they love. The following is an example of an email which I sent to administrators of other recovery forums:
Dear Religious Tolerance Administrator, If you believe in a person's right of freedom of religious belief and speech, please post a link using either https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/protect-americans-dangerous-cults-modify-usc-title-26-§-501-tax-exemptions-requirements/ZHpbvHfx or to http://wh.gov/Er4 for the next 30 days on www.religioustolerance.org and/or email the links to members of dangerous cults or former dangerous cult members, who you know . The link(s) are to a petition on the White House website. If 25,000 people (Americans only, probably) sign the petition in 30 days, the White House Staff will review this petition. For more information about this petition, please read the following link on JWN: www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/politics/225023/1/URGENT-Please-Sign-White-House-Petition-to-Protect-Americans-from-Dangerous-Cults-Modify-USC-Title-26-c2a7-501-Tax-Exemption-Requirements#4333162 or http://www.jwsupportforum.com/index.php?topic=13965.msg217198;topicseen#new . Sincerely,
As of this morning, 14 people have signed the petition
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
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ABibleStudent
BTW 18 people have signed this petition as of this morning, 04/28/12. I guess, I need to continue to spread the word about it. I hope and pray that other people will make time to sign this petition and tell their friends and family about it. If at least 150 people sign this petition in the next few days, the petition will be searchable on the White House website and maybe also detected and dispayed by internet search engines.
To me revising the US tax code may be the best way to prevent dangerous cults from forming without infringing on people's right of freedom of religious beliefs and desire to form religions. I wish that the WTBTS (and other dangerous cults) never victimized anyone, but wishing doesn't change the past nor the future. Action does!!
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert -
lisaBObeesa
signed!!
Personally, I think if you strongly believe in an idea, then you should get behind it and support it.
If you stongly believe in an idea that will be very difficult to make successful, then you should support it MORE, not less.
No good change would ever happen if everybody just didn't do things that were good and right because they seemed impossible or hard.
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ABibleStudent
FYI 30 people have signed the White House pettion at http://wh.gov/Er4 as of this morning, Sunday, 04/29/12. How can I get at least 500 people to read this petition so that 150 people will sign this petition within the next 4 days?
Today I received the following email from Steve Unthank about how to market this petition and my response to him.
Also, if anyone knows how to contact Simon or Lady Lee, please let them know that the JWN's email system SUCKS big time, and that other ex-JWs, such as Steven Unthank, have had difficulties joining JWN and sending emails to JWN's administrators and/or moderators.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
From: Robert To: Steven Unthank <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 7:46 AM
Subject: Re: White House Petition
Thanks Steven, I need all the help and suggestions that I can get to promote this petition. I have sent emails to several different people who represent organizations that are against dangerous cults (i.e., www.freedomofmind.com, www.jwfacts.com, www.watchtowerdocuments.com,www.freeminds.org, etc), and plan to send more. I will use your link suggestion as will as give out the other links. If you still want to join JWN, please send an email to [Lady Lee], who is an administrator and/or moderator at JWN, at [Lady Lee's email address]. I already sent her an email about posting a link on JWN to this petition as well as informing her of the difficulties that you had joining JWN. If you would like to post another petition on Facebook, I would recommend reading the Brit's petition on http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29949 and including it on Facebook. If you would like to read more information about that petition go to http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/politics/222052/1/UK-POSTERS-UNITE-Get-as-many-to-sign-our-petition-as-possible. Thanks again and all the best to you too,
Robert
From: Steven Unthank <[email protected]>
To: Robert
Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 12:53 AM
Subject: White House Petition
Robert,
I've given some thought to the marketing of the White House petition to reach the 25,000 mark. I'm of the opinion that you should give serious consideration towards promoting the petition to the many groups that have started up across the USA which are opposed to the Westboro Baptist Church. Some of these groups have over 100,000 supporters.
I've sent the link to a few groups just to lay the groundwork. Put the spin on that
"As citizens of the USA we may not individually be able to regulate groups such as the Westboro Baptists but we can united make a stand to have such groups realize there are consequences for their actions. While freedom of religion is a constitutional right, tax exempt status for religions is not. Freedom of religion does not mean freedom from tax obligations."
Give it some thought and let me know. Also consider contacting other religious groups, including former Scientologists, SDA's etc. If you are willing to send out the emails and make the phone calls to these groups then I'm willing to help where I can. I'll put up an an article on the JW News website. This way we can cross promote.
If you do indeed send out email, I recommend you use the following shortened link:
www.bit.ly/whitehouse-petition
Why? I have a tracker on this link and can tell how many people have accessed the White House web site by using it. It's also easier to email. From my facebook page there has been 66 visits in the past day alone.
All the best,
Steven Unthank -
Finkelstein
You must be either very gullible or delusional Robert if you think this little petition is going to change the
religious freedom act and its pertaining no tax laws established in the United States.
The religious freedom laws are strongly affirmed in the US constitution.
Your heart is in the right place though.
Even if you did get someone in Washington to side with you, you have to think about all the money and the lawyers
religious organizations like the WTS. has to fight a petition like this.
Wake up to reality.
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ABibleStudent
Finkelstein - You must be either very gullible or delusional Robert if you think this little petition is going to change the
religious freedom act and its pertaining no tax laws established in the United States.
The religious freedom laws are strongly affirmed in the US constitution.
Your heart is in the right place though.
Even if you did get someone in Washington to side with you, you have to think about all the money and the lawyers
religious organizations like the WTS. has to fight a petition like this.
Wake up to reality.
Hi Finklestein, are my only choices guilible or delusional? How about I love and care about JWs and other dangerous cult members who are victimized by their leaders?
Are you a U.S. legal expert? From your comments about the USA having a "religious freedom act", I think not. So why do you have such a strong opinion about petitioning the White House to support adding requirements to qualify for tax exempt status in USC Title 26 § 501? Have you read USC Title 26 § 501? Have you read any of the IRS publications that provide additional guidance about § 501?
I have read USC TITLE 26 § 501 and IRS Publication 557 and 1828 , so I doubt that I qualify as guilible, delusional, nor uneducated.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
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Finkelstein
The point is who decides what is a dangerous cult or not and what standards and should a religion be placed under to determine this.
A religious cult isn't deemed a danger to people unless it starts causing direct personal harm to people, otherwise it just simple religious beliefs.
The other thing to consider is that the WTS/JWS has been in full operation in the United States now for over a century, another problem for some
intuitive to be created to shut them down. As nice of a thought as that would be.
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ABibleStudent
Finkelstein - The point is who decides what is a dangerous cult or not and what standards and should a religion be placed under to determine this.
Hi Finkelstein, the simple answer would be the IRS as it currently does with interpreting the tax codes and vetting organizations which claim to be religions. Have you read the petition at http://wh.gov/Er4? I have also made additional comments in the thread http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/scandals/225068/1/New-US-Government-Petition-re-Cults-and-Tax-Exemptions about the petition that may answer your questions.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
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Finkelstein
Your not taking in consideration of the fact that there many religious organizations operating in the US that have shunning policies structured
within themselves. The Mormons, Amish, Mennonites, Scientologists the list goes on and on.
Would the US government try and take away all of the religious tax privileges of those religious organizations ?