Posts by Aussie Oz

23

Australia formally charges former JW elder

by Honesty in

former jehovah's elder on sex assault charge .

a former jehovah's witness elder who apologised to his alleged victim on facebook has been charged with two counts of indecent assault.

richard hill will appear in the heidelberg magistrate's court on march 1 over allegations that he sexually assaulted a six-year-old girl in 1981.. the victim, now 38, told fairfax media that mr hill did everything except penetrate her - ''he tried, but couldn't manage''.. she said she ''did not realise the gravity'' of what had happened until she was about 14.. at that point she told her mother, who could not act because of a jehovah's witness rule that allegations of sexual abuse would only be acted on if two elders witnessed it, she said.. much later, the victim confronted mr hill on facebook.

Aussie Oz

Oh, and good timing in Victoria eh?

oz

23

Australia formally charges former JW elder

by Honesty in

former jehovah's elder on sex assault charge .

a former jehovah's witness elder who apologised to his alleged victim on facebook has been charged with two counts of indecent assault.

richard hill will appear in the heidelberg magistrate's court on march 1 over allegations that he sexually assaulted a six-year-old girl in 1981.. the victim, now 38, told fairfax media that mr hill did everything except penetrate her - ''he tried, but couldn't manage''.. she said she ''did not realise the gravity'' of what had happened until she was about 14.. at that point she told her mother, who could not act because of a jehovah's witness rule that allegations of sexual abuse would only be acted on if two elders witnessed it, she said.. much later, the victim confronted mr hill on facebook.

Aussie Oz

Ans this may well be pertinant...

km10/72p.8QuestionBoxBox Whatismeantby"someyearsago"onpage170,paragraphtwo,inthe"Organization"book?

Question

?

This indicates more than a year or two. It may be noted that it did not say "many years ago." So it is not an exact number of years, but more like two or three years. It was not intended to have a brother go back into the distant past to bring up wrongs of which he repented years ago and that have evidently been forgiven by Jehovah and are not being practiced now. In many cases the wrongs occurred prior to the time when the "Watchtower" drew attention to what the Scriptures say on such misconduct.

If a brother has been serving faithfully for some years and has seen evidence of Jehovah?s blessings upon him, why should he now step down from office? If he has the right viewpoint now on conduct and will give good counsel he should be able to continue to serve. If the local body of elders see that he has the respect of the congregation and has shown the proper qualifications over the last two or three years, he may remain in his position of service.

Must wrongdoing be brought to public attention after many years? The book (page 168) under "Public Reproof" quotes 1 Timothy 5:20 and mentions reproof of those who confess to committing more than one offense. But it really has to do with recent events. The "Interlinear" refers to those "sinning," something going on at the time. So if repentance occurred some years ago, three years ago or more, and sinning ceased, and he is respected by the congregation, it is not necessary now to publicly reprove one who committed more than one offense "some years ago."

So he gets to abuse a girl, either repent or say nothing...'Holy spirit' has him become an elder. shit hits fan 32 years later, steps down...If he and the elder body are so damn sure of holy spirit they should keep him on then

Oz

43

Interesting Comment From an Active Elder

by DarioKehl in

i was recently speaking to an elder "off the record" while helping him do some house repairs.

i have a comfortable enough relationship to speak openly with him about things, but am careful to disclose the extent of my disbelief in wt doctrine.

anyway, this guy wouldn't last a day in the mafia because he can't keep anything confidential.

Aussie Oz

careful

he might be fishing you

oz

86

My wife just told me to move out...

by nolongerconfused in

because of "religious" differences, she now wants me to move out and "separate"...i said what biblical grounds does she have for her request?.

she couldnt respond...she said she'd rather be beaten up by me than have an "apostate" in the house.... this org definitely encourages conditional love.... i don't know what to do...by the way, we dont have children.

.

Aussie Oz

Zip the lip about TTABTT and inform her that she has no grounds to scripturly move out. even less so if you do not hinder her JW activity in anyway.

oz

79

I Got disfellowshiped..wana die!

by Chichi89 in

jw
friends

i jus got dissfellowshiped at th last week..i feel like dying..i attended th meetings yesterday and ita ws jus horrible..came back home in tears....... people i used to cal my friends nw cant look me in the eye..so heartbroken confused and giving up on life !.

Aussie Oz

You will be more welcome here than you ever will be in a kingdom hall.

here, it does not matter what you do in life nor what you believe

there, they only 'love' you when you do and think exactly what you are told.

Yes you are heartbroken but you will mend, do not die. If you had 'worldly' friends before, you can get more. Let me tell you a liitle about my life. I was disfellowshipped, i lost my wife, rarely saw my children and every friend i ever had made in 30 years. I had to start again with not one single person who was a friend. I went out and found true friends. It did not happen overnight, it took quite a while. I never went back to a kingdom hall again.

You must get it out of your head that you are a sinner. Sin is an outdated notion used by religion to control peoples minds and actions, you are 'normal' and desire normal things, such as the relationship with your Boyfriend.

You will note almost no support here for going back to the Jehovahs Witnesses, pretty much all on here have seen the Watchtower society for what they are.

You should use this time to learn about the real watchtower...

Oz

26

Victoria, Australia, Newspaper article: Child in Jehovah's Witness Court Bid

by AndersonsInfo in

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/child-in-jehovahs-witness-court-bid-20130217-2elcg.htmlchild in jehovah's witness court bid.

february 18, 2013barney zwartza traralgon child has clubbed his pocket money together with three others, paying $69.70 to launch a private criminal prosecution against the jehovah's witnesses.. the child, 11, who is due to give evidence on monday at the state inquiry into how the churches handled child sex abuse, wanted to force the church to comply with working with children laws.

after four hearings, to which church leaders did not send a representative, the church began complying and the office of public prosecutions intervened to discontinue the case.. the inquiry will also hear from anti-jehovah's witness campaigner steven unthank, a former member of the church who says he and his family were ostracised and persecuted after he tried to tackle child abuse.. his submission alleges the church and its incorporated body, the watchtower society, covered up criminal child abuse, including rape, sexual assault, death threats, blackmail and assault, across four states by ordained ministers and officers of the church.. advertisementthe victorian and civil administrative tribunal will hear a religious vilification complaint against the church by mr unthank in may, after the church said people who left the church, as he had, were ''mentally diseased''.. and the victorian health services commissioner is investigating a complaint by another former gippsland church member that a jehovah's witness chaplain was found alone without permission with a naked toddler in a room at latrobe regional hospital.. the child appearing today, who cannot be named, has asked the inquiry to determine whether the church's failure to get working with children checks between july 2008 and december 2011 amounted to criminal child abuse of all 6160 jehovah's witness children in victoria.. he asks why the government and police let the church ''get away with'' non-compliance, and whether the state will help file a class action against the church.. the submission suggests the 2000 jehovah's witnesses who worked with children were committing criminal offences each week.

Aussie Oz

sigh...i used to like Vincent, now I just see a toole.

interesting way of getting the media attention: CHILDREN taking class action.

very intersting, and i hope the forum is not smothered by 'please explains' by people who dont get how australia's legal system is different to theirs...just keep your eye on it.

Oz

24

Did you ever do something so stupid you could have died?

by NewYork44M in

my experience, and shame on me.

in a snowstorm in pa on a highway, i ran out of gas.. this was one of many mistakes for the evening.

the general rule is that a person should stay in the car and wait for help.

Aussie Oz

Several times, the most memorable was of course the last one.. I had just visited my son at his caravan park and drove off to come home. The narrow bitumen road crosses one of the busiest roads in the area, nothing but a stop sign. i knew this road well, had used it for years every day, drove up and doen the smaller road many times...

and you might guess what happens next...

Yes, at dusk, daydreaming after seeing the lad, doing about 80kph i went straight accross that main road and never felt even a bump from one road surface to the next. What i do remember was the flash of red tail lights wizzing by in my rear veiw mirror.

It then dawned on me what i had just done. I had crossed the main south road, in peak hour going home traffic that does 110kph and gone inbetween all the vehicles like in some super corregraphed hollywood movie. It did a U turn and was almost physically sick, almost vomited at the what could have been.

I crawled up to the intersection and watched the semi trailers, cars and motorbikes fly by, i had to waith several minutes for a gap long enough to pull out into. That was the closest i think i have ever been i must say. And it chilled me to the bone to think of all the families that would have lost loved ones had i even clipped so much as one vehicle in my stupidity.

Oz

14

Your day(s) off: rest and relaxation or catching up?

by compound complex in

jw
friends

some of my friends are weekend warriors, so to speak.

days off are not always the weekend.. do you get to chill out?

coco is semi-retired but always tired .

Aussie Oz

Thats a tough one. being self employed i am never really 'off'. if orders demand production, i must work. I do the lot from the website to orders to set up, production, packing, despatch, the books, the taxes, everything, a one man show.

And i thought my new occupation was going to allow me to be semi retired (work 24 to 30 hr per week) too.

I pretend that i take time off to do other things but it happens less often then i desire. I try to get a day a week to build my hotrod but alas, work comes before play. So here it is a saturday, and after a crappy week of poor production due to an injury that i had to soldier through with, i find the day off to play went bye bye and so has my weekend. Today was spent getting work ready for monday, sunday will be spent finishing off last weeks orders and then it'll be back into a full week again. Say hello 14 day working week.

I'm pretty hard on myself about not wasting time. sure i can shut the door anytime i want and go watch a movie, but i dont. I can have long coffee breaks but i just bring it to the workshop and fill it with sawdust...

When I do get to relax its back in the shed anyway to fabricate, weld, grind and bang away on the project vehicle. It was harder when my whole week was spent doing vehicle restoration to then go 'oh goody a day off...think i will go work on a car for fun now'... At least now that is different!

I dont do 'relax' anymore i am afraid. I have become incapable of rest other than when i sleep. And that ok if you have bucket loads of energy to burn, but i dont. most of the time i am pooped before 10am.

Went camping with my family and dad for 10 days and just was miserable for the first 4 because i just couldnt get into this whole 'relax' and 'do nothing' mode! Seems like a big waste of time...you know, there are things i have to do, not want, but have to do. And there i am supposed to sit for hours and try and catch a fish?

I cant stop, its a curse. here it is after 6pm, i'm the office inbetween tasks and well, i just keep looking for things to do next because sitting inside infront of a TV set is dumb...

sorry for my rant CoCo! I sound like I am miserable! I'm not...i just dont do this relax thingy very well anymore.

I wish i could chill, maybe if my competion buys me out for a million bucks. Nah, i'll just go do something else! LOL

sometimes working for someone else and punching the clock has a lot of advantages...

Oz

11

Double Standard re: Baptism

by lostinnj83 in

i was speaking to my mother earlier this week, and she was mentioning about someone in her hall that was in the hospital.

this person was never mentally "present" even prior to getting baptized.

my mom said out of the blue "why would they allow someone who is mentally incoherent to make such a serious commitment as baptism?".

Aussie Oz

yes it is rediculous

if you presented a 'bible study' to the elders for baptism, and that person although an adult was mentally 12 they would put a stop to it (I HOPE)

oz

34

Is the grass greener on the other side?

by What Now? in

hi all.... so my mom phoned me up this morning and said she needed to talk to me about something.

she asked me whether or not our (worldly) family thought that my husband and i were witnesses anymore.

one, someone in my family said to her, "i didn't know you guys wear short dresses like that" - commenting on a slightly above the knee dress i had worn to a family event.

Aussie Oz

according to my horse, yes.

but really its not what you ask

it is a real normal life versus a cult life. not even close to comparable. those who leave and do poorly may be like that beacause of poor life choices.

oz