Regardless of the amount, a 'Christian' organization with even millions of assets that only distributes literature to help their fellow man is totally disgusting to me. Knowing Jesus is important, but sharing of the blessings of God means more than keeping presses busy in New York. It's too bad that religious organizations are not governed by rules like fraternal organizations where the profits are required to be distributed.
FRANCE-WTS BIG SCANDAL IF TRUE
by DannyHaszard 64 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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DannyHaszard
Dear users,
thank you very much for your mails about the article "Vendors of
Paradise in district XVI!
We already work on the answers of your questions.
In this time please feel free to post your opinion on the topic here:
http://www.cafebabel.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=290
Regards,
Srebrina Bognár
author café babel -
AK - Jeff
I would love to 'bash' the witness organization as much as anyone who has had a half century of life stolen from them, BUT $705 Billion in assetts is just not possible is it?
The richest family on earth is the progeny of Sam Walton [Walmart]. They are worth a ballpark $100 Billion between them all. This company has sales in excess of $300 billion annually. It is now public of course, but Sam put decades of high revenue sales into the bank and his kids got it when he died. $705 Billion is just not possible folks.
Jeff
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insearchoftruth
Agreed Jeff, wish the correct amount was available, I would believe it has to be in the 100s of millions with the property holdings and the efficient (donated) labor agreements that they have!
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dozy
There seems to be some disagreement among ex-witnesses as to the financial status of JWs.
Some feel the organisation is very short of funding & quote "cutbacks" at Bethel , paperback bibles , Awake being printed once a month & so forth.
Others feel the society has vast sums of wealth at its disposal (choose any figure between $200 million to $705 billion)
Any chance of getting some unity or consensus on this one? Or is the only consensus one of being critical to JWs , whatever the facts?
As for Rand Cam , this has been definitively discussed on previous threads and even those who are very much opposed to JWs have admitted that there is no case to answer here - the shares are held in a blind trust & Rand is a conglomerate company.
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dozy
It is so nice to have such a sophisticated level of debate!
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valkyrie
Direct copy and paste from website referred to by DH in the first post -- Vendors of Paradise in district XVI [http://www.cafebabel.com/en/article.asp?T=T&Id=6199]
"By looking at the websites of the American Watchtower companies, we can guess what Hartkopf means by foreign donations. In the fiscal year 1997/1998, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania had net assets worth 705 million dollars, as can be read on their website. On the website of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 'SEC', it is documented that the Watchtower company, regardless of its refusal of military service and political abstention, owns shares in the JP Morgan mutual trust fund and own 50 percent of a company dealing with armament technology, called ‘Silver Fox’. This machinery was tested in the second war in Iraq. The databank of New York, USPDR, estimates that the 2005 real estate assets of the Watchtower are worth 204 million dollars."
The "billion " must have been a typing error.
As for the statistic offered,
There are 687 ‘baptised’ JW in Hungary
, it is not an unreasonable supposition to think that the author/researcher misread a column-heading on an Worldwide Annual Service Report and retained only the number of new publishers baptised in a given service year.
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rebel8
Or is the only consensus one of being critical to JWs , whatever the facts?
There is absolutely no evidence of "the only consensus one of being critical to JWs, whatever the facts"; it is something you made up. Once again I must ask you to check your facts. Go back and read this thread. You will see most posters are critiquing the reporter's information, not accepting it. You chose to jump on the "all ex-JWs are evil liars" bandwagon again. Does pretending that all ex-JWs are beneath you make you feel better about yourself--is that why you do it? You never answered that question for me.
Any chance of getting some unity or consensus on this one?
Why would it be remotely reasonable to expect 1000s of diverse people with free minds to have a consensus? That is against nature.
I wonder why in one sentence you are expecting consensus and in the next you are criticizing consensus. Or is it the only consensus you will accept is one that is favorable to the WTS?
Keep thinking, keep questioning your assumptions, keep analyzing, keep checking facts. Your mind will eventually be freed.
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DannyHaszard
By looking at the websites of the American Watchtower companies, we can guess what Hartkopf means by foreign donations. In the fiscal year 1997/1998, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania had net assets worth 705 billion dollars, as can be read on their website. On the website of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 'SEC', it is documented that the Watchtower company, regardless of its refusal of military service and political abstention, owns shares in the JP Morgan mutual trust fund and own 50 percent of a company dealing with armament technology, called ‘Silver Fox’. This machinery was tested in the second war in Iraq. The databank of New York, USPDR, estimates that the 2005 real estate assets of the Watchtower are worth 204 million dollars.
It read billion last night they went in and edited a correction,i estimate that the WBTS worldwide assets are about $200 billion i made that picket sign 10 years ago with 1.4 billion yearly revenue and NO taxes.
Look,there are 195 kingdom halls in my little ole state of maine usa,the Bangor Maine usa k-hall is a mighty fine piece of real estate..Many if not most k-halls in the usa have an attached apartment that generates a rental income.The WTS pays no income,sales or real estate taxes on any of it.
What a sweetheart deal religious rackets are the way to wealth.-Danny Haszard
