Wish I could have met her. Nice read and way to remember her.
Balaamsass2
JoinedPosts by Balaamsass2
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800-why-1914 helpline, Marilyn Zweifel
by coffee_black infor many years, since the mid 80s, marilyn zweifel manned the help-line.
several months ago, the help-line stopped due to marilyn's serious health issues.
marilyn was hospitalized a few weeks ago.. she has serious health issues and has suffered from 2 serious falls... she is now in a nursing home.
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Channel C ex-jws bios from long ago/several
by blondie inhttps://sites.google.com/view/channelc2-experiences/experiences/barbara-joe-anderson .
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Balaamsass2
Thanks Blondie! Great post!
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Blood decisions are now your problem: WT JULY 2025
by raymond frantz inthe following is from the latest study watchtower july 2025, study article 28, paragraph 17:.
each christian must make up his or her own mind about whether to accept or to reject these fractions.
we may find it a challenge to understand this matter fully, but making decisions like this is part of the load that each of us must carry.
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Balaamsass2
LHG- Not just sacrifice...but child sacrifice.
No better than the ancient child sacrifices to Molech.
Sacrifice their future by interfering with and limiting education.
Keeping them up late at night, midweek on school nights for meetings, skipping sleep and schoolwork. Forbidding school sports and educational clubs. Discouraging SAT and LSAT tests, "You'll never need those, the end is just around the corner. Putting off medical intervention,"the new system" will fix that!.
Discouraging College and other education for a more secure future and family life. Encouraging Pioneering and Bethel instead of acquiring valuable education, training, or work experience.
Severe corporal punishments, mental and physical abuse, combined with "abandonment" by shunning.
And most of all, refusing life-saving medical treatments ie: Blood, based on a faulty understanding of a Bronze Age book, and modern medical treatments.
A doomsday, child-sacrificing CULT
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Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?
by SydBarrett ini was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.
that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.
but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.
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Balaamsass2
Sorry to burst your bubble Syd. I saw Fred and Ray every day. Fred was a weirdo and a fraud.
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Blood decisions are now your problem: WT JULY 2025
by raymond frantz inthe following is from the latest study watchtower july 2025, study article 28, paragraph 17:.
each christian must make up his or her own mind about whether to accept or to reject these fractions.
we may find it a challenge to understand this matter fully, but making decisions like this is part of the load that each of us must carry.
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Balaamsass2
I realized the whole Blood issue was BS at Bethel.
After almost 100 years of butchering their own meat upstate and further processing in NYC, a visiting branch overseer was livid and made a stink in 1975. Kitchen staff weren't "pouring the blood on the ground"-instead of the sink in downtown NYC. Bethel knew about and discussed Kosher methods but had never followed Orthodox procedures for Kosher meat prep. Why? "Because it would cost more time and money"! Members of the Governing body came down to the kitchen to weigh in on the subject, including the two Franzes. More money? Hell no!
Allowing fractions is like banning Pizza, but allowing tomato sauce, cheese, and bread.
Passing out suicide pact (blood) cards to parents is THE most culty thing Watchtower does.CHILD sacrifice!
Orthodox jews allow Blood transfusions, because LIFE is sacred, blood simply represents life.
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Did the Fred Franz style of writing cease after he died?
by SydBarrett ini was completely out by 1991 and 1989 would have been the last time i had to attend regularly.
that over the top franz writing style was still there in the 1980's although i've heard he wasn't actually doing much writing by then.
but his style was definitely picked up and imitated for many years beyond its wacky, outlandish peak of the the 50's - 70's.
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Balaamsass2
You mean the weird run-on sentences? lol.
Fraud-drick Franz, the first-year college dropout who insinuated he was a Rhodes Scholar? Who told people he was a "Greek scholar"?
Hey new boy! Strip off your clothes and meet me in the sauna so we can "discuss the bible " after work, Franz?
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JWs in the news:"New Orleans Jehovah’s Witnesses administrator confessed child abuse without substantial consequence, lawsuit says"
by Balaamsass2 innew orleans.
jehovah’s witnesses administrator confessed child abuse without substantial consequence, lawsuit says.
barry davis says joseph fitzgerald hall molested him in the 90s, yet hall kept working for the church nearly unimpeded.
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Balaamsass2
It is astonishing to me that after 20+ years of news coverage, ANYONE still defends and supports the JW governing body. Even among criminals, child molesters are considered the lowest of the low.
People can argue about dogma and theology endlessly, but who can argue about child rape. And the disfellowshipping of the victims and reporters?
Barbra's TV interview 20 years ago hit me like a ton of bricks. Locally I had dealt with a serial molester who left multiple victims statewide, and would simply move from county to county. The local CO, other elders, and the Governing Body would do nothing ( I wrote to some I knew personally). I had to walk into the justice department on my own to get any action. This was THE huge smack needed to wake me up. "By their fruits you shall know them. " Nightline investigation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtzyCgWQ7kI
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JWs in the news:"New Orleans Jehovah’s Witnesses administrator confessed child abuse without substantial consequence, lawsuit says"
by Balaamsass2 innew orleans.
jehovah’s witnesses administrator confessed child abuse without substantial consequence, lawsuit says.
barry davis says joseph fitzgerald hall molested him in the 90s, yet hall kept working for the church nearly unimpeded.
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Balaamsass2
Jehovah’s Witnesses administrator confessed child abuse without substantial consequence, lawsuit says
Barry Davis says Joseph Fitzgerald Hall molested him in the 90s, yet Hall kept working for the church nearly unimpeded
Ramon Antonio Vargas in New OrleansMon 21 Apr 2025 07.00 EDTShareA US man serving in various administrative roles for the Jehovah’s Witnesses sexually molested a child whom he met while working for the Christian religious sect in New Orleans – then continued his career virtually unimpeded and moved to North Carolina after completing a disciplinary suspension of less than a year, he has admitted in writing and in a sworn deposition.
The stunning revelations about Joseph Fitzgerald Hall and how he has been managed by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York that runs the Jehovah’s Witnesses are contained in a lawsuit that the abuse survivor has been pursuing against both the group and the administrator.
In a recent interview, the survivor, Barry Davis, explained that one of his main reasons for coming forward was to ensure the congregation that Hall later joined in Charlotte, North Carolina, knew the full truth about him. Hall, while testifying under oath in the course of the lawsuit, acknowledged that“there is no requirement to tell someone why you were disfellowshipped”, which is the term to describe the suspension he served over his abuse of Davis.
“They should know out there,” Davis said. “This needs to be exposed to anybody it needs to be exposed to.”
Davis, now 46, also said he shed his anonymity to support others who for years have been speaking out about child abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He contended that the evidence in his case “just kind of drives the nail in” about the reality of the issue.
In his opinion, he said: “Nothing’s changed.”
Barry Davis, far right, stands with Joseph Fitzgerald Hall when Davis was about 15. The faces of the other people in the photo are intentionally blurred. Photograph: Courtesy of Barry DavisAbout 8.5 million people globally are active members of the denomination, a primary tenet of which is that the world’s destruction is imminent.
Hall, now 60, did not respond to requests for comment about his admissions. In a statement, an attorney representing the Watchtower Society, Billy Gibbens, maintained “the actions of the accused in this lawsuit were his own and contrary to the beliefs and practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses”.
“The alleged criminal acts occurred outside the scope of any religious activities assigned to the accused by the local congregation,” Gibbens’ statement said.
Gibbens said his side could not elaborate while the case was pending in court. But he also wrote: “It is deeply distressing whenever anyone falls victim to such a heinous crime and sin. My clients deeply empathize with all victims of abuse.”
As he tells it, Davis was about nine when he met Hall, roughly aged 24, through a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation in New Orleans’s Central City neighborhood. Hall promised Davis that he would mold him into one of the so-called Dryades congregation’s “next great” leaders if the boy listened properly, according to the plaintiff’s lawsuit.
But instead, the lawsuit argued, Hall exploited his positions as a ministerial servant and later as an elder within the congregation to get close to Davis. Hall held private Bible studies with Davis, brought him along as he proselytized to potential new converts and shared religious articles from the Watchtower Society with him.
The lawsuit said Hall ultimately took advantage of that proximity to rape Davis and inflict other sexually abusive acts on him from 1990 to 1996, beginning when the boy was 11. Hall would tell Davis that 12 “was the age of accountability”, and therefore the boy bore fault for his molestation, the lawsuit said.
Davis recalled disclosing his abuse to his mother – who was a single parent – along with another elder at their congregation – by 1998. In February of that year, the elder initiated a type of disciplinary hearing that the Jehovah’s Witnesses refer to as a “judicial committee”.
Barry Davis at about age 12 or 13. Photograph: Courtesy of Barry DavisMultiple congregation elders who formed part of the committee heard Davis deliver an account of the molestation he endured at the hands of Hall. The committee subsequently disfellowshipped Hall for 11 months – during which time he was in effect suspended from the congregation – before he was allowed to return, the lawsuit said.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit added, the committee instructed Davis to “repent” and quit his “homosexual lifestyle”. The group prohibited Davis from carrying the microphone at congregation gatherings, working behind the literature counter or leading trips to proselytize to prospective new members, along with other privileges.
And crucially, the lawsuit said, it ordered Davis to cooperate with the Jehovah’s Witnesses in keeping what Hall had done to him secret because it would impugn the sect if word got out. The lawsuit asserted such an instruction violated laws in Louisiana which require religious organizations such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses to report any suspected child abuse to state authorities.
Davis said he complied with the committee’s wishes for years – even after he was kicked out of standing in a friend’s wedding when news of his having tried to hold Hall accountable circulated among the congregation.
But Davis said he eventually left the Jehovah’s Witnesses and moved to the Dallas area in Texas. There, in 2014, about six years after his mother died, he decided to revisit Hall’s abuse and the resulting treatment he got from the Jehovah’s Witnesses after seeing a local news story about an attorney filing a lawsuit against the sect on behalf of five clients with their own abuse allegations.
Davis said he reached out to that lawyer, who could not assist him because his case unfolded in Louisiana rather than in Texas. Then, in 2019, he contacted New Orleans-based attorney Kristi Schubert, who has represented a number of religious abuse survivors – but, initially, she couldn’t help because Louisiana laws in effect at the time meant Davis had only until his 28th birthday to sue over his molestation by Hall.
Davis was about 40 at the time.
Nonetheless, in 2021, Louisiana’s legislature enacted a law that in part temporarily allowed child molestation victims to file lawsuits seeking damages for their abuse no matter how long they had waited.
The law’s constitutionality was challenged. But Louisiana’s supreme court upheld it as constitutional on 12 June 2024.
A recent picture of Barry Davis. Photograph: Courtesy of Barry DavisThat very same day, Schubert filed a lawsuit in New Orleans’s civil district courthouse on Davis’s behalf. It demanded damages from Hall and the Watchtower Society, including for the mental and physical trauma with which the plaintiff was left.
The lawsuit has generated exceptionally compelling evidence against Hall, who – as of a deposition in March – said he was representing himself without an attorney.
In his mandatory response to the lawsuit, Hall wrote that he is “guilty of have [sic] an inappropriate relationship” with Davis.
“We fondled each other and played with each other sex organs and laid on each other buttocks,” said Hall’s response, which was replete with typos. He added that he and Davis engaged in oral sex, though the plaintiff at the time could not legally give consent to that act or any of the others Hall mentioned.
Furthermore, Hall wrote that a book which Davis authored and self-published about his abuse “speaks truthfully to a large degree about [the] encounters”.
Schubert interrogated Hall under oath during a 27 March videoconference deposition. Hall invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination – colloquially known as pleading the fifth amendment – at least 48 times.
But he did answer when Schubert asked him if the letter was true and whether he wrote it of his “own free accord”. Hall’s answer to both questions: “Yes.”
Hall additionally testified about how he had a wife as well as a son – and how since 2003 he had belonged to a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation on Monroe Road in Charlotte. He said he was considered what is known as a regular “publisher”, by which he was regularly participating in organized preaching at his congregation.
Despite his being disfellowshipped after Davis reported his molestation, Hall said he does not “know of any rule” prohibiting from proselytizing around children. He also said there was no mandate for him to disclose the reason for his disfellowship to anyone, including fellow members of his congregation.
Speaking in the weeks after the deposition, Davis said Hall’s statements evidently contradict the Jehovah’s Witnesses claims in their policies that “children are a sacred trust” – and their “protection … is of utmost concern and importance”.
Davis said he hopes Hall and the Jehovah’s Witnesses make him whole for his ordeal. But furthermore, he said he hopes the Jehovah’s Witnesses rethink the way they have let Hall carry on his business within the denomination.
“It’s upsetting – it’s infuriating,” Davis said. “I just think that is ludicrous.”
In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
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Seeking JW friend
by Jujitz inhello: i'm currently not yet a jehovah's witness but i'm seeking a friend to help me to better understand their doctrine.
thank you.
david.
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Balaamsass2
Welcome! I also recommend JWFacts.com to learn more. Ray Franz's "Crisis of Conscience" is an excellent biography of a JW leader.
What country are you in? Tell us about yourself.
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Is anyone watching The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu?
by Biahi inafter finishing season 6, episode 5, it occurred to me that, if the jws were right, (they’re not), the “new system” would end up being very much like this.
picture the commanders as the elders.. it’s a riveting series.
i wanted to see it, because i read the book when it first came out.
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Balaamsass2
3rd gen and I started watching The Handmaid's Tale a couple of years ago. She has started again recently.
Scary!
Reminds me of most countries in Islam...or what far right cultists, and some fanatical JWs I have known would consider "godly".
I watched "DAS BOOT" series last week. The Nazi fanatics had some of the same ideas.
It only takes a minority of fanatics in the population to make the majority miserable.
