Ralph and Pam Candelario were active JWs in Colorado. Ralph murdered Pam. Professor Jim Penton was invited to appear at the trial last month by the prosecution as an expert witness to answer questions about JWs. From what I was told, he did fantastically. Tomorrow, Friday, Dateline will air a program about the trial. I have no idea if Jim's name will be included in the Dateline report. Click on the link for details.
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Live in the U.S.? Tune into Dateline Friday evening, April 15th, to see a report about the Colorado Candelario murder trial (he's a JW).
by AndersonsInfo inralph and pam candelario were active jws in colorado.
ralph murdered pam.
professor jim penton was invited to appear at the trial last month by the prosecution as an expert witness to answer questions about jws.
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msn.com: Losing my religion: life after extreme belief - EXPERIENCES OF 3 YOUNG PEOPLE
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/losing-my-religion-life-after-extreme-belief/ar-bbrzkjy?li=aaggnb9.
megan phelps-roper, 30, a former member of the westboro baptist church.
my first memories are of picketing ex-servicemen’s funerals and telling their families they were going to burn in hell.
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Megan Phelps-Roper, 30, a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church
My first memories are of picketing ex-servicemen’s funerals and telling their families they were going to burn in hell. For us, it was a celebration. My gramps was the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, so it wasn’t just our religion – it was our whole life. I don’t remember much before the picketing. I was allowed to mix with other kids early on, but over time my world shrank.
We believed it was a Good vs Evil situation: that the WBC was right and everybody else was wrong, so there was no questioning. It was a very public war we were waging against the “sinners”. I asked a lot of questions as I got older, but there’s a big difference in asking for clarification and actually questioning the beliefs you’re taught. READ MORE
Deborah Feldman, 29, ex-Satmar Hasidic Jew
Imad Iddine Habib, 26, ex-Salafi Muslim
READ MORE ABOUT THE EXPERIENCES OF ALL THREE OF THESE YOUNG PEOPLE:
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Article from Jamaica: Jehovah's Witnesses' properties for sale - Rising costs force religious group to go small
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20160410/jehovahs-witnesses-properties-sale-rising-costs-force-religious-group-go-small jehovah's witnesses' properties for sale - rising costs force religious group to go small.
sunday | april 10, 2016 | 12:00 am by erica virtue.
norman grindley.
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http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20160410/jehovahs-witnesses-properties-sale-rising-costs-force-religious-group-go-smallJehovah's Witnesses' properties for sale - Rising costs force religious group to go small
Sunday | April 10, 2016 | 12:00 AM by Erica VirtueA cash crunch is forcing the Jehovah's Witnesses Church in Jamaica to join its colleagues around the world in offloading some of its real estate as part of cost-saving measures.
The church is selling some of its larger temples and other buildings, as it tries to operate from smaller, less expensive, and easier to maintain facilities.
One large temple, located on Cowper Drive, close to Washington Boulevard in St Andrew, is among the properties on sale, and sources say the religious group is asking $45 million for the property.
Four other auditoriums, on Elletson Road and Giltress Street in east Kingston, one in Waterhouse, and one in August Town, St Andrew, are also up for sale.
A local Witness, who asked not to be named as he is not an official spokesperson for the religious group, told The Sunday Gleaner that some local properties have already been sold while others are on offer to the highest bidder.
HIGH OVERHEADS
According to the Witness, high overheads forced the religious body to take the action.
"Maintenance and electricity costs are killers. And the improvements in technology have made it easier for communication between individuals, and so staffing for the temples became redundant," said the Witness.
When our news team contacted the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States, a representative said he was not an official spokesperson for the religious group and could not speak on the record.
"All the answers you are seeking can be found on our website. With respect to Jamaica, go to the website and use the search facility, enter yearbook, branch consolidation and you should get an answer," said the representative.
But no information specific to the sale of the properties in Jamaica was found.
The religious group had previously announced that as of September 2012, the oversight of more than 20 of its branch offices would be closed and transferred to larger branches.
"In recent years, improvements in communications and printing technology have reduced the need for personnel in some branches. With fewer people working at larger branches, room became available that could be used for housing some who were working in smaller branches in other countries," said the Witness who spoke with our news team.
According to the organisation's website, "Because of the mergers, qualified ministers who had been serving in small branches can now concentrate on preaching the good news."
The group, whose members are well known for their door-to-door preaching and distribution of the Watchtower and Awake magazines, has also seen a scaling down of this activity, particularly in the Corporate Area, in recent times.
Younger Witnesses are "studying and securing jobs for themselves and their families, so the large numbers are not there anymore. But we still have Witnesses," said one local member of the church.
At the last check, in 2011, Jamaica recorded 50,849 Jehovah's Witnesses, up from 44,203 10 years earlier.
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AndersonsInfo
https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/13713.2.0.0/religion/the-kremlin-cracks-down-on-religious-liberty
The Kremlin Cracks Down on Religious Liberty
April 7, 2016 • From theTrumpet.comThe Russian Orthodox Church has replaced the Communist Party as the ideological glue holding Vladimir Putin’s empire together.During the Soviet era, thousands of churches were destroyed and millions of Christians were persecuted. Communist textbooks called religion “the opium of the people” and Christianity “a perverse reflection on the world.” In the 24 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, however, Orthodox Christianity has made an astonishing recovery. While only a third of Russians identified as Orthodox in 1991, over two thirds now identify as Russian Orthodox Christians.
Yet the rise of the Orthodox Church hasn’t brought religious liberty to Russia. It has simply replaced the Communist Party as the ideological state apparatus used to forcibly unite Russians!
In a court case under way in southern Russia, Viktor Krasnov is facing up to a year in prison for writing “There is no God” on VKontakte (a Russian social media network similar to Facebook). The authorities became aware of this comment when an online user contacted them, claiming that Krasnov was offending Orthodox believers. Police raided Krasnov’s apartment and forced him to undergo a monthlong examination at a psychiatric ward. Once he was deemed fit for trial, he was charged under a Russian law that makes it illegal to insult the feelings of religious believers.
It isn’t just atheists who are no longer granted religious freedom in Russia. Alexey Koptev was arrested in 2011 after undercover police officers established that he belonged to the Jehovah’s Witnesses Christian denomination. In 2009, the city of Taganrog banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination for propagating the exclusivity and supremacy of its religion. This denomination now shares the same legal status as the Islamic State and the National Socialist Society.
In 2002, Russia enacted an extremism law with a provision defining religious extremism as “incitement of religious discord” in connection with acts or threats of violence. Five years later, the law was amended to allow prosecution for inciting religious discord even in the absence of any threat or act of violence. Mormons, Scientologists and even Pentecostals are now coming under increasing government pressure.
In return for public support from Russian Orthodox clergy, President Vladimir Putin attends church services and portrays himself as a defender of “Christian values.” Like the Byzantine emperors and Russian czars before him, he is using a de facto state religion to unify his empire!
“The Orthodox revival gave Russians an identity after the years of uncertainty that followed the fall of the Soviet Union,” private intelligence company Stratfor wrote last month. “The Kremlin has used this to its advantage, so effectively portraying support for Putin’s government as a religious duty that the church is now seen as part of the state apparatus.”
Post-Soviet efforts to remake Moscow into a representative government are failing. Russia has embraced an authoritarian leader driven to vaunt his nation back to the great power status he feels it deserves. This development has dangerous implications for the world. Russia is swiftly becoming a nuclear-armed czarist empire!
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Boston Herald Article: Religious tax exemptions on the line in SJC case
by AndersonsInfo incomment by david a. reed on the fb page cult awareness network:.
every church and apologetics ministry should be aware that the same state high court that first imposed gay marriage a decade ago heard arguments yesterday on a case that could result in shutting down churches across massachusetts, by taxing their land and buildings--a move that could be followed by other states, just as in the case of gay marriage: .
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/04/religious_tax_exemptions_on_the_line_in_sjc_case.
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Steven Hassan's interview on a new fictional cult film, "The Path" Fact-Checked: The Ugly Truth Behind Real-Life Cults
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/03/the-path-cults.
the path fact-checked: the ugly truth behind real-life cults .
part of hassan's interview: "a lot of the older cults that have been around for a really long time, like the jehovah’s witnesses, for example, and even the mormons, are having a really hard time with young people growing up in the age of the internet, because they’ve been basically telling lies to their followers about their history, and now people can easily find out what’s true and not true, and look at their own literature and copies of their own literature.
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AndersonsInfo
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/03/the-path-cults
The Path Fact-Checked: The Ugly Truth Behind Real-Life Cults
Part of Hassan's interview: "A lot of the older cults that have been around for a really long time, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, and even the Mormons, are having a really hard time with young people growing up in the age of the Internet, because they’ve been basically telling lies to their followers about their history, and now people can easily find out what’s true and not true, and look at their own literature and copies of their own literature. It’s causing massive defections, which is very interesting for me."
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Steven Hassan's interview on a new fictional cult film, "The Path" Fact-Checked: The Ugly Truth Behind Real-Life Cults
by AndersonsInfo inthe path.
march 30, 2016 .
the path fact-checked: the ugly truth behind real-life cults .
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AndersonsInfo
THE PATH
March 30, 2016
The Path Fact-Checked: The Ugly Truth Behind Real-Life Cults
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/03/the-path-cults
"A lot of the older cults that have been around for a really long time, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, and even the Mormons, are having a really hard time with young people growing up in the age of the Internet, because they’ve been basically telling lies to their followers about their history, and now people can easily find out what’s true and not true, and look at their own literature and copies of their own literature. It’s causing massive defections, which is very interesting for me."
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USA Today article: Majority of people in Scotland have no religion
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/04/05/scotland-majority-no-religion/82660980/.
majority of people in scotland have no religion.
trevor grundy, religion news service 6:47 p.m. edt april 5, 2016. .
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/04/05/scotland-majority-no-religion/82660980/
Majority of people in Scotland have no religion
Trevor Grundy, Religion News Service 6:47 p.m. EDT April 5, 2016Sheep graze at the base of Ben Nevis in Scotland.(Photo: Lisa Marie Pane, AP)
CANTERBURY, England — More than half of the 5.4 million people living in Scotland have no religion, according to a survey published by Scottish Social Attitudes.
The 52% of unaffiliated Scots represents a 12% jump from 16 years ago, when 40% of survey respondents said they had no religious affiliation.
The proportion of people who say they belong to the Church of Scotland — the Presbyterian Church that for so long dominated almost every aspect of life in that country — has fallen dramatically, to just 20%, down from 39% of the population in 1999.
"The survey’s findings show that Scottish commitment to religion, both in terms of our willingness to say we belong to a religion and to attend religious services, is in decline," said Ian Montagu, a researcher at ScotCen Social research in Edinburgh, which runs the annual surveys.
Montagu added that the change doesn't appear to be affecting all religions equally.
"Affiliation with the Church of Scotland is in decline while levels of identification with other religions remains relatively unchanged," he said
After the Church of Scotland, the largest Christian group is the Roman Catholic Church. Its numbers have recently been boosted by an influx of people from the European Union, particularly Poland.
The 2015 survey interviewed 1,288 people between July 2015 and January 2016.
“We are developing fresh expressions of church alongside traditional forms in order to engage with people,” said Colin Sinclair, convener of the Church of Scotland’s Mission and Discipleship Council. “We have contacted those who have stopped attending church but want to hang on to their Christian faith. We want to hear their stories and understand the lessons we can learn from them.”
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Boston Herald Article: Religious tax exemptions on the line in SJC case
by AndersonsInfo incomment by david a. reed on the fb page cult awareness network:.
every church and apologetics ministry should be aware that the same state high court that first imposed gay marriage a decade ago heard arguments yesterday on a case that could result in shutting down churches across massachusetts, by taxing their land and buildings--a move that could be followed by other states, just as in the case of gay marriage: .
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/04/religious_tax_exemptions_on_the_line_in_sjc_case.
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AndersonsInfo
Comment by David A. Reed on the FB page Cult Awareness Network:
Every church and apologetics ministry should be aware that the same state high court that first imposed gay marriage a decade ago heard arguments yesterday on a case that could result in shutting down churches across Massachusetts, by taxing their land and buildings--a move that could be followed by other states, just as in the case of gay marriage:
Religious tax exemptions on the line in SJC case
Bob McGovern Saturday, April 02, 2016A blockbuster Supreme Judicial Court case involving an iconic Attleboro shrine could lead to property taxes on every church, synagogue and mosque in Massachusetts.
The case, slated to be heard Tuesday, stems from a decision by Attleboro officials to tax portions of the National Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette for fiscal year 2013.
Tax assessors found that many buildings comprising LaSalette’s massive shrine — including a former convent, a maintenance shed and all of the land surrounding the buildings — were not exempt from taxation under a long-standing state law, according to court documents.
Attleboro’s argument relies on the interpretation of a portion of state law, known as “Clause Eleventh,” which specifically deals with tax exemptions and religious institutions. The city argues that all property in the Bay State should “bear its fair and proportionate tax burden, and that property owned by religious organizations not be singled out for benefits not afforded to other secular entities.”
Religious leaders, needless to say, are taking umbrage with that stance.
“I am concerned that an adverse ruling here could force houses of worship to close down,” said the Rev. Laura Everett, head of the Massachusetts Council of Churches. “It’s a pretty significant case. There is a lot on the line here.”
The city of Attleboro found that more than a third of the shrine’s property did not qualify for the religious tax exemption, and billed the church $92,292.98. The shrine fought the case all the way to the SJC, and nearly every religious sect in the state has filed amicus briefs in support.
“There are religious organizations across the commonwealth that depend on the exemption. If they are denied the exemption they risk not being able to maintain their property or stay in being,” said Heidi Nadel, an attorney who wrote on behalf of 12 religious organizations, ranging from the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center to the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
The Roman Catholic Church filed a separate brief pointing out that religious institutions could be forced to cut back on charitable services — activities that sometimes take place on property that may be deemed taxable.
“Religious institutions have long dedicated their resources and efforts to better our communities and the lives of all citizens in the Commonwealth,” attorney Felicia H. Ellsworth wrote in the brief.
“The General Court, like the legislature of every other state in the union, exempts religious institutions from taxation in recognition and appreciation of these important services.”
Attleboro’s attorneys, who declined to comment, argued in court that a tax exempt “house of religious worship” does not extend to the entire piece of property where it sits.
But an attorney for LaSalette said narrowing state law to fit that definition could have disastrous results. “Every community is trying to raise as much tax revenue as possible, but our position is that they stepped over the line and they are taxing things that are clearly part of the shrine religious worship mission,” said Diane C. Tillotson, the shrine’s attorney.
“It could be a huge financial hit,” she said, “and it’s not unique to one religion.”
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NYTimes Article - As Pennsylvania Confronts Clergy Sex Abuse, Victims and Lawmakers Act
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/us/pennsylvania-clergy-sex-abuse.html?emc=edit_au_20160404&nl=afternoonupdate&nlid=60657855&_r=0.
as pennsylvania confronts clergy sex abuse, victims and lawmakers act.
by laurie goodsteinapril 4, 2016 .
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As Pennsylvania Confronts Clergy Sex Abuse, Victims and Lawmakers Act
By LAURIE GOODSTEINAPRIL 4, 2016
LORETTO, Pa. — By the age of 12, Maureen Powers, the daughter of a professor at the local Roman Catholic university, played the organ in the magnificent hilltop Catholic basilica here and volunteered in the parish office. But, she said, she was hiding a secret: Her priest sexually abused her for two years, telling her it was for the purpose of “research.”
By her high school years, she felt so tied up in knots of betrayal and shame that she confided in a succession of priests. She said the first tried to take advantage of her sexually, the second suggested she comfort herself with a daily candy bar and the third told her to see a counselor. None of them reported the abuse to the authorities or mentioned that she could take that step.
So when a Pennsylvania grand jury revealed in a report in March that the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, which includes Loretto, engaged in an extensive cover-up of abuse by as many as 50 church officials, Ms. Powers, now 67, decided to finally report her case. She called the office of the state attorney general and recounted her story, including the name of her abuser, a prominent monsignor who was not listed in the grand jury report.
“I just felt like now, someone will believe me,” said Ms. Powers, who retired after 30 years in leadership positions at the Y.W.C.A. in Lancaster, Pa.
PhotoAs a child, Ms. Powers played the organ at St. Michael the Archangel in Loretto and volunteered in the parish office. When she told other priests she had been sexually abused, she says, one tried to take advantage of her sexually, another suggested she comfort herself with a daily candy bar and a third told her to see a counselor. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York TimesShe was not alone. Ms. Powers was among more than 250 abuse survivors and tipsters who called a hotline set up by the Pennsylvania attorney general, Kathleen G. Kane. Twenty agents were needed to answer the phones, and a voice mailbox was set up to handle the overflow.
Nearly 15 years after Boston suffered through a clergy abuse scandal dramatized in the recent movie “Spotlight,” Pennsylvania is going through its own painful reckoning. From the State Capitol in Harrisburg to kitchens in railroad towns, people say they have been stunned to read evidence that priests they knew as pastors, teachers and confessors were secretly abusing children — findings the grand jury report called “staggering and sobering.” Victims are coming forward for the first time to family and friends, and alumni of parochial schools are pulling out their yearbooks, marveling at how smiling faces hid such pain.
Multiplying the outrage, the grand jury report supplied evidence that the police, district attorneys and judges in the Altoona and Johnstown area colluded with bishops in the cover-up, quashing the pleas of parents who tried to blow the whistle on priests who sexually abused children. Some of those officials are named in the report, and some still hold public office.
READ MORE
