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Here they come, walkin' down the street. They get the funniest looks from everyone they meet. Hey, hey, it's the Watchtower, and they're not monkeyin' around. This former JW explains how the world's most effective door-to-door conversion machine is targeting you. It's early 1956, and I'm seated in a long, narrow building in Venice, California, that used to be a laundromat. It still looks like one. The walls are bare of decorations, painted some nondescript pastel color. Small windows near the ceiling let in some sunlight, but the main light comes from the rows of fluorescent lights that hum and...

OTTAWA - A young Jehovah's Witness who says a forced blood transfusion violated her Charter rights learns Friday whether the courts can veto the wishes of "mature minors" when their health is at risk. The Supreme Court of Canada will rule in the case of A.C., now 18, in a judgment that could clarify how such dilemmas should be handled across Canada. Several similar refusals of medical treatment by Jehovah's Witnesses have made headlines in recent years. But it's the first time the top court has weighed in. A.C. can't be identified because of the prior involvement of child welfare...

I have never forgotten the unusual conversation that I once had with a hitchhiker. We had not traveled very long together when I realized my rider was in some kind of a cult. He said that he would “come to power” in about 10 years and would end up being responsible for annihilating thousands, maybe millions of people. He went on and on, both amusing me and perturbing me. Finally, I turned to him and said, “So, who are you, anyway?” He looked me in the eye, paused, then said, “I am he, the 3rd Son of the Father, the...

The Canadian government has ordered a Christian ministry that teaches doctrine and the differences between Christians and cults shut down because its reference materials were "critical" of the beliefs of those who are not Christian, WND has learned. So what used to be called MacGregor Ministries with offerings in how to recognize and eliminate "faulty fads" in Christian churches has been re-created in the United States, and now operates under the name MM Outreach Media Ministries. Lorri MacGregor, who has dedicated her life to explaining the straight and narrow of Christian beliefs since she found her way out of the...

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...

Teen Jehovah's Witness Leukemia Patient Dies After Refusing Blood TransfusionThursday, November 29, 2007 MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — A few hours after a Mount Vernon judge ruled that a 14-year-old Jehovah's Witness sick with leukemia had the right to refuse a blood transfusion, even though that refusal might kill him, the boy died in a Seattle hospital. Dennis Lindberg of Mount Vernon died shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday in his bed at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, the boy's biological father, Dennis Lindberg Sr., told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Hospital spokeswoman Teri Thomas said she could not confirm or deny anything...

Grandmother of Dennis Lindberg holds boy's guardian responsible.Grandmother tried to intervene on boy's behalf.

Testifying against his father, Leon Slack whipped a piece of electrical cord across a bed frame in the courtroom. The cord, he said, was like the one his father used to beat Slack's sister to death. Jurors watched as Slack repeatedly slapped the cord, demonstrating how he said his father struck his sister more than 100 times after she was tied to the same frame in November 2001. Laree Slack had screamed out, her brother said, but their father, Larry Slack, stuck a towel in her mouth to muffle her.

Growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness we knew what it meant to be called into the back room by the elders of the congregation. It meant we had done something wrong and the elders were going to let us know about it. In many respects it mattered not if the accusations were true or not. What mattered was that there were accusations made against us and that this reflected poorly on the Jehovah’s Witness organization. The Organization of the Back Room In fact, Jehovah’s Witnesses are encouraged to spy on one another and to report inappropriate behavior to the...

Jehovah's Witnesses are renowned for teaching that Jesus is not God and that the world as we know it will soon end. But another unusual belief causes even more entanglements - namely, that God forbids blood transfusions even when patients' lives are at stake. The doctrine's importance will be underscored next week as elders who lead more than 98,000 congregations worldwide recite a new five-page blood directive from headquarters. The tightly disciplined sect believes the Bible forbids transfusions, though specifics have gradually been eased over the years. Raymond Franz, a defector from the all-powerful Governing Body that sets policies for...

It was not that long ago when I came home one day and told my wife, Kathy, that I had fallen in love with another woman. What had begun as a mere flirtation had finally blossomed into an outright love affair. I told my wife that I was still in love with her, but that I needed this other woman known as the Catholic Church. A Fellowship Born of Need It was not long before my wife, Kathy, also fell in love with the Church and in the year 2003 both Kathy and I entered the Church. After we moved...

A 16-year-old male student, identified only by his family name Yoon, died of leukemia in April while refusing a blood transfusion that possibly could have saved his life. It's not the first case of its kind nor the last because Yoon was a member of the Jehovah's Witness faith which follows strict beliefs that blood should not be misused or tampered with under any circumstances. The incident has raised the question in some circles whether parents have the right to deny their children blood transfusions that go against their religious beliefs even when life is at stake. In Korea, children...

The bitter fight over a blood transfusion for a 14-year-old Jehovah's Witness Okanagan girl is heading to a Toronto courtroom. The girl has gone into hiding with her family in Ontario to avoid blood transfusions that a B.C. court ordered should be given if medically necessary. Jeremy Berland, B.C.'s director of child welfare, will apply to the courts to authorize the "safety net" of transfusions if needed in her cancer treatment. Berland is scheduled to appear in Ontario Superior Court tomorrow to force the girl to have the treatment, including blood transfusions, if required. "Our primary and principle concern has...

Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe has agreed to be a star witness against the singer during his child molestation trial. Ms Rowe, 37, was married to Jackson for three years and is mother of his children Prince and Paris. But she has now formally been added to the state's list of witnesses. Insiders say her testimony is likely to "blow the lid" off Jackson's bizarre lifestyle. Since the allegations of child abuse first surfaced, the former nurse has filed to regain custody of their children. She was said to have signed all rights over to Jackson after their 1999 divorce,...

So, as the "new Priest" in town - I seem to be getting major overtures from the JW's. Admittedly, I've not done a lot of study on them. Can you pass along some on-line source material that will give me an understanding of them? Thanks, Fr. Gerry

Father sues Jehovah's Witnesses, hospital over teen's death - Fri, 27 Aug 2004 CALGARY - A Calgary man who waged a bitter battle to have his daughter receive a blood transfusion – against her wishes – is suing his former church bretheren and doctors at an Edmonton cancer treatment centre. FROM JULY 11, 2002: Top court refuses to hear dying teen's case "I was B's father. I had a right to see my dying daughter. I had a right to know what her treatment was," Lawrence Hughes, painting his case as David vs Goliath, said Friday. "I had a right...

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...