List of works
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Books
- Scorah, Amber (2019). Leaving the Witness: Exiting Religion And Finding A Life. Viking Press. ISBN 9780735222540.
Podcasts
- Scorah, Amber (2007–2009). Dear Amber (Podcast). ChinesePod.
Amber Scorah | |
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| Born | Canada |
| Education | Harvard Divinity School, The City University of New York, CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies [1] |
| Notable work | Memoir: Leaving the Witness |
| Movement | whistleblower support, paid parental leave, child care letter grading, ExJW |
| Spouse | Jonathan Watts |
| Website | www |
Amber Scorah is a Canadian-American writer, speaker, entrepreneur and activist. She is co-founder of the collective whistleblowing support and advocacy non-profit Psst.org Psst.org and former co-founder of the whistleblower media outlet Lioness.
She grew up as a third-generation Jehovah's Witness in Vancouver, Canada with her parents and sister and rarely had contact with non-Jehovah's Witnesses. She forwent a formal education and career and instead went into the full-time volunteer preaching work immediately after graduating high school. When she was 22 years old she married a Jehovah's Witness elder, then she and her husband moved to China to become missionaries. [2] [3]
As a young adult, Scorah forwent a formal education after high school (see early life above). [2] In 2010, she enrolled at the City University of New York and attended Hunter College. She took a break in 2015, then resumed her studies in spring 2019. She graduated from the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies in 2020 with a concentration in English and the Psychology of Religion at Hunter College's program in religion, under the guidance of faculty member Barbara Sproul. [1] [4] In Fall of 2020, Scorah was accepted into Harvard Divinity School's Master of Theological Studies program as a Dean's Fellow with a full scholarship.
Scorah is a fluent speaker of Mandarin Chinese and has lived in both Taiwan and China, where she became immersed in Chinese culture. [3] Between the years 2007 and 2009 she hosted a ChinesePod series called "Dear Amber" where she answered listeners' questions about China and discussed unique aspects of Chinese culture and customs which foreigners may not be aware of. ChinesePod describes Scorah as a "pioneer" for developing this new lesson style. Her podcast was a Top 10 podcast in 2008 on iTunes. [5]
In 2015 Scorah's three-month-old son Karl Towndrow died unexpectedly on his first day of daycare in SoHo, New York. The daycare had been operating without a license and was shut down shortly after the incident. A staff member stated that she had noticed Karl kicking in his crib but she was told by a supervisor to ignore it because that's what babies do. He was found unresponsive with "blue lips" a short time later, and pronounced dead at the hospital. [6] [7] Scorah had not felt ready to go back to work and leave him at daycare, which made the incident particularly difficult to cope with. She walked into the daycare and witnessed a staff member administering CPR "incorrectly," despite their earlier assurances that the staff was properly trained to administer CPR. She later found out that he had been put to sleep on his side. Since the official cause of death was "undetermined," she does not know if it could have been prevented; however, she regrets that her son had to die alone without his mother. The incident drove her into activism.> [8]
Scorah authored a "viral" [9] article for The New York Times ' Motherlode blog about the incident from her perspective. In it she explained why she thinks mandatory paid parental leave is necessary. She says, "Parental leave reduces infant death, gives us healthier, more well-adjusted adults and helps women stay in the workforce." First lady Michelle Obama was so moved by her story that she sent a letter of condolence to Scorah. Soon thereafter Barack Obama's senior adviser Valerie Jarrett made a push for legislation mandating paid family leave. [8] [10] In February 2016 Scorah attended New York City mayor Bill de Blasio's speech where he discussed his policy mandating 6 weeks' paid parental leave for non-union city employees, and pushed for the policy to be made available throughout the state of New York. Scorah called this policy change a "baby step." [11] In August 2016 Scorah delivered petitions to both the Trump and Clinton presidential campaigns pushing for federally mandated paid leave. Both politicians have spoken favorably of the concept. Donald Trump pitched a plan for how he could institute 6 weeks' paid parental leave. Scorah says this is progress but it's not enough. [8] [12] In 2017 CNN correspondent Clare Sebastian named Amber as her "hero" for "...her bravery in turning such a tragic event into public and heartfelt campaign." [13] That same year Brooklyn Magazine named her one of their top "100 Influencers in Brooklyn Culture" for her parental leave advocacy. [14]
Scorah began speaking out publicly about her life as a Jehovah's Witness in 2013 in her article Leaving the Witness: A Preacher Finds Freedom To Think In Totalitarian China published by The Believer magazine. In it she speaks about her restrictive childhood and disfellowshipment as a teenager, her life as an illegal missionary in China (see persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in China), her gradual change of belief, and her eventual apostasy trial and shunning. [3] In 2019 she expounded on this story in her memoir Leaving the Witness. [15]
In 2020, Scorah co-founded Lioness, a whistleblower support organization, building on her own experience as a whistleblower against the Jehovah's Witness organization. She also incorporated her own experience telling the story of her son's death publicly to help others use their stories to advocate for social change. [16] Later, Lioness became a media company in its own right, publishing whistleblower's fact-checked stories in the public interest. [17] In September 2023, Amber expanded her whistleblower support network by co-launching the nonprofit collective Psst.org as a public service to support whistleblowers and help everyday people safely and collectively bring forward information in the public interest.
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Jehovah's Witnesses is a nontrinitarian, millenarian, restorationist Christian denomination. In 2023, the group reported approximately 8.6
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Don Alden Adams was president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (2000–2014), the principal corporation of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Barbara Grizzuti Harrison was an American journalist, essayist and memoirist. She is best known for her autobiographical work, particularly her account of growing up as a Jehovah's Witness, and for her travel writing.
The beliefs and practices of Jehovah's Witnesses have engendered controversy throughout their history. Consequently, the denomination has been opposed by local governments, communities, and religious groups. Many Christian denominations consider the interpretations and doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses heretical, and some professors of religion have classified the denomination as a cult.
Various individuals, courts and the media around the world have raised concerns about the manner in which cases of child sexual abuse are handled when they occur in congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses. An independent 2009 study in Norway was critical of how Jehovah's Witnesses dealt with cases of child sexual abuse but stated there is no indication that the rate of sexual abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses is higher than found in general society. The organization's stated position is that it abhors child sexual abuse.
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization headquartered in Warwick, New York. It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah's Witnesses to direct, administer, and disseminate doctrines for the group and is often referred to by members of the denomination simply as "the Society". It is the parent organization of a number of Watch Tower subsidiaries, including the Watchtower Society of New York and the International Bible Students Association. The number of voting shareholders of the corporation is limited to between 300 and 500 "mature, active and faithful" male Jehovah's Witnesses. About 5,800 Jehovah's Witnesses provide voluntary unpaid labor, as members of a religious order, in three large Watch Tower Society facilities in New York. Nearly 15,000 other members of the order work at the Watch Tower Society's other facilities worldwide.
ChinesePod is a web-based Chinese language-learning service composed of multiple key components: video and audio lessons, mobile apps and exercises for characters, pronunciation and dialogue. There are also virtual classroom sessions for private lessons with Mandarin Chinese teachers. The service was founded in June 2004 in Shanghai, by Ken Carroll, Hank Horkoff, and Steve Williams.
Religion in Macau is represented predominantly by Buddhism and Chinese folk religions. During the period in which the city was under Portuguese rule (1557–1999) the Catholic Church became one of the dominant faiths, but nowadays it has greatly declined.
Barbara Katz Rothman is a professor of sociology and women's studies at the City University of New York (CUNY). Her work encompasses medical sociology, childbirth and midwifery, bioethics, race, disability, food studies, and the sociology of knowledge.
Mary Pinkett served in the New York City Council from 1974 to 2001, representing the 28th and 35th districts. She was the first black New York City Councilwoman.
Silentlambs is a United States–based non-profit organization, founded by William Bowen, that assists victims of child sexual abuse experienced within the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. Silentlambs' stated purpose is to help educate the public and Jehovah's Witnesses about child sexual abuse, and to assist abuse survivors who have been molested as children and silenced from speaking out or seeking proper assistance as directed by religious authority. The group states that it has received reports from more than 5000 Jehovah's Witnesses contending that the organization mishandled cases of child sexual abuse.
Finn O'Connor is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. Upon his introduction as part of the O'Connor family, the character was portrayed by Connor Wilkinson. The family were introduced during a "shake-up" of the show by new series producer Paul Marquess. Writers then placed Finn in an issue-led story exploring underage sex and teenage pregnancy with Amber Sharpe. The character was written out of the series in 2011.
Fuzhounese Americans, also known as Hokchew Americans or Fuzhou Americans or imprecisely Fujianese, are Chinese American people of Fuzhou descent, in particular from the Changle district. Many Chinese restaurant workers in the United States are from Fuzhou. There are also a number of undocumented Fuzhounese immigrants in the United States who are smuggled in by groups such as snakeheads.
Cristina Alesci was the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Chobani until March 2022. Until December 2020, she was a CNN and CNNMoney correspondent based out of the network’s New York bureau. She covers breaking news for the network as well as financial fraud and controversies facing major companies. Her investigative series focuses on public policy issues of the 2016 election cycle, food production, and documenting the early struggles of successful leaders.
Apostasy is a 2017 British drama film about Jehovah's Witnesses directed by Daniel Kokotajlo. It was screened in the Discovery section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Kokotajlo was nominated at the 2019 BAFTAs for the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.
On the night of September 6, 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean was murdered in Dallas, Texas, by off-duty Dallas Police Department patrol officer Amber Guyger, who entered Jean's apartment and fatally shot him. Guyger, who said that she had entered Jean's apartment believing it was her own and believed Jean to be a burglar, was initially charged with manslaughter. The absence of a murder charge led to protests and accusations of racial bias because Jean—an unarmed black man—was killed in his own home by a white off-duty officer who had apparently disregarded police protocols. On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on a charge of murder. On October 1, 2019, she was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment the following day. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 2021.
The Trump–Ukraine scandal was a political scandal that arose primarily from the discovery of U.S. President Donald Trump's attempts to coerce Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden and thus potentially damage Biden's campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Trump enlisted surrogates in and outside his administration, including personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr, to pressure Ukraine and other governments to cooperate in supporting and legitimizing the bogus Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory and other conspiracy theories concerning US politics. Trump blocked payment of a congressionally-mandated $400 million military aid package, in an attempt to obtain quid pro quo cooperation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Contacts were established between the White House and government of Ukraine, culminating in a call between Trump and Zelenskyy on July 25, 2019.
Front & York is a full-block residential building at 85 Jay Street in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. CIM Group and LIVWRK developed the building, and Morris Adjmi Architects designed it.
Many readers know Scorah through her viral article in The New York Times about the death of her son on his first day of day care.
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