Ever think why the collection box is in the back of the KHall?

biddie

I used to thinik it was better... but now I realize it was a way for the elders to keep an eye on who was giving! biddie

stillajwexelder

possibly - but I never did when I was an elder

biddie

I was told it was so that the "plate" did'nt have to be passed! but now we pass the plate all the time and no one really cares or sees who is giving... just a thought... Biddie

misspeaches

I think that they place them by the doors on purpose so when people are leaving they see them and guiltily remember the many tirades on YOU MUST GIVE US MONEY.

Triple A

I was told it was so that the "plate" did'nt have to be passed! but now we pass the plate all the time and no one really cares or sees who is giving... just a thought... Biddie

Biddie, I have never heard of a plate being passed in the KHs. Is this isolated or are all the KHs doing this? Triple A.

Roddy

I think that they place them by the doors on purpose so when people are leaving they see them and guiltily remember the many tirades on YOU MUST GIVE US MONEY.

If the friends only knew that their kingdom hall doesn't belong to them. No sooner did they pay for the land and the materials the ownership was transfered to the Watchtower without so much as a disclosure to the congregations meeting there.

rmt1

It keeps the nuts and bolts of the organization - taking money - out of the sight of the congregation when they are in the structural unit called an audience. This originally had the benefit of preventing wealthy benefactors from displaying their contributive power before others, as well as taking the pressure off the unwealthy who previously felt that the pressure of plate-passing in "Christendom" was wrong. The audience section is the 'formal' part of the Hall while the rear is the 'informal' part. Christendom concentrated on shaming the faithful into giving |money| in a |formal| space, money that was usually the parishoners' only form of contribution, and an action that once accomplished allowed the parishoner off the hook for the week. The Society shrewdly distanced itself by not pressuring for money-right-now in a formal space, AND found a way to keep pressure on the 'friends', by demanding a line of credit on one's time. This is like a mental bank note that says, "This note is legal tender and the holder shall yield up all proceeds of the next time unit of field service." Of course the game changes from pressuring parishoners to empty their pockets to getting 'friends' to stop mentally seperating the two ideas of "taking a donation" and "turning in the donation". As long as those two ideas stay bound and inseperable, the machine works and the Society gets to claim difference. And if the Society claims that the contribution boxes are out of sight, they explicitly demand that you only conceive of them as being out of sight of the formal audience. They are Quite within sight of the congregation once it has stood down into the informal spaces. They occupy key junction points like a panoptical shaded Mr. Smith, and are near the pulp cartoon distribution centers. The pressure is never off. The pulp cartoons cost, what, $.03 apiece with Brooklyn's massive economies of scale?

Dand One

Perhaps when the idea started it was subtle and different. Now with all the different boxes to donate to, "temporary" special funds, and serveral congos having the same boxes out, I dare say it's rather like running the gauntlet. Perhaps passing a plate around would be less intrusive.

blondie

After 50 years of going to meetings in several states and countries, I can tell you that the majority do not have anyone watching to see who gave. If people give cash, how would they know who gave what and when. It is very easy to fold over and put a one or a ten in and no one could tell, unless you were the only one. I have seen people give their money to someone else to put in for them.

The only way anyone knows who gave what are those who put in checks and then only the accounts servant and the brother who watches him count and sign off on the slip for the secretary (?) to verify when the accounts report is done.

I can imagine that there might be a few anal-retentive congregations out there, but few have time for such things.

So if you give cash in small amounts ($250 or over at one time requires a special letter for the US IRS), no one knows.

I can see them putting the boxes closer to the door everyone leaves by but even that is 50/50. I have seen the boxes where there is the most foot traffic. I haven't seen it in this area, but some say that a special contribution box is on the counter by the magazines/literature to give people the hint to donate for the publications.

Side point: I can remember the CO coming through not long ago and ranting that there were no contribution boxes at the book study locations. Evidently, the WTS thought that donations could increase. Guess again.

bull01lay

I may be really reaching out here...... but...could it simply be because it's more discreet for the contributors ??

Bull! <= playing devils advocate....

Ever think why the collection box is in the back of the KHall?

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