Sunday Herald Sun - Australia April 10, 2011
Former Jehovah's Witness taking on Watch Tower
by Graeme Hammond | Sunday Herald Sun
A FORMER Jehovah's Witness is to launch a private criminal prosecution against the religion's world headquarters.
His action is in protest at its refusal to require church elders to submit to Working With Children police checks in Victoria
Steven Unthank, who says he was a victim of sexual assault by a church elder in Queensland, says he is taking the drastic step to protect children within the religion and at homes where Jehovah's Witnesses doorknock.
Mr Unthank, from Toongabbie in Gippsland, says he is frustrated over inaction by police and the Justice Department after the religion decided its ministers were not required to undergo police checks.
He hopes the state will take over the prosecution after court documents are filed on April 19.
Mr Unthank, 43, quit the religion in late 2009 after waging a long campaign to persuade the Watch Tower Society, the religion's administrative arm, that elders and door-to-door preachers needed to get police checks before working with children.
Victoria's Working With Children Act requires ministers of religion who have regular unsupervised contact with children to apply for background checks and the Catholic and Anglican churches say all ministers and volunteer workers routinely apply for such checks.
Although Jehovah's Witnesses say all members become ordained ministers at baptism, a spokesman for the Watch Tower Society said elders or other evangelists were not required to gain a police clearance.
"We don't typically work with children, we don't have Sunday schools, so that law doesn't apply to us," the spokesman said.
But Mr Unthank said adult Jehovah's Witnesses often paired up with minors when preaching, with much of their time spent in cars calling on homes. Elders also mentored children and teens from religiously divided homes.
He said elders underwent no background checks before being appointed and were required only to voluntarily declare any convictions for sexual offences.
"Without police checks, how would a member of the public know it isn't a sex offender knocking on their door, talking with their kids?" he said.
Victoria Police say they investigate specific complaints about breaches of the Act, but government sources say the Watch Tower Society's stance remains "a worry".
"A lot of this is about reassurance to parents and the public, so their attitude isn't helpful," one source said.
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Police inquiry over Jehovah's Witness magazine 'mentally diseased' article
ReplyDeleteAn official magazine for Jehovah's Witnesses that described those who leave the church as "mentally diseased" is at the centre of a police inquiry, it has emerged.
TELEGRAPH UK September 27, 2011
Detectives are investigating whether the article, published in July’s edition of The Watchtower, is in breach of Britain’s religious hatred laws.
The article, published in the magazine which is distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses across the globe, reportedly warned followers to avoid "false teachers" which it condemned as being "mentally diseased".
"Suppose that a doctor told you to avoid contact with someone who is infected with a contagious, deadly disease," part of the article stated.
"You would know what the doctor means, and you would strictly heed his warning. Well, apostates are 'mentally diseased', and they seek to infect others with their disloyal teachings."
A group of former Witnesses, based in Portsmouth, have made an official complaint to Hampshire Police about the article. Police have launched an investigation.
They are considering whether to complain to the Charity Commission. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Britain, which prints church doctrine in Britain, is a registered charity.
The church is known for handing down harsh punishments to followers who criticise doctrines or raise questions about the faith.
Angus Robertson, a former Witness "elder" from an undisclosed town in Hampshire, who was present at the meeting with police, told The Independent: "The way scripture is being used to bully people must be challenged.
“If a religion was preaching that blacks or gays were mentally diseased there would understandable outrage."
But Rick Fenton, a church spokesman, defended the passages, saying ostracisation was "a personal matter for each individual to decide for himself".
"Any one of Jehovah's Witnesses is free to express their feelings and to ask questions," he said. "If a person changes their mind about Bible-based teachings they once held dear, we recognise their right to leave."
A Hampshire police spokesman was unavailable for comment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8791196/Police-inquiry-over-Jehovahs-Witness-magazine-mentally-diseased-article.html
'Firm stand' on transfusions
ReplyDeleteMatt Smith, The Mercury November 12, 2011
A JEHOVAH'S Witness leader has defended the position of the religion to make its own choices on blood transfusions.
Jehovah's Witness senior elder Graeme Martin said it was a misconception that Jehovah's Witnesses suffered a greater mortality rate as a result of refusing transfusions.
"An increasing volume of medical research indicates the very opposite," Mr Martin said yesterday.
He said a growing number of people around the world were refusing blood transfusions for cultural and medical reasons.
However, he said Jehovah's Witnesses were the only group of people who made the decision on religious grounds.
Mr Martin was responding broadly to the issue after a Tasmanian Coroner Rod Chandler published his findings into the death of a Glenorchy Jehovah's Witness.
Mr Chandler found a blood transfusion would probably have saved the life of Judith Louise Allen, who died of complications after lap band surgery in July 2009.
Medical staff tried to persuade her husband to consent to the transfusion when she became critically ill after the surgery, but he insisted that her religious beliefs be respected.
The case has prompted Mr Chandler to call on the Jehovah's Witness governing body to relax the doctrine that Christians should not accept blood transfusions.
Mr Martin said he could not comment on Mrs Allen's case.
"Nevertheless, it is common knowledge that Jehovah's Witnesses continue to take a firm stand regarding blood transfusions based on the Bible's clear injunction that Christians 'abstain from blood'."
Mr Martin said evidence showed blood transfusions did not help in some situations.
"In addition to lack of evidence for benefit, there is a growing body of literature showing transfusion to be associated with harm in the short, mid and long term," he said.
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/11/12/276151_most-popular-stories.html