James Thomas Rook Jr.

Under another topic which was unrelated to child abuse issues, the claim was put forward (again) that JWs may have only a tenth of the problem that others have with child abuse. As TTH put it recently:
TTH has stated this multiple times and in various ways now, also stating that JWs have found "a solution that cuts occurrences by 90%." TTH didn't start this idea, it was in another persons post, which may have based it on some very questionable numbers that came out of the Australian Royal Commission.
I don't know if anyone can give an accurate accounting statistically, but if we are going to make such statements it's a good idea to start somewhere to see why they are being used. I will first present some numbers which appear to contradict the claim, and anyone who has anything different should, of course, join in if they think it's important to figure it out more accurately.
In past months, I reported on the outrageous numbers that have been reported against the Catholic Church institutions, including their schools, where 7% of all Catholic priests have been accused of child abuse. Of course this represents an average in various diocese and institutions, where it might run as low as 0% in some, and as high as 25% in others. Even a high percentage of Catholic nuns in one institution had been accused of child sexual abuse. The nuns had a relatively small percentage when compared to another institution where the rate of accused priests and "Brothers" reached nearly 40%. It was a Catholic institution that was set up to care for children with mental disabilities. [The term "Brothers" in this context is a title which doesn't have the generic meaning it has among JWs.]  The BBC interviewed several people who seriously stated that the Catholic Church should be charged with running a "criminal" organization.
I think it is probably obvious to all of us that such levels of child abuse among the highest levels of church institutional leaders cannot be compared with the Witnesses, where the problem is not nearly so bad. There are also issues of comparing Catholic leaders such as bishops, priests and deacons and the counting of all problems among the entire congregations of JWs, not just elders and ministerial servants ("deacons"). But this doesn't mean the problem is not bad.
I'll start throwing out some quotes I've read about what the ARC reported about JWs, the Uniting Church, and the Catholic Church. [The Uniting Church is a kind of conglomerate of Presbyterian/Methodist/Congregationalist churches in Australia.]
You may need a subscription to this Australian paper "The Australian" or an account with a university or newspapers.com to see the entire content of the article that shows up in Google as follows for MEDIA WATCH DOG Friday March 17, 2017 :
 
  ----quotation-------
Here’s some news which the ABC and Fairfax Media do not regard as fit-to-print. Over the past four decades, a child in Australia was much more likely to suffer sexual abuse at a school or institution run by the Uniting Church than at a school or institution run by the Catholic Church.
The ABC and Fairfax Media – along with The Guardian and The Saturday Paper – have given extensive coverage to allegations against the Catholic Church made at the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The ABC’s Samantha Donovan and Philippa McDonald and Louise Milligan along with Fairfax Media’s Rachel Browne and Joanne McCarthy have been perhaps the most outspoken of the journalists regularly reporting the Royal Commission in so far as the crimes of pedophile Catholic priests and brothers have been concerned.
The ABC and Fairfax Media gave considerable coverage to the statement by Counsel Assisting Gail Furness SC on 6 February 2017 that 4445 people alleged instances of child sexual abuse within Catholic schools or institutions up until 2015. Most media focused on the statement by Ms Furness that “7 per cent of priests were alleged perpetrators”.
However, virtually no media attention was given to Ms Furness’s subsequent clarification on 16 February 2017, with reference to the Catholic Church:
In other words, within the Catholic Church the vast majority of allegations of pedophilia were made with respect to alleged crimes in the period 1950 to 1989 with close to a third of all allegations relating to the decade of the 1970s. That is, most of the allegations relate to instances of close to four decades ago and are historical crimes.
In what was called the “Catholic Wrap”, Royal Commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan devoted 15 entire days to examining the Catholic Church. Hearings were held between 6 February 2017 and 26 February 2017.
On Friday 10 March 2017, the Royal Commission devoted only half a day each to the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Uniting Church of Australia. Yet the evidence suggests that, on a per capita basis, there were more pedophiles in each church combined than in the Catholic Church – especially in the 1990s and subsequent decades. . . .
The statistics available to the Royal Commission with respect to the Uniting Church cover the period from 1977 to the present. That is, unlike the Catholic Church and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the allegations do not relate to a period going back to 1950.
There were 2504 instances or allegations of child sexual abuse made in the Uniting Church in the period 1977 to 2017 compared with 4445 instances in the Catholic Church covering the period 1950 to 2015. Yet the Uniting Church is about a fifth of the size of the Catholic Church. And its data covers four decades whereas the Catholic Church’s data covers over six decades. Moreover, evidence available to the Royal Commission indicates that virtually all offending by Catholic priests took place before 1990. Not so, apparently, with the Uniting Church.
On this evidence, child sexual assaults in the Uniting Church have been more prevalent than in the Catholic Church – especially in the years since 1990. This despite the fact that the Uniting Church has married male priests and female priests. There is no celibacy requirement within the Uniting Church and no sacrament of confession (in which the Royal Commission has taken a special interest concerning the Catholic Church).
Yet you would not be aware of any of this if you followed only the reporting of the Royal Commission by the ABC, Fairfax Media, The Guardian and The Saturday Paper. It seems the likes of Samantha Donovan, Philippa McDonald, Louise Milligan, Joanne McCarthy and Rachel Browne did not come back from lunch on Friday 10 February and simply missed the coverage of sexual child abuse in the Uniting Church in the four decades since 1977.
---end of quotation-----
I downloaded that Excel spreadsheet from the ARC (once posted here) that gave limited information about each of the JW cases, and should note that even cases that went back to the 1970's were evidently not there because there was any regular record-keeping by JWs going back that far. They could have been included when a case recorded decades later was found to be applicable to an instance or accusation from a much earlier date.

WOW!  A multi-billionaire Nerd telling lies?
Whooda Thunkit!

The difference between a professional and an amateur is how many zeros are on the check, before the decimal point.

I  remember  the  name  from  our  German  TV,  but  never  seen,  sorry.  Maybe  its  more  for  men !  But I  know  what  you  mean  -  a special  kind  of  humor!  I  will  inform  me  tmw.  I  know  your  special  joke - pictures / video's,   yes,  you're  a  professional  in  that

And it cost you extra money to have a nurse turn that annoying beeping sound off.

Fact is,  JTR don't want a nurse...  hahaha, he is looking for a monitor ! ????

Which Pill Would We Take ..... The Red Pill? .... or the Blue Pill?
In the political world, more and more people are rejecting "Fake News" as provided by CNN (Clinton News Network), ABC (All 'bout Clinton) and NBC (Nothin' but Clinton), etc., and are seeking the truth about what they are being told ..... wherever it may be found.
Today John Stossel had an article about this on Foxnews which is incredibly important ... not only for the political ramifications ... but every manner of philosophical thought ....  and our very view of how the Universe works, and what "makes it tick".
If you have seen the movie "The Matrix" .... a MUST SEE movie .... you already know the common expression "Red Pill? Blue Pill?".
If you don't ... YOU SHOULD. 
The concept behind the expression is incredibly important ... as to whether we live in and artificial fantasy construct world ... or a world of what is actually REAL.
JOHN STOSSEL: More people tuning out mainstream media, embracing 'truth'
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/03/27/john-stossel-why-so-many-are-taking-red-pill-and-discovering-truth-about-mainstream-media.html
Oh ... and if you have not seen it .... get a copy of the movie, so you will actually get a "feel" for the depth of the now commonly understood  idiomatic expression.
(For those in Rio Linda, that has nothing to do with sex, it has to do with basic understanding .....)
Grok?
 
 
 
 
 

It's called "extrapolational humor" ... where you take an idea and deliberately misconstrue it ... and run it out to the absurd. 
It works best for visual jokes ... but often times does not translate well outside of one's native language and it's idiomatic imagery.
The best examples I have ever seen of this is the British comedy of Monty Python.
...which are available for rental on DVDs, or clips on YouTube.
 
 

When you go to the hospital, they bring in a cart (a small table on wheels) with a LOT of electronics on it, to do Electrocardiograms (record all manner of heart activity, with squiggly lines ... on a computer monitor) and other tests.
Probably the cart also has a printer so the squiggly lines of heart activity can be printed out.
So technically .... and it was a joke ... well..... it was an ATTEMPTED joke .....
This satisfies the question that I can answer, with as short an answer as the question was .... um... if you consider getting a cart to be short term.
( ...with a flourish cues the drummer over in the corner with the cymbals .... and the ceiling mounted flashing APPLAUSE sign ...)

Go to a hospital complaining of severe chest pains?

I agree with you Queen Ester, I think he will change his mind when he is resurrected and is in good health due to Jesus dying for us to live forever.

YES...  funny,  chuckle  belly  laughing...    JTR's  on  &  off  freaky  comments,  let me  stay  little  longer  here  to  my  night - time....   NOT  always,  but  sometimes,  my  mood  is  going  very  high - althrough  my  bed  is  calling  me,  haha

About 13 years ago, I bought a "silencer" for my firearms.
They are quite legal in 34 states, and shows consideration for your neighbors in neighborhoods like mine, where everyone in my corner of the subdivision shoots off of their back decks at backyard targets. and sometimes the noise gets excessive ... especially on a Sunday afternoon in summer with the windows open.
You do have to fill out ATF forms, have it signed by your local Sheriff, be photographed and fingerprinted, pay a $200.00 tax for each "can", and have to wait over three months for approval, but it is great fun ... and intimidates the hell out of weak livered Snowflakes, who melt all over themselves at the thought.
Humor is where you find it.
I was not going to post this little personal vignette, but I ran across this photo and just HAD to ... for the Librarian.

About 13 years ago, I bought a "silencer" for my firearms.
They are quite legal in 34 states, and shows consideration for your neighbors in neighborhoods like mine, where everyone in my corner of the subdivision shoots off of their back decks at backyard targets. and sometimes the noise gets excessive ... especially on a Sunday afternoon in summer with the windows open.
You do have to fill out ATF forms, have it signed by your local Sheriff, be photographed and fingerprinted, pay a $200.00 tax for each "can", and have to wait over three months for approval, but it is great fun ... and intimidates the hell out of weak livered Snowflakes, who melt all over themselves at the thought.
Humor is where you find it.
I was not going to post this little personal vignette, but I ran across this photo and just HAD to ... for the Librarian.

Wow .... I can't top THAT.

Thank  you,  JTR.   I'm  thinking  similar  like  you, missing  beloved  animals  and  parts  of  my  family    I  heard,  animals  not  come  back,  ONLY  humans...   but  we  shall  see,  Jehovah  knows  us  all  as  best   Many  people  more  missing  their  animals  as  their  big  family,  sorry    But  animals  really  very  especially,  thats  right ! 
I  WISH  FOR  YOU,  THAT  ALL  YOUR  DOG'S  ONE  DAY  TOGETHER  PLAYING  AND  JUMPING  IN  YOUR  BIG  GARDEN....
YOUNG  &  HEALTHY  LIKE  YOU        

I think you have a pretty good sense of the continuing effect based on specific examples, although there are others, too. Unfortunately an effect that might be more pervasive, but less tangible, is an overall sense of trustworthiness of spiritual direction. This one thing shouldn't be a big factor, but I wonder if this specific issue, for example, hasn't weighed on the minds of even the current GB, who have only recently decided to admit explicitly that the spiritual food and decisions they make are sometimes rotten or wrong, respectively, or that they might even depend on others for spiritual direction. The creation of too rigid a legalistic hierarchy produces:
followers who won't think enough for themselves, on the one hand, and could also tend to produce those who believe that 100% conformity to Jehovah's requirements is not all that important, from another perspective. (Based on this sense that it must not have mattered that much to Jehovah if all marriages are clean in his eyes, as long as the current incorrect rules of the WTS were followed at the time.) I can't guess at the number of "cases," of course, but I know of one specific case I dealt with in my previous congregation, and one in my current. I can't extrapolate from a couple of anecdotal examples, but I can't imagine that I know of the only two examples in the whole world, either. What if there is one in every congregation? What if the examples that come to the surface are only a small representation of the examples that never come to the surface?
Referring more to the second bullet point above, I can speak to a noticeable lack of interest in the spiritual direction received among a large swath of active Witnesses that I don't recall as much in times past. Perhaps it's just my projected nostalgia speaking here, though. I think you, for example, are likely one of those who take a stronger interest in the details of each of our doctrines -- sometimes even their historical development, up to a point. I see very little of that now.  In some ways I see it being even more discouraged. Taking an interest in commenting upon our doctrines, except with catechism-style answers to canned questions, is looked down upon -- even as if to say: "How dare anyone have the presumptuousness to comment upon doctrines that are already spelled out for us." Yet, that attitude of speaking up out of an overriding interest in our spiritual relationship with Jehovah, is no doubt what pushed the correction in thinking on this very subject in the original post.

I don't like to draw the line at just well loved and "special" animals. I can't wait for all the roaches and spiders and ticks and fleas who have ever died to also come back. After all, there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

A nice sentiment ... I am particularly fond of the idea of the Rainbow Bridge ... where after I die, I will meet all my dogs I have ever loved, all waiting for my voice as they play in the sun and grass, waiting for me, and later my wife to join them ... and together we will all cross over the Rainbow Bridge, with smiles, and wagging tails.
I tear up just thinking about it ..... with a few beers I could REALLY get melancholy.
I just hope that T-REXs do not return to the Earth.
It would really bum me out to be driving along, and have to deal with  starving, rampaging Dinosaurs on the Freeway.

Move to where there IS clean water.
Or, learn how to purify water at home ... with a box, gravel, sand and some household bleach.
If you stare at trees ... it does not provide clean water.
Adapt and improvise YOURSELF!!

Ohhhh ... I am sorry I missed them!
Sometimes from the back of the Hall I hear mechanical clicking sounds after the paragraphs are read,  and again and again, three successive people giving the same answers, straight from the article .... and hear someone despondently whispering ...
I gotta oil this thing........
. shoot me, someone please shoot me....

After 55 years of critical thinking skills being castigated and discouraged .... and sometimes severely punished ....  its extremely hard to be smarter ... and that's the fact, Jack.

Tell me about it. I can hear you from here   

I appreciate this. I really do, and you are not that far off the mark. Unfortunately, I tend to distrust such things, as a result of observing, reading, and yes, even some personal experience. 
I am content that I can sleep sound at night, or would, if I did not have to rise and pee, a condition not uncommon at my age. Usually I fall right back to sleep. But occasionally I must check to see that they are behaving with reasonable decorum at the WorldNewMedia and that the Librarian has not fallen off the wagon again.

John, if I ever was to find myself on the outside looking in due to what I thought was primarily 'politics', I would continue to come to meetings, and take in the instruction that is to found nowhere else, while I waited for the bruhaha to pass. Seriously. There is no reason you cannot.
I have thought about it. Here I am on a site where villains traverse freely and there is abundant counsel not to hang out with them. It is counsel, not law, and I do not consider myself 'associating' with them, but things can be misunderstood and every so often some 'zealous-for-no-rivalry' person overacts. I don't think it is very likely at all, but it is not impossible.
I really would keep attending, so long as I felt Jehovah's Witnesses were right. I would figure that I was just termporarily on the outs with them, it will blow over eventually, and that i can always request reinstatement from time to time. Eventually one would stick. In the meantime, I would not insist that they 'come around.'  I would be open to the possibility that I might have contributed to the mess.
To be sure, I would miss the association, and I would probably not attend so constantly as I do now, which is almost without miss, but I would keep coming to the only place I know of where the Bible is discussed accurately. Though the association might be closed off, the spiritual food would remain undiminished.
I know of one person who, while disfellowshipped, began attending meetings. Elders soon spoke with her, and she had  no idea that she could be reinstated. She just figured the chasm would stay open till Armagedon but in the meantime she would go where she knew there was accurate knowledge.
Why did she have no idea? Who knows? Such times are emotional. Maybe elders did not make it sufficiently clear. She is back now. Until recently, elders made a real effort to personally contact each DF one in their territory at least once a year. That's better 'service' than the typical non-Witness gets. Don't tell me they are not interested in people.
John, you are at a crossroads. Don't screw it up, becasue it will affect your family more than you. Don't regard it as a pissing contest between you and the GB. Tell your kids: 'yeah, I got in a tiff with the brothers, but it will smooth out in time,' If you are truly convinced that the GB should be removed, be like David, who knew he was to be king, but in the meantime would not lay a hand on 'Jehovah's annointed' and rebuked those who tried to make him go there.