Announcement From Former Bethelites Regarding Abuse Cases

We're happy to announce that now all 5,000 pages of court records from the nine child sexual abuse lawsuits involving sixteen victims, settled by Watchtower in February 2007, are available for FREE download from our website, www.watchtowerdocuments.com.

There are a total of twelve files, besides a file containing a commentary explaining the lawsuits, and each file can be downloaded separately. Due to the fact that many people purchased the CD, "Secrets of Pedophilia in an American Religion," thus, reimbursing us for the expense to buy, compile and publish the court documents, there is now no reason to sell the material anymore. Thank you everybody who purchased the CD for you made it possible for these papers to be distributed throughout the world without any cost involved. We've left the CD for sale through Lulu for those who want to buy the professional-looking CD, but we expect the majority of people who are interested in this important information will probably download the files.

Never underestimate what some damning statement found in these court records will do to help some to think seriously about Watchtower's responsibility for making it possible that more children be molested by a JW pedophile because he was not reported to the police by Watchtower supervisors the first time he was accused.

For instance, in the TIM W. vs. Watchtower lawsuit, Watchtower records given to plaintiff's attorney during discovery show that between 1963 and 1993 (when elder/city overseer/pedophile, James Henderson's abuse of plaintiff Tim W. began), Watchtower had FIVE TIMES received reports from JW congregations that Henderson had committed sexual crimes. Merton Campbell, the Service Department's desk man in charge of California, who appointed elders and ministerial servants, appointed and reappointed Henderson again and again to positions of authority within Witness congregations after he would be removed for sexual abuse.

If any website owners want to advertise that these court records are available for free download, it would be greatly appreciated. Also, feel free to put all the lawsuit files and/or the commentary on your website.

Please pass the word that all court records from the "Secrets" CD can be downloaded for free from www.watchtowerdocuments.com

Barbara and Joe

Note: So now you can read for yourselves, to see what is true and what is not true.

Kingdom Ministry News

I just saw a copy of the January 2009 Kingdom Ministry. The whole look has been revamped and redesigned. It looks like an old Watchtower magazine.

Also, according to a report on the German XJW-board: http://forum.sektenausstieg.net/index.php?topic=13367.msg391400#msg391400 the German Kingdom Ministry for February 2009 does not contain a supplement with the publisher figures.
Furthermore, it does not contain the monthly report for the first month of the service year 2009 (Sep 08) as it used to for the past sixty years.
This may indicate that the Watchtower is not being transparent with their publishers numbers anymore. Maybe they just moved the figures to another month.
I don't know. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Christmas Greetings From The Watchtower Buble and Tract Society

Here are scans of several pages from the Watch Tower and Golden Age magazines (1908-1926) for Christmas. These, of course, are from when the JWs celebrated Christmas and are very pro-Christmas. The file, about 4.5 MB, can be downloaded from:
http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=8f7dae9a1077954b1728568a9dc71093
Christmas Greetings from the Watch Tower and the Golden Age!

I believe the last Bethel Christmas was 1926 and they stopped celebrating Christmas soon afterwards. How they passed the "spiritual inspection" in 1918 though they were still celebrating Christmas (and did so for many years afterwards) never made sense to me.
Two things in the file particularly stand out to me. The first is how the Bible Students (as JWs were called then) would personally deliver Christmas gifts back then. The ads from the Golden Age state that one could wire their Christmas order to Brooklyn and then headquarters would have the local congregation make the delivery of that order (one of their publications) as a Christmas present just in time. The second thing that stands out to me is the story of how the Christmas spirit overtook the Judge and the other Bible Students in the Atlanta penitentiary. The Feb 15, 1919 WT tells how the Bible Students showered JFR and the others Bible Students with many Christmas presents. There were several other inmates who did not have anything for Christmas, so the 8 Bible Students in prison distributed presents to those who had nothing for Christmas! A rather touching story, actually.

The New York Times Reported That Charles Russell Had An Affair

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D07E6DA1031E733A25752C0A9649C946897D6CF

A CHURCH FOR ALL CREEDS.; Man Called a "Jelly Fish" in Wife's Suit Starts New Movement.
February 1, 1909, Monday
Page 8, 799 words
The new undenominational religious movement, which "Pastor" Charles T. Russell explained last week in an open letter to ministers and Bible students of the city, began in Brooklyn yesterday afternoon in the old Plymouth-Bethel Church at 17 Hicks Street. This is the building where Henry Ward Beecher conducted missions.

The Watchtower And The Old Testament

Has anyone ever noticed how the Watchtower Society or individual Witnesses always use Old Testament / Old Covenant analogies in support of the modern day organizational authority structure? This is known as using a "false analogy".
It is not a coincidence that virtually every cult-like pseudo-Christian group uses them to enforce its man made authority structure.
First of all, the Old Covenant with its structure of authority and worship was done away with when Christ ushered in the New Covenant. The New Testament repeatedly refers to Jesus as the one and only high priest. It also states that there is only one head of the congregation - Christ Jesus; not a ruling body of ten men.
One thing that is absolutely clear and unambiguous in the New Testament, is that there is no longer any kind of temple / priesthood arrangement mediating between people and God. The Scriptures are crystal clear in referring to Jesus as the one and only mediator. There is only one mediator; not 144,000.
What was also done away with was the Talmud under which the Jews were subject. The system of Talmudic legalism (where the Pharisees tacked on countless additional "laws" and rulings to established Scripture) was rebuked by Jesus and the Apostles. This form of worship was referred to as "burdensome".
Legalism was a reoccurring problem in the newly formed Christian congregations in the first century. Men continuously attempted to go beyond the Scriptures and enforce their own human laws, standards, and rules under the guise of "pure worship". One only has to read the book of Galatians to see that Paul was quite blunt and forceful in his rebuking this kind of attitude.
We also see throughout the writings of Paul (most notably in the book of Galatians) that he invalidated the Watchtower’s modern day concept of a centralized Governing Body. Raymond Franz wrote an entire chapter in his book In Search of Christian Freedom explaining (Scripturally) the fallacy of centralized ruling bodies of men.
The Watchtower likes to continuously use Old Covenant analogies because on the surface, they seem logical and applicable, and Scriptural. But, Christians are no longer under that kind of arrangement. The Christian congregation is not under any kind of human mediatorship or priesthood.
When any group repeatedly uses Old Testament / Old Covenant analogies to promote or rationalize their authoritarian / legalistic power structure; they are guilty of using false analogies, logical fallacies, sophistry, and mind control. All of this rhetoric stems from intellectual dishonesty, delusions of grandeur, spiritual elitism, and arrogance.

De Judge hated Christmas!
The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that his underwear was to tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

But, whatever the reason,
His heart or the booze,
He stood there on Christmas Eve, hating more than the Jews,
Staring down from his thone with a sour, drunken frown
At the warm lighted windows were aglow in the town.
For he knew every Dub down in Dub-ville beneath
Was busy now, hanging a mistleoe wreath.

"And they're hanging their stockings!" he snarled with a sneer.
"Tomorrow is Christmas! It's practically here!"
Then he growled, with his fat fingers nervously drumming,
"I MUST find a way to keep Christmas from coming!"

The more de Judge thought, "I must stop this whole thing!
"Why for fifty-three years I've put up with it now!
I MUST stop Christmas from coming!
...But HOW?"

Then he got an idea! An awful idea!
THE JUDGE GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!

"I know just what to do!" de Judge croaked like a pigeon;
'I'll make the whole Christmas season, from pagan origin!'
he chuckled, and clucked, "What a great nifty trick!
"With the bible and booze, I'll just look like a prick!"

"All I need is a scripture..."
de Judge looked in The Book.
But he couldn't find nothing, the senile old crook.

Did that stop the old goat?
NO! The Judge simply said,
"If I can't find a reason, I'll make one instead!"

So he wrote in the Watchtower
"Christmas is bad!
If you keep celebrating
You'll make Jesus mad!"

THEN
He went with his spies
To observe all their deeds
Or if everyone out there
Would now listen and heed.

Then de Judge said, "Let's go!"
And the limo started down
Toward the homes where the Dubs
Lay a-snooze in their town.

When he came to the first little house on the square.
"This is stop number one," the old bastard declared;
And he took out his camera in his fat little fist;
And a pen and a paper to start up his list.

And what sight did greet him
The grumpy jack ass?
Not a wreath, or a candle, only silence en mass.

He got out of the car; rather hard for a pudge.
But, if Adolf could do it, then so could de Judge.
He got stuck only once, for a moment or two.
But his driver, with glee, kicked his ass with his shoe.

Then he drank and plotted, with an air that he'd won,
And decided to ban every day that was fun.
Mother's Day! Father's Day, and also Thanksgivin'
Were now on the books as of pagan origin.

But he went by some new converted Dub's place;
And saw in the window, a little girl's face;
Alone and so sad now he took all their fun
But de Judge didn't see anything wrong that he'd done.

He figured he'd probably save them a ton;
By banning everything in life that was fun;
‘No toys, no bikes' he grinned with a hiss;
‘Now they can spend all their time
Out in Field Ser-vice.

He stayed there the night;
To see what they'd do
They're finding out now that no Christmas is coming!
"BOO-HOO-HOO!

But the Dubs woke up early;
And sang Christmas carolls;
With all of their children;
Ted, Larry and Daryll.

And de Judge, with his heart made of snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?
"It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"

Then he drank from his bottle, then drank even more.
Then the Judge thought of something he hadn't before.
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"

And what happened then...?
Well...in Dub-ville they say
That de Judge's small heart
Shrank three sizes that day!

He had them all axed
From the ones they loved most;
To their family and friends;
They were now just a ghost.

Yes, welcome, welcome
One and all;
To the nightmare that is
the Kingdom Hall.

Note: Dub = Witnesses

These Freaks Seem To Be Everywhere Nowadays

http://www.theage.com.au/national/jail-for-dj-caught-in-child-porn-sting-20081203-6qo7.html
A MELBOURNE disc jockey who downloaded 227,411 pornographic images of children, some as young as five, has been jailed after being caught up in an Interpol investigation.
The County Court heard that Andrew Van Rossum, 34, became "addicted to child pornography to escape reality'' and had formed a belief that real people were not involved.
Judge Caroline Douglas ordered that he serve 20 months in jail immediately and then be released on a good behaviour order for 16 months.
In passing sentence she said the massive collection of pornography "condoned the exploitation of children by adults, which is unacceptable in a civilised society''.
"I have no explanation why you were sexually aroused by the images of children, some as young as five,'' she said.
The court was told that Van Rossum, a father of two, had become depressed after the failure of business enterprises, had started drinking heavily and became addicted to child pornography. He came to the attention of the Australian Federal Police Online Child Exploitation Team in August 2007 when Interpol in Austria revealed that he was one of 78 Australians identified as downloading child pornography. More than 6000 were identified worldwide.
Australian investigations revealed that in October 2007, while in a chatroom and talking to "pedo11111'' he had sent 137 pornographic images of children and received 133 through a sharing program. He later sent 317 images to the same man and received 57.
Police discovered a list of exchanges with others, numbering in the thousands.
The Jehovah's Witness, who pleaded guilty to the child pornography charges sat stern-faced as Judge Douglas went through his crimes. Police investigators raided his Clayton South home in December 2007 discovering a stash of child pornography, which he had collected over three years.
Judge Douglas said he would have continued offending if not for the intervention of the federal police.