Anyone from Athens, Greece here?

by Scott77 1 Replies latest forum announcements

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  Scott77

  Scott77
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  Scott77

  IN SEARCH OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM By Raymond V. Franz Raymond Franz, who died in early 2010, was a former Governing Body member of the Watchtower Society over Jehovah's Witnesses whom Watchtower disfellowshipped in the wake of discovering his sentiments for the Bible and Christ. He has written two great books about the Watchtower Society's elite top board group of men called the Governing Body. The first was Crisis Of Conscience which gave a lot of insider information or history, but his other book In Search Of Christian Freedom is also highly informative. To give just one example why, it exposed Watchtower's spying or stalking on pages 380-383 of the second edition dated 2007. Franz has written that in 1986 Watchtower's branch office in Athens, Greece, disfellowshipped over one hundred former Jehovah's Witnesses who gave any signs of disagreeing with Watchtower teachings and policies. Although out of the Watchtower, some of the former Jehovah's Witnesses decided to meet and continue reading and discussing the Bible in private homes. As later proved by convictions in court, Greece's Watchtower branch office decided to stalk the former Jehovah's Witnesses. On April 6, 1987, about 50 people who were mostly former Jehovah's Witnesses Christians came together at the home of Nick and Eftihia Bozartzis. From a balcony Nick spotted two men watching the house so he went down to speak with them, one of whom he knew to be a Jehovah's Witness. They ran off. Shortly three of the 50 were disfellowshipped. On April 9 the former Jehovah's Witness fellowship or house-church was going to meet at the home of Voula Kalokerinou but the meeting had been canceled as the former Jehovah's Witnesses planned instead to meet to celebrate the Memorial or Last Supper on April 11. Voula spotted five people in a car stationed across from her house that evening and the next. On April 11, the fellowship gathered to commemorate the Lord's last meal or supper at Voula's house. She saw an unknown car on one corner and a van on the other corner. The back window of the van was covered with paper except for a round circle in the center. The men in the car got out and went over to talk to the men in the van several times. Voula asked a person meeting in her home to go see what was going on. When he came toward the car, it sped away. He went around the back of the van and peered through the uncovered circular area inside of which were video camera equipment used by Watchtower-appointed Elder Nikolas Antoniou and Watchtower branch staff elder Dimetre Zerdes. Other people from Voula's house gathered. A policeman from the nearby Italian Embassy came. The Jehovah's Witness elders drove off to a park, started unloading their video equipment but were arrested by police for invasion of privacy. The elders lied before a district attorney that they were only there to film a relative of Dimetre Zerdes. In reality his cousin Eftihia Bozartzis had disassociated herself from Jehovah's Witnesses two years before which, due to Watchtower's shunning policy, meant he was to have nothing to do with her. The District Attorney named Kontaxis said at the trial that Watchtower believes it is "God's channel, creates tremendous dependency on its members, thus (they) are directed to do everything to threaten and trample all that we call human rights." The confiscated film showed zoom shots of people entering the house and being on the balcony, Eftihia Bozartzis not even in the film. The next year, Watchtower's magazine called Awake! blasted Greece's Orthodox Church for getting a stadium in Greece to cancel an assembly for JWs there. This may have been to make word of what Watchtower representatives' criminal conduct in Greece seem less believable to JWs when they finally might hear of it. Franz notes "To this day, in all countries, any persons among Jehovah's Witnesses who find they cannot conscientiously support fully the organization's teachings or practices live in a climate of fear, felling they must constantly be on guard as to what they say, what they do, what they read, with whom they associate, from whom they receive letters, not feeling any sense of freedom even when among personal friends or close relatives if these are also Witnesses." Franz also noted that to keep Watchtowerites from discovering them and destroying their ties to Jehovah's Witness family and friends, some Jehovah's Witnesses who have contacted him have felt it necessary to use a different name, use a special post office box etc. Watchtower says that disagreeing Jehovah's Witnesses are "free" to leave, denies it spies on or verbally harasses, while also hiding that fact that after people have exited Watchtowerites, sometimes including staff as seen in this incidident too, have destroyed dissenters' normal ties to family and friends, acted to destroy their business ties and jobs.

  http://masonemerson.freeyellow.com/christianwitnessescom/id219.html

  What I want is to obtain a copy of Court Transcript of the above proceeding in English Language if available to be posted here. Can someone in Athens, Greece with familiar account of this case help me?

  Scott77