By signing up for a user name to view or post on these boards, or to view our website you agree to the following:
Hereafter ATR refers to all faiths contained within African Traditional Religions, including but not limited to: Santeria, Lukumi, Palo, Ifa, Abaqua, Gnawa, Yoruba
Hereafter Occult Faiths will refer to all religions contained in but not limited to the faiths of Wicca, Paganism, Occultism, Satanism, Thelema, Spiritualism
1. That you are here for the expressed purposes of supporting victims of religious abuse or that you are a victim of religious abuse seeking help.
2. That you are not in any way here to impede the process of free speech of abuse victims, either with harassing posts or lawsuits.
3. YOU and YOU ALONE are responsible for the posts you make on our message board. We will take no responsibility for any posts that are not made by us.
4. You understand and acknowledge that we have no affiliation with any specific group or websites mentioned here. Any mention of any website or group is for informational purposes only.
FAQ
By signing up for a user name to view or post on these boards, or to view our website you acknowledge that you have read and understood our FAQ.
1. Why do you "hate" these religions and paint all of us as evil con persons?
We do not hate these religions, and we certainly do not hold the belief or promote the belief that all persons in these religions are con people or abusers. That fact is evidenced by the welcome participation of people in these religions that support our victims first philosophy and the right of anyone to leave these religions on their own terms without fear of reprisals.
2. Are you a group that supports the idea of Satanic Ritual Abuse?
NO. This theory of SRA has been proven false time and time again. We will not allow postings of persons claiming this. The reason for that is because we feel that any promotion of SRA is likely to damage our work here, which is to support victims of real religious harassment and abuse.
3. I'm going to sue you.
Good luck. But be forwarned that case law is on our side in regards to victims of religious abuses. Take a look at:
www.clambake.org
Some of the most wealthy religious organizations with very expensive legal help have lost millions to victims of religious abuse. Juries in general take a dim view of religious groups that try to intimidate victims with lawsuits. One such group has been unsuccesful in every case with the best legal team money can buy to try and intimidate victims with frivolous lawsuits regarding L.R. Hubbard (Under US and British Common Law there is no such thing as slander or libel of someone who is dead.) and frivolous lawsuits for a myriad of claims also "revealing secrets of a religion," "using the name of an organization in an article" etc. You can read extensively about this at Clambake.org.
By filing lawsuits, you are open to the discovery process yourself. If you think that it is worth having your own dirty laundry hung out to dry, you can try. But let's face facts, if you don't have skeletons in your closet, you aren't human. And in the discovery process everything will be brought out, no one is completely innocent after the process of discovery, that includes you.
You can count on a counterclaim being filed against you. We are not here to libel or "hate" an entire religion, we are here to give those who have been victimised a voice. As we mentioned before, juries take a dim view of haughty religious organizations that try to intimidate those who have been hurt.
We are sure after reading up on the case law in these matters that you will see it is not to your advantage to do something as stupid as trying to sue us for giving victims of religious abuse a voice.
4. Why don't you allow names or specific groups to be posted by victims?
This is cyberspace. We have no way of proving what you say is correct or true. Tell your story, leave out the names. You don't need names to get sympathy for what happened to you here.
5. Why is this an anonymous group, why don't you show yourself? If you were a valid group you wouldn't be anonymous.
We don't have to. Also, it is an accepted practice of many support groups, including some of the largest like AA, NA, childhood abuse survivors and other groups the practice of anonimity. Anonimity does not make our cause any less worthy. Anonimity protects the victims, which is our first obejective here, to protect the victims.
6. What is the difference between a public figure and a private citizen?
A public figure is someone who has identified themselves as such, desires to be such and promotes themselves as being a public figure. A public figure is someone who is in the public eye.
A private citizen is someone who is not a public figure, someone who does not wish to be advertised or identified to the public. This site and the victims here are for all purposes private citizens and do not wish to be in the public eye. We are a private support group for victims of religious abuse.
7. What can you say about public figures that you can't say about private citizens, and what is permitted here in regards to that?
Case law has held that public figures are open to more criticism and even parody than a private citizen. One of the most famous cases of this is the Larry Flynt vs. Jerry Falwell case back in the 1980's which solidified the rights to parody public figures. In that case, Falwell has claimed that Larry Flynt had damaged his reputation by printing a parody cartoon of him being a pervert. The Supreme Court held that because of his status as a public figure, he was open to parody of his character and image and that is was not libel.
As for this message board, we will permit constructive criticism of websites and the ACTIONS of public religious figures. We do not permit parody (even though it is technically legal to do so) or name-calling of any public figure.
When in doubt about your post in this regard, email the admin of the boards to ask before you post it.
8. I am a victim and I am sure that something illegal was done to me, should I post it here?
Be aware that we have no power to take action in a situation like this. You may post your story without names if you wish, but if the story contains illegal content that you might be held liable for, know that we have no control over what EZboards, our provider, may or may not turn over to authorities. When in doubt, it is always best to ask the administrator BEFORE posting it.
9. I am going to complain to your service providers that you are a spammer or a hate group.
It's been tried before, and failed. Our providers are all now well aware of our mission to support victims of religious abuse and know that there are people out there who want to see us go away.
Also be aware, that by filing false complaints with our providers you are libeling us and that we do have the right to sue you for libel and possibly under a tort known as "tortious interference:"
The causing of harm by disrupting something that belongs to someone else -- for example, interfering with a contractual relationship so that one party fails to deliver goods on time. --Nolo Law Dictionary
By attempting to disrupt our services by filing false complaints you are disrupting our ability to serve victims of religious abuse.
10. I feel that this is a very angry group of people.
You can feel any way that you choose, that is your right. But here, the victims come first and we will not take kindly to anyone who tries to dictate to our victims the proper way to scream.
