I wanted some different commentary on this matter than I saw on another forum

New archaeological evidence:

This is a nice article about archaeological finds, what caught my attention is the use of 586 BCE as the date for the destruction of Jerusalem.

According to biblical descriptions, in 586 BCE, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar vanquished the Judaean king Zedekiah and razed his capital city, Jerusalem. The Babylonian captain of the guard Nebuzaradan was dispatched into the city, where, as told in the Book of Jeremiah, he “burned the house of the Lord, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great man’s house, burned he with fire.”

Source

Gilberto Barros

Published on Jul 21, 2017 How the witnesses of Jehovah live at Bethel. 40-minutes reportage by Gilberto Barros of bethel Brazil. Special scenes of JW working in the laundry and as hairdressers at Bethel, literature dispatch and library. What a wonderful service these sisters and brothers do at Bethel. What a wonderful community, friendly and willing to work.

(Activate subtitles with auto-translation from Portoguese to English in case you cant understand portoguese.)

March 22, 2017 TO ALL CONVENTION COMMITTEES Re: Discontinuation of Physical Distribution of Convention Releases

This is another huge change.... 

cost cutting is still under way....

The family of a Jehovah's Witness who died after repeatedly refusing blood transfusions can't sue the hospital where doctors begged for a chance to save her life, a state appeals court ruled.

The case, outlined in an opinion by Superior Court Judge Jacqueline O. Shogan, involves a convergence of religion, medicine and the law.

Its focus is on what happened before Terri Seels-Davila, a Jehovah's Witness missionary, died after giving birth at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia in November 2010.

Seels-Davila, who had been serving on mission with her husband in Nicaragua, chose Hahnemann because of its "bloodless medicine" program for patients who won't agree to having blood transfusions, including Jehovah's Witnesses, Shogan noted. The treatment plan for Seels-Davila called for recycling her own blood back into her system.

Yet that proved to be inadequate when complications of her delivery required Seels-Davila to deliver by cesarean section. She developed internal bleeding. Even though doctors warned that her condition was dire, Seels-Davila, her husband and other family members refused to consent to a transfusion, court filings state.

Those filings include testimony from a doctor who said Seels-Davila told him "she was a minister of the faith...and that she was OK with whatever happened." Seels-Davila died four days later.

Seels-Davila's family sued the hospital for medical malpractice in 2012. During a civil trial three years later, a Philadelphia County jury ruled in favor of the hospital and the doctors who treated her.

The family's failed appeal to the state court represented an attempt to revive the suit. Seels-Davila's relatives claimed, among other things, that the county judge wrongly prevented an expert witness from testifying against the bloodless medicine program and didn't allow them to press a claim for corporate negligence.

Shogan agreed that the expert witness wasn't qualified to testify in the case. The family's failure to provide a competent expert witness also undermined its corporate negligence claim, she found.

The state judge found as well that the county judge rightly allowed the jury to see the consent forms Seels-Davila signed in which she explicitly refused to consent to transfusions.

"The consent forms were not admitted merely to show that Seels-Davila understood the risks of treatment, yet elected to proceed," Shogan wrote. "The consents were admitted to prove that Seels-Davila knowingly refused treatments that would have saved her life."

https://articles.pennlive.com/news/2017/07/court_nixes_lawsuit_by_family.amp

Front Page news in the Netherlands

Interestingly, one of the main drivers behind the ARC investigating the JWs in Australia was an elderly Dutch woman who's young child was raped decades ago by one of the highest ranking JW elders ever to serve in Australia at the Watchtower headquarters.

Kudos to this old Dutch pensioner who had the courage to testify before investigators - and more importantly to have kept a full documented record of everything that happened right down to scrap pieces of paper that had her child's scribble notes.

Well pretty much what it comes down to, that the JW organization is the pinacle for Child Abuse. That elders are playing their own judge. Now the Dutch government started a big time investigation and want to bring these pedophiles to justice.

TRANSLATION HERE (Google Translate)

The victim calls the society with its own legal system a 'paradise for pedophiles'.The way in which Jehovah's Witnesses deal with sexual abuse in-house rooms has traumatic consequences for victims. Criminals easily escape the abuse, say victims, members and ex-members whom Trouw spoke. This creates an unsafe situation for children.Jehovah's Witnesses find that their internal justice system is above the 'worldly authorities'. Male elders act as judges. They follow the guidelines of the International Headquarters in the United States, shown by internal documents held by Trouw.

Misuse victim Marianne the Guardian: "Jehovah's Witnesses keep the perpetrators hand over the head. Abuse is solved by the first best farmer who is elder, who has no sense. "Another victim calls Jehovah's Witnesses a" paradise for pedophiles. "If misuse is discovered, it is difficult to convict internally. According to the Jehovah's Witnesses, two witnesses are required. They are almost never abused. For example, if it comes to condemnation, the perpetrator may no longer be out loud in prayer.Only if the perpetrator does not regret can he be put out of community. Other members are not informed of any danger because talking about a case without conviction is perceived as defamation or reproach. On the ground someone can be excluded.Insufficient protectionThe findings of Trouw are in line with a report published by an Australian research commission in November. The conclusion: Children are insufficiently protected from abuse and the organization is not adequately addressed with accusations.

The Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian society with around 30,000 followers in the Netherlands. About fifteen years ago, the organization in Trouw said that they only registered cases of abuse by officers. The spokesman had never heard of such abuse.However, three of the four victims who allegedly believed to be abused by an elder were declared to be. The Dutch headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Emmen reveal that they would now "nuance more" the earlier statement. The organization does not want to engage in individual abuse cases.She says working on the 'resilience' of children and families and discussing sexuality without 'veil of mystery'. And: 'Protecting our children is taken very seriously'.That response is indicative of the way the organization tries to stay out of place, says Frances Peters, ex-witness and coach for people from compelling religious group cultures. "They say, the children must be more resilient, while they should protect them properly."Perhaps more victimsThe abuse that victims talked to victims took place in the eighties and nineties. Victims and experts say the abuse is still taking place. There are virtually no indications that the policy of Jehovah's Witnesses has been adapted.However, the organization against this newspaper says "to constantly review its procedures in order to improve the way we deal with such issues". And: "When it comes to child abuse, Jehovah's Witnesses have a clear policy based on biblical principles."According to Peters, the organization emphasized in 2002 and 2003 during a training for elders that abuse is a crime that must be dealt with by the government. "This is allowed on paper to report to the police. But the change is nowhere communicated to the members. "For reports and reports for sexual abuse, no recent reports of (ex-) witnesses are known. The Sektesignal notification point does not want to name organizations, but lets know that "these types of alerts come across all kinds of groups."According to Peters, there are no reports of witnesses: "Victims often blame themselves for the abuse. If things are done internally, that means someone has dared to open his mouth. But the chance is that there are many more victims who never dared.

"Read also:- The story of victim Marianne Voogd: "This is our secret. When you open your mouth, I'll do something to you. "- The story of an elder who wanted to help an abused girl: Elder is a detective, judge and psychologist-

Who are Jehovah's Witnesses actually? Read all you need to know.

De Tweede Kamer en de Rapporteur Seksueel Geweld tegen Kinderen, Corinne Dettmeijer, willen erkenning voor de misbruikslachtoffers van Jehovah's Getuigen.

De overheid moet onderzoek doen naar het eigen rechtssysteem dat de Jehovah’s Getuigen toepassen in gevallen van seksueel misbruik. Dat zegt Corinne Dettmeijer, Nationaal Rapporteur Mensenhandel en Seksueel Geweld tegen Kinderen.

Als de seksuele integriteit van kinderen niet gewaarborgd is, moet de overheid ingrijpen, vindt zij. Dat religieuze gemeenschappen en verenigingen in Nederland de vrijheid hebben om hun eigen regels te maken, mag geen belemmering vormen.

Dettmeijer is ‘geschrokken’ van de berichtgeving in Trouw over misbruik binnen de Jehovah’s Getuigen. “Het wordt niet echt serieus genomen. Slachtoffers worden monddood gemaakt. Daders hebben, zelfs als ze bekend hebben, min of meer vrij spel. Dan beschamen we onze kinderen.”

A 56-year-old former Jehovah's Witness will spend two months in jail with the rest of the sentence suspended, and undergo community service, over historical offences relating to the inappropriate touching of two girls.

The ACT Magistrates Court heard the man was at the house of fellow Jehovah's Witnesses in 2004 when the then-43-year-old asked the couple's 14-year-old daughter to log on to the computer for him.

As she was typing the man put his hand on her bottom, resting it there for a number of seconds.

In a separate incident the girl and her 12-year-old sister stayed at the man's house when his wife offered to look after them so their parents could celebrate their anniversary.

The girls slept the night at the man's house and after breakfast the next morning he asked the 12-year-old girl to sit on his lap.

When she did not respond he picked her up and placed her on his lap, hugging her tightly.

He then placed his hand inside the girl's underwear, leaving it there for two or three minutes.

The court heard the girl froze with fear, until she summoned enough courage to say she needed to use the toilet and left the room crying.

Sisters became estranged for 10 years

The prosecutor read victim impact statements to the court outlining the trauma the incidents had caused the girls.

The 14-year-old, now an adult and married, stated as a child she was full of confidence, ambition and had drive to succeed.

But she said this changed when the man violated her and her sister.

She said she had been estranged from her sister for 10 years because the incident left her feeling helpless and powerless and every time she saw her sister it reminded her that she could not protect her.

The statement read to the court also described how the woman still found it difficult to look at children and would sometimes shake and vomit uncontrollably.

The court heard she had also suffered because she had wanted to be a mother but is on medication to help her sleep and that medication would make it dangerous to have a child.

The woman's younger sister also wrote a statement describing the regular emotional breakdowns she still suffers, as well as flashbacks of the trauma.

In the statement she said she had low self-esteem and felt disconnected from her family.

Church didn't report matter to police when informed

The court heard the girls' parents had informed the church at the time, which conducted an internal investigation, removed the man from the community and the man wrote a letter of apology to the family.

The matter was reported to police in 2015.

The man's lawyer told the court the man had since lost his security clearance, was expected to lose his public service job within the coming weeks and had gone through a marriage breakdown.

In sentencing, Magistrate Bernadette Boss told the court the man was in a position of trust and in the matter of the 12-year-old girl being in his home, that she should have been able to feel safe and protected in the absence of her parents.

Magistrate Boss said that it was most unfortunate a church was again involved and failed to inform the authorities, making them complicit in the matter, exacerbating the effect on the victims.

The man was given 200 hours of community service and a two-year good behaviour order for the offence against the eldest girl.

He was given a nine-month jail sentence, of which he will serve two months in full-time custody with the rest suspended, for the offence on the 12-year-old girl, as well as a second two-year good behaviour order.

He will also take part in the sexual offenders program.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-24/jehovahs-witness-sentenced-to-jail-for-inappropriately-touching/8738682

In Search of Christian Freedom.pdf

Crisis of Conscience.pdf

Russia Disfellowships All Jehovah's Witnesses Worldwide.

JW's are getting a taste of their own medicine.

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If WatchTower was in charge of governing countries.

How much Freedom of Religion would there be?......ZERO...