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JW Core Beliefs .... As Applied I carefully read Anna's list of JW core beliefs, and responded "Amen", although about some I have been thinking about all the extenuating circumstances that might affect the absoluteness of some of them. For Example, in U.S. Law there are many things that are felonies, but State Supreme Courts have ruled that although these felonies are lawfully prosecuted, the individual specifics make them AS APPLIED to certain cases make the application of those laws un-Constitutional, either by State, or Federal Constitutions. In other words, the specific circumstances of the crime determines whether or not those laws can be applied against a specific person, in a specific set of circumstances. ...... Lets suppose a family of five, where all the family members are Jehovah's Witnesses, and the mother has tired of taking care of her three young children, puts them in a car, and deliberately drives that car into a lake, and drowns them. It's first-degree premeditated murder. She is convicted in a court of law, and is sentenced to three life sentences with no possibility of parole. QUESTION # 1 : Is the husband, whose three children were murdered by his wife, expected to live his life alone, and never re-marry? QUESTION #2: If he does, say after a dozen years, remarry, will he be disfellowshipped?

WHY .... doesn't Jehovah God consider warfare ... murder? It seems clear to me that Jehovah allows civil governments to run their own affairs as they see fit, and even has no objection to them judging and executing wrongdoers ... and even commands us to be in subjection to these governments, as even the very worst of them are better than anarchy. People generally misinterpret the scripture that say " Thou shalt not kill." where the scripture more actually says "Thou shalt not murder". There is a very real difference. A sovereign government, executing a wrongdoer is implementing the political will of that government ... whether it be a government the size of a continent .. or an extended family sized tribe of Jewish sheepherders living way out in the middle of nowhere, living in tents, governed by a patriarch. I have not been able to find in the Bible where actual warfare, committed by any sovereign group, is considered to be murder ... either by the perpetrators of the war, or the defenders of the war against them, except in the case of "war crimes" against non combatants and other cases. Did you know it is legal to drop napalm on civilians in war, from an aircraft ... but not from a flame thrower from a soldier on the ground? ....but I digress. Even people that warred against the Jews were not considered murderers..... they were considered warriors. I am working on getting this all straight in my mind now ... as there seems to be a profound truth buried in this stream of thought, somewhere, but I cannot get it to crystallize, or perhaps it is approaching 3AM, and I am too tired to think about it. But whatever it is that is ... what profound basic principle that I am missing ...is based on having a correct answer as to WHY ... WHY does God NOT consider warfare to be murder. I suspect when I figure it out, it will be like driving down a road in a southerly direction, thinking you are going North ... and then you see that landmark or sign that indicates you are really going South ... and that feeling you get when your whole frame of reference rotates in your head, like the world just rotated 180 degrees. It's like deja vu, and geography, combined. Perhaps my premise is faulty, but I don't think so. Please feel free to destroy my premise, or my stream of thought, or my conclusions. I try to be "loyal" to whatever is true, and not an agenda of defending an agenda. Knowing "WHY?" things are the way they are, is the key to good philosophy. Bad philosophy will waste our lives, which are pitifully short.

I find it interesting when so much is compared between the Jews and the JW's. But in my opinion, one big difference between being a Jew before and in the time of Jesus, and being a JW, is choice. If a person was born into the Nation of Israel, they were born under Law and ruled over by the Religious leaders (and the Romans) at that time. There was no choice of being a Jew or not being a Jew. They were born into it. So of course many of them, probably all of them, committed 'sin' and had to make sin offerings. God had chosen that Nation, those people had responsibility but not of their choice. Now, people that enter the JW religion do so voluntarily. ( Unfortunately for those born into it, they have to go through the motions of serving the JW Org until they are of an age whereby they can leave home. Then, when of age they too can volunteer to be a JW or chose to leave the Org.). There is a big difference from being born into a Nation which you may not like, than voluntarily joining a religion which you do like. So the big question is, if 'millions' of people voluntarily join this JW Org, why do so many commit child abuse, adultery and many other sins ? If this is supposed to be 'THE true religion', why are the people not guided by God through Jesus Christ ? Just reading comments on here from so called JW's makes me laugh. There is no love, no mercy, no understanding, no respect even. Being an ex JW and seeing things from both sides i have found more genuine love, kindness, friendship, respect, warmth, understanding etc outside of the Org than inside. Inside the Org people have to be told to 'love one another', outside the Org people do it anyway. It has amazed me how JW's can really believe that God is with them when they are so cold and selfish. With the Jews that were born into that Nation, they had no choice about their way of life. It was basically a dictatorship by God. The Laws were from 'above'. Obviously for the right reason, to bring forth Jesus Christ who in turn would 'rescue' the human race from complete destruction. But it was a totally different situation to the JW Org today. So now all you 'JWs', think on it. Do you truly believe you are in this' special environment' within the Org ? Do you really think that your Org has God's approval ? Think deeply about all the problems within JW Org. All the disgusting things being done voluntarily by all the volunteer JW's. Now ask yourself, are you really a volunteer JW or are you trapped in the Org for fear of losing all those 'so called friends' ? You know that you can only have your family and 'friends' as long as you are a JW. Do you feel like the Jews must have felt, trapped in that Nation ? As we know many of the Jews left the Jewish religion and way of life to follow Christ, but it was difficult for them. However, they did have God's approval and God, through Christ made this known clearly. And it seems that many are leaving the JW Org to seek God's approval too. But remember that all JW's are volunteers, or should be, so why oh why is there so much trouble in that Org ?

(New news ....) A MONTANA Judge Orders Jehovah’s Witnesses to Turn Over Internal Documents Related to Childhood Sexual Abuse April 12, 2018 On April 5, 2018, Judge James Manley of Sanders County, Montana ordered the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organization to produce documents and testimony related to internal reports and investigations into the childhood sexual abuse of NPR’s two clients. In this case, the two Plaintiffs were sexually abused as children by a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Elders in the local Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Thompson Falls, Montana were aware of the abuse and failed to report it to the police, choosing instead to handle the reports and investigations internally pursuant to Jehovah’s Witness guidelines. Their decision not to report the abuse to authorities allowed the perpetrator to remain in the congregation and continue to abuse one of the Plaintiffs. Throughout this case, and similar childhood sexual abuse cases across the country, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have refused to produce documents related to their internal handling of reports of sexual abuse and related investigations and disciplinary actions claiming that the information is protected by the clergy-penitent privilege and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Through briefing to the court, NPR convinced the Judge that Defendants’ privilege claims were unsupported and improper under the law. The Court agreed that Defendants could not blanket everything related to their investigations in secrecy and that they must turn it over to the Plaintiffs. Often, this is the very evidence that can win or lose a case like this against a religious institution. The case of Nunez, et al. v. Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, et al. is set to go to trial in September of 2018. The plaintiffs in this case are represented by NPR partner D. Neil Smith and associate Ross E. Leonoudakis. ---------------------------------------------------------- A Jury of 12 held in public view ... or a tribunal of three held in complete secrecy. Which would YOU choose, to get Justice?

Another instalment in the long-running dispute between the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Charity Commission… In Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Britain & Ors v The Charity Commission [2016] EWCA Civ 154 the Court of Appeal has held that the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain (WT) may apply for a judicial review of the Charity Commission’s Production Order that it disclose sensitive documents as part of the statutory inquiry but dismissed an application by Watch Tower for review of the Commission’s decision to open an inquiry into the charity. WT had sought a judicial review of the decision to launch the inquiry and of the Production Order but that application had been rejected in December 2014 because the judge said the case should be taken to the Charity Tribunal; and an appeal to the Tribunal made 10 days later was rejected in March 2015 as out of time. WT took the matter to the Court of Appeal, arguing that it should be granted judicial review because the First-tier Tribunal had power only to quash enquiries, not to limit their scope. In relation to the inquiry issue, Watch Tower (WT) argued that the proposed inquiry was unlawful because: it interfered or proposed to interfere with WT’s rights of freedom of religion and of association under Articles 9 and 11 ECHR and was discriminatory, contrary to Article 14, because, by starting an inquiry with a view to changing Jehovah’s Witnesses’ religious practices, the Commission was acting disproportionately by misconstruing or misapplying s16.4 of the Charities Act 2011; the scope of the inquiry was so vague and undefined as not to be “prescribed by law” and/or in breach of the Commission’s obligation under s 16.4 of the 2011 Act to act transparently in performing its functions; the proposal that the appellants’ Safeguarding Policy include a condition that any elder running a Bible class had to be cleared through an appropriate checking system similar to the Disclosure and Barring Service was unlawful and/or impossible for the appellants to implement; the Commission had erred in law in its approach to the duties of trustees by misconstruing or misapplying the duties owed by the appellants under the Companies Act 2006; the Commission had breached its duty to act fairly by failing to provide proper details of the allegations that it was making and thereby giving the appellants a fair opportunity to meet the case against them; and the decision to initiate the inquiry was irrational [6]. In relation to the disputed Production Order, WT argued that the scope of the Order was disproportionate; the information sought required production of documents containing both personal information and sensitive personal information as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998 and, unless data subjects consented to personal data being processed, the conditions in Schs 2 and 3 of that Act required the public authority to demonstrate that such processing was necessary and proportionate; and the information sought breached the procedural guarantees of Article 8 ECHR because, prior to disclosure, the person adversely affected had to be given notice and the opportunity to make representations before the Order was made [7]. The Court (Dyson MR and McCombe and David Richards LJJ) rejected the challenge to the inquiry itself but gave permission for the appellants to seek judicial review of the Production Order. McCombe J concluded that “There can be no doubt that the High Court can effectively determine the matters sought to be raised by the appellants in resistance to the Production Order in this case and those matters concerning that Order should, therefore, be determined there rather than in the Tribunal, whose jurisdiction is (at best) doubtful” [51]. In short, a score-draw (almost). Source: http://www.lawandreligionuk.com/2016/03/15/jehovahs-witnesses-back-in-court-watch-tower-bible-tract-society/