Jehovah's Witness jailed for sexual offenses

A JEHOVAH’S Witness has been jailed for three and a half years for “a catalogue” of sexual offences on two schoolgirls more than 15 years ago. 

Sentencing 40-year-old Paul Wood, formerly of Sudbury, Judge David Goodin said that not surprisingly the impact of the offences on his two victims was still affecting them.

During a trial last year Ipswich Crown Court heard that Wood had indecently touched the girls’ breasts while play-fighting with them.

One of the victims also claimed that further incidents had taken place in Wood’s car when he had got her to touch him indecently over his clothing and had touched her over her clothing.

EADT24

Jehovah's Witnesses transform office

More than a dozen volunteers wielding hammers, saws, and paintbrushes are busy renovating a former insurance office near downtown Toledo into a place of worship.

The Jehovah's Witnesses' Midtown Kingdom Hall, at the intersection of Cherry and Sherman streets, will be home to four congregations when it opens next month.

When one of those congregations meets, the entire service will be conducted in American Sign Language.

THE BLADE

North Park Kingdom Hall Torched, again

The non-injury fire at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in the 2000 block of Adams Avenue was reported at midnight, according to a San Diego fire-rescue dispatcher. It took firefighters about 15 minutes to knock down the blaze.

10 news  

Vandals hit kingdom hall for the third time in two weeks

AZERBAIJAN FINES JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

Six Jehovah's Witnesses in Azerbaijan's second city Gyanja have been given heavy fines for meeting for worship without the compulsory state registration, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Only one of the fines was reduced at Gyanja Appeal Court today (14 December), leaving the total of the fines at 9,500 Manats (72,330 Norwegian Kroner, 9,300 Euros, or 12,090 US Dollars). This was described to Forum 18 as a "massive sum" by local standards.

READ MORE FORUM 18

Inquest over death of Jehovah's Witness

AN inquest hearing began this week into the death of a Jehovah’s Witness who died after a routine hospital procedure went tragically wrong.

An inquest at Bootle Town Hall heard on Monday (December 5) how grandmother-of-three Jean Gilman was admitted to Whiston Hospital in March 2009 after going to her GP complaining of shortness of breath.

X-rays showed that the 59-year-old had fluid on her left lung which needed to be removed by a pleural aspiration.

However, rather than follow British Thoracic Society guidelines and use an ultrasound machine to locate the fluid, a doctor instead attempted to guess where to insert the needle.

St Helens Reporter

Artificial Blood for Jehovah's Witnesses

Earlier this week, the New Scientist reported a new benchmark in the race to create an artificial substitute for blood. For the first time, some lab-developed blood was safely transplanted into a volunteer. The amount transferred was tiny—about 10 million red blood cells, or 2 milliliters of blood. Nevertheless, this is a remarkable advance because previous attempts to manufacture blood have bumped up against safety concerns.

“The results show that an unlimited blood reserve is in reach,” one researcher tells the New Scientist. Artificial blood would go a long way toward alleviating the perpetual shortages experienced both here and abroad—particularly in countries where blood-borne diseases like HIV/AIDS are more prevalent.

As with recent progress in creating synthetic meat, this advance raises an interesting ethical question: Would Jehovah’s Witnesses, who famously refuse to accept transfusions, permit the medical procedures if the blood came not from a man but from an artificial source? Digital Journal reports that a Jehovah’s Witness in India was able to undergo knee replacement surgery—which typically requires blood transfusions—by submitting to a workaround technique called an auto transfusion. A surgeon tells Digital Journal that in this procedure, a “patient’s blood get collected in a filtered reservoir connected to the replaced knee. This blood is then transfused back to the patient within six hours. This obviates the need for any blood transfusion thus minimizing the risks associated with it.”

SLATE

The Kid's Got Game

The NBA scout made his annual rounds, checking in with his sources about prospects.

Among his West Coast connections, he heard a similar story: There is a 7-footer, a lean and athletic kid who plays aggressively. Runs like a deer.

Los Angles Times

Russian Branch Overseer Guilty of Extremism

A regional court in Russia’s Altai region found the local head of the Jehovah's Witnesses guilty of extremism on Thursday and sentenced him to 100 hours of community service.

The Jehovah's Witnesses is an international religious organization. Many representatives of more traditional religions consider it to be a totalitarian pseudo-Christian sect.

RIA-NOVOSTI

Jehovah's Witness forgives attackers

AN elderly grandfather who appealed to a judge not to jail two men who viciously attacked him said he blames himself for the incident that left him battered and bruised.

Michael Leech (74) said he forgave his assailants because he is a Jehovah's Witness.

He received a broken nose, black eyes, bruising and lacerations to his face and lost teeth after he confronted teenagers throwing bangers at cars in Athea on the Halloween night.

“If I hadn't gone over and grabbed him by the shirt and said: 'What the blooming hell do you think you're blasting well doing' -- it wouldn't have happened, would it?

Read more  -  INDEPENDENT IRELAND

Jehovah's Witnesses to sell Irish HQ

HE JEHOVAHS WITNESSES are to sell their Irish headquarters at Newcastle, Co Wicklow. Lucy Connolly of commercial property agents Mason Owen Lyons is quoting a guide price of €4.5 million for Watch Tower House, which extends to 2,915 sq m (31,380 sq ft) and stands on a site of 3.24 hectares (eight acres). It is about 30 minutes’ drive from Dublin.

The decision to sell the Newcastle facility has been prompted by a worldwide restructuring of the congregation. In future, the administrative functions will be taken over by the British branch and the growing number of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ireland will be catered for in 115 separate units already functioning around the country. The congregation has about 6,000 members on both sides of the Border and baptised 140 new members last year, according to spokesman Darren Fuller. He said the sale of the HQ would not have any effect on their activities and it was hoped that the congregation would continue to grow in the future.

IRISH TIMES

Max Larson has died

Max Larson, president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, who helped to pioneer the printing operations and property acquisitions for Jehovah’s Witnesses at their world headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, died on Saturday, Sept. 24, in Brooklyn at 96.

Larson was well-known and highly regarded around the world by both Witnesses and non-Witnesses, not only for his strong work ethic and publishing expertise, but especially for the gracious and dignified manner in which he dealt with others. He was baptized into the Jehovah’s Witnesses on June 5, 1938, in Seattle, Washington. A few months later, he began his career as a member of the Witnesses’ headquarters staff in Brooklyn, where he was assigned to operate a printing press.

BROOKLYN EAGLE

Watchtower article creates furor in UK

The official magazine for Jehovah's Witnesses has described those who leave the church as "mentally diseased", prompting an outcry from former members and insiders concerned about the shunning of those who question official doctrine.

An article published in July's edition of The Watchtower warns followers to stay clear of "false teachers" who are condemned as being "mentally diseased" apostates who should be avoided at all costs. "Suppose that a doctor told you to avoid contact with someone who is infected with a contagious, deadly disease," the article reads. "You would know what the doctor means, and you would strictly heed his warning. Well, apostates are 'mentally diseased', and they seek to infect others with their disloyal teachings."

A copy of the magazine, distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses around the world, was given to The Independent by a current member of the church who has become unhappy with official teaching but is afraid to leave for fear of losing his family.

"Many like me remain associated with the Witnesses out of fear of being uncovered as an 'apostate' and ousted, not just from the organisation, but from their own friends and families," said the man, who would only give the name John. "I find I am now branded as 'mentally diseased' – giving any who discover my true beliefs free licence to treat me with disdain."

THE INDEPENDENT

THE TELEGRAPH reports police inquirey into Watchtower "hate speech."

Ponzi scam targetted Jehovah's Witnesses

The company collapsed into bankruptcy in 2009; the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a civil complaint filed this week that founder Doris “Dee” Nelson raised about $135 million from more than 650 investors from 1999 to 2008. About 75 percent of the investors were members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination, court records say.

About half of those investors didn’t recover their initial investment, although many received interest payments on their investments, according to Bruce Kriegman, bankruptcy trustee. Some investors were able to withdraw their principal investment plus interest before the payday loan business failed. But about 50 investors have not received anything – the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme where early investors are repaid with deposits of new investors.

THE SPOKEMAN REVIEW

Jehovah's Witnesses sue media

Last November, H1 TV broadcast a series of reports claiming that Arman Torosyan, charged with the murder of his parents in the town of Sevan, was a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The religious organization has taken the TV station to court to force the station to retract the statement and has filed a slander suit.

It seems the TV station had interviewed neighbours who said that they had heard Arman shout, “I am carrying out the orders of the god Jehova and I am murdering the devils on his orders”, upon leaving the family’s apartment.

At today’s preliminary hearing at Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative Court, the plaintiff’s lawyer asked the court for a postponement.

H1 TV has prepared a retraction for the religious group to review.

The next court date has been scheduled for November 9.

hetq journalists

Mob assaults JW family in India

A mob viciously assaulted a family of Jehovah's Witnesses  in India's southern state of Karnataka. The family of five, which included an infant 18-months old, and a 60 year-old woman was severely  beaten in a village near Dharmasthala.

According to report from the Jehovah's Witnesses official website, the family was returning from visiting a neighbor who had shown interest in learning about the Jehovah's Witnesses religion when a mob accosted them and accused them of forcibly converting people to the Jehovah's Witnesses religion. The mob severely beat two male members of the family with fists and sticks and struck the 18 month-old baby in its mother's arms. The mob also verbally abused the women and threatened them with rape.

The police, according to report, initially refused to accept complaint by the Witnesses while accepting complaint lodged by the attackers who said that the Jehovah's Witness family had tried to forcibly convert non-Jehovah's Witnesses.  The police allowed the Jehovah's Witnesses to lodge complaint only after they had detained the family for seven hours in spite of the fact they had suffered injuries during the attack.

GOD DISCUSSION

Big deal - Watchtower selling out

As the Jehovah’s Witnesses prepare to move their headquarters out of Brooklyn, where their Watchtower sign has long been a fixture of the cityscape, they are selling two town houses, two brownstones and a carriage house on prime Brooklyn Heights blocks.

The five properties, with combined asking prices of $18.8 million, are going on the market this weekend. They join three that went up for sale a few weeks ago, and are also among 35 borough properties that have housed staff members and hosted out-of-town guests for more than a century. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the legal and publishing entity of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, has bought a 250-acre forested plot in Warwick, N.Y., a small town on the New Jersey border, and is moving ahead with plans to build a self-contained campus there.

The group is still awaiting final approval and permits for its plans in Warwick. But it has been selling properties scattered around Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo.

After an initial wave of sales — including 360 Furman Street, now the luxury waterfront condo One Brooklyn Bridge Park — the group waited out the market tumult before listing the eight properties, according to Richard Devine, a spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses who handles property management.

A living room in the town house at 34 Orange Street.The Jehovah’s Witnesses opened their world headquarters in Brooklyn in 1909, after moving from Allegheny, Pa. They chose the borough because of its proximity to both the shipping hub of the country and the New York publishing industry, where they would produce and distribute their Watchtower magazine and Bible-based literature.

CHRISTIAN POST  More - NEW YORK TIMES

Jehovah's Witness denies sex charges

A Suffolk Jehovah’s Witness accused of sexually assaulting three girls tried to rape one of them while his wife was in hospital having their second child, it has been alleged.

Paul Wood tried to force himself on the 14-year-old girl at his home in Sudbury and allegedly hit her in the face, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

As a result of the alleged blow the girl suffered a cut to her face and thought she may have lost consciousness, said Andrew Thompson, prosecuting.

Three years later in 2000 the girl and another alleged victim told Jehovah’s Witnesses elders in west Suffolk about what Wood had allegedly done to them but it was left to the girls to decide if they wanted to go to the police.

“It was left very much to these two young people to decide if they wanted the police involved. The decision wasn’t taken by the elders and as the girls didn’t want to go to the police nothing was done in 2000,” said Mr Thompson.

EADT24 (East Anglia Daliy Times)

Vicar fury at new home for Jehovah's Witnesses

A VICAR’S passionate plea for councillors to reject the Jehovah’s Witnesses plans for a new place of worship has fallen on deaf ears.

The religious group has been given permission to relocate from the Kingdom Hall in Tweedmouth’s West End to Scremerston.

Rev Matthew Knox, Vicar of Tweedmouth and priest in charge of St Peter’s Church in Scremerston, argued the plan should be turned down because it is not a place of Christian worship as stated in the application.

He said: “This is not a Christian denomination and so it is misleading to use the phrase ‘Christian place of worship’ in its application.

“This new religious movement, adopting its name in 1931, departs from key traditional Christian doctrines and practices and disassociates itself from all main Christian denominations.

“It is not part of Churches Together in Berwick, it has its own translation of the bible and to my knowledge discourages independent thinking with the real threat of members being shunned by all other members if they dispute their governing body’s official doctrine.

THE BERWICK ADVISER

  JOURNAL LIVE

South Korea High Court Denies JW's

"After four Jehovah's Witnesses in South Korea who refused military service as conscientious objectors challenged the law, an August 30, 2011, ruling by the Constitutional Court of South Korea has said that there is no basis to declare unconstitutional the laws penalizing conscientious objectors who refuse military service.

Though a 2004  ruling on the country's Military Service Act held that legislators were obliged to make an alternative provision accommodating conscientious objectors, 5000 conscientious objectors, all young men with no criminal records, have been convicted in past 7 years. In spite of the United Nations Human Rights Committee criticism that South Korea's Military Service Act violates basic human rights, the state continues to convict persons who refuse military service on religious belief grounds....

The Jehovah's Witnesses media website says that, more than 16,000 Jehovah's Witnesses have been sentenced to a combined total of 31,256 years, since 1950, for refusing to perform military service and about 500 to 900 will continue to be convicted each year.

Many observers of the Jehovah's Witnesses policy of refusing military service approve of it as based on sound New Testament principles and praise Jehovah Witness's pacifism as refreshingly different in a world of  the "Christian Nationalism" of fundamentalist evangelicals which overtly promotes aggressive and militant foreign policy on a  reading of the Old Testament in preference to the Christian New Testament.

MORE GOD DISCUSSION

Conviction upheld of man who assaulted JW's

The Appeals Court has upheld the conviction of a Newton man on charges that, apparently irritated by the frequency of visits by Jehovah’s Witnesses, he assaulted and injured two older women hoping to proselytize him on his front walkway.

Defendant Neal Farber, upon realizing that the women were ringing the doorbell of his home with the intention of speaking to him about the Bible, yelled at the women to leave, saying “Nobody wants you around here.”

As they turned to walk away, Farber then shoved each in the back with his hands, knocking one, Margaret Johns, to the ground. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital where she was treated for a broken bone in her arm and two fractures of her rotator cuff.

At trial, Farber testified that he had told other Jehovah’s Witnesses on a number of occasions not to come to his door and that he was offended by the women’s attempt to convert him to a religion he said was “full of shit.” But he denied pushing them, saying they stumbled on their own from some broken tiles on the walk.

THE DOCKET