Do I need to be Readjusted in my thinking?

by enlightenedcynic 49 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  enlightenedcynic

  Hello all,

  I am sure that the topic I am going to introduce has been discussed here many times before but I personally need to a.) vent a little and b.) get feedback from some logically thinking individuals.

  Here we go.....

  The KH I attend is going to renovated. The total cost is estimated to be $190,000. Of course, the congregations that meet here do not have the money so a loan must be secured from the society. Fast forward a few weeks and at a service meeting the p/o gives a part and hands out sheets of paper and asks all to anonymously indicate how much they can contribute in one lump sum or over a continued period. He also asked if any could loan money to the congregation and that interest could be repaid on the loan but the max would be 3% and if the interest was indeed charged by the lender, how it would cause a hardship on the congregation.

  Fast forward a few meetings to another service meeting were the p/o is introducing a resolution that the cong. borrow the amount of $200,000 from the WTBTS of Pennsylvania, to be repaid over a 10 year period at 3% interest.

  So let me get this straight:

  1. It would prove a hardship on the cong. to repay interest on a loan from a publisher, but not on a loan from the society?

  2. Why is the society charging interest on a loan that will help to further "kingdom interests"?

  3. Why am I the only person that I have spoken with(both carefully and discreetly) that finds this outrageous? Volunteer workers will do the labor...society provides the supplies that they get a next to nothing cost and the congregation repays the loan with f****** interest.

  Unbelievable

  ec

  P.S. - Correct me please if I am mistaken but doesn't the WTBTS technically/legally own all KH's?
• 

  daniel-p

  That 3% I believe is not considered interest, but the rate of inflation. It would, in fact, be considered without interest.
• 

  Legolas

  It is NOTHING but a MONEY MAKING BUSINESS!

  I don't know when people are going to open their eyes and see that for themselves!
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  kid-A

  Frankly I didnt even know this was a possibility. Years ago the idea came up that we sell our old hall and build a new one to accomodate 2 additional congregations. I clearly remember the local needs talks about this and the fact that our congregation (individual contributions) was responsible for flipping the bill or at least a HUGE percentage of it. As it turned out, the three congregations combined could not raise the money and the new hall was never built. My JW family is still in the old hall, 15 years later.
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  Joe Grundy

  I would be interested in the answer to the question 'who owns the KH'?

  If it's owned by WTBTS, cost of refurbishment would be theirs, not the congregation's.

  And how is the loan/interest payments dealt with in WTBTS accounts?
• 

  jstalin

  The church I used to belong to would raise money before doing any work. The last fund drive was for several million dollars to add on to the school and build a new family center. Borrowing doesn't seem like a very good strategy, especially for that low amount of money.
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  Elsewhere

  Oh, and here is the real kicker... Somewhere in the legal paperwork for the Kingdom Hall there is a clause which states that should the Congregation be dissolved the ownership of the Kingdom Hall will be transferred to the Watchtower Society.

  Simply put: The Watchtower Society wants YOU to pay interest on a loan so YOU can pay for the Kingdom Hall so that they can later own the Kingdom Hall.

  What a scam! You pay the Watchtower Society so the Watchtower Society can own the Kingdom Hall.

  Where else but the Watchtower Soceity can you find such a scam?
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  lovelylil

  You have every right to be upset. You are being scammed by the WT money making machine. The WT gets to keep the property which adds to its net worth, gets free labor to update it which increases its value, and the poor rank and file witnesses, have to pay for the whole thing - with interest!

  Ask the brothers if they know of any worldly banks that loan you money for a purchase at interest and when you finish paying them off - keep the item you purchased with the money? And while you are at it share with them these scriptures from Jehovah's view on loaning money to "brothers" in the faith.

  Deuteronomy 23:19
  Do not charge your brother interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest.

  Deuteronomy 23:20
  You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a brother Israelite, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.

  Exodus 22:25
  "If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest
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  Sad emo

  This is similar to what goes on in the RC church also (over here at least).

  All the Sunday collection money goes to the dioscese. When a congregation needs a new building or whatever, they have to loan technically what was their own money back from the dioscese.

  Then they have to repay the loan with 'interest' (I think it's inflation rate here too).

  And the building/whatever becomes the property of the dioscese.

  Most organised religion is a rip-off!
• 

  rebel8

  It IS outrageous, on so many levels.

  To give a comparison.....I am in the process of starting a local chapter of a national charity. The national org doesn't behave anything like the WTS is with the new KH.....my national org is financially supportive, way beyond the point of any monies that will eventually get funneled back to them. That is because they are truly on a mission to help people, not to make $ like the WTS is.