I find it interesting how they manage to still maintain a tight when they need to e.g Menlo park scandal, and yet at the same time distance themselves enough from legal accountability.
joe134cd
JoinedPosts by joe134cd
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Woman sues Jehovah's Witness elders over lack of protection from sex attacker
by truthseekeriam inhttp://www.loughboroughecho.net/news/local-news/woman-sues-jehovahs-witness-elders-8579862.
a woman who claims jehovahs witness elders failed to protect her from a predatory sex attacker who repeatedly abused her as a child is now battling for 500,000 compensation.. the woman, in her 20s, was molested by ministerial servant peter stewart over a five-year period in loughborough, leicestershire, in the 1980s and 90s, londons high court heard.. the trauma she suffered derailed her education and career, and led to harrowing nightmares and recurring thoughts of suicide, her barrister, james counsell, said.. matters came to a head after she passed out on her bed next to a pile of paracetamol while on holiday with her husband, having left him a suicide note, he added.. soon afterwards, she had a bad panic attack - triggered by seeing a collection of jehovahs witness literature.. that led to tense discussions with her husband, and her final decision to take legal action, mr counsell told the court.. the woman - who cannot be identified - is suing the trustees of the watchtower bible and tract society, alleging they are vicariously liable for stewarts crimes.. stewart was convicted of entirely separate offences of sexually abusing a schoolgirl and a young boy in 1995, said mr counsell.. he died in june 2001, aged 72, shortly before police arrived at his home to arrest him for sexually abusing the claimant.. stewart was an apparently respected and devout member of the congregation in loughborough, the court heard.. however, he repeatedly preyed on the girl between the ages of four and nine, using his position as a ministerial servant to commit these acts.. he molested her in a variety of situations - including both before and after and sometimes during watchtower study sessions, mr counsell claimed.. his attacks took a catastrophic toll, leaving his victim prone to vomiting at the memory, and with complex feelings of guilt and shame.. stewart forced her to keep silent by telling her that what she was doing was fornication and that she was sinning, the barrister explained.. he warned her that when armageddon came - a regular topic for general discussion at group and congregation meetings - she would not be saved because of what she was doing.. it was precisely because much of the abuse took place at public - and at jehovahs witness events - that she could not always avoid him, added mr counsell.. the woman first mustered the courage to disclose her abuse in 2000 - after hearing of stewarts imminent release from jail for his offences against the two school children.. stewarts former jehovahs witness congregation began an investigation but failed to contact the police, said the barrister, adding that the inquiry appeared to go nowhere.. that alleged inaction intensified her feelings of anger and the woman finally went to the police in may 2001.. but when the police went to stewarts home to arrest him they discovered from neighbours that he had died, added mr counsell.. the barrister alleged that jehovahs witness elders had known about stewarts activities with young girls since the very early days of the claimants abuse and had failed to prevent it continuing.. it was stewarts authority as a ministerial servant which allowed him to gain contact and befriend his victim, said mr counsell.. the abuse was committed while he was performing tasks to further the interests of jehovahs witnesses.. lawyers for the trustees are defending the case, insisting that proper steps were taken to protect its members and that stewart was not performing a pastoral role.. their counsel, adam weitzman, said he disputed that the elders were negligent and denied that the trustees could be held legally responsible.. he pointed out that, from 1991, stewart and the woman ceased to be members of the same congregation.. stewart was never an employee of the jehovahs witness congregation and the trustees owed the woman no legal duty of care, he argued.. mr weitzman said: while it is accepted that, from august 1990, the elders knew (stewart) had sexually assaulted another child, there was not sufficient proximity between them and the claimant to impose such a duty.
nor would it be fair, just and reasonable to do so.. the high court hearing continues.. .
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What really is the overall objective?
by My Name is of No Consequence inone cant help but notice all of the dramatic changes thathave been happening to the organization.
this is not the religion that i grewup in.
im not saying that the religion that i grew up in was better, justdifferent.
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joe134cd
Yes I agree with XBEHERE comments that change has been brought about by the changing of the guard.
The other thing that has brought about change is survival and to stay relevant. This can be seen on their stance on the internet. If they had still maintained the same position on the internet as they did say in the early to mid 90's the ex-jw community would be running wild. Well actually it kind of already is. But they have seen the need to react to it, and are presently trying to do something about it. It just amazes me it took them 20 years to figure it out. The thing that gets me so angry is that millions were held to ransom for what proved just to be a personal opinion of group of guys in Brooklyn.
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Elephants and JWs never forget
by Joziqueen inmy mother in law lost her husband to cancer recently.
so feeling lonely and been pushed by her sister (active witness) after not stepping in a hall for 20 years she went to a sunday meeting.
one meeting where she had the surreal experience of having to watch a "special talk" on jw tv.
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joe134cd
Just proves the point of dubs know no boundaries. -
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This is the man who made it all happen!
by Terry inwilliam miller.. do you know how important this man has been to your life?
do you know your life would have been entirely different (without a doubt) had he not lived?.
read on!.
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joe134cd
Gee that's interesting. I never knew that. -
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A few more random thoughts on the new Kingdom Hall design meeting
by sir82 inleft completely unsaid at the meeting: who is going to be the owner of the property & building when all of these new khs are built?
in the current arrangement, in most cases, a local trust is set up to hold ownership.
of course, the most likely answer is "the watchtower (or whatever shell corporations they set up) will own the land & building".
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joe134cd
What I find sad are the ones who really deserve to know are the most in the dark. Wake up witnesses!!! This is just an excuse to cash in on existing residential halls, rebuild again with free labour, probably burden the congregation again with a society mortgage. In a few years time there will be another excuse to sell these halls. It's always the same rinse, dry, repeat and the R&F just gulp it down. -
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Arrangement to Accelerate Building Kingdom Halls
by Socrateswannabe ini can't believe i'm the first one to admit going to this meeting.
it was a 3 hour video stream from patterson.
the first bit was used to set up the need.
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joe134cd
Clearly this is just a smoke screen, to sell all the old halls and build new. Wash, rinse, dry and repeat. -
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Jehovah's Witnesses, they're big in ...
by Simon ini just checked out google trends for "jehovah's witnesses" (denomination).
not sure if the link will be to the term but let's try:.
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2fm%2f0dtdq.
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joe134cd
The witnesses are dead in westernized countries. I think people are aware of them. -
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Do Jehovah Witnesses give out mis-information deliberately?
by smiddy indo you think it is possible that the g.b.is deliberately giving out mis-information to confuse either apostates or media that might be investigating them for one reason or another ?
speak out of both corners of their mouth .
and the reason they do so ?
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joe134cd
OMG by the way they are going and all the dramas they get themselves involved in. It's anyone's guess as what comes out of their mouth. -
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Hello
by Garrett inhello forum,.
i'm new here and not sure where to post.
so, i'm 21 years old and currently a baptized witness, however, i'm slowly making my mind up to leave and here's why.. first, there are certain things that make no sense to me in the organization.
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joe134cd
I find myself parroting this every couple of weeks. It just amazes me how an organization will spend billions of dollars and countless man hours trying to get a new member and yet will do virtually nothing to retain that same member. Here is a post I made on this topic.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/274424/how-many-cong-visited-you-when-you-started-fading
You are at a Hugh advantage over us. You are young, and because of your lack of family ties in the Org just makes fading so much easier.
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An interesting comment given by an older brother during the prayer yesterday.
by My Name is of No Consequence ini have been a regular visitor to this site for several years now.
i never really felt the need to set up an account and post...until now.
at the close of yesterdays meeting, an older brother gave the prayer.
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joe134cd
Yes I remember a time when the internet was literally a tool of Satan, full of apostates wanting to entrap the R&F. I even remember a recent assembly part with the theme " occupying our time with unnessary gadgets" (or something to that effect) where it was mentioned that these gadgets were occupying our time that could be used in serving Jehovah. I even remember been given council when I gave a bible reading from a print out of the Nwt. My what a reversal. The thing that I find rather thoughtless is the burden that is now been placed on the R&F to now have to pony up to buy these gadgets. For a family of 5 even for the cheapest tablets you are looking at a couple hundred bucks.