by Calebs Airplane 33 Replies latest watchtower scandals
This case is in it's 9th year an has been touched upon briefly on and off.
The latest from the Federal Court is that ALL gated communites in Puerto Rico have until April 23 to provide the Watchtower Corporation full access...
This means the ENTRY CODE or REMOTE CONTROL devices that open the front fence.
This is clearly an act of provocation in order to create "pseudo-persecution" thereby increasing FS hours and "voluntary donations"...
oh gosh, seriously? 99% of the people out there don't know about JW's, and the ones that do, don't give a damn about them. And really why bother? After a few months entering these forbidden zones, they will ignore the territory, just like they do other territories. I haven't seen JW's in my area in years
The local paper El Nuevo Dia mentioned (in today's paper) that the jehovah's witnesses have argued that the Controlled Access Law (of Puerto Rico), as it's being applied, violates their constitutional rights because it affects their right to free expression, their faith and restricts door-to-door evangelizing.
They make it appear as if this is something that J-Dubs in general have been striving for their right to gain access to these communities... The sad truth about this is that most J-Dubs on the island could care less if they can now enter a gated community or not.
JWs forcing their "right"(?) into these areas isn't going to win points with such areas. Anyway, Puerto Rico had "0%" increase last year and decreasing in baptisms.
Those HOAs should have flyers printed with the goofs of the Wt. and hand them to the JWs when they come by, that'll end that invasion of privacy.
I haven't been following this that closely. If I lived there in a gated community my question would be "what happened to my right to be left alone?" This ruling effectively outlaws gated communities as there is no saying who will get the codes.
The Watchtower used to say that people that lived in places like that had made a decision not to hear "the good news."
PS, I wonder what would be the effect of writing the all the kingdom halls and telling them they'd be the subject of a lawsuit if a house in the community gets broken into. Let them prove they're keeping the codes secure.
I feel the Court in Puerto Rico is a mediocre system without any credibility. See, if they knew what was going on with the JWs in the rest of the world, they would know that it's a slap in the face of basic morality to mandate giving potential pedophiles access to children in gated communities.
As well, those communities are gated for a reason. Residents tend to pay to not be acosted or harassed by people they don't know or didn't invite.
Finally, the argument that evangelizing door to door is part of their religious freedom is easily shot down by the scripture that Jesus said "do not go house to house." Anything contrary to their own scripture would be outside of doctrine and isn't recognized by the court as a religious expression.
It actually wasn't the Puerto Rico court that decided to let them in. If I recall from following this, the Puerto Rico federal judge ruled against the Watchtower and they appealed to the federal appeals court based in Boston (which, agree with the decision or not, is definitely a credible court). The appeals court ruled in favor of the WT and sent it back to PR district court to basically work out the smaller details. Apparently they don't have to hand over the codes/keys to the WT if they have a manned security gate where a guard can let them in. Turning over the codes seems like a terrible idea. I guess the HOAs will probably choose to hire more guards which will drive everyone's cost up.
okage... actually, it was a United States Federal Court of Appeals in Boston, MA that ruled in favor of the Watchtower Corporation... (Puerto Rico is a US territory where federal law applies)
The HOA just needs to hire Perry and he can give'm Hell
