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A Jehovah's Witness who for decades refused all surgery on his horrific facial disfigurement has been given hope by a British doctor and new medical technology. Unwilling to accept a blood transfusion, Jose Mestre has allowed the bloody tumour that first appeared on his lip in adolescence to obliterate almost all of his face. Jose Mestre aged 14, when his tumour was still small (left), and as he is now Now 15 inches long and weighing 12 pounds, it has blinded him in one eye and made eating a daily ordeal. As it begins to block his airways, doctors fear...

Frederick McLean is one of the most-wanted fugitives in the United States, charged with 17 counts of child sexual abuse in California. Law enforcement sources say that when a victim’s family confronted McLean in 2004, he allegedly confessed. But before he could be arrested, McLean fled. Snip His role in the church also became a matter of legal controversy. Last year, some victims’ families filed suit against the Jehovah’s Witnesses, alleging that both McLean’s local congregation and the church’s national headquarters, the Watchtower Society, “knew, or should have known, that Frederick McLean was a pedophile.” Snip The Jehovah's Witnesses recently...

I grew up among Jehovah's Witnesses and we never referred to Jesus' death as the "Lord's Passion."  I can remember hearing the parents of my Christian friends talk about attending a "Passion Play" in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and wondering what kind of play they were describing.  I soon realized they were talking about a play that re-enacted the death of Jesus Christ and I wondered how such a terrible event could possibly be referred to as "The Passion".  It was a Legal TransactionJehovah's Witnesses (JWs) viewed Jesus' death as a "ransom" that was paid for us.  It was mostly a...

My sister is 43 years old, lives in a very small town about 1,000 miles away in our home town. We have relatives in the town as well. She has a 4 year old son (no father) and has fallen for a man there who is a JW. They are seriously talking of marriage and she seems to be well on the road to adopting his religion. We were raised Catholic, but she hasn't set foot in a church in years, as far as I know. I know little to nothing of JW, other than the usual bad rap it...

... And then there's Dever's upbringing in the Jehovah's Witness church. ... The actress has created a new life outside the church's strict system of beliefs, "and she's making it work for her," [film director Matthew Van Vlack] said. Dever has transformed herself from a sheltered St. Charles [MO] teenager forbidden from celebrating her birthday or attending prom into the celluloid star of horror flicks such as "Sasquatch Hunters" and "Mangler Reborn."... Conflicting feelings as a youth The Jehovah's Witnesses, which began as a small Bible study group near Pittsburgh in 1872, has more than 6.5 million Witnesses around the...

Nursing Homes in Iowa allow Jehovah witnessess to come and read "bible stories" to the residents and leave as much of their literature as they desire. The homes DO NOT tell family members that their love ones are being influenced in this way.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British woman has been ordered by police to take down a sign on her garden gate which read "Our dogs are fed on Jehovah's Witnesses." Janet Grove, who owns a terrier puppy called Rabbit, insisted the sign was a gentle joke to discourage callers at her front door. Her late husband put the sign up more than 30 years ago when members of the church called at their house on Christmas Day. But police were forced to act after receiving a complaint. "We were informed by a member of the public who found the sign to...

As a hobby, I have spent many years collecting art and publications from various esoteric sources -- End Times tracts, religious pamphlets, Communist propaganda, survivalist manuals, nuclear war stuff -- which I collectively refer to as Nut Lit and Nut Art. (I guess the technical term is Ephemera, but let's face it -- the best stuff comes from people and groups who could be accurately described as "nuts".) Most of these I enjoy out of mere historical or artistic interest. Over the years, however, a select few of my Nut Lit finds have provided the Tingle -- that creepy and...

DEARBORN, Mich. - Some Dearborn area Jehovah's Witnesses have been learning Arabic as part of an effort to convert Muslims.Jehovah's Witnesses say 30 to 40 people affiliated with Kingdom Hall have learned Arabic, and they make trips into Arab-American neighborhoods on at least a monthly basis.Similiar activity is occuring in New York, California and in other areas where there is a substantial Arab and Muslim population.Eide Alawan is a Muslim activist affiliated with the Islamic Center of America. She says that this sort of thing is happening more and more, especially since September Eleventh.Detroit and the suburb of Dearborn are...

Church faces abuse complaints Jehovah's Witness policy: Address issues internally By ANNMARIE TIMMINS Monitor staff November 22. 2004 8:15AM When Sara Poission suspected her husband was abusing their daughters 20 years ago, she took her fears to the leaders of her Jehovah's Witness congregation in Wilton. Poisson regrets deeply that she followed the advice she says she received: Pray more, be a better wife and keep quiet. "I was a puppet," said Poisson, now of Claremont. "It was 'God says you are a screw-up, so fix yourself and it will stop.'" The church never reported Poisson's former husband, Paul Berry,...

FROM SEX GOD TO DOORSTEP BIBLE BASHER Apr 10 2004 LOVE GIVES POP LEGEND A NEW PURPLE PATCH By Nick Webster ON the quiet suburban streets of Minneapolis, he cuts a remarkable figure. Dressed in a tailor-made suit and trademark stack heels, he steps lightly out of his purring limo and, surrounded by four bodyguards, approaches the modest picket-fenced homes. And to each astonished resident opening their doors to the peculiar group, multi-millionaire superstar Prince quietly asks: "Would you like to talk about Jesus?" Welcome to the new world of the man who once outraged a nation with the song...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Present and former Jehovah's Witnesses who claim they were sexually abused by congregation leaders gathered in their first national caucus Saturday, sharing grievances about the religion's handling of abuse complaints and discussing legal strategy. William Bowen, former leader of a Kentucky congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, said Saturday that more than 6,000 alleged sexual abuse victims have contacted a group he founded in 2001 to express "outrage at being silenced by the bad institutional policies" of the faith. The religion's procedures "can decimate the lives of the innocent and empower predators to get away with the crime of...

Moscow bans Jehovah's Witnesses A Russian court has barred Jehovah's Witnesses from operating in the capital, Moscow. The court ruled that group's practices broke up families, encouraged suicide and threatened its members' health by not allowing blood transfusions. Lawyers for the group said the ruling was a step back for democracy and was reminiscent of Soviet rule. They said they would appeal the verdict both in Russia and to the European Court of Human Rights. "Religious minorities are often a litmus test for where a society is going... this is an ominous signal," the group's lawyer, John Burns, said. In...

4 say Jehovah's Witness church hid crime; man a convicted child molester February 19, 2004 By STEVE HART THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Four former members of the Jehovah's Witnesses have filed a lawsuit in Superior Court, contending they were sexually abused by a church official in Sonoma County during the 1980s and the church covered up the crime. The lawsuit names two Sonoma County congregations of the Jehovah's Witnesses and Donald L. Glew, a former church member who was convicted in 1989 of four counts of child molestation. Glew, now 52, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. According to the...

DELAND -- Proclaiming to be the anti-Christ, a 28-year-old man confessed to killing three Jehovah's Witnesses in their West Volusia home and was charged with their murders Friday. Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said Javier Orlando Carrasquillo's mother told investigators her son had made a "pact with the devil" to sacrifice human life. Since then, Leida Rivera has been in a safe house awaiting her son's arrest. The Sanford man, who often lived on the streets, told investigators he suffered from schizophrenia, according to sheriff's reports. He said his only reason for killing the family of three -- fellow Jehovah's...

PRESS RELEASE Contact: William H. Bowen: KY 270-527-5350, cell 270-703-2257silentlambs.org Heidi Meyer: MN Sex Scandal in Jehovah’s Witnesses to Air on CBS EVENING NEWS, Tuesday, April 29, 2003 (usually 6:30 pm)* Support Group Founder Interviewed Along with Abuse Survivors While sexual abuse by Catholic clergy has dominated national headlines, Jehovah’s Witnesses are being exposed for an international policy on child molestation. A Kentucky man who founded a support group (www.silentlambs.org) for men and women victimized by Jehovah Witness leaders will be interviewed by Jane Clayson of CBS. Former Jehovah's Witness elder William H. Bowen has participated in ten documentaries worldwide...

CHRISTIAN CRITICS In this chapter we will be looking at some of the most common misrepresentations of the Authorized Version. Many of these misrepresentations are unintentional. Most of the comments against the Authorized Version are, in fact, simply repetitions of what the commontator heard from the pulpit, read in a book, or learned in a classroom.

It would be extremely beneficial at this point if we could simply produce the original autographs for examination. This would greatly simplify the operation of establishing correctly the New Testament Text. But this simply cannot happen. It has long been acknowledged by scholars that we no longer have the "originals." They have long since passed from the scene. This is due to the fact that scribes were known to destroy worn out MSS after they had copied them. Apparently the church valued the WORDS of the original more than the original itself. Therefore, the readings of the originals must be...

Home news | arts | sports | biz | weather | classifieds Sean Gonsalves   Columnists Sean Gonsalves Appears Tuesdays Lawrence Brown Every Friday Francis Broadhurst Every other Thursday Letters Today's letters to the Cape Cod Times --------------------Send a letter to the Cape Cod Times Related Editorial Page Editor:William Mills -------------------- Beating around the Bush By SEAN GONSALVESI consider myself an aspiring devotee of what Gandhi termed satyagraha (truth-force), which in pop politics is described with ambiguous phrases like "passive resistance" and "civil disobedience." Call it what you want. I have no ideas for a better word to describe...

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TULKAREM, West Bank, Aug 25, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The son of the first known Palestinian woman to be executed as an Israeli collaborator on Sunday said gunmen tortured him until he invented a story about his mother's involvement in a militant's death. Ikhlas Khouli, a 35-year-old mother of seven, was shot dead Saturday after being seized from her home in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. Bakir Khouli, 17, lifted up his T-shirt at his one-room house in Tulkarem on Sunday to reveal black and blue marks he said were made by electrical wires shortly before...

Abu Sabaya still alive, says priest ABU SABAYA is alive. He was sighted a day after Malacañang trumpeted his demise in June throwing a party in Tuburan municipality in Basilan province. He had good reason to celebrate: He is "alive and the group is intact." Fr. Cirilo Nacorda made this disclosure Thursday to the INQUIRER before he spoke before the Rotary Club of Manila at the Manila Hotel. During the open forum following his speech, Nacorda, who’s the parish priest of St. Peter Parish in Lamitan, Basilan, repeated that Sabaya was alive. Nacorda said that Sabaya’s group was "possibly"...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli security forces have arrested several Palestinian suspects in the July 31 bombing at Jerusalem's Hebrew University in which nine people, including five Americans, were killed, Israel Radio said Wednesday.

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Security officials announced this afternoon the capture of six Palestinians from east Jerusalem who were responsible for some of the most deadly terror attacks in recent months. The Hamas terrorists perpetrated the suicide bombing at Jerusalem's Moment Café, the suicide attack at a Rishon Letzion billiards hall, and the bombing at Hebrew University on July 31. The cell was responsible for the deaths of 35 people, officials said. Most of the Palestinians are from the village of Silwan. The head of the cell is Waal Kassam, 31, a resident of Ras al-Amud. The arrests of the cell members took place...

Dear Colleague: As we begin the new academic year, I would like to take this opportunity to provide an update regarding Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Through events of the past year with which we all are familiar, this situation has been the source of intense disruption for the university. We as an institution, and I as a president, have had to think daily about the fundamental values of universities in a way that few institutions ever do. We care deeply about freedom in the United States. At USF, we understand that academic freedom is the core value of the academy. It...

<p>August 22, 2002 -- Vivendi-Universal is bankrolling a new documentary defending anti-American terrorism - and a second media conglomerate, Viacom, is sponsoring the flick's red-carpet premiere in Toronto on Sept. 11.</p> <p>The film, "11'09"01," consists of 11 Sept. 11-themed shorts, several of which are being described as "stridently anti-American," that a Vivendi-Universal subsidiary commissioned from a team of international directors.</p>

An hostage decapitated in the south of the Philippines Wednesday August 21, 2002 - 23h40 GMT ZAMBOANGA (the Philippines), August 22 (AFP) - One of the six Christian hostages Filipinos removed by supposed islamists of the group Abu Sayaf in the south of the Philippines Wednesday was decapitated by its kidnappers, one learned military Thursday of source. The head of the hostage was found Wednesday evening near the headquarters of the army, in the capital of the island of Jolo, one specified of the same source. A second hostage decapitated in the south of the Philippines Thursday August 22,...

Dr. Bethea-Jackson : I don’t think 18 or 20 years ago, we knew much of anything about pedophiles. It wasn’t really looked at as a criminal matter. We didn’t publicize it as being an act that needed criminal intervention, so to speak. We didn’t look at it… or it wasn’t … people didn’t have the body of knowledge 18 or 20 years ago to say that this is something that will harm your child emotionally, if you don’t address it. Parents didn’t know that seriousness, 18 or 20 years ago, and the long-term effects. And as people document the work...

Leaders of the Jehovah's Witnesses are taking steps to excommunicate a Western Kentucky man and three other church members who have publicly criticized what they say is their church's secretive handling of child-molestation cases. Bill Bowen of Benton, Ky., said he was summoned to a judicial hearing to be held Friday at his Draffenville, Ky., church to answer allegations of ''causing divisions within the congregation and organization of Jehovah's Witnesses.'' Bowen resigned as an elder in the Marshall County congregation in December 2000 to protest the church's handling of a local case and its policies on handling abuse allegations. He...

McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- Sharon Roe remembers her brother-in-law spreading his financial records on the floor and crunching numbers during a December visit. Robert Bryant was burning through money at an alarming rate. "We have enough food and money for two months," she recalls him saying. "After that, we're going to starve." His wife, Janet, tried consoling him: "It's OK, Rob, we'll just buy lots of rice and beans." Roe doesn't know why, just a few months later, Robert Bryant became so desperate that he murdered his wife and four children in their beds before taking his own life. Their bodies...