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, and activist.
She grew up as a third-generation Jehovah's Witness in Vancouver, Canada with her parents and sister. She 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. [16] Later, Lioness became a media company in its own right, publishing fact-checked stories in the public interest. [17] In September 2023, Amber expanded her whistleblower support network by launching the collective Parallel Story as a public service to support whistleblowers and publish their stories.
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The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges, and seven professional institutions. In 1960, John R. Everett became the first chancellor of the Municipal College System of New York City, later known as the City University of New York (CUNY). CUNY, established by New York State legislation in 1961 and signed into law by Governor Nelson Rockefeller, was an amalgamation of existing institutions and a new graduate school.
Infanticide is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose being the prevention of resources being spent on weak or disabled offspring. Unwanted infants were usually abandoned to die of exposure, but in some societies they were deliberately killed. Infanticide is broadly illegal, but in some places the practice is tolerated, or the prohibition is not strictly enforced.
Jehovah's Witnesses is a nontrinitarian, millenarian, restorationist Christian denomination. As of 2023, the group reported approximately 8.6 million members involved in evangelism, with around 20.5 million attending the annual Memorial of Christ's death. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the destruction of the present world system at Armageddon is imminent, and the establishment of God's kingdom over earth is the only solution to all of humanity's problems.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a multi-arts center in Brooklyn, New York City. It hosts progressive and avant-garde performances, with theater, dance, music, opera, film programming across multiple nearby venues.
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Julia Anne Sweeney is an American actress, comedian, and author. Sweeney gained fame as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1994. She played Mrs. Keeper in the film Stuart Little and voiced Brittany in Father of the Pride. She recently appeared in the Hulu series Shrill, the Showtime series Work in Progress, and the Starz series American Gods.
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 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 labour, 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.
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.
Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton, 536 U.S. 150 (2002), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a town ordinance's provisions making it a misdemeanor to engage in door-to-door advocacy without first registering with town officials and receiving a permit violates the First Amendment as it applies to religious proselytizing, anonymous political speech, and the distribution of handbills.
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.
Forever Amber is a 1947 American adventure drama romance film starring Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde. It was based on the book of the same title by Kathleen Winsor. It also starred Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, and Jessica Tandy.
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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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