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I regret all the people's minds I disassembled as a JW, and I will eternally cherish the ones who stod fast to their beliefs under my attacks.
Originally posted by Gazrok
According to them, 144,000 will be saved of their faith, of course.
Unfortunately for them, according to the Bible from which they are basing this on...this number will be comprised of only VIRGIN males (having never known the touch of a woman is I believe how it is put), who also happen to be descended from the 12 tribes of Isreal (12,000 per tribe), so I fail to see the appeal of the religion to a) Women, b) Males who are not virgins. Not to mention of course, that if one fit the criteria, he certainly wouldn't be creating more little followers, lest he just hand in his ticket as a non-virgin...
Of course, I'm not sure what attraction a religion (cult) that eschews any form of celibration, and contact with others not of the same cult, has anyhow....
Originally posted by redhead57
Not 5 hours later the "elders" came to my house and told me that I was forbidden to speak to her about this and that this matter was private and to be handled by the "elders". This man was publicly reproved.....publicly reproved only...because he had a remorseful attitude. This woman was so afraid of disobeying the elders and jeopardizing her standing in their sick religion that she actually went for that crap.
Originally posted by redhead57
Not a happy religion. These poor people are living in fear and work their entire lives to avoid punishment. How sad
Originally posted by intrepid
That fact about the child-molesters is laughable. They will disfellowship someone for smoking, personal experience, but will tolllerate abuse?
Not coming to their defence but what you posted was totally wrong. On second thought, maybe I did come to their defence.
Originally posted by zefiro
I have personally 'witnessed' multiple cases of Witness elders and above protecting child molesters ......
3 different congregations, 4 different abusers, 1 multiple abuser was an elder who's abuse was covered up for 30+ years. . .(One time he was punished, he lost his elder title for 6 months.) The accusers were all but told that to take this outside the faith would be against God. Repeatedly. . .like it was in a manual somewhere.
In the congregation I grew up in, over 50% were victims of sexual abuse, all but 3 were victims of physical abuse. Those numbers are so hard to believe that I generally don't mention them.
I'm not claiming any conspiracy that JW have planned to harbor predators,
a considerable claim considering that something that serious would never be a public case to the congregation
The headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Watchtower Society, requires all congregations to submit details of child abuse allegations and maintains a database on all cases of child abuse reported to them. Watchtower Society representative J. R. Brown stated in May 2002:
"We do not apologize for keeping such records here in the United States. Apart from being legally needed, they have been very helpful to us in our efforts to protect the flock from harm. Christian parents can rightly feel secure in the knowledge that such efforts are made to screen out possible child abusers from appointment to responsible positions within the congregation."[47]
The Watchtower Society has repeatedly refused to submit this sex offender database to authorities, claiming confidentiality based on ecclesiastical privilege.
Originally posted by zefiro
Well, if it had to be said, what was the policy before 2005?
And, how about this?
The headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Watchtower Society, requires all congregations to submit details of child abuse allegations and maintains a database on all cases of child abuse reported to them. Watchtower Society representative J. R. Brown stated in May 2002:
"We do not apologize for keeping such records here in the United States. Apart from being legally needed, they have been very helpful to us in our efforts to protect the flock from harm. Christian parents can rightly feel secure in the knowledge that such efforts are made to screen out possible child abusers from appointment to responsible positions within the congregation."[47]
The Watchtower Society has repeatedly refused to submit this sex offender database to authorities, claiming confidentiality based on ecclesiastical privilege.
---en.wikipedia.org...'s_Witnesses_and_child_sex_abuse#cite_note-15
You're right, this does sound a lot like the Catholics.