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Randy Watters
Dogpatch
JoinedPosts by Dogpatch
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Adherents of Pro and Anti Cross Teachings ...Take Note
by itsibitsybrainbutbigenoughtosmellarat inoften in posts, i see ones referring to "the cross" or the jws view of an "upright stake" in posts on this and other sites.
a few years ago i saw "prince the rock entertainer" draw attention in a concert to "a lie told over and over" and then a cross appeared in a large picture behind him on stage demonstrating his epiphany through studying with the jws, about the instrument of death actually being an upright stake...to cite just one example.. all researchers and biblical enthusiasts should take note of the work accomplished by gunnar samuelsson and his team.
the publication was released in 2011 entitled crucifixion in antiquity and examines all scholarly works previously done on the subject as well as exaustive research by a team of people looking for facts and archeology to support one view or the other.
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Remembering Our Dear Richard Rawe
by Dogpatch inrichard m. rawe was born may 10, 1934. he died in his sleep a little before midnight, october 26, 1012, in soap lake, washington.
his death was caused by probable acute myocardial infarction and cardiovascular disease.. in 1995, richard had a major stroke that left him with damage to his vocal cords.
previous to the stroke he had a beautiful speaking voice and was much in demand as a speaker in kingdom halls in the northwest when he was a jehovahs witness prior to 1975. in his later years, richard was the host with the raspy, croaky voice of the dialogue telephone conference-line program which hundreds of people listened to twice a month on saturday evening.. up until his death, richard was an attractive, partially balding, gray-haired man, still tall and elegant in appearance, who carried himself with class and dignity no matter how bad he physically felt.
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Dogpatch
Richard M. Rawe was born May 10, 1934. He died in his sleep a little before midnight, October 26, 1012, in Soap Lake, Washington. His death was caused by probable acute myocardial infarction and cardiovascular disease.
In 1995, Richard had a major stroke that left him with damage to his vocal cords. Previous to the stroke he had a beautiful speaking voice and was much in demand as a speaker in Kingdom Halls in the Northwest when he was a Jehovah’s Witness prior to 1975. In his later years, Richard was the host with the raspy, croaky voice of the Dialogue telephone conference-line program which hundreds of people listened to twice a month on Saturday evening.
Up until his death, Richard was an attractive, partially balding, gray-haired man, still tall and elegant in appearance, who carried himself with class and dignity no matter how bad he physically felt. As someone recently said, when Richard walked into a room, he had presence.
Listening to him on the phone, one would never get that impression because due to his damaged vocal cords, the picture most listeners had of Richard, unless you personally knew him, was that of someone totally opposite of what he really looked like.
When the elder arrangement came into existence in 1972, Richard, as congregation servant and a regular pioneer for some twenty years, refused to recommend any man in the Ephrata Washington Congregation as elders, including himself, stating that the nobody in the congregation filled the requirements for elder as set forth by the then Governing Body.
He was of the firm conviction that the men in the congregation were committing sinful acts that did not allow for them to be appointed as elders. Consequently, these men, who believed that they should be appointed elders, began to work secretly behind Richard’s back spreading slanderous rumors about him. Read Richard’s exciting story of how he came to be disfellowhipped twice, the first time in September 1975. http://www.xjw.com/rawe-df.html
In the years following his disfellowshipping, Richard devoted his time to his livelihood as well as more time to study the Bible and the history of the Watch Tower organization and of early Christian history. Richard, as well as others such as James Penton, Ray Franz, and Alan Feuerbacher promoted Bible study conferences where lectures about the Bible and religion were held. He also was actively working with other former JWs to do everything in their power to inform the public through the courts or the media of the unfair and sometime devious activity of the religion that at one time all of them would have given their life for.
Richard was very proud of the fact that he had over 1,000 newspaper and magazine articles in his huge library archive from across the United States and the United Kingdom that discussed Jehovah’s Witnesses organization negatively, which he in someway was involved with getting the message out about the harmful practices of the Watch Tower, Jehovah’s Witnesses legal arm.
It was Richard who contacted Richard Ostling, then a reporter for the Time Magazine, to talk to him about Fred Franz being appointed as the new president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Subsequently, that article appeared in Time. Also, Richard Rawe and a number of other former JWs showed up in front of Bethel in Brooklyn, NY, in the late 1980s participating in a march against the Watch Tower’s disfellowshipping and shunning practices. Richard Ostling wrote about that event and the story appeared in TimeMagazine too.
In 2001, when Richard found out about former Bethelite and XJW, Barbara Anderson, and others appearing on the Dateline news program to help expose the Watch Tower’s cover-up of child abuse, he jumped in and began to contact newspapers about the story. By then, Richard Ostling was the Associated Press Religion editor. Many stories revealing the Watch Tower’s true unloving and devious self that were carried by the Associated Press were due to Richard’s persistence.
Richard Rawe also knew one of the top producers at the Dateline organization who at one time was working for the 60 Minutes program some twenty years before 2001.
It was Richard that contacted Christianity Today and was directly responsible for their coverage of the Watch Tower’s child abuse problem in the February 2, 2001 Christianity Today magazine. He also contacted Peter Smith, Religion Editor for the Louisville Courier Journal in Kentucky who did a huge front-page story on February 4, 2001 on the same topic.
In his later years, Richard’s health declined precipitously, his eyesight diminished, yet he wouldn’t give up. As many as three times a week Richard called his research buddy, Barbara Anderson, to tell her what he was doing to get his message out to sincere and unsuspecting people who were searching for religious truth and maybe contemplating converting to Jehovah’s Witnesses. In no uncertain terms, Richard Rawe made it his life’s work to inform the public to beware of the Watch Tower because it’s not a harmless religion but could wreck their lives! He’d point out how easy it was to convert into the religion, but impossible to get out of without finding your life in ruins.
For two years Richard hosted his Dialogue program which he loved. Up until three weeks before he died, Richard was busy calling people arranging with them to tell their interesting stories on his Dialogue Conference Line about their experiences with the Watch Tower organization.
We all owe Richard a debt of gratitude for his bulldog-like persistence to tell the world to beware of the Watch Tower religion because Watch Tower’s leaders, past and present, might sound and look like sheep, but in reality these men were and are wolves that have brought harm to hundreds of thousands of individuals and families in the past 133 years of the religion’s history.
Richard is sorely missed. He certainly left his mark on the lives of thousands and it is doubtful that there will ever be another person to come our way again like Richard M. Rawe.
anonymous, submitted by Randall Watters, who says,
Richard was one of the most helpful and devoted persons to helping others be set free, and exposing the abuses within the Watchtower organization. He would call me about 3 times a year with good news updates, and was active on many sites and discussion boards, We love you Richard! - Randy
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Megan and Candace Casualties of Known Molesters
by Dogpatch inwritten by barbara anderson wednesday, 07 november 2012 00:05. in most child sexual abuse cases the abuser is someone the child knows and trusts relatives, neighbors, coaches, teachers, ministers.
and, incredibly, in too many of these cases, the abuse was preventable because the abuser was known by others to have molested before, but that fact was not known to those who could have protected the child.. .
in 1994, both megan and candace were sexually abused and megan died at the hands of convicted pedophile, jesse timmendequas, who was a known child molester.
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Dogpatch
BTTT
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Megan and Candace Casualties of Known Molesters
by Dogpatch inwritten by barbara anderson wednesday, 07 november 2012 00:05. in most child sexual abuse cases the abuser is someone the child knows and trusts relatives, neighbors, coaches, teachers, ministers.
and, incredibly, in too many of these cases, the abuse was preventable because the abuser was known by others to have molested before, but that fact was not known to those who could have protected the child.. .
in 1994, both megan and candace were sexually abused and megan died at the hands of convicted pedophile, jesse timmendequas, who was a known child molester.
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Dogpatch
Written by Barbara Anderson Wednesday, 07 November 2012 00:05 In most child sexual abuse cases the abuser is someone the child knows and trusts – relatives, neighbors, coaches, teachers, ministers. And, incredibly, in too many of these cases, the abuse was preventable because the abuser was known by others to have molested before, but that fact was not known to those who could have protected the child.
In 1994, both Megan and Candace were sexually abused and Megan died at the hands of convicted pedophile, Jesse Timmendequas, who was “a known child molester.” Law enforcement knew he was a molester, but no one told seven-year-old Megan Kanka’s parents there were three convicted sex offenders living across the street from them.1994 – Megan’s Law
Due to public outcry, one month after Megan’s rape and murder on July 29, the New Jersey legislature passed Megan's Law requiring registration and public notification of sex offenders that became federal law in 1996, and all states have passed some form of the law.
One federally funded study in 2009 determined that Megan’s law had no effect on sexual reoffenses. When informed of the study, Mrs. Kanka remarked that the purpose of the law was for parents to know where the offenders were living. “We never said it was going to stop them from reoffending.”
Jake Goldenflame, a convicted sex offender, supports the law. "Megan's Law is not there to keep me from re-offending,” he said. Megan's Law is there so that you can keep me from re-offending by knowing who I am, keeping your eyes on me."1994 - Watchtower informed of Megan’s Law
Shortly after learning about the New Jersey legislature passing Megan’s Law in 1994, I informed two officials of the law’s passage at the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in Brooklyn, NY, the business arm that guides the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Two years previously I had been a volunteer worker at the Watchtower’s huge complex in Brooklyn, NY for nearly eleven years. For four of those years I was a staff member in their Writing Department where I did research.
After leaving the Writing Department at the end of 1992, I continued to help the department from my home in Tennessee by accepting research assignments. My interest in Megan’s Law had to do with my knowledge of an increase in reports of allegations of child abuse among Jehovah’s Witnesses which were being reported to the Watchtower.
In the fall of 1991, while working in the Writing Department, I learned there were men appointed by the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses to serve as elders or assistants to elders who had been accused of molestation or were confessed molesters. Also, there were men remaining in their positions of responsibility after they confessed to a fellow elder of molesting a child at least two or three years previously. Inasmuch as these men claimed repentance and were observed to have engaged in “godly acts befitting of repentance” for a number of years, they were appointed to, or continued to serve in, leadership positions. Their past remained a secret.
A 1989 policy letter from Watchtower to all elders stated that certain matters, including child abuse, were to be kept confidential to avoid lawsuits and financial penalties. In this way, pedophiles were protected from exposure and went on to molest other children. The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, through this policy, had made a determination that its own needs would be placed above protection of children and showed an indifference to children who were placed at risk by the presence of known sexual abusers within the congregations and the secrecy that surrounded it.
In every case, members in Witness congregations where these men served were never informed that a known molester was in their midst. The consequences of such secrecy were more and more complaints of sexual abuse committed by men in oversight positions coming into the Watchtower’s Service Department. Owing to all of this, a number of us in the Writing Department were determined to see that protection of children was paramount, not protection of an organization.
In 1997, the Watchtower developed what I call a “known molester policy.” Some thought it was Watchtower’s child sexual abuse policy, but it didn’t protect kids, just the opposite, in that, before appointment, if a remorseful, repentant man wasn’t perceived (or known) by the community and the congregation to be a “former” child molester, he could be considered for a
position of trust.
Back in 1994, it was the requirement of Megan’s Law for “community notification” when sex offenders moved into an area which caused me to call the Writing Department. I pointed out that elder notification to the flock of a possible or convicted sex offender who was hiding in plain sight in the congregation due to the Watchtower’s confidentiality policy was the way to go.
Required notification of such an individual would be the best way to protect Jehovah’s Witnesses children from a monster in the room which no one knew about, someone they called “brother” or “sister.” I was emphatic that unless the confidentiality policy was replaced with a notification policy, one of these days, huge lawsuits and scandal would rock the very foundations of the Watchtower and could destroy it.1994 - Candace Conti’s molestation
Unknown to me, nine-year-old Candace Conti, began to be molested in 1994, the abuse continuing for two years. Her molester, Jonathan Kendrick, was a known child molester because he had been convicted by the authorities for the sexual abuse of another child two years earlier.
Kendrick’s sex offender record was also known by the elders of the Fremont California Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but they did nothing to protect the congregation’s children, including young Candace because they kept what they knew about him secret.
They did remove Kendrick from his unpaid assistant-minister’s position but no one in the congregation knew why. Here then was an example of elders following the church’s national policy to keep sex abuse allegations secret. It was this silence that allowed Kendrick to abuse Candace. Because of the policy of secrecy that the church followed, information was withheld from the very people who could have prevented the abuse of Candace, and why her parents didn’t know their friend and fellow congregant, Jonathan Kendrick, was a sexual predator.Candace Conti sues the Watchtower and elders
In 2011, Ms. Conti, then 25, sued the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York for keeping reports of child sex abusers within Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations secret.
It was during the Conti trial in June 2012 that a 1989 Watchtower policy letter to elders was introduced. That letter was a major factor in determining the outcome of the trial because it stated that certain matters, including child abuse, were to be kept confidential to avoid lawsuits and financial penalties.
Also sued were three elders in the Fremont Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Loyalty to a religious organization kept the elders from doing the right thing. In their defense these men claimed they did their duty towards Candace by “keeping an eye on Kendrick.” Unlike Jake Goldenflame, the convicted sex offender, who said Megan’s Law was there so people could keep an eye on him, Fremont elders did not inform parents so they could protect their children by keeping an eye on Kendrick.
On June 14th, Day 10 of the trial, the day after the jury awarded Ms. Conti compensatory damages of $7M and was about to decide on punitive damages, Robert Schnack, Defendants attorney, stated in his closing arguments to the jury:
“I sincerely believe that Watchtower does not need to be punished by another monetary award. Why is that? Ms. Conti said she wanted to change policies. That’s why she brought this suit. And we feel bad for Ms. Conti. But I can assure you, and I can assure her, that Watchtower’s policies continue to evolve. And I can safely say that, with her verdict yesterday, Ms. Conti has succeeded. I encourage you to award no punitive damages in this case.”
The jury thought otherwise and awarded Ms. Conti $21M in punitive damages. The Watchtower wasn’t found guilty of failing to report molestation. They were guilty of negligence, malice, and child endangerment. It’s obvious from the damage awards that Watchtower policies did not evolve to the degree needed to protect children and more was required.New rules in October 1, 2012 elders’ letter
Have Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders gotten the message that parents should be told if a confessed or accused child molester is worshipping with them? Well, yes, but only if the Witnesses branch office determines the individual is a “predator.”
According to a new letter to the elders, dated October 1, 2012, which updates all previous letters regarding child abuse, if the elders think a person who has been known to have sexually abused a child, although seemingly cleaned up his/her life, is a “predator,” the elders must call the Witnesses branch office. If the branch office determines that an individual is to be considered a predator, then two elders are assigned to meet with the parents of minor children in order to provide a warning. Also, the “predator” should be told that parents have been discreetly informed. So, for the most part, the secrecy still remains. In Candace Conti’s case, her molester would never have fit the profile of “predator”; hence, her parents would not have been warned.
Another point Defendants’ Attorney Robert Schnack made in closing arguments:
“One thing I would ask you to keep in mind. The Jehovah's Witnesses Church is not the Catholic Church, that it has had verdict after verdict after verdict over the years. It's been in the press. We are all aware of it. This is the first verdict that the Jehovah's Witnesses church has faced. So, again, it is not the Catholic Church with multitudes of cases over a couple of decades.”
“We were on the phone to managing directors of Watchtower and to the elders in the Service Department. And I can tell you they are stunned by the verdict. Again, I mentioned, it is the first one.”
Yes, the Conti case was “the first verdict that the Jehovah’s Witnesses church has faced” because Watchtower leaders have been secretly settling out-of-court child sexual abuse cases for years. For example, in 2007 there were secret out-of-court settlements with sixteen victims in nine separate cases of child sexual molestation. And, as recently as May 2012, in San Diego, California, there was a secret out-of-court settlement of a case involving six victims of a Witness serial molester - an elder! As is the case with many blameworthy Defendants, when Watchtower leaders settled these cases out-of-court, they acknowledged liability but not responsibility.No more secrets
However, in the Conti case, this religious body refuses to acknowledge responsibility or liability that the church was to blame for Candace’s molestation because on September 21, 2012, a Bond/Undertaking was posted for an appeal of judgment in behalf of Defendants Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, NY, and the North Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Fremont, California, in the amount of $17,277,299.37. Whether the Defendants win or lose their appeal, due to the publicity surrounding the Candace Conti case, no longer is the church’s policy decision to conceal known molesters a secret.
http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com/jw-media.html
Misc. media coverage involving Barbara Anderson:Jehovah's Witnesses Settle Abuse Cases - Associated Press
New Evidence in Jehovah's Witnesses Allegations - MSNBCWoman Says Church Covering Up Sexual Abuse - WSMV Nashville
UNADFI - French anti-cult organization covers Barbara's 2009 European Tour
Videos
Jehovah's Witnesses child sexual abuse - NBC Nightly News
JW Abuse Settlements, WTS Knew Of Molesters - NBC (Alt)
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(Male) Nurse Ratchet and Life in Hell
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Dogpatch
Thank all of you dear friends for your kind notes. I have a pile of mail, so if you sent a card or donation it is in a pile at the moment and will take me a few days to go through, as I am still recovering from the hospital trauma. Bills are late, and I have no one to help me, but a good friend will start next week working part time with me to catch up. So if you sent a gift, you will get a thank you. Plus I now need dental work, etc., and my car’s transmission is broken. But I’m not broke.
BTW all Free Minds lost in the recent story was a $700 laptop. No one can access my bank accounts without my knowledge, even my Treasurer, who does not even have anything but viewing access to my bank account. So the financial loss was minimal, because it had been an extra gift by one dear Christian in Australia and 3 pastors. It’s just that the PROJECT was ruined and the budget of $5000 was used up too quickly. No account was ever compromised, nor was any money stolen. It’s just a shame, as we had such a great idea. Sometimes I wonder if it’s ruination was planned from below (Beth-Hell).
Life goes on, and no more AJWRB for me. I gave it back to Marvin Shilmer, God bless him for his good intentions in giving it to me in the first place. I just didn’t know it would almost kill me (and of course, neither did he).
Here is an update on my condition.
I have all my mental faculties back (except short-term memory loss from this last week), and apparently need no further medical treatment except to get back to my regular various meds for my spine, ADHD and high blood pressure. I also take strong probiotics for my colitis/Candida, (all of which the hospital immediately took away from me despite their being legal prescriptions!),
I just need to do get on a program of meditation and exercise, I think.
There appears to be no other mind or body damages except some remaining trauma.
The Danger of “Legal” Drugs
I can only take a very few pharmaceutical drugs because most are quite poisonous to my system. I developed colitis years ago from taking disgustingly large doses of antibiotics for an operation that actually destroyed all the good bacteria in my stomach. The drug the doctors prescribed for the colitis was useless (Asacol) so I spent two years doing double-blind testing on foods. I had to discover this on my own-please don’t send books or medical advice which everyone tries to do and they only make me worse. I know my body, not the doctor, nor do you. No offense.
Probiotics (high grade) are a lifesaver.
I found out I had Colitis AND Candida. I can ingest no wheat products or yeast extract, even wine or beer, without getting sick. Well-filtered and high quality Vodka or Tequila or good white champagne is drinkable (even though I don’t like most of them).
That means I have to prepare all my own foods, and can’t eat restaurant, packaged, or 99% of grocery foods. Take a walk through the aisles of your local grocery store… at soups, all packaged foods, and sauces, and you will find they all use yeast extract, which I discovered on my own (through two years of double-blind testing on all kinds of foods…eating only one type at a time and recording the results) that any yeast derivative was killing me. Actually ANYTHING fermented, even tofu.
Anything fermented beyond something like mild cheese will close up my stomach for 2-3 days. I have to drink goat’s milk. Even things like tofu and aged cheeses wipe me out if I take more than half a serving. If I prepare all my own foods and don’t eat at restaurants (or hospitals), I am asymptomatic.
If I hadn’t done this testing I surely would have ended up having some of my intestines removed, or even end up with a colostomy bag. The medical profession is useless in dealing with Candida and Crohn’s disease.
All doctors and hospitals ever do is give you drugs nowadays.
I was going to vote for Obama’s health care hospital plan, but after what I just went through I’m not voting at all. Certainly not for a wishy-washy cult member either. To me, hospital care will only become even MORE dismal, and they will only hand out drugs, like they do now. I have to pay over $1000 a month for HMO health insurance, plus $200 in prescriptions and doctor’s visits a month! I pay over twice my rent to slowly kill my body. Hey, they can FINE ME. I’m not dying due to legal drug pushers! Nor am I voting for a cult member who has no balls. The system is really screwed up.
I can only tolerate probiotics, a few select drugs, and low-grade medical herbs. I have four doctors, one MD and three specialists, all in one medical plan.
The Main Cause
1. The hospital gave me loads of Ativan via IV. This is a nasty drug. All the hospitals dispense it like candy. I am healthy disease-wise and strong and only sleep 5 hours a night and never get sick, so being confined to a hospital bed that was very uncomfortable for 3+ days was EXTREMELY hard on me. I recoiled at the thought of dying in this hell. I feel really sorry for those stuck in hospitals, mental wards or old folk’s homes… I guess some can take it, but not me. If it’s my time, let’s have an good old fashioned Irish party and a wake IN MY HOME WITH MY FRIENDS AND LAUGH AND MAKE IT AS PLEASANT AS POSSIBLE.
Hell, to me, would be DYING confined in a hospital, incapacitated, too drugged to escape, and monitored by Nurse Ratchet! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
My Special Ops Friend from WWII
I made a pact with one of my my best friend’s husband, who is 79 and feels the same way. He is Jewish, though he attends a Christian Church to make his wife happy.
He was a Secret Operative in WWII (a sniper who regularly dropped into Germany by parachute ALONE- and had to carry cyanide pills in case he was caught). We won’t let either of us die in a hospital. Invite a handful of friends over, have a party, and then go out in nature and take a pill or something. Not a pleasant thought, but at least not One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
I am an outdoors person… I live on the beach since leaving Bethel in 1980 in the same place with four other guys on three levels in an old house built in 1934 (you can tell by looking on the back of the porcelain toilet lid, if it’s the original toilet). LOL
I react badly to being confined. I cannot sit in one place for very long but have to have exercise. If I ever fly anywhere I have to fly business class if the trip is over 4-5 hours as I get claustrophobia and start panicking. That’s why I rarely fly anymore… it’s way too traumatic for me to be confined, so cramped up next to another person, sitting still like in a flexing flying coffin.
I have to be busy all the time, and have no hobbies or love interests or boyfriends or girlfriends… but LOTS of good local surfer friends. I’m a hippie from the 60s, remember? WE CAN’T TOLERATE THE ESTABLISHMENT. And we’re not into LABELS.
That’s why even though I love Christ I refuse to go to a church anymore. It’s been 14 years after retiring as a pastor for Foursquare. It’s good for others, and I love the worship, but American Evangelicals are almost intolerable to me in a group together. I think I’d rather be Catholic (minus the pope) or Greek Orthodox. (In other parts of the world, especially Germany, churches can be much better and more healing to the soul.)
I do recommend a church for those who need such things. But all most Americans seem to care about are politics and the Last Days, or theology. Even the BIBLE warns against this! Why do they even go to church?? At least it’s good for worship and companionship, both good healers.
Better find the right one! Otherwise it’s a social club.
I was raised a Baptist, and later my mom worked as a secretary for Robert Shuller, who developed the first drive-in church in the world… window speakers, passed collection plates to the cars, picking boogers out of your nose, it was comical. And later it became the ostentatious Crystal Cathedral (which is now broke).
That’s American Christianity. (But there are MANY good churches and pastors out there, you just have to find them.) I know quite a few good pastors all over the world.
Rebellion Against the Establishment
I quit church at 13, because I couldn’t stand it anymore. But I loved Jesus, as all of us Jesus Freaks did in the 60s. But we didn’t carry around Bibles and believe in the Greek hell or the powerful devil nonsense, or even the Garden of Eden. Not even interesting!
Just Jesus.
Besides, I studied paleontology since I was six, and loved the grand story of the world and its changes over millions of years. The greatest thing that happened to me was in 1993 when I stopped trying to piece it all together. Thus ended years of insecurity. Back to Jesus only.
But it wasn’t an intellectual thing. I was baptized at a Billy Graham Crusade when I was 9, on my own, and I have always felt his presence since. Just can’t put in into words, and it took me many years to learn that lesson. It is an experiential thing… but it happened at Pentecost to about 5000, and it happened in the 60s to the Hippies. We just can’t explain it, but we all feel the same power and grace.
Church is Usually a Business
Church is a business… when I left Bethel I spoke in hundreds of them. I was a Foursquare pastor for many years – even had a small church for 3 years here in Manhattan Beach made up mostly of former JWs. Hope Chapel was a seeding church – sending out pastors all the time – it was great. But in many churches most people were only concerned about “The Last Days”, and I had had quite enough of that in the Watchtower. I never believed in 1975 or their concept of the “anointed” or any of that crap… I just kept my mouth shut.
I had left the Christian churches because all people wanted to do was write books about Revelation (a la Hal Lindsey) and the Rapture. NOTHING about true giving and worship. It has gotten a little better since Calvary Chapel and Chuck Smith, Vineyard Fellowship, Harvest, and other denominations. (Thank God).
Back to Nurse Ratchet and my Hospitalization
2. I was treated horribly in the hospital - this was the REALLY BIG problem. I wasn't physically bad off once the poisonous-to-me leg-cramp drug that my doctor prescribed wore off, but by that time I was kept heavily drugged in the Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, Calif. and could not think clear enough to figure out what to do. So I had to suffer their virtual total lack of proper care.
3. Plus, none of my friends or roommates knew exactly what had happened, and although a former roommate took me to the hospital at my request (I was losing consciousness after by riding a bicycle in the afternoon and my leg had suddenly cramped up in an intersection 200 feet from my house in the middle of the street and I fell over, (the third time since starting the drug weeks earlier) and was hit lightly by a car and they sped off. (I can’t remember the drug’s name as I later threw it away lest I accidentally take it again.)
The Slow Process of Losing It
I had no personal visits from any friends to help me out for two days. It was as if I was in another country 10 miles from home and locked in a room with a tormenting male nurse. My roommates didn’t bother to even visit.
I was offered no help at all by the male nurse to find the phone numbers of my friends that were in my wallet who WOULD help me. The sicko dude would not even answer my requests for help in calling someone I knew by just typing in the phone numbers, but only informed me erroneously HOW to do it myself! In fact, other than that he never even bothered to talk to me or give me any help, let alone even LOOK at me! And although I could easily walk, I was not allowed out of the room for three days. Wasn’t allowed to bathe. Didn’t eat a bite for 3 days, which was good as I would have soiled my jeans and probably forced to wear them! I was in absolute hell. After a day and a half with no answer as to when I would get out, I began to panic big time. By the third day when three of my closest friends found me and came to visit, I was about 2 seconds away from suicide… something I have never contemplated in my life.
I love life… but because I was panicking hard after 2 days of being confined to a very uncomfortable bed, I overheard them talking about putting me in with the bipolars, and I panicked even more. I saw no way out. The entire 3 ½ days I never ate once and no matter how much Ativan they gave me I was up in 2 hours and they bitched at me to go back to bed! If I could even have walked around the outside room (I could walk fine) it would have alleviated a lot of the stress, but I wasn’t allowed out once (had a bathroom in my room) and my blood pressure remained over 200 the entire 3 ½ days. I’m amazed I didn’t die from a blood aneurism in my head or something. Even more drugs didn’t bring it down. I was coming apart inside. I wasn’t even praying… I felt God had no use for me any more.
I just wanted OUT. I had images of dying in this place.
My vision was so blurry even with my glasses due to the Ativan that I couldn’t read any of the emergency and friend’s phone numbers that were in my wallet. I cannot afford a cell phone that gets reception (I live in a bad signal spot just over a hill on the beach and only Verizon cell phones will work there, which are too expensive for me. (I only have a land line and a cheap emergency cell phone from Virgin mobile ($30 for 3 months) which will only work a half mile away from my house, so I had none that I could just dial out on and call my friends for help. At home I can only use a land line.
I was also way too drugged on Ativan to remember all the important friend’s phone numbers. And here the male nurse refused to even dial the numbers written in my wallet for me. In fact although he was required to stay next to me in the room at all times, he never responded to any appeals and refused to read and dial out to the blurry-to-me phone numbers in my wallet! He probably also stole my prescription drugs. I was alone, in a panic after a day, and although not causing them a single problem incident or anger towards them (bad idea anyway), I wasn’t allowed to leave my room, was tethered the entire time to an IV plus a whole bunch of tubes that were continually coming undone and setting off alarms all day and night… just if I rolled over in my bed.
I couldn't focus well enough even with my glasses to read my closest friends' phone numbers so as to call them and ask to please come down and visit me so I could get the right help, and the nurse, a total As%^&*, mostly wouldn't even respond to my questions on how to dial outside the hospital to the numbers I knew, and I couldn't get the attention of the other workers at Little Company of Mary in Torrance so as to how to get an outside line. This first orderly, who had to stay in my room 24/7, not only would not respond to any requests for help with the phone or several other matters, but generally would never once even LOOK at me.
It was like being in hell.
Within 24 hours of this I was becoming a mental basket case and started agonizing and went into severe mental trauma. I had no one to help me or appeal to for 2 days, and by that time I was beginning to lose it. Yet I never raised my voice or caused trouble. I was never strapped down... but ended up getting wrapped up in the IV and detector tubing (like 8 tubes) just by turning over in the bed, and the nurses who responded to all this modern equipment They gave me all the wrong drugs, kept me wrapped up in tubes, I could not leave the room except to use the bathroom, and the bed was horrible. They couldn’t even figure out the modern equipment they had! So the 20 different alarms went off all night long. My friend brought over the meds I normally take for my various ailments and they took them away and gave me other drugs that are practically poisonous to me.
I have almost completely purged them from my system and cleansed my body now. I have candida with colitis so I could not eat any of their food for 3 days and they kept me so drugged up I couldn't think clear enough to tell them I cannot tolerate ativan or wheat/yeast products. I had not been drinking either. My main physician
I am doing much better after the horrible hospital incident. THEY almost killed me. I only ended up with a bruise and $2500 worth of tooth repair now facing me.
Think TWICE before you go into a hospital in Los Angeles/Compton/Inglewood area.
Randy
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40
My Near Death Experience
by Dogpatch inhi y'all, just wanted to let you know i was out for a stroll on my bicycle for exercise last week and got hit by a car 100 yards from my house.
it was a hit and run.
i got up with only minor bruises but felt really dizzy and asked one of my roommates to take me to the hospital as i was dizzy and felt i was going to pass out on the spot in the middle of the street.
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Dogpatch
Thanks y'all from this old okie!
Now that I am getting my energy back, I am ready for the fight of my life, and I am no longer afraid of being taken down. Read my new article on the front page of Free Minds today and on this site put up this AM. And by the way, I am doing much better after getting all the hospital drugs, IVs and bad treatment which brought me very close to death.
Randy Watters
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My Near Death Experience
by Dogpatch inhi y'all, just wanted to let you know i was out for a stroll on my bicycle for exercise last week and got hit by a car 100 yards from my house.
it was a hit and run.
i got up with only minor bruises but felt really dizzy and asked one of my roommates to take me to the hospital as i was dizzy and felt i was going to pass out on the spot in the middle of the street.
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Dogpatch
Thank you my dear friends and I VERY MUCH appreciate all your thoughts and prayers. I am almost back to normal physically, though very shaken and mentally fragile from this whole experience. My thoughts are clear as day now, I just have to avoid stress. I am apparently not permanently damaged or have to receive any more special treatment. I will be writing more shortly. I will send out thank you cards shortly to those who have been concerned. I AM NOT requesting money. But I like get well cards. :-)) THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH, I love you!!
It appears I may still be receiving harassment from a certain person (I screen all my calls now so if you want to call, just leave a message.)
As for the person who I had to quit using as a 1099 worker, I will share a little.
(1) NO MONEY HAS EVER BEEN STOLEN FROM THE FREE MINDS ACCOUNT. I can deal with the petty theft of a $700 laptop, but not with the horrible, evil harassment of a person who reached the end of his budget because he could not even manage his own affairs and did virtually no work in the end, though helping with a few odd jobs as at 60 I am entirely overworked. I was training him with a limited time budget to help him get back on his feet, so spent many long hours teaching him how to do web work. My goal was in the end to teach him to be self-sufficient as webmaster of AJWRB.ORG, then divorce myself from the AJWRB site, which was too much work for me with no returns. But I could teach HIM how to raise funds and get his life together. He was a former Bethel Farm worker (was there for about 6 years I think) and lost his 6-year job as a schoolteacher for some infraction.
FYI: No one who has ever stolen money from Free Minds Inc. or has had access to my account... simply because I never gave out spendable access to such to ANYONE. My bank, Wells Fargo in Manhattan Beach, can attest to that. Even my Treasurer cannot have but limited viewing access to it for paperwork purposes. I have never had any problem with Paypal and never keep over $200 in that account, for misc. purposes to co-workers through a debit card... but they canot access even my Paypal account, and can only spend a max of $200 for necessary expenses. I am very tight with money, and yet my W-2 income is 24k a year. I have to sdhare a house with 4 other guys, as I cannot aford to live on my own anywhere in L.A. I have lived in the same place with a good landlord since 1980 on the beach with a rent of $700 a month, and medical insurance that just went over $1000 due to turning 60.Rather than going to court over a stolen $700 laptop, I decided for my peace of mind and not having to deal with a dangerous person in "nice" disguise, to drop any attempt to recover it. But he did not steal any monies from me or Free Minds... he was on a time-limited $5000 budget to do a job as a 1099 worker.
But when he overran that budget and would not do the work promised, I told him that he is on his own. The computer did not have any sensitive information that was accessible to my accounts. He DID have a dozen emails to send out in a newsletter for my AJWRB.ORG domain (now given back to Marvin Shilmer after his graciously giving it to me).
Some have apparently expressed concern over donating to Free Minds. If you are concerned about giving to Free Minds, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization with an immaculate record you can call and leave a message and if I am home I will pick it up if I know who you are. My number is 310-545-7831. Since the person is ignoring my attorney and still trying to call and harass me, I screen all my calls unless I see in caller ID weho it is and I know them.
My attorney ordered the part-time employee to cease and desist. His response was to rudely insult the attorney. Even my attorney was shocked at his responses which were made in complete contempt. His response is (being financially broke) that "I have nothing to lose (he was unemployed and could not pay his bills so suing me will get you nothing," and made all kinds of ridiculous counter-threats, extreme insults and taunts which are still on my answering machine as I did not pick up the phone. He even thumbed his nose at my attorney (Jeffrey Hersh at http://hershlaw.net/). I decided to just have a "cease and desist" order issued and accept the financial loss, none of which monies were from my regular contributors. If it wasn't for the large cobntribution of one man and three pastors in Australia, I would not have embarked on the project. The monies from my regular contributors were not touched for any of this AJWRB project (I could not afford it as I am on an extremely tight budget, so no one's contributions were misused. My usual funds are still safe and sound in my bank, wehich are needed to run the everyday affairs of Free Minds, Inc.
He did not "steal" and money or have any access whatsoever to my bank account. Even my Treasurer, Lance G. (former Gilead student and just graduated from non-profit and business school, and a blogger at Free Minds and many of you know him personally) only has read-only access to the Free Minds account. I am not a fool so as to allow loopholes for anyone to steal my funds. Hey, I have been doing this for 30 years, and was a pastor of a Foursquare Church (Hope Chapel West Manhattan Beach) for many years - I know how to protect assets!
Also for the record no one has ever had access to my bank accounts, they have never been compromised in 32 years, nor has my Paypal account, so all of the funds donated to Free Minds are and always have been safe. At no time has anyone else in 30 years had access to my Free Minds accounts but me. My dad taught me how to be smart enough to protect my assets, as did church-planting, which I did without taking a penny of a salary.
A special project was budgeted out of the blue for a special purpose, and I hired a 1099 worker who turned out to be a thief. But Paypal has a great way to prevent someone else from breaking into your account. It is a limited debit card system where you put a limit on how much can be spent. It was monitored almost daily and I budgeted $5000 (donated by one person overseas for this special project. ) He never had access to that account, and if he tried to spend over a couple hundred dollars a day, the tranaction was denied (and was severasl times because I only keep about $200 in my Paypal account (which has NEVER been "broken into" since I began the account in 1981 or 1982, when I began Bethel Ministries, later becoming Free Minds.) I kept a daily eye on the Paypal account and it never had over about $200 in it, as I transfer all funds to my bank immediately. My banking records and safely has been impeccable. Even Lance G., my Treasurer who is a former Bethelite and posts on this Board as "Awakened at Gilead" has viewing only access to the Free Minds account to keep bookwork, but even Lance, despite being on ther Board of Directors of Free Minds, Inc., cannot transfer, take or otherwise even pay bills or transfer monies. He can only view my balance sheet.
Lance is a great guy who is aso a blogger at Free Minds. He recent graduated from finances and non-profit school and was and is perfect for being my secretary, needed by a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization. I have a perfect record for over 20-30 years with bookkeeping, maintaining tight control of Free Minds' funds, etc. If you look on the front page of freeminds.org currently, in the right column you will find links to legal government documents like forms 990-199 "Great Non-Profits" and our financial records, including non-profit reports for the last three years. My only problem recently was recently being a little late in reporting and having to file for extensions in reporting due to my work overload, but these are all up to date now.
Although the Free Minds laptop purchased for website work was stolen, I had no desire to deal with a dangerous person in "nice" disguise, and to to drop any attempt to recover it. But he did not steal any monies from me or Free Minds... he was on a $5000 budget to do a job as a 1099 worker. He is simply a dangerous, untrustworthy person. I did not attempt to recover the laptop as I knew it would be ruined or bugged or broken or whatever. The computer did not have any sensitive information that was accessible to my accounts. He DID have a dozen emails to send out a newsletter for my newly-donated AJWRB domain (now given back to Marvin Shilmer after his gaciously giving it to me.) Marvin and the others have reassembled AJWRB the way it was, eliminating all traces of access or writings of this person.
No one who has ever contributed to Free Minds Inc. has ever stolen money from and of my account... simply because I never gave out access to such to ANYONE. My bank, Wells Fargo in Manhattan Beach, can attest to that. So rather than going to court over a stolen $700 laptop, I decided for my peace of mind and not having to deal with a grifter in "nice" disguise, to drop any attempt to recover it as I knew it would be ruined or bugged or broken or whatever. The computer did not have any sesitive information that was accessible to my accounts.
Paypal has never caused me any problem in years.
Since this person was only a hired 1099 worker, I can (and did with Paul Morrison and "V") issue debit cards with small limited amounts of withdrawals (but no actual access to my Paypal account (Hey, I'm not stupid.) . Despite his efforts to withdraw more often, it was refused because I will never keep over $200 in that account before transferring it to my main bank account. No one except my Treasurer has ever had access to my Free Minds funds but me. My Treasurer, known on this board as Lance Goller, a great person, has viewing- only rights. In 30 years no one has ever been able to take anything out of my bank account but me, and will continue as such. I know business quite well and am not so stupid as to give anyone full access. In 31 years I have never lost a dime. So no money was stolen, only the laptop. Petty theft.
I am going to have to edit this and repost it and add things as a separate thread shortly, as I have to do a couple of errands.
Thank you all,
Randall Watters
310-545-7831
PS I am well enough to answer calls, but expect some delays if I don't respond immediately as my work load getting out of the hospital is tremendous. You must identify yourself as I will be screening my calls, as it appears I am still being harassed. Or you can email me at [email protected] if it is important. All email responses will be slightly delayed, as will be my thank-you cards.
None of this is a request for money... but my 30-year reputation and peace of mind are at stake, so I am careful.
I love cards from my friends so you can write me at:
Randall Watters
FreeMinds, Inc.
PO Box 3818
Manhattan Beach CA 90266.
Thanks!
I will repost and and to this later as I have to go for now.
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40
My Near Death Experience
by Dogpatch inhi y'all, just wanted to let you know i was out for a stroll on my bicycle for exercise last week and got hit by a car 100 yards from my house.
it was a hit and run.
i got up with only minor bruises but felt really dizzy and asked one of my roommates to take me to the hospital as i was dizzy and felt i was going to pass out on the spot in the middle of the street.
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Dogpatch
The greater damage was done by the freeloader in the end.
Randy
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Megan and Candace Casualties of Known Molesters
by Dogpatch inmegan and candace casualties of known molestershttp://www.freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3367:megan-and-candace-casualties-of-known-molesters&catid=70:musings-of-barbara-anderson&itemid=592 written by barbara anderson sunday, 14 october 2012 20:40 .
in most child sexual abuse cases the abuser is someone the child knows and trusts relatives, neighbors, coaches, teachers, ministers.
and, incredibly, in too many of these cases, the abuse was preventable because the abuser was known by others to have molested before, but that fact was not known to those who could have protected the child.. in 1994, both megan and candace were sexually abused and megan died at the hands of convicted pedophile, jesse timmendequas, who was a known child molester.
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Megan and Candace Casualties of Known Molesters
by Dogpatch inmegan and candace casualties of known molestershttp://www.freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3367:megan-and-candace-casualties-of-known-molesters&catid=70:musings-of-barbara-anderson&itemid=592 written by barbara anderson sunday, 14 october 2012 20:40 .
in most child sexual abuse cases the abuser is someone the child knows and trusts relatives, neighbors, coaches, teachers, ministers.
and, incredibly, in too many of these cases, the abuse was preventable because the abuser was known by others to have molested before, but that fact was not known to those who could have protected the child.. in 1994, both megan and candace were sexually abused and megan died at the hands of convicted pedophile, jesse timmendequas, who was a known child molester.
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Dogpatch
Megan and Candace – Casualties of Known Molesters
http://www.freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3367:megan-and-candace-casualties-of-known-molesters&catid=70:musings-of-barbara-anderson&Itemid=592Written by Barbara Anderson Sunday, 14 October 2012 20:40 In most child sexual abuse cases the abuser is someone the child knows and trusts – relatives, neighbors, coaches, teachers, ministers. And, incredibly, in too many of these cases, the abuse was preventable because the abuser was known by others to have molested before, but that fact was not known to those who could have protected the child.
In 1994, both Megan and Candace were sexually abused and Megan died at the hands of convicted pedophile, Jesse Timmendequas, who was “a known child molester.” Law enforcement knew he was a molester, but no one told seven-year-old Megan Kanka’s parents there were three convicted sex offenders living across the street from them.
1994 – Megan’s Law
Due to public outcry, one month after Megan’s rape and murder on July 29, the New Jersey legislature passed Megan's Law requiring registration and public notification of sex offenders that became federal law in 1996, and all states have passed some form of the law.
One federally funded study in 2009 determined that Megan’s law had no effect on sexual re-offenses. When informed of the study, Mrs. Kanka remarked that the purpose of the law was for parents to know where the offenders were living. “We never said it was going to stop them from reoffending.”
Jake Goldenflame, a convicted sex offender, supports the law. "Megan's Law is not there to keep me from re-offending,” he said. Megan's Law is there so that you can keep me from re-offending by knowing who I am, keeping your eyes on me."
1994 - Watchtower informed of Megan’s Law
Shortly after learning about the New Jersey legislature passing Megan’s Law in 1994, I informed two officials of the law’s passage at the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in Brooklyn, NY, the business arm that guides the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Two years previously I had been a volunteer worker at the Watchtower’s huge complex in Brooklyn, NY for nearly eleven years. For four of those years I was a staff member in their Writing Department where I did research.
After leaving the Writing Department at the end of 1992, I continued to help the department from my home in Tennessee by accepting research assignments. My interest in Megan’s Law had to do with my knowledge of an increase in reports of allegations of child abuse among Jehovah’s Witnesses which were being reported to the Watchtower.
In the fall of 1991, while working in the Writing Department, I learned there were men appointed by the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses to serve as elders or assistants to elders who had been accused of molestation or were confessed molesters. Also, there were men remaining in their positions of responsibility after they confessed to a fellow elder of molesting a child at least two or three years previously. Inasmuch as these men claimed repentance and were observed to have engaged in “godly acts befitting of repentance” for a number of years, they were appointed to, or continued to serve in, leadership positions. Their past remained a secret.
A 1989 policy letter from Watchtower to all elders stated that certain matters, including child abuse, were to be kept confidential to avoid lawsuits and financial penalties. In this way, pedophiles were protected from exposure and went on to molest other children. The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, through this policy, had made a determination that its own needs would be placed above protection of children and showed an indifference to children who were placed at risk by the presence of known sexual abusers within the congregations and the secrecy that surrounded it.
In every case, members in Witness congregations where these men served were never informed that a known molester was in their midst. The consequences of such secrecy were more and more complaints of sexual abuse committed by men in oversight positions coming into the Watchtower’s Service Department. Owing to all of this, a number of us in the Writing Department were determined to see that protection of children was paramount, not protection of an organization.
In 1997, the Watchtower developed what I call a “known molester policy.” Some thought it was Watchtower’s child sexual abuse policy, but it didn’t protect kids, just the opposite, in that, before appointment, if a remorseful, repentant man wasn’t perceived (or known) by the community and the congregation to be a “former” child molester, he could be considered for a
position of trust.
Back in 1994, it was the requirement of Megan’s Law for “community notification” when sex offenders moved into an area which caused me to call the Writing Department. I pointed out that elder notification to the flock of a possible or convicted sex offender who was hiding in plain sight in the congregation due to the Watchtower’s confidentiality policy was the way to go.
Required notification of such an individual would be the best way to protect Jehovah’s Witnesses children from a monster in the room which no one knew about, someone they called “brother” or “sister.” I was emphatic that unless the confidentiality policy was replaced with a notification policy, one of these days, huge lawsuits and scandal would rock the very foundations of the Watchtower and could destroy it.1994 - Candace Conti’s molestation
Unknown to me, nine-year-old Candace Conti, began to be molested in 1994, the abuse continuing for two years. Her molester, Jonathan Kendrick, was a known child molester because he had been convicted by the authorities for the sexual abuse of another child two years earlier.
Kendrick’s sex offender record was also known by the elders of the Fremont California Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but they did nothing to protect the congregation’s children, including young Candace because they kept what they knew about him secret.They did remove Kendrick from his unpaid assistant-minister’s position but no one in the congregation knew why. Here then was an example of elders following the church’s national policy to keep sex abuse allegations secret. It was this silence that allowed Kendrick to abuse Candace. Because of the policy of secrecy that the church followed, information was withheld from the very people who could have prevented the abuse of Candace, and why her parents didn’t know their friend and fellow congregant, Jonathan Kendrick, was a sexual predator.
Candace Conti sues the Watchtower and elders
In 2011, Ms. Conti, then 25, sued the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York for keeping reports of child sex abusers within Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations secret.
It was during the Conti trial in June 2012 that a 1989 Watchtower policy letter to elders was introduced. That letter was a major factor in determining the outcome of the trial because it stated that certain matters, including child abuse, were to be kept confidential to avoid lawsuits and financial penalties.Also sued were three elders in the Fremont Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Loyalty to a religious organization kept the elders from doing the right thing. In their defense these men claimed they did their duty towards Candace by “keeping an eye on Kendrick.” Unlike Jake Goldenflame, the convicted sex offender, who said Megan’s Law was there so people could keep an eye on him, Fremont elders did not inform parents so they could protect their children by keeping an eye on Kendrick.
On June 14th, Day 10 of the trial, the day after the jury awarded Ms. Conti compensatory damages of $7M and was about to decide on punitive damages, Robert Schnack, Defendants attorney, stated in his closing arguments to the jury:
“I sincerely believe that Watchtower does not need to be punished by another monetary award. Why is that? Ms. Conti said she wanted to change policies. That’s why she brought this suit. And we feel bad for Ms. Conti. But I can assure you, and I can assure her, that Watchtower’s policies continue to evolve. And I can safely say that, with her verdict yesterday, Ms. Conti has succeeded. I encourage you to award no punitive damages in this case.”
The jury thought otherwise and awarded Ms. Conti $21M in punitive damages. The Watchtower wasn’t found guilty of failing to report molestation. They were guilty of negligence, malice, and child endangerment. It’s obvious from the damage awards that Watchtower policies did not evolve to the degree needed to protect children and more was required.
New rules in October 1, 2012 elders’ letter
Have Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders gotten the message that parents should be told if a confessed or accused child molester is worshipping with them? Well, yes, but only if the Witnesses branch office determines the individual is a “predator.”
According to a new letter to the elders, dated October 1, 2012, which updates all previous letters regarding child abuse, if the elders think a person who has been known to have sexually abused a child, although seemingly cleaned up his/her life, is a “predator,” the elders must call the Witnesses branch office. If the branch office determines that an individual is to be considered a predator, then two elders are assigned to meet with the parents of minor children in order to provide a warning. Also, the “predator” should be told that parents have been discreetly informed. So, for the most part, the secrecy still remains. In Candace Conti’s case, her molester would never have fit the profile of “predator”; hence, her parents would not have been warned.
Another point Defendants’ Attorney Robert Schnack made in closing arguments:
“One thing I would ask you to keep in mind. The Jehovah's Witnesses Church is not the Catholic Church, that it has had verdict after verdict after verdict over the years. It's been in the press. We are all aware of it. This is the first verdict that the Jehovah's Witnesses church has faced. So, again, it is not the Catholic Church with multitudes of cases over a couple of decades.“We were on the phone to managing directors of Watchtower and to the elders in the Service Department. And I can tell you they are stunned by the verdict. Again, I mentioned, it is the first one.”
Yes, the Conti case was “the first verdict that the Jehovah’s Witnesses church has faced” because Watchtower leaders have been secretly settling out-of-court child sexual abuse cases for years. For example, in 2007 there were secret out-of-court settlements with sixteen victims in nine separate cases of child sexual molestation. And, as recently as May 2012, in San Diego, California, there was a secret out-of-court settlement of a case involving six victims of a Witness serial molester - an elder! As is the case with many blameworthy Defendants, when Watchtower leaders settled these cases out-of-court, they acknowledged liability but not responsibility.No more secrets
However, in the Conti case, this religious body refuses to acknowledge responsibility or liability that the church was to blame for Candace’s molestation because on September 21, 2012, a Bond/Undertaking was posted for an appeal of judgment in behalf of Defendants Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, NY, and the North Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Fremont, California, in the amount of $17,277,299.37. Whether the Defendants win or lose their appeal, due to the publicity surrounding the Candace Conti case, no longer is the church’s policy decision to conceal known molesters a secret.
Misc. media coverage involving Barbara Anderson:
http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com/jw-media.html
Jehovah's Witnesses Settle Abuse Cases - Associated Press
New Evidence in Jehovah's Witnesses Allegations - MSNBCWoman Says Church Covering Up Sexual Abuse - WSMV Nashville
Child sex-abuse activist Anderson interviewed on national TV show on church allegations - Tullahoma News and Guardian
UNADFI - French anti-cult organization covers Barbara's 2009 European Tour
Videos
Jehovah's Witnesses child sexual abuse- NBC Nightly News
JW Abuse Settlements, WTS Knew Of Molesters - NBC (Alt)
Church Covers Sexual Abuse - WSMV Nashville
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