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HOLDERNESS — A man who allegedly used a shotgun to blast holes in the walls inside the local Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall and who then allegedly poured gasoline around the front entry door went there to commit suicide, according to a police affidavit. David U. Petrell, 37, of 22 Circle Drive in Ashland was being held at gunpoint by multiple officers when he was tackled by Holderness Police Sgt. Michael Grier as Petrell was still standing over a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun he had dropped in compliance with orders. Grier wrote in the affidavit that as he placed Petrell in the cruiser he could smell alcohol on his breath and that the defendant said, “I own it all, I did it, I’m f---.” After Petrell was taken into custody, police searched the building to make sure no one else was inside. As there was a strong smell of gasoline, Grier shut off the furnace before exiting and called for the Holderness Fire Department to respond. Petrell was arrested at the property at the corner of Route 3 and East Holderness Road shortly after Holderness, Meredith and Ashlanrd police were dispatched to the scene about 7:19 p.m. Friday after a concerned male friend of Petrell’s called authorities to report he was on his way to the Kingdom Hall to take his own life. Read more: https://www.unionleader.com/news/crime/police-man-accused-of-shooting-up-jehovah-s-witness-kingdom/article_9599604c-5685-5e22-9a29-cffac8dd2e02.html

[a google translate attempt below] Jehovah's Witnesses "Fake News" alarm December 8, 2018, 15:50 uploaded by Armin JorgAuthor: Armin Jorg from Vienna Numerous negative media reports about a systematically scandalous handling of abuse cases forced the religious community to make a comprehensive counter-attack. The allegations was a year-long tactics, but this has not led to the allegations decreased. Now they have decided to go over the attack and sweep up all the media that disseminate negative information about Jehovah's Witnesses as malicious, devilish, and hypocritical in order to discredit them in this way. In the magazine Watchtower of August 2018 (study edition) under the heading "Do you know the facts" now all believers are sworn on how Jehovah's Witnesses have to position themselves correctly. Here are some excerpts from the article: Paragraph 1: "the devil and his world wants to distort our thinking". Initially, it shows who the enemies are, the devil and the entire "his" world. Here the all-encompassing conflict in which the believers are stuck becomes clear. Paragraph 3: "We have to be careful and not believe everything we hear". A good advice, if not meant: Paragraph 6: "We must be especially careful when it comes to reports of God's people. Let's not forget: the devil is the accuser of God's faithful servants [Jehovah's Witnesses] "then" we are not surprised when we hear outrageous accounts of Jehovah's Witnesses. " It becomes clear here: reports are particularly wrong when negative reports are made about Jehovah's Witnesses. Negative = wrong. Paragraph 15: "The Bible warns against relying on one's own mind." What is taught to believers in every fundamentalist sect is not to use their own intellect but to trust only the leaders of the religious community.In a box is shown where the believers should inform themselves: Only on the websites of the Watchtower Society reliable information can be found. Mind you, this religious community is a corporation under public law, for me personally these views are manipulative and anti-social. https://www.meinbezirk.at/wien/c-leute/zeugen-jehovas-fake-news-alarm_a3089703

Along with Bible teachings and online lessons on how to lead a good life and find peace and happiness, the Jehovah Witnesses website at JW.org also offers serious insight and words of caution to parents about sexual child abuse. And, that makes the recent Philadelphia Inquirer story alleging that Jehovah's Witness elders have repeatedly covered up sexual abuse of members' children, shunned members and victims who raised complaints of child abuse and have impeded police investigations into abuse allegations even more shocking. Among the victims of the Witnesses' shunning and stonewalling tactics interviewed by Inquirer reporter David Gambacorta were: The parents of a 4-year-old New Cumberland girl who was molested at the Jehovah Witness Kingdom Hall in Red Lion A Spring Grove woman who was molested when she was a teen by a Witness who was a family friend A York woman who was molested in her teens by a couple she knew through the Jehovah's Witnesses. Three defendants identified in the Inquirer investigative piece were prosecuted and sentenced in York County. A fourth is awaiting prosecution. https://www.ydr.com/story/news/2018/05/10/daily-news-investigates-coverup-child-abuse-jehovahs-witnesses/599366002/

Hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses from across the country are flocking to St Ann’s to build a place of worship on the site of a former pub. The site of the former Sycamore Inn pub in Hungerhill Road is currently being turned in to a meeting hall for the Christian sect, with work due to finish by the end of February. However almost every stage of the building, from design to putting in the windows, is being done by unpaid volunteers – 450 of them in total. Adam Byrnes, 35, of St Ann’s, a cleaning business owner who has been helping out three days a week, said: “It is absolutely amazing to see people volunteering to build our church. Read more: http://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/hundreds-jehovahs-witnesses-give-up-1000573

The Pierre congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses invites the public to knock on the new door of their new Kingdom Hall out on the rise on U.S. Highways 83/14 on the northeast edge of town. The congregation just completed construction of its new, more modest church building, called a Kingdom Hall, after tearing down its larger Kingdom Hall built in 1989, said Dennis Stahlecker, an elder in the congregation. “The other building was taken down about the middle of September,” he said. When it was built 28 years ago, more than 600 volunteer Witnesses came from across the region and nation to help in the patented “barn-raising” way the denomination puts up Kingdom Halls in few days. This time, perhaps 200 volunteers from across the nation — from Oregon came in shifts to help the local congregation put up the new, tidy, double-wide pre-fabricated Kingdom Hall. Instead of the seating for 200 or more as the other one had, this one can seat about 55, Stahlecker said. “When we built the old one, we had people with families with children. Now the children are gone,” he said. The Pew Research Center that studies American religion says the JehovahÂ’s Witnesses have one of the lowest retention rates of denominations and religious groups. Now the Pierre congregation has about 40 “publishers,” as they call baptized members, Stahlecker said. In spring of 2016 at their annual memorial service of JesusÂ’ Last Supper and death, about 70 attended, including many visitors from a distance. The members of the Pierre congregation put the old building up for sale for more than six months and had a few interested possible buyers, including someone looking at using it as a daycare, Stahlecker said. But the listed price of about $230,000 wasnÂ’t met by anyone, so the congregation took down the building. “We believe that somebody, a higher power, kind of oversees these things,” he said. “When it didnÂ’t sell, we kind of figured it wasnÂ’t meant to sell.” The congregation owns a nice piece of property on the north side of the highway and finding another place to meet, if the older building had sold, would have been more expensive, perhaps, Stahlecker said. JehovahÂ’s Witnesses are known for visiting homes to share their faith, especially their view that the world is near a sudden end with God promising a new heaven and near earth. The denomination traces its roots to 1870s America and has been known for setting dates for the return of Jesus Christ. The group began using the name JehovahÂ’s Witnesses in the early 1930s. For more than a century it owned prime real estate next to the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City from where it ran its Watchtower Society publishing. But in recent years it has sold most of that property and moved its headquarters to Warwick in upstate New York. The JehovahÂ’s Witnesses have been called an extreme example of Protestantism, in that relying only on their own reading of the Bible, the group has rejected many traditions of historica Christianity: most significantly, the idea of the Trinity. The group also does not observe most Christian holidays, including Christmas, seeing them as man-made practices not found in the Bible. JehovahÂ’s WItnesses also donÂ’t serve in the military or pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag, seeing it as a compromising of their duty to God. JehovahÂ’s Witnesses donÂ’t have a typical paid clergy or pastor, but volunteer elders who lead the services and BIble studies. Circuit ministers travel a region, staying in each location for a few days. There are Kingdom Halls in Mobridge, Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, Huron, Watertown and about a dozen other sites, with about 330 total members in the state. The new, more economical and smaller building “should be easy for us to take care of, in terms of maintenance and keeping it warm,” Stahlecker said. “ItÂ’s mainly to serve as a classroom. We study the BIble here, itÂ’s like a schoolhouse for us.” Regular Bible study meetings are held at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays and public talks are given at 10 a.m. on Sundays. “We invite people to come,” he said. “We have, too, JW.org (online) where people can get on there if they have any questions about JehovahÂ’s Witnesses.” For more information, call 224-5501 Â

The Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses of Namibia might have to start compensating its employees as stipulated by the country’s labour law after it lost a labour case in the High Court yesterday. The congregation dragged the Social Security Commission to court in May 2016 after the Commission refused to deregister the church as a company and employer. “The congregation is trying to evade its obligations under the SSC Act and this court cannot allow employees to be unprotected in the event they fall ill, become pregnant or die,” explained Judge Petrus Unengu. The congregation approached the High Court, stating that its followers are not employees and thus the congregation cannot be regarded as an employer and it does not regard itself as one. Furthermore there is no employment contract between the congregation and its followers even though they take a vow of obedience and poverty to serve as full-time servants of Jehovah’s Witnesses. According to SSC, the followers are regarded as employees as the congregation registered the church itself as a company. Based on the investigations conducted by SSC, the followers carry out duties for a fixed period between 07h45 to 16h45, Mondays to Fridays. Each follower receives a non-negotiated allowance of N$940 per month for the work or time spent performing duties. The investigations further revealed that the followers are mandated to give a one-month notice should they wish to terminate their services with the church. The church has 2,448 registered members from their 44 branches countrywide. “The court agrees with SSC that the allowances comply with Section 1 of the Labour Act,” said the judge. Section 1 of the Labour Act states that any person performing duties and rendering services is entitled to receive a remuneration. However, the church argued that there is no employment relationship as the members have voluntarily devoted their lives to serving God, and carrying out their duties is merely a lifestyle and not a job, even though they failed to explain why they registered themselves as an employer. “The congregation cannot pick and choose which laws should apply to them and which may not … it is evident that an employment relationship exists between the two parties,” explained Unengu, adding that the church cannot get a free card just because it is doing the work of God. https://www.newera.com.na/2017/04/28/church-loses-labour-case/

Chair of Jehovah’s Witnesses branch fined for distributing extremist literature © flickr.com/Ian Crowther 11:30 25/01/2017 MOSCOW, January 25 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – Chairman of the Jehovah’s Witnesses branch in the town of Dzerzhinsk has been fined 4,000 rubles ($67) for keeping and distributing extremist literature banned in Russia, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court announced on its website on Tuesday. According to case papers, local prosecutors during a field check at the organization’s premises found two booklets declared extremist and added to the list of prohibited literature. The booklets were seized by court. Jehovah’s Witnesses have had many legal problems in Russia. On October 12, a court in the Jewish Autonomous Region ruled to ban a branch of “The Jehovah’s Witnesses” in Birobidzhan because of distributing extremist literature by the organization. On June 16, Russia’s Supreme Court declared “The Jehovah’s Witnesses of Stary Oskol” in the Belgorod Region an extremist organization and ruled to liquidate it. On June 9, the Jehovah’s Witnesses of Belgorod was banned as extremist organization. In March 2015, a court in Tyumen fined the organization 50,000 rubles ($792) and seized prohibited literature. In January 2014, a court in Kurgan ruled to ban the organization’s booklets as extremist. The books talk about how to have a happy life, what you can hope for, how to develop good relations with God and what you should know about God and its meaning. In late December 2013, the leader of the sect’s group in Tobolsk, Siberia was charged with extremism and the prevention of a blood transfusion that nearly led to the death of a female member of the group. In 2004, a court in Moscow dissolved and banned a Jehovah’s Witnesses group on charges of recruiting children, encouraging believers to break from their families, inciting suicide and preventing believers from accepting medical assistance. Jehovah's Witnesses is an international religious organization based in Brooklyn, New York. Since 2004 sever branches and chapters of the organization were banned and shut down in various regions of Russia. Chair of Jehovah’s Witnesses branch fined for distributing extremist literature http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20170125/277643085.html 25/01/2017