I don't see anything about this on CNN FOXNEWS or MSNBC ... is this only big news to ex-JW'S?
wannabefree
JoinedPosts by wannabefree
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300
ALERT: NEW LAWSUIT settlement - $13 MILLION
by Watchtower-Free inhttp://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/135m-awarded-to-bible-teacher-gonzalo-campos-alleged-abuse-victim-jose-lopez-281031832.html.
(published thursday, oct 30, 2014).
thursday, oct 30, 2014 updated at 11:58 pm pdt.
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New JW Podcast Show - Amazing Interview with Irwin Zalkin!
by God_Delusion inhello guys & gals!.
we've just launched our brand new episode, s01e01 - irwin zalkin, which we recorded last night.. you can listen to it right here - http://www.jwpodcast.org/2014/11/03/s01e01-irwin-zalkin.
in this ground-breaking bumper show, we interview irwin zalkin, the lawyer who filed and won this new child abuse case against the watchtower organisation, which saw the victim, jose lopez awarded $13.5 million.. i think you'll agree with me (after listening to the interview) that irwin really knows his 'watchtower' stuff!.
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wannabefree
... hmmm, so that's why they stopped having study slips filled out, they don't want to know because it makes them responsible ... all of the "simplifications" are becoming more and more obvious to be ways to reduce Organizational culpibility ... instead of learning from past mistakes and making changes out of love and concern for the victims, the changes are to reduce their liability PERIOD
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Name the GOOD things and NICE things about Jehovah's Witnesses
by stuckinarut2 inok, so in the interests of balance....(as it has rightly been pointed out that i am getting more bitter toward the org), can we think of any positive or nice things about jehovah's witnesses?.
just throwing this topic out there....... .
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wannabefree
They have mastered the art of mind control. Members can live anywhere in the world among the general population and still be completely controlled by the spiritual leadership of a handful of men who gather once a week to decide what the group can believe.
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wannabefree
This gives the best answer from those who were closest to him.
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Did the WT ever trash the Catholic's in writting over their pedophila coverups??
by Crazyguy inif so it would be good to have these publications on hand.. .
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wannabefree
The certainly liked to report it .... there are many more
*** g 3/11 p. 29 Watching the World ***
The “credibility gap” caused by the Catholic Church’s “mismanagement of the clergy sex abuse crisis” has resulted in its “largest institutional crisis in centuries, possibly in church history.”—NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER, U.S.A.*** g 4/11 p. 27 Watching the World ***
“An Uncomfortable History”
“The Report of the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse reveals an uncomfortable history of Ireland,” says The Irish Times. According to the newspaper, this report uncovers a history stained by the systematic abuse of children in Catholic religious institutions, ranging from “beating children whose crime it was that lice had infested their heads” to sustained sexual abuse. The abuse was ignored because of misguided loyalty to “the absolute authority of the Catholic Church,” says the paper. “Shame on You, Government and Church,” said a headline in the Times, quoting the words of one who sympathized with the victims.*** g05 1/8 p. 29 Watching the World ***
Church Doors Closing
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, U.S.A., has announced that it will close 65 of its 357 parishes—almost one fifth of the total. Some 60 churches and 120 related buildings will be sold. According to The New York Times, this restructuring is “caused partly by declining attendance and increased financial problems that were worsened by the sexual abuse crisis among clergy members.” The newspaper quotes R. Scott Appleby, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at Notre Dame University, as saying that “the scandal has put a drain on the financial resources of the archdiocese” to such an extent that it cannot “keep parishes afloat.”*** g05 12/8 p. 29 Watching the World ***
Catholic Dioceses Bankrupt
By the end of 2004, three Catholic dioceses in the United States had filed for bankruptcy. All three were forced to take this step because of the financial costs of clergy sexual abuse scandals. A number of dioceses have talked about the possibility of having to file for bankruptcy, but the first to do so was the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, in July 2004. That action halted two lawsuits in which plaintiffs were seeking a total of $155 million in compensation for molestation. According to the National Catholic Reporter, “the archdiocese and its insurers already have paid more than $53 million to settle more than 130 claims by people who say they were abused by priests.” In September 2004, the diocese of Tucson, Arizona, became the second diocese to seek bankruptcy protection from multimillion dollar claims being brought against it. The diocese of Spokane, Washington, became the third, in December 2004.*** g04 11/22 p. 29 Watching the World ***
Studies on Sex Abuse by Priests
“Two long-awaited studies have found that the [U.S.] Roman Catholic Church suffered an epidemic of child sexual abuse that involved at least 4 percent of priests over 52 years and peaked with the ordination class of 1970, in which one of every 10 priests was eventually accused of abuse,” reports The New York Times. “The human toll amounted to 10,667 children allegedly victimized by 4,392 priests from 1950 to 2002, but the studies caution that even these numbers represent an undercount,” as many cases have not been reported. One study, conducted at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, disclosed that “priests were accused of abuse in more than 95 percent of dioceses and about 60 percent of religious orders.” The other study, by a Catholic national review board, pointed to a culture in Catholic seminaries that “tolerated moral laxity.”*** g01 7/8 p. 29 Watching the World ***
Interest in the Priesthood Lost
Catholic parents are “no longer eager to say ‘my son, the priest,’” says The New York Times. “Catholic leaders . . . are well aware that a major factor behind the shortage of priests is a shortage of Catholic parents who are willing to coax their children to consider vocations to the priesthood.” Among the reasons given are smaller Catholic families, where “it is harder to accept an only son’s joining a celibate priesthood,” the article states. “In addition, the prestige of the priesthood has been shaken over the last decade with each news report about child abuse by priests, parents said in interviews.” A survey of Catholics most active in the church, commissioned by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, revealed that two thirds of the parents would not encourage their children to follow a career as a priest or a nun. According to Edward J. Burns, a priest and representative of the group, a young, unmarried couple at a family reunion would get no disapproving comments if they announced that they were living together. Yet, a young man contemplating the priesthood would be pulled aside by family members who would say, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”*** g98 10/8 p. 28 Watching the World ***
Abuse by Clergy in Africa
“Clergy sex abuse cases are beginning to surface in Africa,” reports the magazine Catholic International. To prevent such abuse, some Catholic bishops are recommending more rigorous screening and training of potential seminarians. Other areas of clerical misconduct that concern the African bishops include “misuse of alcohol, and involvement in activities that are unbecoming or alien to the priestly state and vocation, such as business or trade, politics.” Why have these cases only recently come to light? “A freer press and a lessening of previous Church control over the mass media,” answers Catholic International, adding that “initial attempts by some Church authorities in parts of Africa to prevent unflattering news . . . have failed.”*** g97 4/8 pp. 13-14 Sexual Exploitation of Children—A Worldwide Problem ***
Religion Involved
A delegate of the Roman Catholic Church at the Stockholm congress declared that exploitation of children is the “most heinous of crimes” and a “result of profound distortion and the breakdowns of values.” Yet, the Catholic Church has been severely affected by such practices among its own clergy.
In the August 16, 1993, issue of Newsweek, an article entitled “Priests and Abuse” reported on “the worst clerical scandal in the modern history of the U.S. Catholic Church.” It stated: “While allegations have been lodged against an estimated 400 priests since 1982, some churchmen extrapolate that as many as 2,500 priests have molested children or teenagers. . . . More than money, the scandal has cost the church severe embarrassment—and some of its moral authority.” Other religions throughout the world are in the same situation.*** g96 1/22 p. 28 Watching the World ***
Shattered Trust
The tiny town of Chesterfield Inlet on the Hudson Bay in Canada’s Northwest Territories has been rocked by charges of widespread abuse of schoolchildren. According to Maclean’s magazine, an independent report recently released by the government found incidents of sexual and physical abuse of native Inuit children over a 17-year period in the 1950’s and 1960’s at the Sir Joseph Bernier Federal Day School and at an adjacent residence run by the Catholic Church. The police completed a 21-month investigation into 236 allegations of abuse and decided not to lay charges—in some cases because the statute of limitations had expired; in others because the alleged perpetrators were elderly or even dead; in others because some former students could not identify the offenders with certainty. Noted Maclean’s: “Although the passage of time has clearly made punishing alleged offenders more difficult, it has not erased the pain of the victims.”*** g93 4/8 p. 31 Victims of Pedophile Priests Speak Out ***
Victims of Pedophile Priests Speak Out
“DURING the past decade, some 400 Roman Catholic priests have been reported to church or civil authorities for sexual abuse of children,” according to U.S.News & World Report. Recently, a national gathering of survivors of such abuse was held near Chicago, Illinois. Many spoke openly of how they had been victimized by pedophile priests.
But NCR (National Catholic Reporter) notes that speakers sounded another theme repeatedly throughout the conference: “The first abuse is sexual; the second and more painful, is psychological.” This second abuse occurs when the church refuses to listen to victims of abuse, fails to take their accusations seriously, and moves only to protect the offending priests. “Fairly or unfairly,” NCR reports, “they portrayed Catholic clergy as belonging to an unhealthy and misguided group more bent on preserving privilege and power than in serving lay needs.” Several speakers made ominous comparisons to the Reformation, which split the church wide open in the 16th century.
According to Richard Sipe, a former priest turned psychotherapist and expert on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, all this institutional denial reveals “a deep, desperate and knowing personal involvement in the problem.” He added: “The church knows and has known for a long time a great deal about the sexual activity of its priests. It has looked the other way, tolerated, covered up and simply lied about the broad spectrum of sexual activity of its priests.”
Not surprisingly, then, many abuse survivors are suing the church. NCR quotes one attorney who specializes in such cases as saying that there are pedophile-priest cases in each of the church’s 188 dioceses in the United States. He says that out-of-court settlements have run as high as $300,000 per case. U.S.News & World Report says that such suits have already cost the church $400,000,000, a figure that could surge to $1 billion by the year 2000. And the Canadian Press reported recently that some 2,000 survivors of childhood sexual abuse in 22 church-run orphanages and mental institutions in Quebec are suing six religious orders for $1.4 billion in damages.
Interestingly, though, the aforementioned U.S. attorney, who represents 150 victims of pedophile priests in 23 states, says that he has never yet had a client who was eager to go to court. Each one first tried to seek justice “within the pastoral context of the church.” NCR concludes: “Survivors go to the courts, it appears, not as a first resort, but as a last resort.” -
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Did the WT ever trash the Catholic's in writting over their pedophila coverups??
by Crazyguy inif so it would be good to have these publications on hand.. .
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wannabefree
Kingdom News 37, The End Of False Religion Is Near, gave the Catholic Church a jab on the subject.
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Movie starring James Franco as familicidal ex-JW Christian Longo ready for release
by wannabefree ini see this movie has been finished and is waiting to be released.
sick bastard.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/true_story_(film).
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wannabefree
I see this movie has been finished and is waiting to be released. Sick bastard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Story_(film)
The filming of the True Story began in March 2013 in Warwick
And July of the same year, Watchtower began building it's new world headquarters in the same town. Strange coincidence.
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Jehovah's Witnesses more trouble in Finland for internal judicial procedures not reporting crimes to police - JW.ORG
by wannabefree inhttp://yle.fi/uutiset/abuse_victim_jehovahs_witnesses_refused_to_reveal_rape_to_the_police/7592733.
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wannabefree
http://yle.fi/uutiset/abuse_victim_jehovahs_witnesses_refused_to_reveal_rape_to_the_police/7592733
Abuse victim: "Jehovah's Witnesses refused to report rape to the police"
The Jehovah's Witnesses' so-called "judicial committee" is dealing with criminal cases, according to some former members of the Christian religious denomination. The committee has refused to reveal sexual abuse cases to the police. Minister of the Interior Päivi Räsänen of the Christian Democrats is asking for clarification on how police could better serve victims in such cases.
Kirsi-Maria Aho, a former member of the Jehovah's Witnesses denomination, faced sexual abuse some twenty years ago. Cases of abuse are heard by the faith’s judicial committee. The abuser was not part of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
“It was a crime. First, the man raped me and then he abused me sexually. This would have been a matter for the police, but the elders banned me from going to the police because the name of Jehovah couldn't be dragged through the mud,” Aho says.
Aho had to appear before the committee several times. She describes it as cruel and accusatory.
“It was really cruel. A young girl under fire in front of three men,” she says. “The men asked confusing questions, such as whether I had indulged in group sex. The Committee emphasized that I had done wrong and that I was wicked and adulterous. No one defended me.”
As punishment, Aho was ostracised from the community. At the same time she was isolated from her loved ones.
Recovery from the devastating experience has been slow.
“I thought for 22 years that I was bad,” says Aho. “Since I was isolated from the Jehovah's Witnesses I’ve thought that. Art therapy studies have brought me self-respect and understanding. I’ve realized that I’m not the bad one.”
Minister of the Interior calls for clarification of police role
The Victims of Religion Support Association has documented 28 such human experiences under the Jehovah's Witness’ legal committee. Aho's is one of them. This week the association gave the Minister of the Interior Päivi Räsänen a list of suggestions on how society should address the issue of Jehovah's Witnesses legal committees. Räsänen is the parliamentary member responsible for matters relating to religious communities.
The association proposes, among other things, that religious courts be prohibited by law. Räsänen has passed the report on to the Ministry of Justice for clarification.
“In any case, we should not accept parallel legal systems in which crimes are investigated and sanctions considered,” says Räsänen. “Now, of course, it should be figured out where these judicial committees stand in light of our legislation.”
The report recommends that police have a better understanding of such cases and Räsänen has already called on her own Ministry to clarify their role.
The Jehovah's Witnesses see the Victims of Religion Support Association as an attack on the principles of the faith. The Jehovah's Witnesses community did not wish to comment further.
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Not on JW.ORG: Northern California: Alan Abbott, Elder/Bethelite convicted of Child Molestation.
by Balaamsass2 inforwarded to me by northern cal jw concerned about how this elders case & jw connection was swept under the carpet for many years.. shingletown man pleads no contest to molesting childrecord searchlight staff4:15 pm, mar 19, 2009. local.
alan abbott.
a 54-year-old shingletown man has pleaded no contest to molesting a girl in exchange for a 24-year prison sentence, a prosecutor said today.. alan paul abbott, who pleaded no contest wednesday to three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under the age of 14, is due to be sentenced on april 16.. abbott will be required to serve 85 percent of his prison sentence, or about 20.4 years, before becoming eligible for parole, deputy district attorney ben hanna said today.. he will be on parole for five years upon his release from prison.. abbott, who was arrested in late december, was accused of molesting the girl from about 2004 to 2006, hanna said.. .
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wannabefree
Wow! Is this sentence the norm? I was under the impression these guys usually only did three to five years.
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ALERT: NEW LAWSUIT settlement - $13 MILLION
by Watchtower-Free inhttp://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/135m-awarded-to-bible-teacher-gonzalo-campos-alleged-abuse-victim-jose-lopez-281031832.html.
(published thursday, oct 30, 2014).
thursday, oct 30, 2014 updated at 11:58 pm pdt.
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wannabefree
And now we see proof as to the real reason the GB was separated from Watchtower corporations several years back ....
EXHIBIT 23
page 3 lines 1&2
Gerrit Losch lives and works in New York. But, Mr. Losch is not now and, in fact, never has been
an officer, director, managing agent or employee of Watchtower.