There is a lot to say regarding a parent that gets involved in a custody battle with Jehovah's Witnesses. The religion keeps fourteen lawyers on staff with a vow of poverty to coach members into misleading the court as to the real belief and practices that children will be required to follow as active members. While religion is always a sticky subject before a judge the facts must answer to what is in the best interests of the child. JWs doctrine require that the child isolate themselves from society, alienate themselves from the non witness parent, and in the event of emergency choose death before accepting a blood transfusion. Would you want your child in this environment? To show the court how this happens and why will often result in a favorable judgment for the non witness parent. The key is to break down the facts as to what is expected of the child and what they will be required to practice as a church going member. Example? Five meetings a week, preparation for those meetings, door to door sales each week of church literature, no socialization with any child outside the religion, no holidays, no higher education, no school activities, absolute belief that all mankind will be destroyed by God (including non JW family) at any minute with the only exception being JWs.
The child becomes withdrawn from emotional attachment to non JW family members as they are taught since they are going to be killed by God it is better not to get too close to them. This is often stated by members to children. Does this foster normal family interaction? Children are torn between two worlds as a simple choice of life or death depending on whether they choose to follow church doctrine or try to have normal relations with both parents. Helping the court to understand this can be accomplished by carefully prepared depositions that help explain how the indoctrination works as well as showing previous court rulings that show "best interests" cannot be dictated by a religion. While this may seem to be a daunting task if it is approached in a methodical way the judge will have a simple decision to make with the evidence at hand. We hope this information is helpful to explaining the difficult position of many parents when faced with these issues on custody matters.
JWCC
Monday, June 25, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Bible Conversions Versus Free Home Bible Study Programs
The Bible itself shows Phillip converted the Ethiopian as they drove along a road (Acts 8), Paul converted Cornelius and his household in a single talk (Acts 10), Paul and Silas quickly converted a jailer and his household (Acts 16:30-33), and thousands converted instantly in Jerusalem. (Acts 2;41; 4:4)
Why were neither publications nor long study programs needed? The message was not lengthy with lots of laws or rules, but said accept the bright light of the resurrection hope that Jesus Christ is the Messiah or Savior rather than stay in unrepentant darkness keeping you dead. (John 3)
About 50 years after the apostles a summary was distributed of what they had taught for becoming Christians and it agreed with what Christ said at John 3, adding who Mary and Pontius Pilate were and that Christ was dead 3 days before resurrected. It is called the Apostles’ Creed and virtually all Protestant as well as Catholic branches of the Christian faith accept it.
Today some churches offer excellent studies of the Bible. However also beware that some tell people to study their material about the Bible as part of a one year or continuous program (some at first offering short booklets with pictures to ease prospects into much longer works) because this helps them implant their group’s additional views or rules they want you to think credible. This is done by their writers mixing selected comments by historians etc to bolster or slant matters.
People offering such studies or programs may themselves be sincere and dressed nice as angels at your very door but an end agenda can be to enslave others to views, sometimes deadly, of their living or deceased human leaders, not the kindness of Christ or lasting joyful fellowship. By accepting a “free” program of Bible study, years later people have found it necessary to de-program to become truly free again. (Jn 8:32)
Why were neither publications nor long study programs needed? The message was not lengthy with lots of laws or rules, but said accept the bright light of the resurrection hope that Jesus Christ is the Messiah or Savior rather than stay in unrepentant darkness keeping you dead. (John 3)
About 50 years after the apostles a summary was distributed of what they had taught for becoming Christians and it agreed with what Christ said at John 3, adding who Mary and Pontius Pilate were and that Christ was dead 3 days before resurrected. It is called the Apostles’ Creed and virtually all Protestant as well as Catholic branches of the Christian faith accept it.
Today some churches offer excellent studies of the Bible. However also beware that some tell people to study their material about the Bible as part of a one year or continuous program (some at first offering short booklets with pictures to ease prospects into much longer works) because this helps them implant their group’s additional views or rules they want you to think credible. This is done by their writers mixing selected comments by historians etc to bolster or slant matters.
People offering such studies or programs may themselves be sincere and dressed nice as angels at your very door but an end agenda can be to enslave others to views, sometimes deadly, of their living or deceased human leaders, not the kindness of Christ or lasting joyful fellowship. By accepting a “free” program of Bible study, years later people have found it necessary to de-program to become truly free again. (Jn 8:32)
Monday, June 11, 2007
Jesus was no Jehovah's Witness
In response to this article the following comments are offered,
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070609/LIVING/706090311/1004
Jesus was no Jehovah’s Witness
In a recently prepared press statement a JW representative stated, “Witnesses consider Jesus as the greatest of Jehovah's Witnesses." This comment is considered the ultimate insult for thousands of victims of abuse. The Jehovah’s Witnesses District Convention theme this year is called “Follow the Christ” it is an attempt to say they have the blueprint to serving Jesus. If Jesus Christ were on earth today would he show up at JW headquarters and say, “You guys got it right”?
For thousands of victims they would wonder if Jesus had gone insane. You see, Jehovah’s Witnesses have many inconsistencies to their beliefs that would brand any person that claims leadership of this group as the ultimate hypocrite.
Jesus Christ loved children and if there was anything that set apart his ministry it was his message that protecting children was to be the highest priority in practicing his precepts. When Christ disciples more than once tried to shuffle him to what they thought was more important affairs he would remind them to take time in the interest of little ones. (Matt. 19:14)
Jehovah’s Witnesses as a group have over 1,000,000 children that are part of their organization worldwide. This represents a tremendous responsibility for a group that claims to “follow the Christ.” So how do these self proclaimed ambassadors of Christ measure up with regard to their children? Would Christ be proud of the way they treat their children? Let’s look at a few of their directives in that regard.
Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that accepting blood for medical emergency is a sin against God. They use the scripture at Acts that states “Abstain from blood” to be taken as literal with regard to medical treatment. The result is it is estimated that over 130 JW children die each year due to this self imposed directive. Jehovah’s Witnesses hold these dead children up as martyrs for the faith and have advertised them in their publications as the ultimate measure of true faith in God. What would Jesus do?
Child abuse within religion has been reported by the media extensively in the last five years. Jehovah’s Witness victims have come forward to report they were abused and silenced by polices of the church. In extreme cases as many as 60 JW children have been abused by one Jehovah’s Witness due to how abuse allegations are covered up within the congregation. When victims tried to report the problem the church had a solution, disfellowship them and cut them off from their friends and family by shunning. The media was told the JW policy was far superior to any other religion with regard to handling abuse. While they denied any wrongdoing in the Spring of 2007 they paid one of the largest settlements ever to silence sixteen victims that sued the church for how they were hurt by the “superior” policy that church leaders bragged to media about. That policy include s a da tabase of over 25,000 JW child molesters known only to the church that as members have continued access to children. Over 80% of these JW database molesters are protected by the twisted misapplication of the first amendment to protect their “religious right” to confidentiality. These molesters are required to “preach the good news,” that is they must go to the homes of the public at large and offer free home bible studies with the unknowing families they meet. Sadly many of these bible study children have been molested as well. Would you really want people with this twisted sense of reality directing you on how to “Follow the Christ?”
When Jesus Christ gave his ‘Sermon on the Mount’ he offered many fine principles to live life by. One comment that he made was at Matt. 5:16 where he stated, “Let your light shine before men that they may see your fine works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.” The implication was that how you lived your life and treated others would show if you were truly an example that would make God proud.
How do Jehovah’s Witnesses measure up in this regard? They are one of the largest literature distribution facilities on earth. They distribute over one billion pieces of literature a year that results on over one billion dollars of income to just their New York corporation each year. The labor to print, distribute and deliver this to your door is free and the money is protected by religious non profit status. For their size the corporation owns more property than any religion in their category and are so wealthy they continue to amass property holdings around the world. Members are told to forgo education and “keep their eye simple” while leadership travels around the world and are treated like royalty.
So by the Jehovah’s Witness ethical code, the proper way to follow Christ is to, needlessly kill children by an interpretation of a biblical edict on blood, allow the molestation of thousands of children using church policy to silence them, protect the privacy of child molesters while allowing them access to more children, and using slave labor that includes children to make yourself one of the wealthiest religions on the face of the earth.
Based on these facts, if Jesus were here on earth today would he want this group calling him their greatest Jehovah’s Witness? Perhaps he might instead repeat the following comment he used to address a similar group in his day. At Matthew 23: 27, 28 Christ stated, “Woe to YOU, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because YOU resemble whitewashed graves, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful but inside are full of dead men’s bones and of every sort of uncleanness. 28 In that way YOU also, outwardly indeed, appear righteous to men, but inside YOU are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Yes if Jesus was walking along and found a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses trying to follow him he might think twice about where he went as he would not want to give God a bad name or allow the public to think that in any way he supported what they represent. Jesus was no Jehovah’s Witness and would have considered it an insult of the lowest form if someone called him by what that name has come to represent.
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070609/LIVING/706090311/1004
Jesus was no Jehovah’s Witness
In a recently prepared press statement a JW representative stated, “Witnesses consider Jesus as the greatest of Jehovah's Witnesses." This comment is considered the ultimate insult for thousands of victims of abuse. The Jehovah’s Witnesses District Convention theme this year is called “Follow the Christ” it is an attempt to say they have the blueprint to serving Jesus. If Jesus Christ were on earth today would he show up at JW headquarters and say, “You guys got it right”?
For thousands of victims they would wonder if Jesus had gone insane. You see, Jehovah’s Witnesses have many inconsistencies to their beliefs that would brand any person that claims leadership of this group as the ultimate hypocrite.
Jesus Christ loved children and if there was anything that set apart his ministry it was his message that protecting children was to be the highest priority in practicing his precepts. When Christ disciples more than once tried to shuffle him to what they thought was more important affairs he would remind them to take time in the interest of little ones. (Matt. 19:14)
Jehovah’s Witnesses as a group have over 1,000,000 children that are part of their organization worldwide. This represents a tremendous responsibility for a group that claims to “follow the Christ.” So how do these self proclaimed ambassadors of Christ measure up with regard to their children? Would Christ be proud of the way they treat their children? Let’s look at a few of their directives in that regard.
Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that accepting blood for medical emergency is a sin against God. They use the scripture at Acts that states “Abstain from blood” to be taken as literal with regard to medical treatment. The result is it is estimated that over 130 JW children die each year due to this self imposed directive. Jehovah’s Witnesses hold these dead children up as martyrs for the faith and have advertised them in their publications as the ultimate measure of true faith in God. What would Jesus do?
Child abuse within religion has been reported by the media extensively in the last five years. Jehovah’s Witness victims have come forward to report they were abused and silenced by polices of the church. In extreme cases as many as 60 JW children have been abused by one Jehovah’s Witness due to how abuse allegations are covered up within the congregation. When victims tried to report the problem the church had a solution, disfellowship them and cut them off from their friends and family by shunning. The media was told the JW policy was far superior to any other religion with regard to handling abuse. While they denied any wrongdoing in the Spring of 2007 they paid one of the largest settlements ever to silence sixteen victims that sued the church for how they were hurt by the “superior” policy that church leaders bragged to media about. That policy include s a da tabase of over 25,000 JW child molesters known only to the church that as members have continued access to children. Over 80% of these JW database molesters are protected by the twisted misapplication of the first amendment to protect their “religious right” to confidentiality. These molesters are required to “preach the good news,” that is they must go to the homes of the public at large and offer free home bible studies with the unknowing families they meet. Sadly many of these bible study children have been molested as well. Would you really want people with this twisted sense of reality directing you on how to “Follow the Christ?”
When Jesus Christ gave his ‘Sermon on the Mount’ he offered many fine principles to live life by. One comment that he made was at Matt. 5:16 where he stated, “Let your light shine before men that they may see your fine works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.” The implication was that how you lived your life and treated others would show if you were truly an example that would make God proud.
How do Jehovah’s Witnesses measure up in this regard? They are one of the largest literature distribution facilities on earth. They distribute over one billion pieces of literature a year that results on over one billion dollars of income to just their New York corporation each year. The labor to print, distribute and deliver this to your door is free and the money is protected by religious non profit status. For their size the corporation owns more property than any religion in their category and are so wealthy they continue to amass property holdings around the world. Members are told to forgo education and “keep their eye simple” while leadership travels around the world and are treated like royalty.
So by the Jehovah’s Witness ethical code, the proper way to follow Christ is to, needlessly kill children by an interpretation of a biblical edict on blood, allow the molestation of thousands of children using church policy to silence them, protect the privacy of child molesters while allowing them access to more children, and using slave labor that includes children to make yourself one of the wealthiest religions on the face of the earth.
Based on these facts, if Jesus were here on earth today would he want this group calling him their greatest Jehovah’s Witness? Perhaps he might instead repeat the following comment he used to address a similar group in his day. At Matthew 23: 27, 28 Christ stated, “Woe to YOU, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because YOU resemble whitewashed graves, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful but inside are full of dead men’s bones and of every sort of uncleanness. 28 In that way YOU also, outwardly indeed, appear righteous to men, but inside YOU are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Yes if Jesus was walking along and found a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses trying to follow him he might think twice about where he went as he would not want to give God a bad name or allow the public to think that in any way he supported what they represent. Jesus was no Jehovah’s Witness and would have considered it an insult of the lowest form if someone called him by what that name has come to represent.
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