Posts by defender of truth

43

Deconstructing Splanes 'Generation' explanation

by Splash in

at around 4 minutes into the september 2015 video splane said "for the man and the baby to be part of josephs generation they would have had to have lived at least some time during joseph's lifespan.".

this is the lynchpin of the wt argument, that two lives must overlap to be considered the same generation.. let's take an example of twins who are born just a few minutes apart.

obviously, these twins are the same generation as each other.

defender of truth

A costly mistake
When JW Broadcasting was first announced 11 months ago I said at the time it was great news. The worst thing the Governing Body could possibly do was reveal themselves to their doting followers.
It is far easier to respect and admire your leaders when you can’t see or hear them. Having them thrusted at your TV screen or computer monitor in all their bumbling, arrogant, senile, jewelry-flashing glory changes the whole dynamic...

Increasingly it became obvious that Watchtower’s self-imposed time limit on Armageddon had expired, because too much time had passed since 1914 for there to be any survivors among Jehovah’s Witnesses old enough to have memories of the outbreak of World War I.
In fact, at the time of writing in September 2015, only 50 individuals older than 110 years old are known to still be alive.

The first “group” of “this generation” would witness and understand the events of 1914, and the second group would be those who were born before the last individuals in the first group died (hence an “overlapping” generation).

If you don’t understand this, it is not due to any failure on your part. It is because it doesn’t make sense.
The teaching rides roughshod over the English language, redefining what “generation” means, and relying on the audience to willfully bypass their logical thinking skills by asserting the incomprehensible as indisputable truth.

After all, if you can arbitrarily insist that a generation can be composed of two groups, why not have three, four, five – on into infinity? The word “generation” quickly loses all meaning.

You can read the whole article here:

http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/david-splane-explains-the-overlapping-generation-teaching-without-actually-explaining-it

21

You? Armchair Activist Wanted - Looking to form a Team of Letter Writers/Researchers

by mrmagic in

are you interested?

looking for a team of armchair activists;.

purpose: to connect everybody to everybody and to get them to connect the big picture about wtbs which is that it is suspected that watchtower has a child pedophile/child porn ring within it.

defender of truth

To the above posts:

My post on page 1 explains where he got this theory from. It was bases on one incident.

The OP was badly worded I feel, there may even be a slight language barrier, but it really is not important to the letter writing campaign.

The template letter doesn't mention it, I'm not entirely sure why he chose to word the OP that way.

Possibly he thought (mistakenly) that that was the only way to get attention to the thread.. Don't know.

The point is, you can quite easily take the letter and kit as a starting point, and then make your own.

If we share ideas, we can improve things and send letters/emails to the same places. The aim is to contact all states in America and maybe MP's in England at a later date. But we need help.

Does anyone want to help, or just pick on the OP and not help us at all? (He has told me it is only a suspicion).

21

You? Armchair Activist Wanted - Looking to form a Team of Letter Writers/Researchers

by mrmagic in

are you interested?

looking for a team of armchair activists;.

purpose: to connect everybody to everybody and to get them to connect the big picture about wtbs which is that it is suspected that watchtower has a child pedophile/child porn ring within it.

defender of truth

Can anyone with an interest in sending letters or emails to encourage various agencies and people to investigate JW's, please PM mrmajic?

We can't do this with just one or two of us..

The letter is provided, there's a resource kit for free, and it won't cost you a cent to send a quick email ;)

www.jehovahs-witness.com/users/451860022/mrmagic

Thank you.

40

New Geoffrey Jackson statement on Royal Commission's webpage!!!!!!!!!!!!

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

check his signature... it looks kind of childish/feminine (at least in my part of the world)... is this a grown man's signature for you?.

http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/downloadfile.ashx?guid=9d0ca1dc-1bd6-41c4-9cfc-b1d616d1cc65&type=exhibit&filename=stat.0670.001.0001&fileextension=pdf.

defender of truth

... insisting that congregation leaders are qualified to counsel victims (regardless of their experience)

http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/doubts-over-organizational-solidarity-as-disturbing-video-on-handling-suicide-is-leaked

This video shows how well trained the elders are to counsel vulnerable people..

Instructional video for elders: How to shepherd a suicidal widow

I've passed it on to the Royal Commission.

69

Could the Independent Inquiry in England and Wales expose jw.org's child abuse failures? And how can we help?

by defender of truth in

with all the talk about the org's policies and failures regarding child sexual abuse being publically exposed in australia, i thought that it may be a good time to highlight this... i apologise if this has already been discussed, but on the 9th of july the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in england and wales was opened.

here is some information regarding it's aims.. "about the inquiry.

the inquiry offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine the extent to which institutions and organisations in england and wales have taken seriously their responsibility to protect children.. the inquiry will investigate a wide range of institutions including:.

defender of truth

Helpline launched for abuse survivors ahead of inquiry

" A team of trained counsellors will operate a free dedicated helpline run by the NSPCC for those wishing to give evidence to the Goddard inquiry.

NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless, said: "Many victims of abuse have been waiting too long for an opportunity to speak out and get justice.

"Many of them will have harrowing stories to tell so we want to make what could be a tortuous journey as easy as possible.

"Our counsellors have vast experience of dealing with sensitive issues so the dedicated helpline will be a vital part of the inquiry's work."

The helpline number is 0800 917 1000.

www.itv.com/news/update/2015-07-09/helpline-launched-for-abuse-survivors-ahead-of-inquiry/

21

You? Armchair Activist Wanted - Looking to form a Team of Letter Writers/Researchers

by mrmagic in

are you interested?

looking for a team of armchair activists;.

purpose: to connect everybody to everybody and to get them to connect the big picture about wtbs which is that it is suspected that watchtower has a child pedophile/child porn ring within it.

defender of truth

Purpose: To connect everybody to everybody and to get them to connect the big picture about WTBS..

I fully support this part.

I think that he has given the wrong impression here. When you read the kit yourself, that 'pedophile ring' theory is totally unimportant to the theme. There are some great lists of resources, it must have taken a while to put together..

His template letter doesn't even mention it. Anyway, let's not throw the baby out with the bath water..

His personal objective or theory won't affect us writing letters, anyway.

I'm helping with research :)

Does anybody want to help bring the Watchtower's policies to the attention of those that could make a difference?

21

You? Armchair Activist Wanted - Looking to form a Team of Letter Writers/Researchers

by mrmagic in

are you interested?

looking for a team of armchair activists;.

purpose: to connect everybody to everybody and to get them to connect the big picture about wtbs which is that it is suspected that watchtower has a child pedophile/child porn ring within it.

defender of truth

Don't worry, I think that is just a personal theory of his, based on the Cano case. The resource kit and letter templates themselves are really interesting. Here is what I think he got the theory from..

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=25zfUmgFDUU

"Police theorize the pictures may be part of an international child pornography ring."

http://amathenia.blogspot.co.uk/2006/06/updated-bethel-elder-arrested.html?m=1

But let's not focus on theories.

I feel that now is a good time to start sending letters and emails to encourage influential people worldwide to look more closely at this cult.

I am working with this guy, he seems all right.

We are just now working on contacting the Boston Globe..

10

US Royal Commission or Something Like it

by mrmagic in

what would be the equivalent of a us version of the royal commission?

i'm not just asking about one specific governmental entity, but perhaps even a conglomerate of entities or series of events that would need to take place to cause a domino effect....a tipping point.

who do you think needs to be contacted that can turn around and contact a lot of others?looking for thoughts and ideas.

defender of truth

Obama felt strongly enough about sex abuse in colleges to form a task force.. (Why not all institutions??)

" President Barack Obama is bringing national attention to cases of sexual assault, particularly on college campuses, with the formation of a new task force intended to help schools better prevent and respond to such incidents.
Alongside the release of a report from the White House's Council on Women and Girls – which detailed the physical, mental and economic repercussions of sexual assault – Obama announced the formation of a task force that would help colleges and universities prevent and respond to sexual assault reports, as well as hold them accountable for failing to do so.
[READ: Feds Launch Title IX Investigation at USC]
"Even now, it's not always talked about enough. It can still go on in the shadows. But it affects every one of us," Obama said at the White House Wednesday, before signing a presidential memorandum to create the task force. "Sexual assault is an affront to our basic decency and humanity. And for survivors, the awful pain can take years, even decades to heal. Sometimes it lasts a lifetime."
The White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, as it is called, will provide colleges and universities with best practices for sexual assault prevention and response, build on federal government enforcement of colleges' legal obligations, increase public awareness of institutions' track records, and enhance efforts to hold institutions accountable when they fall short in addressing sexual assault on their campuses.
In recent months, several colleges and universities have been the target of sexual assault reports, as students from Yale, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Occidental College, and the University of California–Berkeley, have filed complaints with the Department of Education. Those students have alleged that their colleges violated their rights under the two laws, saying the institutions under-reported or mishandled their cases."
www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/01/22/white-house-task-force-seeks-to-tackle-college-sexual-assault
www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/22/memorandum-establishing-white-house-task-force-protect-students-sexual-a

10

US Royal Commission or Something Like it

by mrmagic in

what would be the equivalent of a us version of the royal commission?

i'm not just asking about one specific governmental entity, but perhaps even a conglomerate of entities or series of events that would need to take place to cause a domino effect....a tipping point.

who do you think needs to be contacted that can turn around and contact a lot of others?looking for thoughts and ideas.

defender of truth

I think that the current issue that could trigger a nationwide inquiry (should do really), is the amount of sexual abuse that is occurring in American schools..
Then the inquiry could be extended to include other institutions, hopefully.

Any institution that has allowed children to be harmed by predators deserves to be taken to task for it. No institution should get a pass. And no profession should get a pass. Not preachers, not priests — not even teachers.

Especially not teachers. And yet …
Consider the statistics: In accordance with a requirement of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, in 2002 the Department of Education carried out a study of sexual abuse in the school system.
HofstraUniversity researcher Charol Shakeshaft looked into the problem, and the first thing that came to her mind when Education Week reported on the study were the daily headlines about the Catholic Church.

"[T]hink the Catholic Church has a problem?" she said. "The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."

So, in order to better protect children, did media outlets start hounding the worse menace of the school systems, with headlines about a "Nationwide Teacher Molestation Cover-up" and by asking "Are Ed Schools Producing Pedophiles?"
No, they didn't. That treatment was reserved for the Catholic Church, while the greater problem in the schools was ignored altogether.

As the National Catholic Register's reporter Wayne Laugesen points out, the federal report said 422,000 California public-school students would be victims before graduation — a number that dwarfs the state's entire Catholic-school enrollment of 143,000.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/has-media-ignored-sex-abuse-in-school/

The failure of U.S. schools to protect students from sexual abuse by school personnel is a story of district cover-ups, lack of training, incomplete teacher background checks and little guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, according to a new federal report.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office said the nation’s K-12 schools lack a systemic approach to preventing and reporting educator sexual abuse of students, despite a problem that the report said affects an estimated 9.6 percent of students – nearly one in 10 – who are subjected to sexual misconduct by teachers, coaches, principals, bus drivers and other personnel during their K-12 career. That figure is from a 2004 report made to the U.S. Department of Education and is the most recent estimate available, according to the Government Accountability Office report released last week.
“Although states and school districts are taking some positive steps,” the report said, “current efforts are clearly not enough.”
http://edsource.org/2014/schools-failing-to-protect-students-from-sexual-abuse-by-school-personnel-federal-report-says/57023

-------

How Many Kids Are Sexually Abused by Their Teachers?
Probably millions.
These statistics are uncertain, however, because no one has ever designed a nationwide study for the expressed purpose of measuring the prevalence of sexual abuse by educators. The Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services can’t agree on whose domain teacher sexual misconduct falls into, and Congress has shown little appetite to spend money on the issue.

Slate article

So, how do we give them an appetite?Shove some reports in their faces?First we need a study on nationwide sex abuse in American schools..
Then let the angry parents do the rest (not much idea of politics, just brainstorming here)..

18

Suicide Prevention Counseling

by MrCellophane in

in the 1980's when i was an elder, i don't remember the society providing any guidance to elders on suicide prevention counseling.

i realize much has changed since then.

can any current/recent elders update me on what the current position of the local elders would be if approached by someone in the congregation contemplating suicide and seeking help?.

defender of truth

The answer is found on this page on Jwsurvey:

http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/doubts-over-organizational-solidarity-as-disturbing-video-on-handling-suicide-is-leaked

Dangerously negligent instructions

But perhaps more disturbing was another video sent to me, also utilized during the Kingdom Ministry School and replete with similarly horrendous acting. This second video depicts the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way of shepherding a woman in the congregation who has been recently widowed.
Unfortunately, though the latter depiction is supposed to be the correct approach, thinking viewers will be horrified at the negligent way the woman is handled by her elders using the “Watchtower-approved” technique.
The advice being given to elders on how to handle suicidal individuals is alarming
Two elders arrange to visit the woman named Mary after she tearfully approaches one of them at the end of the meeting. Before the visit, the elders meet together to strategize over what they will say.
The older of the two decides that the visit will be all about convincing Mary to be an “integrity keeper” (a loyal Witness), and this is exactly how the resulting discussion pans out.
At the start of the visit Mary reveals that she is so desperate following the loss of her husband, Don, that she has been contemplating suicide. She even has a plan involving asphyxiating herself in her garage using exhaust fumes.
This should set off major alarm bells for most thinking persons with one iota of common sense. If a person has sunk to such desperation that they have planned the manner of their death, surely they are urgently in need of help that only professionals can provide?
So, what advice do the elders offer?

First, the older elder lectures Mary about Job and how this bible figure set the example as an integrity keeper. The elder insists that Job had just as many reasons to be “messed up” as Mary, and gives a perplexing illustration involving a needle going “into the red” to show the difficulty of Job’s situation.
Mary is then told to repeatedly chant “I am an integrity keeper, I am an integrity keeper” next time her suicidal thoughts surface. She is also advised to “read a little from the Psalms,” and equate suicidal ideas with immoral thoughts.
Finally the other elder bizarrely gives Mary a homework assignment, as though she is some kind of errant school child. She is told to memorize a certain verse in Jeremiah as yet another form of incantation for the next time she is feeling suicidal.
Armed with this outrageous pseudo-psychiatry, Mary excuses herself from the conversation to get some cookies for the elders. The older elder seemingly takes this as a sign that they have done their jobs well and mouths “thank you Jehovah” heavenward as the other elder looks on.
I realise the above sounds too ludicrous to be true, but this is really how the video plays out. The Governing Body seriously expects its elders to handle such delicate life-or-death matters in this way.
Elders are not to give out numbers for suicide hotlines or encourage a suicidal person to seek professional help. Instead they are to give bible-based lectures, urge the uttering of incantations, and hand out homework assignments.

Here is the download link from Jwsurvey (you can find it on the page, the link that says shepherding). Over 100mb though, so make sure Wifi is on!

Shepherding a suicidal widow