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Child Abuse Shunning Videos

Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Champion Religious Freedom? Part 3

In 2015 The Australian Royal Commission in case number 29 gave the Watchtower organization recommendations that would enable them to respond more adequately to child sexual abuse allegations and protect children. After two years the commission reconvened in order to ascertain whether their recommendations were followed.

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Shunning Videos

Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Australian Royal Commission

In 2015 at the Australian Royal Commission’s Inquiry into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, governing body member Geoffrey Jackson tried to explain in his testimony that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not shun former members as long as they leave unofficially by merely ceasing to attend meetings. But if they formally wish to disassociate themselves so […]

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Shunning Videos

Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Champion Religious Freedom?

Some 30 cases involving Jehovah’s Witnesses came before the U.S. Supreme Court in the five-year period between 1938 and 1943. The decisions of which have greatly led to the protection of religious freedom. However, what happens when a member decides they want to leave the religion? Is their freedom to do so respected? This video […]

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News Media Norway Shunning

A Paradigm Shift in the Religious Communities Act

Vart Land January 19, 2024 The case of Jehovah’s Witnesses is a good example of the paradigm shift that the Religious Communities Act has undergone: Before, the religious communities were allowed to govern themselves. Today, the protection of the individual is much stronger. Jehovah’s Witnesses have filed a lawsuit against the state after they were […]

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News Media Norway Shunning

Standing On Opposite Sides

Vart Land January 19, 2024 By Jor Hjulstad Tvedt On Friday, the parties went their separate ways in the Oslo District Court, after the two-week dispute between the state and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Ben Elder and Jan Frode Nilsen have followed the case from different sides. On Friday, the parties made their closing statements in the […]

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News Media Norway Shunning

Religious Shunning – Good or Bad?

Vart Land January 13, 2024 “One of the worst nights I’ve had” Rakel Fjelltvedt (26) left Jehovah’s Witnesses because of the exclusion system.  It’s one of the worst nights I’ve had. It felt like I was opting out of a lot of people that I love. One October evening just over three years ago, Rakel Fjelltvedt […]

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News Media Norway Shunning

Watchtower Rep Claims Shunning is Up to the Individual

Vårt Land By Jor Hjulstad Tvedt January 12, 2024 Jehovah’s Witness board member about cutting contact: – Up to the individual family COURT: Kåre Sæterhaug, board member for Jehovah’s Witnesses, explained himself to the court on Thursday and Friday. Here he claimed that the religious community has no rules for contact with expelled family members […]

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News Media Norway Shunning

Father of an Ex-Jehovah’s Witness

“It can be compared to a feeling of sadness. But it is difficult to describe,” Per Ole Nilsen searches to find the words when he is asked about his son. The distance from Grimstad to the son’s home in Risør hasn’t changed, but the father no longer travels to visit as before. Nilsen is a member of […]

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News Media Norway Shunning

Living With the Nightmares

Jehovah’s Witness defector Frode: Living with the nightmares https://www.dagbladet.no/tema/jehovas-vitner-avhopper-frode-lever-med-marerittene/78508064 For many years he was part of the religious community Jehovah’s Witnesses. Then Frode (45) had enough. Now he reveals everything about life on the inside, the “forbidden” sexuality and falling in love – and the dramatic break-up. LOST FAITH: Faith disappeared over twenty years ago, […]

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News Media Norway Shunning

Jehovah’s Witnesses Consider Legal Steps in Norway

The international leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses says in a December Governing Body Update video #8 that they will never be pressured into changing their biblical stance. Jehovah’s Witnesses’ rules regarding the exclusion of members have been severely cracked down on by the Norwegian authorities. Not only are they denied state subsidies for 2021 as recently confirmed […]