Well I know my ex doesn't donate much of anything. When I was with him I made sure to take care of donations, and about a year before I left I quit donating almost entirely. The ex-husband is such a terrible tight wad that I know it just kills him to put even $5.00 in the contribution once a month. LOL I hope the money well dries up entirely and they go out of business. Will they see it as Jehovah's judgement????
PO said automation and declining contributions reason for Bethel layoffs
by truthseeker 71 Replies latest jw friends
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serendipity
The contributions in my cong. have declined by nearly 25% over a 2 month period, and averages out to a bit over $4 per publisher/month now. Also, some young guys are being released from Bethel. There was one at a KH who was probably not even 30. He got introduced as a Bethel speaker, now serving in the xxx cong. -
MinisterAmos
We just had a 30ish couple get dumped on us from the Bethel trash heap.
He was originally from TN, but his parents (70's) got the order to move down here while he was at Bethel.
So the dude had to leave, but where to go since A) No money, B) No more parent's homestead and C) No job!
He did move in with Mom and Dad and they (two couples!) are sharing the garage apartment.
I'd be annoyed but he seems to take it in stride. Probably heavily medicated or brain damaged.
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daniel-p
I'd be annoyed but he seems to take it in stride. Probably heavily medicated or brain damaged.
Bethel trains you to take all kinds of shit and still "take it in stride." Inside he's cracking, believe me.
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GentlyFeral
jgnat,Thanks for posting those figures from barna.org.
It appears to me that the percentages in the "least likely to give" category are all the percentage of people who do not donate.
If I am interpreting this correctly, it appears that "only" 73% to 80% of the "ungenerous" types donate to charity. Still pretty impressive.
gently feral
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TMS
All of the above the result of the Watchtower Society submitting a "Friend of the Court" brief in the Jimmy Swaggart case or as the WT likes to refer to it: "Simplification."
tms
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Old Goat
Many of those asked to leave were in their fifties or older and had been at Bethel for decades. An aging workforce means health-costs. Poor or no planning means there is no money to pay for this. Besides, why pay for the care of our elderly brothers and sisters when we can dump them now and let individual congregations worry about them or neglect them as they choose?
It's a good thing to take care of the elderly governing body members, I suppose. Or, maybe they should be "sent home" too, so our contributions don't go to unnecessary health-care expenses.
Poor planing is no excuse for trashing the lives of those who've given decades to Bethel service. This is wrong.
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LDH
Of course, as another poster alluded to, if they really thought Armageddon was any day now, they would sell off their property to care for those who have given so much in "Jehovah's Service."
To the extent you did this to the least of my brothers.....
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jgnat
Gently Feral, I interpret the percentages the other way. In the "least likely to give" category, if 27% gave, 73% did not.
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looking_glass
From what my mother says, they are "stressing" giving to the WTBTS in your will/estate or have an insurance policy that makes the WTBTS the beneficiary. Let's just say I was really really put out when I found out that my mother who gives every month informed me that because my sister made her mad (the list is too long to give here as to the things my sister has done, granted some of my mother's complaints are with merit) she CHANGED the beneficiary on one of her policies from my sister to the WTBTS. I tried to convince my mother to change it to where she sets up a children's trust and have the insurance funds pour into the trust that she would set up for my sister's kids, but NO, she is stuck on the WTBTS getting something when she dies. If I thought there was any chance of winning a court battle over this issue after her death, I would fight them tooth and nail. But I know too much about the standards for contesting a will/estate or the beneficiary of an insurance policy and would end up spending more money then I would ever get.
What is interesting is that my mother pointed this fact out to me herself .... think about how many older jws there are who were planning on the new system, they never got married or had kids, so they have no one but the WTBTS to leave their money to. How sad is that statement. Or as I pointed out to my mother, how about the WTBTS policy of shunning, if most or all of your family members leave the ORG and you cut them off, who else do you have to leave your money to but the WTBTS, how convenient of a financial windfall is that.