Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower in the news. The good, the bad and the ugly.
Over the years I have tried to present certain ideas to the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Back in the late 90’s I wrote several essays and sent them to the Governing Body and others. But after 2001 I realized that the real problem was the leadership. So, I tentatively began publishing on the Internet in 2002. After a couple of years, though, I was impelled to [...]
A man who pleaded guilty to raping two underage girls he met through the Jehovah's Witness congregation they all belonged to has been sentenced to five years in prison — a "relief" to his victims. Elihu Rodriguez, 32, of Yakima, Washington, was given five years, the maximum sentence prosecutors had asked for, after Rodriguez pleaded guilty to three felony counts of child rape in the third [...]
Last week, police near Norilsk, in northern Russia, raided a campsite where more than 50 Jehovah’s Witness followers had gathered to pray. It was the latest example of an escalating crackdown on Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are targeted simply for practicing their faith. Members of the Jehovah’s Witness community who are close to those who were at the campsite told Human Rights Watch that 15 armed and masked special operations [...]
Jehovah's Witnesses church elders in New Zealand have been told to destroy documents, and child sex abuse survivors fear that will lead to the cover up of cases. A survivor network has given the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care copies of the church's edicts, urging the commissioners to take action. It has approached the church, which it said assured the commission such documents [...]
More than 100 believers were summoned by law enforcement and investigated, numerous foreign missionaries arrested and deported from China. While actively involved in espionage internationally, either by exporting Huawei’s network technology to monitor people abroad, sending student spies to American universities, or employing overseas Chinese to work as its agents, the CCP has also formed a massive spy ring to monitor what China’s residents say or believe in. At the same time, foreign [...]
he Jehovah's Witnesses announced plans to build a 1.5 million-square-foot audio-visual production center in Upstate New York, two miles away from the Witnesses' headquarters in Warwick. The organization plans to create more videos with parenting device, despite a recent bombshell investigation alleging wide-scale child abuse and coverups. Robert Zick, a Jehovah's Witnesses spokesman, told The Times Herald-Record that the media center is a response to the general public's [...]
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society announced plans to build an enormous audio-visual production center on land partly in Tuxedo but mostly in Ramapo. Members of the nonprofit group, better known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, plan to use the building to consolidate and expand various multi-media production offices, which they say make materials about living a principled life. The new 1.5 million-square-foot facility would be almost [...]
Diane Lynn was just a toddler when her mother was door-knocked by a Jehovah's Witness, offering the hope of a future of paradise on Earth. Instead, Ms Lynn was subjected to years of sexual abuse at the hands of a member of her mother's new congregation. And when she finally found the courage to speak out she was greeted with inaction and cover-ups, even as the abuse continued. Ms [...]
Two lawsuits being filed this week are targeting the leadership of the Jehovah's Witnesses for what the plaintiffs claim is a history of child sexual abuse. Heather Steele, 48, and John Michael Ewing, 48, were abused as children, but they're filing suits this Wednesday, when New York's new Child Victims Act goes into effect. Signed earlier this year, the measure removes the statute of limitations on [...]
The Supreme Court of Russia is set to judge whether Jehovah's Witnesses can be considered as an “extremist” body. This came after the Russian Justice Ministry made its application for an order which will shut the national headquarters of this group. Jehovah's Witnesses has its base near St. Petersburg. The website of the Russian Supreme Court announced a legal team would get together on April 5 [...]
