He would ask me a question and I would answer. Without responding to what I wrote either to ask for clarification or rebut what I wrote, he would then ask a question on a different topic. Thus, we had very few real "conversations" in which we discussed anything in-depth. They see the Bible as the main way in which God communicates his will to human beings, and they interpret it literally except for passages that are obviously meant to be symbolic or poetic.
Witnesses test any religious idea or teaching against the Bible - if an idea or teaching doesn't agree with the Bible then they regard it as wrong. The Bible itself reveals why it is so accurate in scientific, historical, and other matters and why it is so harmonious and honest.
He merely used human Bible writers as his penmen, moving them by his powerful active force to put down what he inspired them to write. While they don't regard them as scripture, Witnesses greatly respect the various doctrinal articles published in The Watchtower.
Charles Taze Russell's books Studies in Scriptures are respected but are no longer circulated or relied upon. This belief is based on the Greek words used in the Bible for the cross, which literally translate as 'stake' and 'tree'. Modern Witnesses regard the Cross as a pagan symbol and do not use it, although it was accepted by the movement until This is because the Bible makes it clear that human beings do not have an immortal soul that survives when the body dies.
The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all Witnesses believe that Hell as traditionally portrayed does not exist. There is no place where sinners are tormented after death - since their existence is over, nothing can be done to them or for them.
Still, Watchtower did not comply. An appellate court overturned the ruling, saying the judge should have sanctioned Watchtower incrementally; the case was settled for an undisclosed sum in January Exactly how many alleged pedophiles are named in the database has been the source of wide-ranging speculation.
In , one former elder said the number was 23, Watchtower would not comment on the number at the time except to say that it was considerably lower. During the Lopez trial, a Watchtower attorney estimated that the organization had received blue envelopes from to , but did not say how many it had received since then.
Perhaps most tellingly, in , an Australian investigation found that the perpetrators listed in the database represented 1. Assuming the percentage is comparable in the U. In , the U. Last year, in the Netherlands, then—Justice Minister Sander Dekker urged Watchtower to conduct an independent investigation into hundreds of abuse allegations received via a special hotline.
Watchtower declined. By the time Mark told Kimmy about the Conti trial, in August , she was starting to see things differently, too—enough that she decided to read the trial transcript. Now she began to open up. She told Mark about how her mother would lock her and her two siblings in their bedrooms or the basement for days with no food and only a litter box for a toilet.
How she would keep them up all night by banging on pots and pans, then send them to school delirious and malnourished. But Kimmy did tell. As a year-old, she went to the elders in her congregation for help. They discouraged her from seeking counseling, because a therapist might blame the religion or get the authorities involved. Finally, the elders asked Kimmy a question: If her mother did end up killing her, could that prevent Jehovah from resurrecting her at Armageddon?
This time, the elders said they would need a second eyewitness before they could intervene. Years later, she would learn that her brother had already reported the abuse to the same elders. When she read the transcript of the Conti trial, she discovered that it was Watchtower doctrine and had been used for decades to prevent other abused children from getting help. Soon, both she and Mark would leave the organization for good. Close friends stared at their feet when Kimmy ran into them at Walmart.
His business faltered. He and Kimmy had some savings to fall back on and would find other tenants. Mark told Evans his story and thanked him for the work he was doing. To his surprise, Evans wrote back, suggesting some online ex-Witness groups he should join. As he connected with ex-Witnesses around the world, he was struck by how similar their accounts were to his own. He began writing about his experiences on Facebook.
His posts spurred conversations among former Witnesses, giving him a new sense of purpose. By a strange twist of fate, one member, Geoffrey Jackson, was in Australia at the time, tending to his sick father. Watchtower had managed to avoid a subpoena by claiming that the Governing Body was strictly advisory and played no role in creating policy. Stewart used the manual to subpoena Jackson. It was an emotional moment for those whose abuse Watchtower had denied. Perhaps, Mark thought, his extensive collection of Watchtower ephemera and his encyclopedic knowledge of the religion could be used for something other than recruiting.
The conference marked the first time that Mark used his real name as an activist, figuring the Witnesses he knew in Baltimore were unlikely to hear about the small overseas gathering. In , a PIMO man and his girlfriend began walking into Kingdom Halls in Massachusetts, opening locked file cabinets with a set of stolen keys, and removing or making copies of sealed documents.
They had heard chatter about Watchtower covering up child abuse and, at first, simply wanted to see the evidence themselves. Most of the documents they took were letters between local elders and Watchtower headquarters, or from one congregation to another, discussing the alleged sins of individual congregants. A woman was disfellowshipped for having sex with her ex-husband when he came over to plow her driveway during a snowstorm. In total, 12 individuals are named as suspected child molesters, though missing documents make it difficult to piece together some of the stories.
In the s, we started to use the radio to spread the message from the Bible. And in some senses, the current street drive is a return to previous tactics. The Jehovah's Witnesses, with a global membership of almost eight million people, believes that we are now living in the "end times", says Holden, but that this will only be fulfilled when the "true" word of God has been ministered to the ends of the earth.
Image source, Getty Images. Jehovah's Witnesses at a glance. Headquarters of the movement in New York Although Christian-based, the group believes that the traditional Christian Churches have deviated from the true teachings of the Bible, and do not work in full harmony with God The traditional Christian Church does not regard the movement as a mainstream Christian denomination because it rejects the Christian doctrine of the Trinity Jehovah's witnesses believe that humanity is now in the 'last days' and that the final battle between good and evil will happen soon.
Famous witnesses. Related Topics.
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