Sorry - Was the old topic titled "false prophesies" or "groups built on false revelation"? nevermind, I will do a search.
Hey Cheap SEO, Can I buy your avatar, I'll need a link to go with it, OK? Can you do it for this link? It's to a story about a couple from a Kingdom Hall in Tuncurry, NSW that came to the leadership with a concern.
2002 story huh? I find that very interesting that the particular page that story on has a Google Pagerank value of N/A!! For something that is so serious you would think that there would be tens of thousands of backlinks to it giving it a huge hit in the serps. I am unaware of this situation and I am only a few hours of Tuncurry. As far as I can see the society dealt with the matter according to the Bible. How individual members deal with the matter is up to their own conscience. If anyone is found to deal with the matter outside of the already dealt with matter by the society then those would suffer the consequences as per the Bible. It's pretty clear actually. Looks like you are on a witch hunt again. How does it go? Find one person in an organisation that does wrong, bring the whole organisation down for it. Tisk, tisk! Now, after saying that. How credible is this story? I mean, word for word? But wait...where is it exactly that you live? Oh! Not in Australia...but you believe what is written about something in Australia that supposedly happened in 2002 exactly how it is written in your referenced web page? Spare me! No matter what people do does not take away the fact that what is being preached is the truth from the Bible.
Google PageRank defense? That's a first, maybe it's new, it appears less than a few months old on that site, I am checking archive.org (yeah, that page is new). www.silentlambs.org has a good PR and probably didn't manipulate it with cheap SEO tricks. Whether I lived in Armidale, Broken Hill, Launceston, or Mission Viejo is irrelevent to the truth of that case or the hundreds of cases at www.silentlambs.org. The society handled it well? The guy asked that heads of family be warned about two convicted sex offenders in the congregation that had access to children and he got disfellowshipped. If handling it well, meant protecting sex offenders and putting children at risk and concealing it from their parents I guess they did a spot on job. Beauty, eh?
You can certainly be sure it was not handled the way you say it did. I know too well the procedures and protocols that take place and that is most definitely NOT how these cases are handled. Get to the truth of these things man and stop listening (or reading) to hearsay. There's always more to it that meets the eyes and ears. Jehovah's Witnesses do not divulge private and personal information to the public about anyone that is disfellowshipped for the pure reason of respect. You can be certain there was more involved in the end result. Also, disfellowshipping is the last course of action before exhausting all other avenues. Of course, I repeat, depending on the repentant attitude of those involved. There is no way you can possibly understand this without being involved in the organization personally. It is easy to throw grenades from afar but what purpose does it serve when you don't have all the facts? No purpose at all. There's plenty more things happening on this planet to whinge and complain about "that we have pure evidence of". Go point fingers at them ones for a change. Evidence is just evidence unless proven as fact. All you have provided is stories. I know what the silent lambs site is about and yes they have exposed some people that needed to be exposed. But I ask you this. What happens when they get it wrong? Going by the stories you gave, I can certainly say they have done so. Now, who's going to go after them for getting it wrong and exposing innocent people to ridicule and harassment? You? Hardly!
So if it is against the Watchtower, it is by default hearsay. But your responses are not hearsay? Boy, I don't have to go far to find bad stuff about your organization. A couple of clicks in www.silentlambs.org and I find even worse stuff and again it's in New South Wales, Australia. You say "Evidence is just evidence unless proven as fact.". In NSW people are convicted when evidence is proven correct? There are several sad accounts in this one article of molesters being protected by the church and then ending up in jail for ten or more years.
Boy oh boy. Same ol' same ol'. You just don't get the point do you? This is exactly why so many people are in the situations they are in. Because they don't follow the protocols that are set in place to protect them. You make out (as well as the media...yeah...the media!) that the Watchtower Society was taken to caught and charged....LOL....still throwing those grenades huh? Again, you still don't have the facts. You can post up a hundred of these stories if you feel it is necessary but it still does not show them as FACT! That's what the media is for. To hype a story up. Hmmm...I wonder why they would do that...couldn't be to boost the readership could it??...hmm...not like they have done it before have they??...hmmmm....what's that?...they got the facts wrong??...AGAIN???....hmmmmm Keep throwing the mud...you know the more mud you throw the more it sticks to you as the thrower...be careful now.... Have you noticed no one is backing up your stories in this thread?...wait for it....I know there might be one or two crazy ones about....why?...because they know the stories are beat up to make a situation worse than it really is...
The NSW judicial system is sending men to jail for 10 or more years, ....ummmm.... that sounds like backing things up.
What has that got to do with Jehovah's Witnesses as an organization? The man as an individual was sent to jail as per the laws of Australia. If you have a problem with the laws of Australia you can take it up with the Australian Government. Going by your reasoning....if an American goes and murders someone, then the whole country should be made to blame and should be shut down. You see how unreasonable that is? It's not different in this case. You see, this is what you are not understanding. Jehovah's Witnesses will abide by the laws of the land unless it contradicts God's principles. It's quite simple you know? It's not difficult at all. The people involved in dealing with these situations full well know the ramifications if they do anything other than what is written. Many people think they should take matters into their own hands and I can't blame people for thinking that way, because we all have a sense of justice. However, there is one who is more just than anyone in the entire universe and that is God. He arranged for his justice to be written for us to learn. If we don't obey that, well, look at mankind today? This world is full of injustices. If you read and study the Bible like I do, you will understand why this world is in such a mess.
I of course don't have a problem with the Australian or US judicial system. The organization shows a pattern of covering things up. Scroll up a bit to that new paper clipping "Judges lashes Jehovah Witnesses - Church Knew of Sex Crimes". You have to be in denial if you think there isn't a major problem with sex crimes within an organization that tries desperately to keep what they think is a good image and allows sex crimes to go on because there is almost never two witnesses to such crimes.
Just remember this. What you read and what actually happened is usually very different. There is no covering up. Simply put, we do not divulge information about people. Why? Because it is not our right to. This is you have got things wrong Sir! Jehovah's Witnesses do not condone any sex crimes or any immorality for that matter. No matter what you believe, that is a fact! I am not in denial at all. Yes, there have been some in our organization that have done some terrible things. Now, either they have repented of their sins and dealt with whatever laws applicable, or, they are expelled from the organization if found out. I have already told you there are protocols to go by as per the Bible. You don't seem to be listening or accepting that point.
Are they? Exactly, how would you know this? Why is it you are throwing grenades at Jehovah's Witnesses when there are zillions of real cases in other organizations? Talking about digging a bit deeper. Why don't you try and calculate how much money a certain church has paid out in law suits in settlement payments in the last century compared to how much the Watchtower has paid out? You will be shocked to find the Watchtower has paid out $zero!!!! In other words, we have nothing to hide in that regard.
Tbarr, The jw's have a history of coverups starting with the coverup of the names of the people on their bible translation committee.
A man went to a pet shop and purchased a parrot. Apparently, the parrot had belonged to a Jehovah's Witness because it kept repeating, "Read the Watchtower and Awake. Avoid wordly associations. The end of this system of things is near." Squawk. Well, the new owner of the bird attempted to add new vocabulary to the parrot's repertoire with books on tape and contemporary music, but as the months went by it became obvious that nothing could break through. The parrot continued to repeat the standard catchphrases of the Watch Tower Society and nothing else. The owner finally became frustrated and infuriated and, in a fit of violent anger, threw the parrot across the room. The parrot smashed against the wall, and slid down to the floor, at which point the parrot immediately started squawking: "No Blood! No Blood! No Blood!"
You are either ignorant or dishonest. You know or should know that in recent year the Watchtower has started to settle cases including these. We have already covered how there policy of having more than one witness, shunning, and other control techniques have kept things hidden. I hope you were only ignorant of the payouts and not dishonest. The Catholic church is one hundred times the size of the Watchtower and has a lower per capita incidence of child sexual abuse. They have dragged their feet but have been public about payments. The Watchtower is only starting to see the cases come in and hopefully the settlements and judgements will be public so all can be warned of what is or was going on. You mentioned you were a couple hours north of that case in Tuncurry. So does that mean you meet at the Coff's Harbour Kingdom Hall?
I don't know of any payouts and that is being honest. Your source is not a reliable one. Anyone could have written that up. Lower per capita? Really? Where's the facts? It's so easy to say these things but where's the proof? I mean real proof? Not some hearsay on a web site. Why? You thinking of throwing a grenade there too?