URGENT: Please Sign White House Petition to "Protect Americans from Dangerous Cults: Modify USC Title 26 § 501 Tax Exemption Requirements" (page 8)

ABibleStudent

Thank you to the 52 people who have signed the petition as of this morning!!

I know that it is challenging to inspire people to get out of their comfort zones. Has anyone been successful getting family or friends to sign this petition? Please share your experiences (successful and unsuccessful) and your ideas by writing them in this thread.

I have sent emails to some of my friends and family. I plan to talk with those who I sent emails to today. I am curious why they have not signed (or possible read) the petition. Are people afraid of becoming involved or having their first name, first initial of their last name, and city where they live displayed beneath the petition?

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

soft+gentle

robert

sorry for not replying sooner - but I have been thinking about your qestions and requests for constructive input.

THe way I see it, in petitioning, one has to get one's point over to a variety of audiences to attract their attention and hopefully their signatures. Do you have Ray FRanz's Crises of Conscience? If you do then the place to get a sense of appealing to non jehovahs witnesses as well as witnesses is contained in the first chapter. I am re-reading this now and am struck by his heartfelt words and ideas which express the tyranny and oppression "of one of the strangest features of our time, that some fo the most stringent measures to restrain expressions of personal conscience have come from religious groups once noted for the defense of freedom of conscience" (p4). P 7 also has a timeless relevance in the questions it raises.

ABibleStudent

soft+gentle -
sorry for not replying sooner - but I have been thinking about your qestions and requests for constructive input.
THe way I see it, in petitioning, one has to get one's point over to a variety of audiences to attract their attention and hopefully their signatures. Do you have Ray FRanz's Crises of Conscience? If you do then the place to get a sense of appealing to non jehovahs witnesses as well as witnesses is contained in the first chapter. I am re-reading this now and am struck by his heartfelt words and ideas which express the tyranny and oppression "of one of the strangest features of our time, that some fo the most stringent measures to restrain expressions of personal conscience have come from religious groups once noted for the defense of freedom of conscience" (p4). P 7 also has a timeless relevance in the questions it raises.

Hi soft+gentle, Thank you for your comments. I agree with you that religious groups have periodically throughout history persecuted their members. I tried to make that point in my letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Franz Geithner, that is contained in the first post of this thread and to my Senators and Representative. If this petition does not garner 25,000 signatures, I will have to think about how to write that in another petition. Although most dangerous cults are religious organizations, a dangerous cult does not have to be a religious organization.

Which other organizations would you recommend that I contact about this petition to spread the word? I have contacted Steven Unthank ( www.jwNews.net ); Paul Grundy ( www.jwfacts.com ); Barbara Anderson ( www.watchtowerdocuments.com ); Steve Hassan ( www.freedomofmind.com ); several administrators of support forums for JWs, Mormons, Scientologist, and the Unification Church; administrators for websites such as www.freeminds.org ; and the National Organization of Women. So far Steven Unthank and Paul Grundy have put links to the petition on their websites, and Barbara Anderson is asking her techie to do it also.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

ABibleStudent

Thank you to the 70 people who have signed the petition as of this morning!!

Has anyone talked with their friends and family about this petition and received the following responses:

I like it and I will sign it soon.
I agree with it, but I don't want to write my name and address on the petition.
I agree with it, but it will not change anything.
I agree with Americans being able to think and speak freely, but I don't want my church to lose its tax exempt status.

I get a little flustered when I receive some of those responses. Does anyone have suggestions about overcoming these objections politely? I could use some help.

If people are too busy, it takes about 2 minutes to complete the online information and sign the petition. A lot of people spend 5 minutes watching commercials while waiting for their TV program to continue. If a person is afraid that their name and address will be public information or appear on the petition's webpage, please read the information about the White House's privacy policy at http://www.whitehouse.gov/privacy - there is very little to worry about disclosing your personal information in the first place. The only information that is displayed on the petition's webpage is the first name, which can be a letter; first initial of the last name; and the city where a person lives, if the person enters their zip code. Many people, who have signed the petition, choose not to have their zip code displayed.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

ABibleStudent

Thanks a million to the 80 people who have signed the White House petition "Protecting Americans from Dangerous Cults: Modify USC Title 26 § 501 Tax Exemption Requirements.

I want to thank Steven Unthank for encouraging me to use Facebook to promote the White House petition, and to thank ProdigalSon on JWN and Aida on JWSF for linking to the petition on their Facebook accounts. I want to thank everyone who has posted on this thread and the following two threads:

Also, I specifically want to thank JWN members JeffT, Band on the Run, New Chapter, james_woods, and botchtowersociety for your comments on this and/or the aforementioned threads. I may not like what you wrote in your posts, but you are free to write your opinions and I would defend your right. You 5 more than anyone else gave me information that I used to create the questions in the FAQ section and the motivation to create a Facebook page.

I published my first Facebook page today. The page is a work in progress and I would appreciate any comments about how to improve the message on the page. The page briefly describes the petition, where to go for additional information, and FAQ type questions to help people to overcome their objections to sign the petition. The link to the Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Protecting-Americans-from-Dangerous-Cults/264002310365016 .

Even though it is unlikely that 25,000 people will sign this petition before May 26, 2012, I want to be prepared to do a better job of promoting a similar White House petition the following day.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

Band on the Run

May I ask what you think happens if you get five million signatures? We don't have that type of democracy. Are you trying a ballot iniative? Federal law is involved. Very curious. The bottom line is nothing will happen until you get Senators and Congresspeople to vote to restrict only JWs from taking advantage of tax exemption. Besides the actual vote, you need to move it forward within each body.

james_woods

It is pointless, Band on the Run.

These few people are obsessed with this petition, and I cannot see that the petition will do any harm.

Of course it will come to nothing, but let them do this if they want to.

Like I said on the other thread, there would be more of a point to this if it were to tax ALL religions, but that too is politically futile.

mind blown

I would think just as the case with Steven Unthank, though charges were not brough against the WTS, us emailing many of those officials as well as anythings else that was done, without question brought even more attention to religion and sexual abuse within. Because of this the UK is in the begining stages of reform.

james_woods

Yes, it is just like the Unthank case - tilting at windmills in the end.

But, like I said before - if this lights your fire, why not?

Band on the Run

These people can vote! They are blind not to see the strange political alignment. These threads are very sobering. Wow. This is precisely why I feel America needs to invest in rigorous civics education. In fairness, I did know the details until I did my research.

Would not public shaming through mass media be more effective?

Remember the Inquisition.

URGENT: Please Sign White House Petition to "Protect Americans from Dangerous Cults: Modify USC Title 26 § 501 Tax Exemption Requirements"

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