''Miracle Wheat'' in the news today

by candidlynuts 22 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  Raphael

  BIGGER FISH TO FRY :

  ORU (ORAL ROBERTS UNIVERSITY), which is fighting accusations in a lawsuit that Richard Roberts misspent school funds, is $52.5 million in debt, the chairman of the school's board of regents said last week.
  
  Chairman George Pearsons said maintenance costs and low financial support from donors have contributed to the debt.
  
  Among the accusations the lawsuit makes against Richard and Lindsay Roberts, are that they used school funds to remodel their home 11 times in 14 years, sent their daughter and several of her friends on a $29,411 senior trip to the Bahamas on a university jet, and that they spent school money to provide their daughters with a stable of horses.
• 

  glenster

  It is similar--Roberts claims he's special--a faith healer. The JWs leaders
  "144,000" claim requires some agreement to their altered version of Russell's
  1914 ideas, part of his "144,000" claims, so testing the validity of Russell's
  claim of exclusive righteousness is a contemporary part of testing that of the
  current JWs leaders.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Roberts_%28evangelist%29

  To make a comparison with Roberts, you need to put Russell's dollars (if you
  can figure out how many millions) in contemporary terms, too. $1,200 in 1909
  is worth $27,432 in 2006 U.S. dollars, etc. The overall income of Russell's
  organizations was in the millions in 1909, which you'd need to multiply a couple
  dozen times or so for the 2007 value of it.
  http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html

  The JWs leaders put out an issue that "thousands died" with kids on the cover,
  largely finding abidance to their blood rules in finding credulousness about
  their claims of exclusive righteousness. In my focus on this, Roberts would
  more clearly be a bigger fish to fry if Roberts bragged that "tens of thousands"
  died forsaking medical care after Roberts claimed to heal them. (If their heal-
  ings don't work, faith healers may blame their followers for lacking enough
  faith--seeing a doctor could be considered a lack of faith in the healing.)
  That wouldn't be a great advertisement for a healer, though, so that probably
  won't will turn up.
• 

  zack

  I never have had a problem with a minister who turns out to be human, and gee whiz, fails at something or other in his life--- which may very well include

  his marraige. What I find particularly reprehensible about religious leaders like Russel is their claim to DIVINE APPOINTMENT, to be the singular agent of God to the

  exclusion of all others. They prey on the goodness of people. They take advantage of them. They become CULT LEADERS with a CULT FOLLOWING, all to the

  detriment of those who follow them.

  Would it not be honest to simply say that you do not have all the answers but wish to provide a structure for worship and fellowship for people of like mind?

  Yes. It would be honest. So why didn't men like Russell make that appeal? Because they were NOT honest. The tree from where the BS and JW's sprouted was crooked.

  Thanks for the thread.