In the July 15, 1909 Watch Tower, C. T. Russell said, ”We are loath to give any explanation of types not directly or indirectly referred to in the New Testament." Yet, during the next approximately 100-years, the organization Russell founded didn't follow his footsteps but did the opposite until the March 15, 2015 Watchtower magazine stated "No More." Read on Watchtower Documents how discarding types-antitypes impacts the very core doctrine of the “faithful and discreet slave” itself!
AndersonsInfo
JoinedPosts by AndersonsInfo
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Read on Watchtower Documents how discarding types-antitypes impacts the very core doctrine of the “faithful and discreet slave” itself!
by AndersonsInfo inin the july 15, 1909 watch tower, c. t. russell said, we are loath to give any explanation of types not directly or indirectly referred to in the new testament.
" yet, during the next approximately 100-years, the organization russell founded didn't follow his footsteps but did the opposite until the march 15, 2015 watchtower magazine stated "no more.
" read on watchtower documents how discarding types-antitypes impacts the very core doctrine of the faithful and discreet slave itself!.
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Washington Post Artical: Prince emerges from apolitical purple wormhole and will play in Baltimore, honor Freddie Gray
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/06/prince-emerges-from-apolitical-purple-wormhole-to-play-baltimore-honor-freddie-gray/.
by justin wm.
moyer may 6 .
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AndersonsInfo
By Justin Wm. Moyer May 6
Though he says he doesn’t vote and refused to sing on “We Are the World,” Prince will stage a “Rally 4 Peace” in Baltimore on Sunday to honor Freddie Gray.
“In a spirit of healing, the event is meant to be a catalyst for pause and reflection following the outpouring of violence that has gripped Baltimore and areas throughout the US,” according to a statement released by LiveNation. “As a symbolic message of our shared humanity and love for one another, attendees are invited to wear something gray in tribute to all those recently lost in the violence.”
Prince will also debut a new single: “Baltimore.” This is what the cover art looks like, as the Baltimore Sun reported:
“The song was written following the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray and is a tribute to all of the people of Baltimore,” the news release read. “Although the song hasn’t yet debuted, the lyrics were recently made public and as a message of reconciliation, Prince states ‘Peace is more than the absence of war.’ ”
This is not the first time Prince has spoken out about police and African Americans. “Like books and black lives, albums still matter,” he said at the Grammys this year.
Prince the political activist is a new development in a career that’s spanned decades. Unlike peers such as Bruce Springsteen — whom Prince admires — he isn’t typically found stumping for candidates or causes. Even “We Are the World,” the 1985 hit single written to benefit Africa, went without his talents because he did not want to record with other artists. (He did donate an unreleased track to the “We Are the World” record, but hey — they say he has a vault that holds thousands of such songs.)
As with all things Prince, the 56-year-old artist’s political affiliations are not quite clear. Though it’s been reported he is a Republican and he made headlines by donating to a Republican candidate in his native state of Minnesota in 1990, a public records search under Prince’s given name, Prince Rogers Nelson, indicated he has not registered to vote. (Yes, Prince is in Nexis.) In fact, he told Tavis Smiley in 2009 that he doesn’t much care for politics.
“We’ve got a black president now,” Smiley said.
“Well, I don’t vote,” Prince said. “I’ve don’t have nothing to do with it. I’ve got no dog in that race.”
Smiley: “And for those who would cuss me out … if I didn’t ask you why?”
“The reason why is that I’m one of the Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Prince said. “And we’ve never voted. That’s not to say I don’t think … President Obama is a very smart individual and he seems like he means well. Prophecy is what we all have to go by now.”
Indeed, though Prince is famous for writhing around naked in purple bathrooms and writing songs with titles like “Sexy M.F.,” religion — okay, “prophecy” — has guided much of his music. For every filthy song like “Darling Nikki,” it seems, there is a track like “The Cross.” The Purple One’s religiosity became even more apparent after he turned to Jesus in 2001.
“I don’t see it really as a conversion,” he said. “More, you know, it’s a realization. It’s like Morpheus and Neo in ‘The Matrix.’ ”
Then there was the time Prince came out against gay marriage. In a New Yorker profile in 2008, he slighted Republicans and Democrats — “neither of them is getting it right,” he said — but singled out same-sex marriage as part of the Democrats’ notion that “‘You can do whatever you want.”
“God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out,” he told the magazine. “He was, like, ‘Enough.’ ”
If the idea seems bonkers that the man who shrieked with unbridled sexual energy in the outro of “When Doves Cry” is actually a prude, well, maybe it’s not.
“Prince intended sexuality to be linked to the worship of God, and he filled his music with classic Christian messages,” the author Touré wrote in 2013 in “I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon,” “meaning Prince was sexual but, ultimately, very conservative.”
Perhaps Prince’s concert for Gray is part of this complicated moral calculus.
“There’s supposed to be a separation of church and state over here,” Prince told Smiley. “We can’t have a separation of state and morality though.”
The Purple One was not immediately available for comment.
Prince will be joined in Baltimore by his band 3rdEyeGirl. Tickets go on sale Wednesday at 5 p.m. – a “portion of the proceeds will be directed to the benefit of local Baltimore based youth charities,” according to the news release.
In the meantime, here are the lyrics to “Baltimore” as revealed to Fox 9:
NOBODY GOT IN NOBODY’S WAY
SO EYE GUESS U COULD SAY
IT WAS A GOOD DAY
AT LEAST A LITTLE BETTER THAN THE DAY IN BALTIMOREDOES ANYBODY HEAR US PRAY?
4 MICHAEL BROWN OR FREDDIE GRAY PEACE IS MORE THAN THE ABSENCE OF WAR
ABSENCE OF WARR WE GONNA C ANOTHER BLOODY DAY?
WE’RE TIRED OF CRYIN’ & PEOPLE DYIN’
LET’S TAKE ALL THE GUNS AWAYABSENCE OF WAR- U AND ME
MAYBE WE CAN FINALLY SAY
ENUFF IS ENUFF IT’S TIME 4 LOVEIT’S TIME 2 HEAR,
IT’S TIME 2 HEARTHE GUITAR PLAY! (guitar solo)
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Tennessee-JW Angela Montgomery sentenced today to 40 years in prison for raping her own children
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://wkrn.com/2015/05/06/murfreesboro-mom-sentenced-to-40-years-for-raping-own-children/.
murfreesboro mom sentenced to 40 years for raping own children.
by larry flowers published: may 6, 2015, 4:59 pm updated: may 6, 2015, 6:53 pm .
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AndersonsInfo
Here is the link to the TV News program about Montgomery's sentencing.
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Tennessee-JW Angela Montgomery sentenced today to 40 years in prison for raping her own children
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://wkrn.com/2015/05/06/murfreesboro-mom-sentenced-to-40-years-for-raping-own-children/.
murfreesboro mom sentenced to 40 years for raping own children.
by larry flowers published: may 6, 2015, 4:59 pm updated: may 6, 2015, 6:53 pm .
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http://wkrn.com/2015/05/06/murfreesboro-mom-sentenced-to-40-years-for-raping-own-children/
Murfreesboro mom sentenced to 40 years for raping own children
By Larry Flowers Published: May 6, 2015, 4:59 pm Updated: May 6, 2015, 6:53 pmMURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – A mother accused of raping her own children will be behind bars until she’s at least 90 years old.
The son of Angela Montgomery, 53, gave a strong victim impact statement in her sentencing hearing Wednesday.
Alan Von Webb’s only wish was to make sure she never abuses anyone else.
Before Montgomery found out how many years she would be spending in jail, her son, who gave News 2 permission to use his name despite being the victim of a sexual assault, said the abuse at the hands of his own mother messed up his adult life.
“It’s incredibly unfair and, in my opinion, evil,” Von Webb said.
He told News 2 his mother started abusing him around the age of five.
The two couldn’t even look at each other in court.
“For the next 40 years, children out there are safe, and she can’t get her hands on them, and that’s all I really wanted,” Von Webb said.
Montgomery was convicted by a jury on six counts of rape of a child March 13.
Rutherford County Circuit Court Judge Royce Taylor sentenced Montgomery to 40 years in prison at one 100 percent.
Her son said this day is his justice.
“A real mother wouldn’t do that to her children,” Von Webb added.
Montgomery was given a chance to address the court but chose not to.
Her attorney Sean Williams said she has maintained she’s not guilty, and none of the abuse happened; she claimed it was all made up.
“There’s no happy ending to these cases,” said Rutherford County Assistant District Attorney Hugh Ammerman. “He’ll always live with this and someone just got sentence to what could be basically the rest of her life in prison.”
Von Webb said his mother has shown no remorse.
“For her, it’s a thrill, you know. It’s like any criminal when they figure out the game and they can play it and win, they will do it as much as they can,” he explained.
Montgomery is expected to appeal as well as ask for new trial.
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Article published in Philippines - "Group offers to translate Bible into Pangasinan" Name of Group? WTS Remote Translaton Office
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://newsinfo.inquirer.net/685988/group-offers-to-translate-bible-into-pangasinan.
group offers to translate bible into pangasinan .
skilled translators from various pangasinan-speaking towns work hard every day without pay at the remote translation office of the watch tower in san carlos city, pangasinan province, to translate english bibles and bible-based literature into the mother tongue.
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AndersonsInfo
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/685988/group-offers-to-translate-bible-into-pangasinan
Group offers to translate Bible into Pangasinan
SKILLED translators from various Pangasinan-speaking towns work hard every day without pay at the Remote Translation Office of the Watch Tower in San Carlos City, Pangasinan province, to translate English Bibles and Bible-based literature into the mother tongue. WILLIE LOMIBAO/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
SAN CARLOS CITY—There is something about their newest neighbor which stirred the interest of residents in this agricultural city in Pangasinan.
For a year, hundreds of men and women of all ages worked under the sun every day to help construct two buildings in Barangay (village) Lucban here.
When the buildings were completed and opened in January this year, residents were surprised to see people in corporate attire inside the gated 3,200-square-meter compound, prompting them to ask: “Who are these people? What are they doing in our farming village?”
Unknown to many, these 21 men and women who come from various Pangasinan-speaking towns have been translating English Bibles and Bible-based publications into their mother tongue, Pangasinan.
And they do it without pay. Working for eight hours, five days a week, they volunteer their time, energy and skill to produce family-oriented reading materials for Pangasinan residents.
They are part of the Remote Translation Office (RTO) of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in the Philippines (Watch Tower), the legal and corporate arm of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which has been translating and distributing Bibles and educational materials for the public for free.
This team has produced a modern translation of the Bible, the “Balon Mundo a Patalos na Kristianon Griegon Kasulatan” (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures) and more than 100 books and magazines catering to the spiritual needs of children, teenagers, couples and parents.
The team also translated a popular children’s book, “Saray Istorya ed Biblia” (My Book of Bible Stories), which is being used as a reference material by teachers in several public elementary schools in Pangasinan as part of their mother tongue-based multilingual education program.
Dean Jacek, Watch Tower spokesperson, said the RTO is part of their global initiative to help people learn the Bible’s message in their native language.
He said they set up the RTO at the heart of San Carlos City because the majority of residents speak Pangasinan.
“We believe that when people receive Bible literature in a language that they can easily understand, it is more likely to touch their hearts,” he said.
In the Philippines, more than 160 people translate Bible-based English publications into 21 languages and video versions in Filipino sign language.
These Pangasinan publications can be downloaded at www.jw.org/pag.
Since 1962, Pangasinan translators have worked at the Watch Tower branch office in Quezon City. However, how the language is used in books, or even on television or in the Internet, differs greatly from how people speak in everyday life, Jacek said.
“It was a challenge for the translators to keep up with the language they use and to reach the hearts of those reading the translated publications. Hence, the decision was made to build remote translation offices in the areas where these languages are spoken,” he said. The country’s first RTO is in Bacolod City which does translation works in Hiligaynon.
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Salon.com article about Scientology
by Socrateswannabe inmuch has been discussed here about the similarities between jws and scientology.
when i read this article on salon.com, it brought home to me the methodology that all cults, including jws, use to indoctrinate believers.. http://www.salon.com/2015/04/17/secrets_of_the_scientologists_why_people_do_horrible_things_for_belief/.
its only after years of training, after they have told the church every private fact about themselves, that scientologists hear about xenu and humankinds alien origins.
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AndersonsInfo
When I read this statement in the Salon.com article, "People believe in Xenu and thetans because it becomes exceedingly difficult not to in light of all they have committed to the church," I thought of what I wrote in my life experience that I posted on my website in 2007 at http://watchtowerdocuments.org/life-discoveries-barbara-anderson/:
"During the mid 1960s there was talk originating from the leaders of our organization saying 1975 would see the end of the present system of things. Worried that maybe we weren’t doing enough for God, in 1968, Joe quit his job with Florida Power and Light Company to be replaced by part-time jobs for both of us as we once again went back into the pioneer work. ... Although the 1975 date set by Jehovah’s Witnesses for the coming Apocalypse came and went, we were not deterred for we had too much invested in the religion to throw in the towel."
I clearly remember how we felt then although it was forty years ago. We had committed our lives to the Watchtower religion and to leave was unthinkable. To our Watchtower-manipulated brains, there was nothing outside of the religion that was acceptable to us. And all of our family and friends were Witnesses. Since we had "made an all-encompassing emotional and intellectual investment" in the religion, we stayed "with the program" and continued to wait patiently for Armageddon while we "worked" for salvation.
The JW methodology worked for 22 years more, but began to not sit well after I learned about the child sexual abuse cover-up while in Bethel. Still it took a few more years for me to realize that my "investment" was worthless and to break the control over my mind "to wait upon Jehovah" to do something about the sexual abuse problem.
Former cult members like XJWs can readily identify with the experiences presently related by those who left Scientology and who are trying to understand why they took the bait in the first place and continued so long in the cult even though it was clear that it was a very harmful way of life and a scam.
Barbara
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Article in The Guardian - Faith no more: how the British are losing their religion. Mentions JWs
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2015/apr/14/british-christianity-trouble-religion-comeback .
the british have lost faith in religion much faster and more completely than they have lost faith in god.
the most recent survey to show this comes from win/gallup, which found that britain appeared one of the most irreligious countries on earth, with only 30% calling themselves religious.
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AndersonsInfo
Thought you Brits, who probably make up 1/2 of all those who post here, would have a say or two about this article. It's indeed interesting no matter if we come from the UK or not.
You secular folks might have left religion, but those ancient beautiful churches remain. Great for tourists to see and spend their money while doing so. I know we did. It was the amazing architecture we loved, not the religion. We were JWs then.
Barbara
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Article in The Guardian - Faith no more: how the British are losing their religion. Mentions JWs
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2015/apr/14/british-christianity-trouble-religion-comeback .
the british have lost faith in religion much faster and more completely than they have lost faith in god.
the most recent survey to show this comes from win/gallup, which found that britain appeared one of the most irreligious countries on earth, with only 30% calling themselves religious.
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AndersonsInfo
The British have lost faith in religion much faster and more completely than they have lost faith in God. The most recent survey to show this comes from Win/Gallup, which found that Britain appeared one of the most irreligious countries on earth, with only 30% calling themselves “religious”. On the other hand, only 13% said they were atheist – compare this with the Chinese figure of around 60%. It may be that the English, especially, regard atheism as a kind of religion, or at least a manifestation of an unhealthy interest in religious questions. But I think that the explanation is more complex. British Christianity is in trouble because Britain itself is disappearing.
Immigrant religion is still thriving here, whether it is Christian or Muslim. But that is because it has an entirely different relationship to the surrounding culture. Religion comes in at least two sorts: cultural and counter-cultural. The second kind is all about belief. People who are religious in a counter-cultural way know what they believe, and could argue it out with people who disagree. This kind can be extremely strong, and it also draws strength from being in a minority. Someone whose beliefs, and still more clothes or habits cuts them off from wider society can often find their identity intensified and their belief more fervent as a result. Think of the fervour of Jehovah’s Witnesses, ultra-orthodox Jews, or Hare Krishnas in our own society and the steadfastness under persecution of minorities like the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan and Iran.
The second sort is not about conscious belief at all, but about assumptions: the things that everybody knows are true without ever needing to think about them. The American worship of their own constitution is another excellent example. You’d have to be a very strange American indeed to doubt that this was the most important document in political history and the best possible guidance for human life and society. The fact that this belief is quite hard to justify rationally doesn’t diminish its strength at all.
For the past two or three hundred years, at least since the civil war, most British Christianity has been like that. Then, in the last 50 years, it fell off a cliff. In the last 30 years alone attendance at mainstream churches has just about halved. The way this has happened is also important: adults did not stop going to church, but they failed to transmit the habit to their children and now they are dying out. The culture has changed and the Christianity which was so deeply rooted in the old culture has had its roots torn up.
Seventy years ago people in England knew that this was a Christian country, and that really bad people went to hell while good ones went to heaven. Now they know that Christianity is as old-fashioned as empire and that religion is a false source of authority. This has nothing to do with intellectual argument. The intellectual challenge to Christian belief has not advanced an inch since around 1900. What has changed, at least in Europe, is the feeling that it all makes sense.
The prosperous but increasingly powerless states of western Europe may have been uniquely vulnerable to this kind of secularisation. Churches no longer supply the social services that used to keep them going – a partial exception is faith schools in England. At the same time, the narrative of Christian nations within a Christian Europe was underpinnned by a sense of national and continental superiority. Two world wars, the end of empire, and the occupation of the continent by the US and Russia stopped that looking like common sense.
What’s interesting now is whether religion will return. Counter-cultural religions will no doubt thrive. But it seems to be incredibly difficult to make the transition between cultural and countercultural forms. Institutionally, the Church of England is set up to be entirely embedded in the nation around it, from the parish system all the way up to the coronation service. The idea that it could somehow reinvent itself as a religion for outsiders and the marginal may be profoundly Christian, but it is sociologically incredible. The God that the English still more or less believe in is less and less likely to be found in churches, or at least in church services.
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Article: Contra Costa Times-Fremont: Court upholds $2.8M award for Oakley woman molested by Jehovah's Witnesses member
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27909266/fremont-court-upholds-2-8m-award-woman-molested .
bay city news service.
posted: 04/14/2015 06:36:59 am pdt0 comments.
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AndersonsInfo
Fremont: Court upholds $2.8M award for Oakley woman molested by Jehova's Witnesses member
Bay City News ServicePosted: 04/14/2015 06:36:59 AM PDT0 CommentsUpdated: 04/14/2015 06:39:02 AM PDTA state appeals court in San Francisco on Monday upheld a $2.8 million compensatory damage award for a woman who was molested as a child by an adult member of the North Fremont Jehovah's Witnesses Congregation.
But the appeals court overturned an additional $8.6 million punitive award levied against the congregation and the Jehovah's Witnesses headquarters organization in a 2012 Alameda County Superior Court trial on a lawsuit filed by Candace Conti.A three-judge appeals panel said a punitive award was not justified because church leaders had no duty to warn the congregation or Conti's parents that the abuser, Jonathan Kendrick, had admitted to church elders that he molested his 14-year-old stepdaughter in 1993.Justice Peter Siggins wrote for the court, "While it is readily foreseeable that someone who has molested a child may do so again, the burden the duty to warn would create and the adverse social consequences the duty would produce outweigh its imposition."Conti, now 29, who has discussed her case on national television in recent years, testified at the 2012 trial that Kendrick molested her several times per month for about two years, when she was 9 and 10 years old, between late 1994 and 1996.She said the abuse occurred when she was accompanying him on church "field service," or door-to-door preaching in the community. She said Kendrick would take her to his house and molest her during the time he was supposed to be conducting field service.Kendrick, 61, now lives in Oakley and is a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses congregation there, according to Conti's lawyer, Rick Simons. In 2004, he was convicted of molesting his 8-year-old stepgranddaughter and served seven months in prison.The headquarters organization of Jehovah's Witnesses is the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc. The Superior Court jury originally awarded Conti $7 million in compensatory damages and found Kendrick 60 percent responsible, Watchtower 27 percent liable and the North Fremont Congregation 13 percent liable.But Conti agreed before trial not to collect any damages from Kendrick in exchange for his not participating in the trial and agreeing not to harass her. Thus, Conti's total compensation from the congregation and Watchtower was $2.8 million, Simons said.
The appeals court upheld the compensatory award on the ground that the congregation and Watchtower failed in their duty to supervise Kendrick and protect Conti during their field service.
Conti also originally won an additional $8.6 million in punitive damages from Watchtower and the congregation on the basis of her claim that church leaders adhered to a "secrecy policy" about child molestation.
But the appeals panel set aside that award, saying the congregation elders "had no duty to depart from Watchtower's policy of confidentiality and warn the members of the congregation that Kendrick had molested a child."
Siggins wrote that imposition of a general duty to warn would be a "considerable" burden on a church and could deter wrongdoers from seeking help from church leaders.
At the trial, Conti's lawyers cited a 1989 letter sent by Watchtower to all elders in the nation, instructing them that "elders must exercise extraordinary caution when it comes to handling personal information about the private lives of others" and that "unauthorized disclosure of confidential information can result in costly lawsuits."
A congregation elder testified that the policy was intended to protect confidential ministerial communications, and that the church sought to educate parents about how to protect their children from abuse.
Simons said Conti, a veterinary technician, now lives in the Stockton area. He said no decision has been made on whether to appeal to the California Supreme Court to reinstate the punitive award.
"This is really a public policy issue, and of course we disagree as to what is the best public policy," Simons said.
"Ms. Conti is of the view that public policy should favor requiring churches to do all they can to prevent further abuse by identified child molesters from happening, rather than just requiring that they pay money to victims after the abuse occurs," he said.
A lawyer for Jehovah's Witnesses was not available for comment.
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Article: Reveal News-California court guts child abuse ruling against Jehovah's Witnesses
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.revealnews.org/article/california-court-guts-child-abuse-ruling-against-jehovahs-witnesses/.
california court guts child abuse ruling against jehovahs witnesses.
topics: religion / religion and government .
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AndersonsInfo
California court guts child abuse ruling against Jehovah’s Witnesses
Topics: Religion / Religion and Government
By Trey Bundy / April 14, 2015
A California appeals court has overturned most of Candace Conti's record award in her child sexual abuse lawsuit against the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, the parent organization of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Credit: Adithya Sambamurthy/Reveal i
READ MORE COVERAGE ON JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES
Jehovah’s Witnesses use 1st Amendment to hide child sex abuse claims
Jehovah’s Witness leader says child sex abuse claims are ‘lies’
Candace Conti drew worldwide attention in her fight against the Jehovah’s Witnesses when a jury awarded her $28 million in damages – the largest verdict for a single victim of child abuse against a religious organization in U.S. history.
The amount was later reduced to $15.6 million, including $8.6 million in punitive damages.
Now, three years later, an appeals court has eroded her courtroom victory even further by ruling that the leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses had no duty to warn congregants that a confessed child molester was one of their own. As a result, judges eliminated the punitive damages in the case. Conti still stands to receive $2.8 million.
The decision by the California Court of Appeal is the latest ruling in a rash of lawsuits aimed at Jehovah’s Witnesses policies directing elders to keep child abuse secret from their congregations and secular authorities.
Conti, who is no longer a Jehovah’s Witness, had sued her abuser, her former congregation in Fremont and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York – the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent corporation – in 2011. She claimed that Watchtower policies allowed a Witness named Jonathan Kendrick to molest her repeatedly when she was 9 and 10 years old.
Kendrick had admitted to North Fremont congregation elders that he had sexually abused his stepdaughter. The elders informed the Watchtower of Kendrick’s confession in 1993, but in accordance with Watchtower policy did not notify police or warn the congregation. Soon after, Conti says, Kendrick began abusing her.
In their ruling Monday, the judges said forcing the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses to warn congregants about child abusers would be too burdensome.
“While it is readily foreseeable that someone who has molested a child may do so again, the burden the duty to warn would create and the adverse social consequences the duty would produce outweigh its imposition,” the judges wrote.
“The burden would be considerable because the precedent could require a church to intervene whenever it has reason to believe that a congregation member is capable of doing harm, and the scope of that duty could not be limited with any precision.
“Since that ‘secrecy policy’ was the only basis for the punitive damages assessed against Watchtower, the punitive damage award must be reversed,” the judges added.
Rick Simons, Conti’s attorney, disagreed with the new ruling in an interview.
“They think in public policy terms that there’s too much risk in broadening the church’s responsibility and liability so that it burdens what churches do,” he said. “We think there’s too much child abuse in these institutions.”
Conti could not immediately be reached for comment.
Hear Candace’s story
The judges also touched on a contentious national debate over religious exceptions to reporting child abuse. California law requires clergy to report suspected child abuse to secular authorities unless they learn of it through a penitential communication, like a confession in the Catholic church. Kendrick’s admission to elders in 1993, they wrote, failed to meet that standard.
“The privilege for penitential communications does not apply unless the communication is made ‘in the presence of no third person so far as the penitent is aware,’ a condition not satisfied at the Kendrick family meeting with the Congregation elders,” the judges wrote.
Dozens of lawsuits in recent years have focused on a series of Watchtower memos dating back to 1989 that direct elders to keep cases of child abuse secret from law enforcement and their congregations.
Watchtower officials have testified under oath that since 1997, the organization has collected detailed information on known child sexual abusers in its congregations.
Last year, a San Diego judge awarded Jose Lopez – a former Jehovah’s Witness who was abused by a man in his San Diego congregation when he was 7 years old – $13.5 million after the Watchtower refused to provide its list of known predators.
In the Conti case, the panel upheld the lower court’s ruling that the Watchtower and elders in the North Fremont congregation failed to supervise Kendrick when he preached door to door in the community, a practice Jehovah’s Witnesses call field service.
According to Conti, the North Fremont elders would group her with Kendrick for long afternoons of field service. She says he used those opportunities to take her to his house and sexually abuse her.
“While the Congregation may not have been able to police Kendrick’s behavior after scheduled field service was over, it could have controlled his access to Conti during the field service,” the judges wrote Monday.
Although Kendrick has confessed to abusing his stepdaughter, and later his stepgranddaughter, he denies abusing Conti.
Watchtower officials told the court they allow child molesters to perform field service, but not alone or with a child. They could not, however, produce a written policy for the court.
“Even if Watchtower had a policy of preventing known child molesters from performing field service alone or with children, there is no evidence that Watchtower did anything to implement that policy in Kendrick’s case,” the court found.
The judges went on to remark on the larger risk of allowing child abusers to preach door to door: “They are also a threat to children in the community when they engage in that activity. The prospect of children opening their doors to proselytizing child molesters is frightening.”
Watchtower officials did not immediately return calls for comment. James McCabe, the attorney representing the North Fremont congregation, declined to comment.
Simons said Conti has not decided yet whether to appeal the court’s decision. She has 30 days to do so.
