Jehovah's Witnesses, Book, LGBT, Geelong Revival Centre, Australia, Gloriavale, Child Abuse, New Zealand, Legal
Eric Schaeffer: A Lie Told Often Enough Becomes the Truth, Exposing How the Watchtower Deceives Jehovah's Witnesses
AvoidJW: Jehovah's Witnesses Create Three New Businesses in Ireland to handle financial assets
Eric Schaeffer: A Lie Told Often Enough Becomes the Truth, Exposing How the Watchtower Deceives Jehovah's Witnesses
"In the late 1800s, a religious organization known as the Watchtower was born. This group places much emphasis on Christ's return and Armageddon, aggressively seeking to spread their doctrine to all who will listen. These efforts were successful, for their influence can be seen in countries and languages throughout the world. Many of the Watchtower's deceptions were easy to spot in the early days, but with almost 150 years of practice, they have found ways to fine-tune their inconsistencies. Millions have been misled by the Watchtower and have become personal carriers of their fraudulent message. These carriers are known as the Jehovah's Witnesses. After having hundreds of conversations with Jehovah's Witnesses, I began to understand that most are sincere people who generally want to please God, but fail to recognize that they have been duped by doctrinal deception. This book examines the variety of ways these deceptions take place by comparing the Bible, the original languages, church history, and the Watchtower's own material. After exploring this information, the reader will be able to see how the Watchtower has been deceiving Jehovah's Witnesses with false prophecies, misquoted scholars, historical untruths, and even purposeful changes to the Bible. This writing is respectful but does not pull any punches. It is straightforward truth that exposes the Watchtower's manipulation of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
AvoidJW: Jehovah's Witnesses Create Three New Businesses in Ireland to handle financial assets
Independent: The Jehovah's Witnesses who left the faith and never looked back: 'I was 37 and had only ever held a boy's hand
" ... McAllen, 39, who lives in Greenwich, south-east London, is today active in support groups that help people who leave high-control religious groups. She has also created a safe space online through her TikTok channel, Apostate Barbie, where she educates others about the realities of life as a Witness. A series of videos on "Random Things You Can't Do as a Jehovah's Witness" has amassed hundreds of thousands of views. "I try to keep things very factual and light," she says of her content. "I don't want it to be heavy or [involve] calling people names. I try to show that there is life after religion. That it's not all doom and gloom, that we're all happy and fine, and in fact life is better."
Like a lot of ex-Witnesses, McAllen describes leaving the religion as "waking up". She had devoted her entire life to the faith, attending regular meetings at kingdom hall and spending dozens of hours a week knocking on doors and handing out pamphlets.
Jehovah's Witnesses are prohibited from socialising with nonbelievers, higher education is often discouraged to prioritise witnessing, and dating is strictly reserved for those seeking marriage. Former members say they were warned that questioning or leaving the faith could lead to "removal from the congregation", a formal practice of excommunication that was, until recently, known as disfellowship.
A person who is disfellowshipped stands to lose everything. They are effectively shunned by the community and end up "grieving the living" after losing contact with family and friends. Nicolas Spooner, a counsellor who specialises in working with Jehovah's Witnesses who leave the organisation, says exclusion from the faith can have a lasting negative impact on mental health, career prospects and quality of life, but it can also present an opportunity for self-discovery and new experiences that would change their lives completely.
"Looking at the sorts of things they're finding out about themselves, I think mostly they're starting to realise how many life skills they lack," Spooner says. "This is what I hear more than anything else. It's quite common for [former members] to find that they shy away from social situations, because they lack certain life skills that everybody else takes for granted – like how to make friends, how to treat friends, how to be a friend. These are things that we learn as we're growing up. If you're growing up as a Witness, it's not the same."
But it's never too late to learn, he adds, as he points to his wife, Heather, who left the Jehovah's Witnesses at the age of 48. Since then, she has completed a PhD in psychology researching the effects of religious ostracism, authored a number of academic articles on the subject and is a lecturer in psychology at Manchester University."
Canberra Times: 'You could hit kids': ex-members in 'cult' abuse claims
"Former members of a fundamentalist church have lifted the lid on abuse of kids and slammed working with children checks as a sham.
Ryan Carey was born into the Geelong Revival Centre, a Pentecostal doomsday church run by pastor Noel Hollins for more than six decades until his death in April 2024.
Mr Carey, whose father was second-in-command to Hollins, said the damage from his and others' time in the church lingers.
"I might have lived in the state of Victoria but I answered to the cult and the cult leader," he told a state parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday.
The inquiry into recruitment and retention methods of cults and organised fringe groups was green lit in April following claims of coercive practices within the church.
Mr Carey and his wife Catherine, who joined the church at age 19, were the first witnesses to give evidence at the public hearing."
AP: Leader of secretive New Zealand commune admits abusing young female church members
"The leader of an isolated and conservative Christian commune in New Zealand pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a dozen indecency and assault charges against women and girls who were members of the religious group.
The admission of guilt from Howard Temple came three days into a trial at which he was accused of abusing members of the Gloriavale commune, aged between 9 and 20 over a period of two decades.
Complainants who appeared in the opening days of Temple's trial at the Greymouth District Court said he had touched or groped them while they were performing domestic duties, including in front of other Gloriavale members during mealtimes, Radio New Zealand reported.
They told the court they were too scared to challenge the leader and feared being told the abuse was their fault.
Temple, who is 85 and known as the Overseeing Shepherd of Gloriavale, earlier denied the two dozen charges, and was scheduled to face a three-week trial. But on [July 30th], his lawyer said the leader would admit to an amended list of 12 crimes."
"Three former Gloriavale members have told a court they were touched, grabbed and groped by the Overseeing Shepherd Howard Temple, on the second day of his trial in Greymouth. Mr Temple has pleaded not guilty to 24 charges of sexual assault and doing an indecent act."
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