by Hiddenwindow 66 Replies latest jw friends
Mary,
You sure hit the nail square on that one.
I wonder how a few videos on Utube would fly with coverage of those being kicked to the curb by the WT along with some of those quotes would look.
Maybe included in such videos would be comments of disgust by the mayor or other oficials living there in Brooklyn.
MARY- You make excellent points here. My thoughts exactly. Thanks for the quotes from the Kingdom Ministry. In regards to this quote, " Some brothers and sisters who may be a little older than 35 and who have specialized skills and training could be USED at Bethel are encouraged to apply. " Notice emphasis on the word : USED. Not really getting compensated what they are worth for their " special skills " !
And this quote killed me, " Those who have already received specialized training, perhaps before coming into the " truth " , may wish to make out a detailed resume' and attach it to the Bethel application. " Translation by the society: " We know you paid lots of money for your education for these special skills , but now that you know the " truth " wouldn't you like to donate all your costly years of education for free to our witnessing education work " ?
It pisses me off to hell that the Watchtower society USES peoples lives up like this ! What person with a sane mind who spent thousands of $$$$ on getting an 8 year education as a doctor, attorney, or other career where they could earn 6 figures or more a year wouls waste that on a go-nowhere organization which won't pay them anything, nor take care of them properly if they get booted ?? Just shows the insanity and selfishness of the Watchtower society and how devious and unscrupulous the bastards really are !!! This really makes me simmer !
I hope this rumor is true so that it would put a halt to the Watchtower society benefitting from free slave labor anymore ! So Bethelites ! Hold your ground ! Stay in your rooms ! Force them to kick you out by taking them to task and to court ! Call their damned bluff , and insist on justice to be done ! Good on you if you are doing this ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
Don't they have to sign "vow of poverty" so the WBTS get charity status.
Not necessarily: the 501(c)3 Non-Profit status is not directly tied to the Vow of Poverty. WTS had the Non-Profit thing long before they went to VoP's. You can have a religious Non-Profit scenario without having unpaid volunteer work that would warrant the VoP's.
The VoP was done to keep the TaxMan from wandering around Bethel and asking to see the tax and pay records of these 1000's of bodies that MUST be making a pile of $$$'s.
As I recollect, the VoP requires a minimum stipend, set arbitrarily @ 100$/month or 1200$/year. Once this is all taken care of, filing the tax returns for a few thousand Bethelites was a piece of cake.
The Roman Catholic Church has had this practice in place for centuries; it simply got grafted into the US Codes to account for this anomaly in the economic capitalistic system. However, the RCC does customarily take in these people FOR LIFE, with no quibbling.
Once WTS discovered this, a major headache became explainable. It neatly tied up a loose end.
However, this may not have been thought out for a proper long term solution: Mary points out that Bethel has been promoted as a LIFETIME CAREER, IN WRITING. That's a loose end that amounts to the tail wagging the dog.
There were non-JW tenants in the building, who had a right to stay there under NYC tenant laws.
Eviction is not a snap-your-fingers, done-deal matter. This is one of a variety of legal situations that make eviction a slow process. And if you find a new wrinkle, Stays and Injunctions can freeze things the way they were for long periods of time.
And while DF'ing (a Church Law Tribunal matter) would change status of the original arrangement (Contract), that is not good enough to cross the actual Civil/Secular jurisdiction of Tenancy Laws.
Mustang
Time for some refreshing reminders from Jehovah's Organization:
Watchtower 1969 March 15 p.171 What Influences Decisions in Your Life?
12 This world has very little time left! Any "future" this world offers is no future! Wisely, then, let God's Word influence you in selecting a course that will result in your protection and blessing. Make pioneer service, the full-time ministry, with the possibility of Bethel or missionary service your goal. This is a life that offers an everlasting future!
OK, I think we may have inadvertedly stumbled onto a legal loophole here. Since the Society has stated in writing that working at Bethel can be a 'career', are the people that work there really only dispensible volunteers? Here are some more quotes from their literature on the matter:
"Because of the kind of work that is done here, there are certain requirements that must be met by applicants. Those invited are healthy young men and women between the ages of 19 and 40. Also healthy married couples over 25 years of age, married more than three years, may apply. They should be without any obligations or responsibilities at present toward family members. All applicants for Bethel service must agree to stay at Bethel for at least four years. But, better still, why not make Bethel service your career, your life’s work?"......... We hope that more of you can share our joy, especially by making Bethel your life career.-----October 1972 Kingdom Ministry Branch Letter
"...Our letter in last month’s Kingdom Ministry pointed out what the requirements are. When a person comes, we hope he will stay at least four years. But for many it can become a career. Many members of the family have done that, and there are brothers and sisters at Bethel who have been here for thirty, forty, fifty or more years."-----November 1972 Kingdom Ministry p 4 A Letter from Brother Knorr
"...The minimum stay for those invited for Bethel service is one year. This enables them to be trained to become productive workers. The hope is that they will be able to make Bethel their home."----June 2001 Kingdom Ministry p. 4 par 14 Can You Make Yourself Available?
30 min: "Can You Make Yourself Available?" Encouraging talk interspersed with comments from the audience in answer to prepared questions on paragraphs 13 and 18-24. Encourage parents to help their children to consider Bethel service as a career. Recommend that families study this insert together in their family study."-------June 2001 Kingdom Ministry
A 'career' is defined as:
If in fact the WTS does end up getting sued from Bethelites that are being forced out, the Bethelites, if they so desired, might just have a case to sue. It wouldn't be too difficult to prove that they were lured into serving at Bethel with the clear promise that they would be taken care of for life. Not only that, but many could also stress the point that they gave up promising 'worldly' careers on the very advise from the people who are now kicking them out.
This is reminisent of what used to happen to housewives decades before Women's Liberation: You got married, you didn't work outside the home, you 'volunteered' by raising the kids, cooking, cleaning, being a good wife, obeying her husband, etc. In return, you had your food, clothing and shelter provided. If you were lucky, you had a loving husband too. They went into the marriage of course, believing they would be taken care of for life. Of course, if the husband decided he wanted a younger wife after 20 years, he simply left and the wife was left with absolutely no recourse, no way of providing for herself or anything. The laws of the land wised up eventually and realized that this was simply not fair and of course today, a house-wife is entitled to monetary gains if the marriage ends.
The WTS has apparently not caught on that it's hardly 'Christian' to suddenly abandon the people who gave them the "best years of their life". If they truly cannot use these people at Bethel any more, couldn't they at least let them stay in a 'grace-and-favour' apartment until they got sufficient training to support themselves? Would it really be such a bad thing to continue to provide them with the necessities of life for a few more years? I really find it dispicable that they could treat people in such a lousy fashion.
Wouldn't it be ironic if some of these Bethelites read this and started a lawsuit against the WTS?
Mary Very well put.
If there's a class action lawsuit on the subject, I might have something...
B the X
I wonder how a few videos on Utube would fly with coverage of those being kicked to the curb by the WT along with some of those quotes would look.
Here is one I did a while back. With more info and proof of this I could do another one!
If in fact the WTS does end up getting sued from Bethelites that are being forced out, the Bethelites, if they so desired, might just have a case to sue. It wouldn't be too difficult to prove that they were lured into serving at Bethel with the clear promise that they would be taken care of for life. Not only that, but many could also stress the point that they gave up promising 'worldly' careers on the very advise from the people who are now kicking them out.
I repeat: the appropriate Cause of Action is DETRIMENTAL RELIANCE. It's Civil, but what is being dealt with here is Civil Fraud.
Yes, this formula builds a plausible case.
Mustang
Again, the major issue is the underlying problem of how far does Church Law go? This is very little known territory: I didn't say unknown or never traveled, just little known.
The precedents that WTS uses for defeating DF'ing as a Cause of Action have been discussed here. I believe that one of them discusses career issues under Church Law. I am still looking for those: they are about 5000 or 6000 threads back
Mustang
Even though I resent these people, and even though I think they may have contributed to their predicament in a round-about way, I do think they might have a case if they joined Bethel expecting to be there for life.
This frightening predicament of many being let go in middle-age probably came about for several reasons. One, might have to do with the payouts for lawsuits for abuse, etc. Who knows how many more are to come. The other is the economy. Last but not least, the religion's stand against higher education has come back to bite them. This stand was made very clear over the years to me. I heard countless talks and comments against it. How many traveling speakers gave talks discouraging higher education and how many people listened to this bad advice to their detriment and are suffering now. It doesn't take a genius to see that people who are under-educated are also under-employed. Under-employed people are needy and have less money to contribute to anything, much less to a religion that has caused them to be needy in the first place.
I hope that this situation gets more publicity so that the rank and file become aware of it. They are in a bubble with a news blackout and are not even aware of what is going on.
LHG
