http://red.theworldnewsmedia.org/index.php/en/forum-home-page/jehovah-s-witnesses/93-court-seizes-over-one-million-jehovah-s-witnesses-brochures-brought-into-russia
according to recent russian news, the latest developments in russia might have a huge impact on how the watchtower will be able to operate in russia in the future.
personally, i don't think that there should be religious organizations at all, ngo or otherwise.
people should on the other hand have a right to religious assembly, governed by g-ds holy spirit, and the russian bill quoted below does not take that right away from people.. the truth shall set us free.
According to recent Russian news, the latest developments in Russia might have a huge impact on how the Watchtower will be able to operate in Russia in the future.
Personally, I don't think that there should be religious organizations at all, NGO or otherwise. People should on the other hand have a right to religious assembly, governed by G-Ds Holy Spirit, and the Russian bill quoted below does not take that right away from people.
The Truth Shall Set Us Free
Russia's 'Foreign Agents' Risk Losing Right to Run Media
Denis Abramov / VedomostiThe crackdown on the media is being carried out in anticipation of the State Duma elections in 2016, said Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Golos.
As the crackdown on Russian NGOs continues, the Communications Ministry has suggested forbidding those labeled as “foreign agents” from launching and registering media outlets.
The proposal, part of a bill that the ministry published on a government website for draft laws, stipulates that non-governmental organizations registered as “foreign agents” — a label with strong connotations of espionage in Russia that is applied to organizations that receive funding from abroad and are engaged in loosely defined political activity — cannot be founders of media outlets.
Civil rights advocates fear the bill is a marker of the situation worsening for the “foreign agents,” several of which said they were closing this summer after being forced to pay six-figure fines in rubles and having to give up their foreign financing, despite earlier promises that “foreign agents” would not have to close their doors.
Forbidding “foreign agents” from owning media is a direct violation of a Constitutional Court ruling of 2014, according to which this status shouldn't infringe on the organization's rights, said Ilya Shablinsky, a member of the presidential Human Rights Council.
“This bill is the next step after restricting the agents' rights in the electoral legislation [they are already banned from participating in electoral campaigns in any capacity],” he was cited by Vedomosti newspaper as saying Thursday.
“And this is very bad: we have more than 50 organizations on the list [of 'foreign agents'], and for a lot of them, running media outlets is their main area of activity,” he said.
Deputy Communications Minister Alexei Volin disagreed, telling Vedomosti that the suggestion doesn't violate any laws, and on the contrary, brings the law that regulates mass media in line with other laws, as well as conforming to existing regulation that restricts foreign ownership of media outlets.
But unlike actual foreigners, “foreign agents” should not be allowed to own even 20 percent of a media outlet, he said.
“We don't recommend having foreign agents among the owners of your media, go find some decent people [instead],” he was cited by the newspaper as saying Thursday.
Free Speech Crackdown
There are some 20 existing media outlets that are owned by NGOs registered as “foreign agents,” said Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights association.
For example, elections watchdog Golos, which is currently in the process of getting its “foreign agent” status revoked, runs the newspaper Grazhdansky Golos (Civic Voice), while Memorial, an NGO that advocates the rehabilitation of victims of Soviet repressions, runs Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasus Knot), one of the most prominent media outlets in the North Caucasus.
“Passing the bill would mean that these media outlets will lose their registration,” Chikov told Vedomosti on Thursday. “This law will result in the liquidation of dozens of media outlets,” he said.
The crackdown on the media is being carried out in anticipation of the State Duma elections in 2016, said Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Golos.
“First the Central Election Commission sent out letters banning 'foreign agents' from delegating election observers to the polls, while most of these organizations actually usually send observers in the form of journalists,” he was cited by Vedomosti as saying Thursday.
The bill, according to Melkonyants, would not only seriously infringe on foreign agents' rights, but would also complicate the registration process for other media, meaning existing registration would be revoked from many organizations — especially those whose staff have used their credentials to report on elections.
Morality Check
The bill proposes several other restrictions on the registration of Russian media.
For example, the names of countries would not be allowed to be used in media names without permission from the Justice Ministry, according to the document, along with the names of various organizations and people without their own permission. The names of the outlets will also be checked for “humanness” and “morality,” the text of the bill says, without elaborating.
A media outlet can be denied registration at the Prosecutor General's request, the bill states. This is only natural under anti-extremism legislation, Volin from the Communications Ministry told Vedomosti — the Prosecutor General is empowered to determine whether the media outlet is extremist, thus he has the right to deny it registration.
All in all, the initiative currently looks raw and poorly thought through, said Leonid Levin, chair of the State Duma Committee for Information Policy. Formally speaking, forbidding foreign agents from owning media seems reasonable, but on the other hand it can be seen as an infringement upon freedom of speech, the lawmaker added.
“We're not forbidding people who work for foreign companies from expressing their opinion,” Levin, a member of the Just Russia party, was cited by Vedomosti as saying Thursday. He also questioned the need for regulation in addition to limiting foreign ownership to 20 percent of a media outlet.
Nevertheless, “all these issues should be discussed, and we're ready to listen to what the ministry has to say,” the lawmaker said.
Contact the author at [email protected]
it will be interesting to see what will happen with the "beloved" 501c3 tax exempt status which the churches hold so dearly onto.
the first-century christians met in homes.
they did not have exemption from taxes to the governments.
Jesus Christ / Yeshuah Ha Messiah was NOT TAX EXEMPT according to the Bibles "New Testament", so why do not the Watchtower Organisation follow their master Jesus, as they claim Him to be? Or maybe Jesus (Yeshuah) is really NOT the Watchtower Organisations true Master, and maybe the Watchtower does NOT have a special channel to Him who said that "give to Cesar what is Cesar's, and to G-D what is G-D's"!
G-D himself provided the tax coin by making a fish gulp it up as a miracle act, and the apostles and disciples did not contribute at all to this tax payment...
Isn't it clear then, that the Watchtower is a greedy scam, and that their true G-D is money?!
"You can't serve two Lords, G-D and money, you will love one and hate the other"...
in 1897, j.j. thomson discovered the electron.
this was the first constituent part of the atom which, for 2,000 years, was thought to be indivisible.
today, we know of 18 elemental particles following the recent discovery of the higgs boson, the so-called god particle.. back in 1897, most people believed in god because there weren't even any theories as to how the universe came into being.
You cannot disprove G-D anymore than you can disprove someone else’s dreams, hopes, aspirations or faith…
I see G-D in everything, like in the intricate animal kingdom and the seed that grows in the soil… I also see demons in evil people, or rather people acting like demons, terrorising and destroying the initial harmony in the world, like terrorists, or those greedy companies who have depleated the earth and disrupted the seasons (there have been 2 weeks to 2 months maximum of snowy winters where I live now, where it before used to be 6 months of snow 20 years ago, and for hundreds of years before then…) which impacts many things like the growing of food for people and animals… and there we have it… G-D WILL DESTROY THOSE WHOM DESTROYETH THE EARTH… the Bible states… Sadly, a lot of scientists are destroying the harmony of the earth today, while they are calling it progress…
I believe that GOD (I AM/YHWH) IS ‘THE TRUTH’, and NOT the Watchtower org…
And THE TRUTH SHALL SET US FREE…
well, i have been lurking on this site for several months and i recently decided to join as a member.
i have made several observations and would like to make a few comments.. first, i am perplexed by the attitude of many on this site that are either former or active (but apostate) jws.
they seem to have a strong hatred for the wts and also for rank and file jws.
2 + 2 is not always 4 (Unless you choose to have limited Mathematics for a G-D)… When G-D has a hand in ever changing circumstances in His ever changing creation, then nothing is what it seems to a limited human being who does not know all the factors involved...
I have experienced miracles more than once (by my own definition and comprehension. I cannot convey something that must be experienced individually....), and since Watchtower Witnesses do not believe in miracles in our days in what I would call this miraculous world of ours, then it is futile to discuss such miraculous events that brings me and others much joy, with people who are not honest with themselves about the circumstances surrounding their own faith...
Watchtower Witnesses who are not in the leadership are likened with “drug addicts”, the leadership might be likened with “drug dealers”. The outcome of the Watchtowers hypocritical lies are death for every addict involved. We can surely hate the drug traffickers without hating the addicts…
when a person is disfellowshiped by a religion just because he or she doesn't believe it all is very serious.
some disfellowshiped ones have even taken their own lives because they have been made to feel so bad.
it's down in black and white that parents and friends are supposed to shun them, shunning is acting like someone is dead.
Well, the Watchtower Witnesses are not just a religion. They are also a corporation by their own admittance. When baptizing, new members enter into a contract with the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society... A corporation can be class act sued. Maybe it should be impossible to / forbidden for religions to also classify / identify themselves as corporations or ideal organisations. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society sell products like books, magazines, and real estate. They are not an ideal organisation, as then the money and values that are taken into the organisation would all have gone to third party recipients outside of the organisation, outlined as benefactors in the statutes of the organisation. The money that is taken in by The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society solely goes to internal recipients of the organisation (those already affiliated with the organisation by contract), and that is not charity, but is clearly corruption if The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is supposedly a charity.
The Watchtower Bible and Tract society is wearing several hats, depending on what is regarded most beneficial to the people at the top in that particular organisation, which again is depending on the rules in the countries in which they operate. They alternate between calling them-self and ideal organisation, a religion and a corporation. This kind of alternation between definitions should not be allowed for a religion to perform. A religion is an organised faith-system (operating outside or within a country’s law), not a charity and not a corporation. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society claim that they operate within the laws of every country that they are in, but if they can also be defined as a corporation, you can sue them.
They are sometimes a corporation by their own admittance and behaviour. Just gather evidence of when they refer them-self to be a corporation, whether in interviews or in their own writings (for instance when they brag about their own buildings and other monetary values), and when they buy and sell off real estate, as well as with regards to when they exercise other corporate behaviour, and give the evidence to the authorities or preferably a good class act lawyer that is not already affiliated with the Watchtower.
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society can be judged in a country NOT TO BE ALLOWED TO CALL THEMSELVES A RELIGION EVER AGAIN if they continue with corporate behaviour. They can also be judged to be officially registered as either a charity or a corporation, and then the road is small to take them down on tax exemption and/or corruption. The clue is, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has to choose what they are, and stick to it, as EVERY ONE ELSE HAS TO, and there is no unfair prosecution in that!!
i heard a preist pose this question and i'll admit, it made me think.. if your neighbor had a dog and a monkey and his dog bite you.
would you accept an apology from the neighbors monkey?.
just asking.
One Eyed Joe: LOL when taken out of context :-)
The context: A man has a dog that craps on his lawn, so he is about to kill his dog when the son intervenes and pleads for the dogs life. The father says to his son that the dog was warned of not crapping on the lawn and now has to die for disrespecting his command, and the son pleads more for the dog's life, and says that he wants to die instead of the dog because he loves the dog so much. Eventually the father sends the son to jail (hell) instead, for three days, and then he bails his son out again, and tells him that the dog now belongs to him and shall be with him forever...
onthewayout wrote: of course, for quite awhile (and probably still), congregations have been viewing any relatively young (maybe under 50 or even 60) partakers as mentally unstable and watchtower ignores such people anyway and says they must listen to the elders.
is this correct?
ever since the emblem-takers were given emeritus status as members of the faithful and discreet slave, have they been relegated to standard membership?
Correction: Additionally, the previously “anointed” elder was a very good friend of my elder uncle who I HAD SEEN was heavy on the BOTTLES with my NOW late aunt, (whom my uncle did not even attend the funeral to, although they were married UNTIL SHE DIED, and she had never been excluded from the Watchtower organisation...) I had to hold the speech over my aunt at her funeral (for my mother sake, her sister), as her widower elder husband was not attending her funeral, even though I had left the Watchtower religion 3 years prior to her death!! My elder uncle was attending the coffee AFTER the funeral though...
onthewayout wrote: of course, for quite awhile (and probably still), congregations have been viewing any relatively young (maybe under 50 or even 60) partakers as mentally unstable and watchtower ignores such people anyway and says they must listen to the elders.
is this correct?
ever since the emblem-takers were given emeritus status as members of the faithful and discreet slave, have they been relegated to standard membership?
Re: Emblem Takers Mentally Unstable?
At least those I met were closely linked to unstable minds...whether their own or their family's and close friends minds...
1. Middle-aged Greek Male. Married with 2 children. Got his alleged "calling" when his children were still young. Shortly after he took of the "emblems" for the first time, his wife (who was also a Watchtower Witness), was (reported by neighbours) standing on their porch for hours staring out into the void, contemplating / attempting to jump (they lived several floors up in a "high house"). His favourite vacation-places were big cities, and I thought that was odd, since they do not resemble the paradise nor the heaven that we were preaching about. He died an early death (i.e. before retirement age.)
2. Elderly Norwegian Woman. Widow with grown children. I met her grown daughter in town one day in 1995. She was chocked up with tears and wanted to talk (to any WT Witness I believe). We thus had tea together in a cafe, where she told me that her "anointed" mother had died. Her mother had been a former evangelical Christian, and had confided on her death bed that she had doubts about the Watchtower Organisation, and that she felt as if she had let Jesus down by becoming a Watchtower Witness. I did not know how to comfort her daughter...
3. Middle-aged Norwegian Male. Married with 3 children. He had taken the "emblems" earlier in his marriage when his children were young, believing that he was one of the anointed ones, and then he stopped believing that he was anointed, so he stopped taking the "emblems" a few years later. After this switch, he became the top leading elder of my congregation (one of my congregations anyway. I moved several times...) He and his wife’s son committed suicide and their daughter became highly promiscuous (she was seemingly in the "welcome committee" to all the foreigners that came to town, and even had a kid with her doctor. She was in and out of the Org. no less). The "previous anointed" elder and his wife became heavy on the bottle. They locked themselves inside their home every weekend to drink alcohol (even “worldly” neighbours (not of the watchtower creed) reported this). This particular elders face and nose had a clear red tint and puffiness to support the rumour that he was an alcoholic. Also, it was very well known that the witnesses were partying heavily with alcohol involved in the nineties as they defended it with that “Jesus made water into wine”.
Additionally, the previously “anointed” elder was a very good friend of my elder uncle who I HAD SEEN was heavy on the BOTTLES with my late aunt, (whom he did not even attend the funeral to, although they were still married and she was not excluded from the Watchtower... My uncle married again three months after his wife (my aunt) was buried, and he seemingly continued/s within the Watchtower Org. as a privileged elder as if nothing has happened…
as we all know, the internet is a real game-changer in allowing us to know the truth about the watch tower and its history.
i always had doubts and it was the internet that presented me with the ever-growing number of individuals who were going through a similar struggle.. i give the internet a 9 in my awakening.
what about you?.
