Blake Ellis from CNN is looking for cult victims to interview for a story about FINANCIAL ABUSE committed by cults. You can contact her at: [email protected] or [email protected] if you are willing to go public with your story.
Barbara
AndersonsInfo
JoinedPosts by AndersonsInfo
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If you have been FINANCIALLY ABUSED by Watchtower and want to go public, read this:
by AndersonsInfo inblake ellis from cnn is looking for cult victims to interview for a story about financial abuse committed by cults.
you can contact her at: [email protected] or [email protected] if you are willing to go public with your story.. barbara .
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Article: "Thousands Stranded In Greek Border Camp Have Nowhere To Go" (Guess who shows up daily at the camp?)
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/greece-refugee-camp-border_56707278e4b0fccee1703e8f.
this is what it states in the middle of the article:.
"around the idomeni camp, canteens have mushroomed to sell food to the refugees.
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AndersonsInfo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/greece-refugee-camp-border_56707278e4b0fccee1703e8f
This is what it states in the middle of the article:
"Around the Idomeni camp, canteens have mushroomed to sell food to the refugees. Wandering merchants peddle cell phone SIM cards. Jehovah's Witnesses have set up stands hoping to spread their version of God's word -- they distribute brochures in English and Arabic. There are reports that restaurants in the area sell meals to Greeks and refugees at different prices. Taxis at a stand along the road that offer to take people to the nearby town of Polykastro reportedly overcharge refugees significantly."
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Articles: Foreign-born adoptee abused by JW adoptive parents
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/adopted-children-deportation-adam-crapser_566a0cd9e4b080eddf57b949.
synopsis:.
crapser was originally adopted, along with his sister, by a michigan couple, who relinquished the siblings after six years.
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AndersonsInfo
12/12/15
Synopsis:
Crapser was originally adopted, along with his sister, by a Michigan couple, who relinquished the siblings after six years. The two children were split up, and Adam bounced around foster homes until he was almost 11, when he was adopted by Thomas and Dolly Crapser of Oregon.
The Crapsers had multiple adopted and foster children, though Adam Crapser said he was the only foreign-born adoptee. He said the couple regularly abused and humiliated the children. He recalls being beaten, burned and having his head slammed into door frames.
He compared his adoptive mother, a devout Jehovah's Witness, to Cruella de Vil, the "101 Dalmatians" villain obsessed with having a variety of animal furs. "It was like 'one of each' for her: They had a Latino boy, a Filipino boy, Caucasian siblings, a black girl, me," Crapser said. "We were shown off at Jehovah's Witness gatherings to make it look like she was doing Jehovah's work."
In 1991, the couple was arrested and charged with 34 counts of rape, sexual abuse and criminal mistreatment of their children. They were convicted a year later on several counts of criminal mistreatment and assault. Thomas Crapser was also convicted on one count of sexual abuse, although he served just 90 days in prison.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/magazine/adam-crapsers-bizarre-deportation-odyssey.html?_r=0
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Reveal News: How Jehovah’s Witness leaders are responding to child abuse scrutiny by Trey Bundy
by AndersonsInfo inhttps://www.revealnews.org/blog/how-jehovahs-witness-leaders-are-responding-to-child-abuse-scrutiny/.
by trey bundy .
december 14, 2015 .
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https://www.revealnews.org/blog/how-jehovahs-witness-leaders-are-responding-to-child-abuse-scrutiny/
by Trey Bundy
December 14, 2015
Besieged by reports that Jehovah’s Witnesses shield child sexual abusers from prosecution, the religion’s top leadership appears to have settled on a strategy: “Let the story die.”
A Portuguese news documentary released in October was yet another report from across the globe to detail the Witnesses’ policy of not reporting child abusers to law enforcement. As in other media reports, top officials refused to speak to the journalists who produced it.
After it aired, however, David Splane, a member of the Witnesses’ Governing Body, spoke to 600 congregations from the religion’s Portuguese headquarters in Carnaxide, according to TVI, the station that aired the documentary. Splane’s talk provided a window into how Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders are handling the scrutiny.
“Now, sometimes, the brothers will call New York and say, ‘Why don’t you do something about this? This was a terrible program,’ ” said Splane, who was visiting from global headquarters in Brooklyn. “What do you want us to do? The journalist has a closed mind. The journalist isn’t interested in the truth. And so we usually just leave things as they are and let the story die.”
Read More: https://www.revealnews.org/blog/how-jehovahs-witness-leaders-are-responding-to-child-abuse-scrutiny/
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Article: A Reason (and a Season) to Stop Shunning
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/janice-harper/a-reason-and-season-to-st_b_1146103.html.
by janice harper - originally posted in 2011 .
one of the least discussed aspects of bullying and mobbing, and perhaps the most powerful and damaging, is the practice of shunning.
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AndersonsInfo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janice-harper/a-reason-and-season-to-st_b_1146103.html
by Janice Harper - Originally posted in 2011
One of the least discussed aspects of bullying and mobbing, and perhaps the most powerful and damaging, is the practice of shunning. Shunning is widely practiced among certain religions; the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Scientology, even the otherwise forgiving Amish have made shunning a religious tenet to control the conduct of its members. Families routinely shun other family members, whether through disinheritance and outright withdrawal of any contact or support, or the deafening "silent treatment" that some spouses and parents engage in as a form of punishment for real or perceived offenses. People are shunned in their communities, their clubs and their schools. But perhaps shunning is most common in the workplace, when a worker is targeted for collective aggression and elimination, or "workplace mobbing."
When a person is marked for punishment or elimination by management, workers instinctively avoid being seen with that person for fear of their own status being tarnished in the workplace. But to targets of shunning, the near instantaneous isolation almost always comes as a shock, and the intensifying silence that encircles them is indeed deadly. The impact of shunning is so severe that those religions, organizations and families which routinely employ it do so because they know just how effective a form of social control the practice can be, debilitating even the strongest people once it commences.
Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janice-harper/a-reason-and-season-to-st_b_1146103.html
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New Article on Reveal by Trey Bundy: JW's shield child sex abusers from police, report says
by AndersonsInfo inhttps://www.revealnews.org/blog/jehovahs-witnesses-shield-child-sexual-abusers-from-police-report-says/jehovahs witnesses shield child sex abusers from police, report says.
by trey bundy / december 7, 2015 .
jehovahs witnesses policies allow child sexual abusers to operate within their congregations without fear that they will be reported to police, according to a new report published by the australian government.
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https://www.revealnews.org/blog/jehovahs-witnesses-shield-child-sexual-abusers-from-police-report-says/Jehovah’s Witnesses shield child sex abusers from police, report says
By Trey Bundy / December 7, 2015
Jehovah’s Witnesses policies allow child sexual abusers to operate within their congregations without fear that they will be reported to police, according to a new report published by the Australian government.
The report stems from public hearings held this summer, during which top Jehovah’s Witnesses gave sworn testimony about the organization’s child abuse protocols.
Since 1950, Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters in Australia has fielded allegations of child sexual abuse against 1,006 members involving at least 1,800 victims, according to the report. Although 579 members confessed to abusing children, none were reported to police or other authorities.
“It is the policy and practice of the Jehovah’s Witness organization … to not report allegations of child sexual abuse to the police or other authorities unless required by law to do so,” the report said.
Attorney Angus Stewart, who led the inquiry for the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, submitted 77 separate points critical of the Jehovah’s Witnesses policies and practices toward child sexual abuse, and testimony given during the hearings.
The findings back up those of a Reveal investigation that showed how Jehovah’s Witnesses’ policies have shielded child sexual abusers in the U.S. from prosecution, in some cases allowing them to abuse more children.
Stewart wrote that the organization had fostered among its followers a sense of distrust of secular authorities. He was especially harsh toward the organization’s internal judicial process, in which a victim of child abuse must confront the abuser in person and is prohibited from bringing anyone along for support during the process.
“The current documented process for responding to allegations of child sexual abuse in the Jehovah’s Witness organisation is focussed largely on the rights and comfort of the accused, with little regard to the requirements of a victim of abuse,” he wrote.
He also took issue with the Witnesses’ practice of shunning members who leave or are kicked out of the organization.
“The Jehovah’s Witness organisation’s policy of requiring its adherents to actively shun those who leave the organization … is particularly cruel on those who have suffered child sexual abuse in the organisation and who wish to leave because they feel that their complaints about it have not been adequately dealt with,” Stewart wrote.
During the summer hearings, Stewart questioned Geoffrey Jackson, a member of the organization’s Governing Body in New York about the organization’s handling of the abuse allegations of two victims, who also testified before the commission. In his report, Stewart challenged Jackson’s assertion that he felt sympathy for them.
Jackson’s failure to review the testimony of the victims before giving his own “belies his stated sympathy for the survivors and his stated recognition of the importance of their perspectives,” Stewart wrote.
Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters in Australia receives allegations of child sexual abuse about three or four times each month, Stewart’s report says.
The Royal Commission has the authority to investigate any private or public organization that works with children, including churches, schools, treatment centers and sports clubs. The commission lacks the power to prosecute accused child abusers but has referred more than 800 cases to law enforcement agencies in Australia.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are also currently under investigation in the United Kingdom by the commission that regulates charities there for possible failure to protect children from abuse.
In the U.S., the Witnesses are fighting more than a dozen lawsuits brought by alleged victims who say they were abused as children by members of their congregations.
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JW's won't like this but the Guardian says, "Now for the good news: things really are getting better"
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/11/news-isis-syria-headlines-violence-steven-pinker?cmp=share_btn_fb.
now for the good news: things really are getting better .
friday 11 september 2015 04.00 edt .
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AndersonsInfo
Now for the good news: things really are getting better
Friday 11 September 2015 04.00 EDT
Isis and Syria dominate global headlines, but new data shows that violence remains in retreat overall.
It takes a streak of foolhardiness to answer the question “What are you optimistic about?” Because any response would seem to taunt the fates to prove one wrong. But in 2007 I took the bait and ventured that every form of violence, when measured objectively, was in decline – a claim I buttressed with 100 graphs in my 2011 book The Better Angels of Our Nature. Friends advised me I was setting myself up for embarrassment: a war with Iran, a contest over oil, or a nuclear terrorist attack could erupt any day. And wasn’t I even a bit superstitious about the impending centennial of the first world war?
Though I was documenting the past rather than prognosticating, a decade’s worth of new data provides a chance to calibrate our understanding of global trends. In the early 21st century did a bunch of undulating curves fortuitously scrape bottom? Or, as I argued, was something systematic going on?
To any headline-clicker, the answer is obvious. The year 2015 began with the Charlie Hebdo massacre and proceeded to a failed ceasefire in Ukraine, atrocities by Islamic State, and a human catastrophe in Syria that has spilled over Europe’s borders. READ MORE
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Article: Zambia: Jehovah's Witnesses Deserve Pat On the Back
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://allafrica.com/stories/201508310529.html.
zambia: jehovah's witnesses deserve pat on the back .
times of zambia, august 28, 2015. by alfred mlenga.
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http://allafrica.com/stories/201508310529.html
Zambia: Jehovah's Witnesses Deserve Pat On the Back
TIMES OF ZAMBIA, August 28, 2015
By Alfred Mlenga
Some people might have their views or even disagree but as for me I feel I would be failing in my duty if I did not acknowledge the remarkable job the Jehovah's Witnesses are doing to improve the infrastructure in the country.
As an amateur artist I am constantly struck by the beautiful and freshly constructed Kingdom Halls - some in the middle of nowhere - that light up the environment like little shining stars in townships and along major highways from Livingstone in Southern Province to Chipata in the Eastern Province. I believe the pattern is the same in Northern, North-Western, Western, Luapula and Muchinga provinces.
Critics may be quick to jump to the unfair if not irrational conclusion that Witnesses are probably doing this to swell their ranks in the face of increased competition from other religious organizations.
But that would be missing the point. Instead these Kingdom Halls (both in rural villages and major townships like Kabushi in Ndola, Chibote in Mufulira's Kamuchanga township and Kwacha in Kitwe on the Copperbelt, etc.) should be seen as inspirational because they are, in my opinion, setting a standard of cleanliness for every rural or urban dweller.
I do realise that most mainstream churches, including Catholic and Protestant, are doing the same or even more. But I am focusing on the subject of kingdom halls because it seems to a new development by the Witnesses who were seen as trouble or rubble-rousers by the colonialists.
With persuasive eloquence and overflowing zeal, the Watch Tower movement adherents used to move from house-to-house or stand by the street corner and pavement selling their literature and preaching the Word. Hate them or love them, they were always there, especially at weekends. Some people would even go to the extent of locking their homes just to avoid or keep the irrepressible Witnesses at bay.
I had an uncle, a staunch Witness, who would not allow anyone to use the sign of the Cross, as Catholics do, when saying grace. 'Bwali bwa kwanani ulebalikila (whose food are blessing?) he would demand before defiantly walking away. Once in a while I found myself, may be out of curiosity, in some of the old kingdom halls in mine townships on the Copperbelt.
READ MORE http://allafrica.com/stories/201508310529.html
And be sure to read the COMMENTS
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Here's some food for thought from Irwin Zalkin, the attorney who has filed nearly 20 child abuse lawsuits against the Watchtower
by AndersonsInfo inhttp://www.zalkin.com/blog/yom-kippur-thoughts-pope-francis/.
yom kippur thoughts for pope francis.
by: irwin zalkin.
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AndersonsInfo
http://www.zalkin.com/blog/yom-kippur-thoughts-pope-francis/
Yom Kippur Thoughts for Pope Francis
By: Irwin Zalkin
This was the week of Yom Kippur, the Jewish High Holiday known as the Day of Atonement. It is a day when Jews personally and collectively acknowledge our transgressions of the previous year and seek forgiveness.
I was in synagogue observing the holiday and confessing my sins when our Rabbi, as part of her sermon, read a recent encyclical (letter) issued by Pope Francis where he called for the world to acknowledge the hardships of those who are suffering from an array of problems from the ravages of war to persecution to poverty. It was a moving challenge to all of us to acknowledge our obligation to reach out and help the suffering and the helpless.
During his current visit to the United States, Pope Francis had an opportunity to reach out to those who have suffered, and continue to suffer, from the scourge of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Instead, he lauded the “courage” of the Bishops of the United States for how they have responded to the fall out from the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. I was disappointed to see no acknowledgment or compassion for the victims of clergy abuse, but only this “pat on the back” for Bishops, many who have ignored this travesty for decades.
As an attorney who has been representing survivors of child sexual abuse for over a decade, I was disappointed, but not surprised. Our firm has been involved in efforts to change laws in various states in the United States, including California, that would allow survivors access to civil justice against institutions that are responsible for the harm that was done to them as children by employees, agents and volunteers of those organizations including the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has been the leader in opposition to those efforts, spending millions of dollars on expensive lobbyists to defeat such legislation that would give victims access to justice.
It is clear from this failure of the Pope to acknowledge victims of clergy abuse on his visit to the U.S. that the church’s continuing opposition to extending access to civil justice for sex abuse victims is a decision that comes from the top. If this Pope wanted to support the rights of victims then there would be no such resistance to legislative proposals the church is battling with millions of dollars in several states across the country.
On behalf of survivors of Catholic clergy sex abuse, and of sexual abuse in many other institutions, I challenge Pope Francis to reflect on the suffering of clergy abuse victims and then to reconsider the Church position. They deserve his compassion and real justice for what they have suffered.
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Long but interesting article: Russia: Religious literature banned and blocked
by AndersonsInfo infyi, this article is very, very long.
it's about both the jws and the muslims, but don't give up reading when only the muslims are discussed because the jws are brought back into the article again and again.
lots of food for thought and for discussion too.. barbara .
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AndersonsInfo
FYI, this article is very, very long. It's about both the JWs and the Muslims, but don't give up reading when only the Muslims are discussed because the JWs are brought back into the article again and again. Lots of food for thought and for discussion too.
Barbara
http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2103
21 September 2015
RUSSIA: Religious literature banned and blocked
By Victoria Arnold, Forum 18 News Service
Outrage among Muslims followed the August banning by a Sakhalin court of a Koranic commentary as "extremist", apparently basing the decision on statements of monotheism in Koranic verses. Three appeals have now been lodged, one of them by the Prosecutor's Office which requested the original ban. Widespread public protests have been successful following earlier religious literature banning cases in Russia, Forum 18 News Service notes. Jehovah's Witnesses in Belgorod have failed to overturn both a ban on two more of their publications and an order that they should pay for the court-ordered "expert analysis" used to prove the texts' "extremism". Muslims in Pervouralsk have failed to overturn a decision that the FSB security service will conduct an "expert analysis" of works prosecutors are seeking to have banned as "extremist", again at the expense of the religious community. And Jehovah's Witnesses have failed to overturn a ban on 4,000 of their Bibles and other literature confiscated at the border as "supposedly prohibited from being imported".
In a clutch of recent cases, religious believers and communities have so far failed to overturn court-ordered bans and import denials for religious literature prosecutors claim is or might be "extremist", Forum 18 News Service has learned. At least three appeals against a ban on a Koranic commentary - which provoked widespread Muslim outrage in Russia - have been lodged in Sakhalin in Russia's Far East. Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses have failed to overturn other bans or are still battling to prevent them.
In at least two cases, the religious communities have been required to pay for the "specialists" who will conduct the "expert analyses" to be used for the prosecution, even though the communities do not want the "expert analyses" and did not initiate the court proceedings to have the works banned (see below).
Any Russian court can declare a work (book, leaflet, song, slogan, video, website or webpage) "extremist". The Justice Ministry is then empowered to place such a work on its Federal List of Extremist Materials. Numerous Muslim and Jehovah's Witness works have been placed on the list, together with several Falun Gong and one Catholic publication (see F18News 20 March 2015 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2049).
Ownership of a work on the list can lead to prosecution under Administrative Code Article 20.29 (mass distribution of extremist materials) for any individual or organisation found in possession of even one copy (see F18News 15 May 2015 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2062 and F18News 31 March 2015 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2052).READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE AT: http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2103