the jehovah's witnesses have formally signed up to the national redress scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, more than a year after they were named and shamed for holding out.the federal government has announced another 34 organisations have joined the compensation program, allowing 37 stalled applications for financial support to finally be processed.more than 11,800 redress applications have been received so far, with around half having been processed and almost $530 million in payments made.a total of 526 organisations have signed up to the scheme, along with the commonwealth and all state and territory governments.the jehovah's witnesses were one of six of the original hold-outs, named by social services minister anne ruston in june last year.access to government grants were cut off, and the government sought to challenge the charitable status and tax concessions offered to such organisations as a punishment.
"we think that these strong sanctions have obviously had an impact on the jehovah's witnesses reconsidering their decision not to join," senator ruston said.. read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-10/jehovahs-witnesses-sign-up-to-sexual-abuse-redress-scheme/100449204.
to beter understand the background:.
I wonder if the Australian government provides statistics in the number of persons who successfully petition for the funds and the amount awarded by each group the claim is made against. For example -
2021 - Jehovah's Witnesses - 17 petitioners granted funds - total: $2.7 million
Imagine being a Witness headed to the contribution box knowing that their donation is going to pay for the Witness victims of child sex abuse in which the perpetrator is a fellow Witness.
biden mandated widespread covid shots today.. "we've been patient," biden announced.
"but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us.".
.
I like to use this line to assist in such discussions -
"If it is such a good idea, then why does the government have to mandate it?"
in the latest jw broadcast, anthony morris the turd gives a talk about donations.
to camouflage this, he starts and ends the talk by saying that isn't actually what he's doing.
first he starts with the usual disclaimer, 'wt has never begged for money like christendom and we never will', you know the drill.
I was a Witness for nearly 4 decades. I belonged to 5 congregations in 4 different states. During those years never once did I ever see funds donated at the Kingdom Hall go to help the needy or the poor whether they were a member or not. Not 1 time!
I remember there were 3 different contribution boxes in the Kingdom Hall -
The Local Congregation fund was to maintain the Kingdom Hall. Any overages in donations were sent to the World Wide Work fund by a vote.
The World Wide Work fund is another way of saying "The Watchtower Fund". That is what the money was used for - to keep the lights on at Bethel.
The Kingdom Hall Building Fund was just that - donations to help build Kingdom Halls that would eventually be owned by the Watchtower.
No where in there is there a fund to help people. This is why the Watchtower's tax exemption status needs to be pulled.
it hard to believe------you don't have the truth.. sometimes, for many----it takes half of your life -- or more---to figure it out.
it was like swimming upstream with lead boots pulling you back in.
and the closer you got to the "real" truth----the further away you strayed from your intimate group.
I was born-in as a Witness. It wasn't until my late 20's/early 30's that I faded, though not by choice. I was in my mid 30's when I realized the Watchtower sold a bunch of made-up non-sense.
My biggest support has always been my wife. Not being financially reliant on a Witness and have non-Witness friends is the key to getting out. By the time I woke up I had so many friends who are not Witnesses and my Witness friends had already turned their backs on me.
this was last updated in 2014it badly needs updating.
it is a list of watchtower (before and after) old light / new light doctrines.
shorturl.at/bqyir
Old Light.
New Light.
Reminds me of the children's game "Red Light, Green Light."
so my jw father is sick.
my mother uses the opportunity to try and preach to my 16 year old daughter.
i simply told my mother to: "please refrain from trying to lure *my daughter* in with jehovah's witness questioning.
I'm thankful to Jehovah for the children & grandchildren that Jehovah has given me as He promised. They soothe my heart for the ones I've lost.
I have some bad news. They will leave her, too. When a relationship is conditional there is no love.
Most the children of the people I grew up with in my home congregation have all left the Witnesses.
my wife and i have been together for 12 years.
married for 6. she was born into the truth, i studied for 2 years before we got married.
we would attend meetings on a weekly basis, go to conventions, and memorial every year.
Worstfear:
I am sorry for the suffering you are experiencing. Your wife made a choice and now you both will suffer. However, your suffering can end sooner by coming to terms with reality - happiness comes from inside of us and not from an external source. Do not put your happiness in her hands or the hands of anyone else. When you do you become that person's slave. She made her choice and her actions are hers alone to own. It is not your fault.
You are asking for advice on what to do. I recommend first and for most to take care of your health, both physically and mentally. Be sure to eat healthy, exercise, and get sleep. Find someone to talk to and seek the help of a therapist is if you feel the need.
Second, seek legal counsel to assist with the divorce. I would not seek revenge or be spiteful as that will only bring you down and cause regret down the road. Love is the sacrifice of the self for the other with no expectation of reciprocation. Romance is the wanting of someone else to satisfy your wants, cravings, and desires. Romance is the craving of joy or pleasure from someone else physically or in a way that builds the ego.
Adultery is the only Biblically approved reason for a divorce. It doesn't mean you have to get a divorce. She made the choice. Everything is on her.
this experience was posted about a year ago.
it seems like a crackpot co was giving his prediction of what "might possibly happen in the future" .
now it seems like he wasn't such a crackpot after all.. quote.
Everlasting life can be yours too if you subscribe to the JW.Org streaming service...for a "small fee".
Is this where the bankrupt publishing company that Charles Taze Russell started over 100 years ago is going? It sure seems that way.
Nice post, PistolPete.
you have probably heard all kinds of excuses why god doesn’t communicates with his creation or why he doesn’t intervene.. some examples.. no one can see god because he is a spirit.. but we can hear god---yet he chooses not to talk to humanity.. god only communicates with certain people.
moses, samuel, abraham, etc.
but there are many people today who also claim that god spoke to them yet we ignore them but believe god spoke to people who lived thousands of years ago and we can’t really verify if that was so.
I believe what Slim Boy Fat is referring to is called "qualia".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia
With qualia we see the difference between conceptual knowledge and experiential knowledge.
I like this explanation -
Qualia is the term to used describe actual subjective experience and sensation, as opposed to mere knowledge and information.
The concept is best described by Frank Jackson's color blind scientist thought experiment: A scientist knows everything there is to know about the color red from physics, optics and neuroscience, but is color blind, and so she doesn't know what it's actually like to see the color red. If we then somehow repaired her vision so that she can now see colors, and let her see the color red, she would learn something new about red that she didn't know before, despite all of her previous knowledge about the physics and biology involved. This additional knowledge she gains is the qualia of seeing red.
you have probably heard all kinds of excuses why god doesn’t communicates with his creation or why he doesn’t intervene.. some examples.. no one can see god because he is a spirit.. but we can hear god---yet he chooses not to talk to humanity.. god only communicates with certain people.
moses, samuel, abraham, etc.
but there are many people today who also claim that god spoke to them yet we ignore them but believe god spoke to people who lived thousands of years ago and we can’t really verify if that was so.
So as I am following -
If God does not it is either because -
(footnote - I am using "God" simply as the term for whatever may or may not have caused everything to be set in motion and not a specific deity.)
I can understand how a person would come to such conclusions if their paradigm of what everything is comes solely from a Western, Judeo-Christian culture. That is why I always find it interesting that such debates are not whether or not there is a god, but whether or not the God of the Bible exists.
There is a famous saying in India - "The only atheists here are the people who went to Catholic school."
