What is the WT's Motivation? Who Benefits? (page 5)

LV101

FLIPPER --- I THINK nonprofits, especially religious entities, should report and account for every single penny. one time the stupid PO mentioned to me (i don't know what we were discussing) that the organization didn't have the money for something and heard elders talk about how much money it takes to provide back at bethel for all the workers and overseas operations -- bla, bla -- and one witness told me an elder pulled her aside and told her she could not ask for any more videos because it costs the society so much money and they couldn't afford to give them away and she needed to contribute approx. $30 for a video.

Satanus has indicated the voting members and stockholders make money --- Satanus, do tell. what the hay --- they aren't/are a corporation? did you receive any shares when you joined. how do we get stocks. i don't understand when it's a nonprofit religious org. i think we should all start a nonprofit called protect people and find out some info. seems several yrs. ago someone posted asset/financial statements on one of their corporations --- maybe this is how the stockholders get their cut.

LV101

I'd think legitimate, nonprofit, religious organizations provide financial info. JOYCE MEYERS MINISTRIES provides online information and joel osteen probably has online records. it must not be compulsory for the unethical ones but it makes no sense. other nonprofits that are real charities like salvation army, catholic charities, etc., post their financial info.

LV101

InterestedOne

Here's an interesting site that looks at various charities' irs forms and does ratings:

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

Of course I typed in "Watchtower," "Watch Tower," and "Jehovah" and got nothing. There are plenty of well-known charities listed on this site. Why not the WT? They require their followers to wear business suits, etc. supposedly so they can be respected and be considered upstanding in the business community to avoid distracting from the message, so why not allow their info to be checked out to maintain the respect of the business community to avoid distracting from the message?

JW GoneBad

InterestedOne: 'Any other ideas?'

Pride.

I have a long time friend, John, who is a 3rd or 4th generation JW. He and his wife have 3 adult children. One is marginally in, one wants nothing to do w/ the org but still in and the 3rd is d'fd (no intention of returning). All 3 are out on their own. Our children also grew up together.

John is extensively used in the circuit and is considered 'a pillar and support of the truth'. His wife is the 'stand by her man' type of wife. She is often heard saying proudly..... 'Watchtower this, Watchtower that'......

My wife has often said that it is sad because though they appear to be 'rich' spiritually (what we think is a facade), yet their children pretty much do not want anything to do with the organization, as a result they don't do much with their kids. John & his wife really do not have anything to show for their hard work all these years in the organization. This scenario can be duplicated many times over with other couples we know who are our age.

I have often wondered about our friends: What is John & his wife's motivation and how do they benefit? Same question you (InterestedOne) ask about the WT leadership.

The answer IMO across the board is PRIDE!

Another explanation can be found in an answer many Catholoics give when asked...'Why do Catholics stay?' The answer......

'I'm still a Catholic because I was born Catholic, raised Catholic, educated Catholic and like being Catholic. I'll never stop being Catholic, despite that many of the current leaders of the institutional church are corrupt thugs, from the parish right up to the Vatican.'

I'm sure the Mormons would say something along the same lines.

By the way: Good topic!

Butterflyleia85

I ask this many times myself and am glad I'm not alone on this one. This was a good topic, even though not clear very good points were made.

Bungi Bill

I would suspect that members of the GB are motivated more by the Power / Authority / Respect / Influence side of things than by anything else.

It is rather difficult to believe that they themselves believe their own nonsense:

- If you were serious about sounding out a warning to as many people as possible in the shortest possible time, you would be using some means of mass communication - not sending people trudging from door to door with bags of literature. (Certainly not when such things as radio, television and internet are widely available).

- At least some of the WT's past leaders were guilty of this. Schnell, in his 30 Years a Watchtower Slave, records an instance in which J.F. Rutherford openly volunteered that the WTS's then hype about 1925 was totally wrong - yet still saw nothing wrong in deluding people into believing that year would see Armeggedon. (William Schnell, while serving as an interpretor, was privy to this conversation between Joseph Rutherford and the WTS's director for Germany).

- This would remove altruistic motives from the list of "possibles"!

However, in the more recent past (if not now as well), it would have been extremely easy for somebody to skim off large sums of money. Raymond Franz mentioned in Crisis of Conscience that, in his time at least, nobody could be sure exactly how much money the Watchtower Society was making in any given year.

Whether or not that situation still persists today (Raymond Franz was dismissed from the GB 30 years ago) , Power and Prestige on their own would be enough to motivate many persons.

Bill.

LV101

i think they have all these corporations to protect all the monies and (the publishing empire) stockholders' earnings do not have to be reported. what a deal under the scheme of nonprofit religion. all the stiffs forced to buy their product/literature/books/tapes/whatever and do their forced door to door ministry. i think there should be a nonprofit group dropping off literature door to door to warn the innocent (since laws protect anything religion can pull off) doing good to stand between the EVIL AND THE INNOCENT to warn about the stockholders fleecing them --- if this is what happens. there's some reason for the high control.

some states allow stockholders to remain unnamed.

LV101

james_woods

Why do police officers risk their life? Why do soldiers reinlist for another combat tour? Why did the new govenor of Florida spend 55 million dollars of his own money to get elected? Humans crave power at any cost, it seems.

This is an important motivating element. Let me point out something else - in a very small pond, a small to medium fish can rule like a tiger shark. While the governing body and other leaders do not have a great luxury of existence compared to Donald Trump, take a moment to compare them to the Bethel rank & file! The only GB member that I was around for an extended time was Schroeder. This was when he was the instructor in an overseer's school I attended for two weeks in Pittsburgh, Pa. in 1970. At the time, hardly any Bethelites outside the top tier were allowed to be married, let alone have kids. Schroeder not only was married, but he had a 10 or 12 year old kid - Judah Ben. He was given an apartment (which I did not see), but which must have been head and shoulders above living in the almost prison-like conditions of the ordinary Bethelite. He had a brand new Buick Electra 225 - which he said belonged to the society and was given to him for unlimited use through the motor pool. Schroeder himself said that he was assigned to this off-Bethel position so that he could be away from Brooklyn to raise the kid - out of the eyes of the Bethel ordinary, as it were. So, compared to everybody formerly around him at Brooklyn, he was living like a millionaire. I must also say that he showed all the signature marks of someone VERY proud of himself and his position, VERY self-righteous, and VERY aware of his power and position.

OnTheWayOut

DagothUr:

I'm very sure that someone at the top is siphoning money into some secret accounts. It's gotta be that. And the GB members may not be the owners of those, but has anyone bothered to check on their sons and daughters? All churches on the face of the Earth have at least once laundered dirty money for someone else. They are the perfect cover for that kind of operation. The Wanktower Society may have came into beeing as an idea, but that was more than 100 years ago. Meanwhile, it became a financial mammoth. Someone is getting the big money, trust me!

While I tend to agree, it may not be so "secret" as much as it is just "accepted as normal" and not really analyzed.

The problems we face are complex when we speak of "victims of victims" and GB members suffering on the way to the top and not wanting to walk away with absolutely nothing like Ray Franz did. (At least he could write.) There is a mix of answers.

It seems to me that the GB members are satisfied with lavish lifestyles in their 60's and up- power but with little money. Still, they and the decision-makers under them make sure the money goes to their friends and family. Someone has to supply the ink and paper, the cars, someone closes the real estate deals. This is so common in the entire world. You have politicians that live for the power and lifestyle and let someone else in their family make the money. So they go out on their brother-in-law's yacht instead of their own. They still travel to tropical places and stay in lavish surroundings often and never cook or clean after themselves.

We've heard of Bethelites that had to pay for their air conditioning in their tiny room or do without. The WTS leaks stories that Governing Body members are just Bethelites that have more time there, so they tend to have nicer rooms. Bullcrap! I am sure they don't pay for a.c. and their rooms are "convenient" to the ivory tower. I am sure that lifelong Bethelites that were there longer do not get the same stuff unless they totally kiss asses.

I have to imagine that some people slightly below GB are siphoning off money to private accounts, but I also imagine that it might not be illegal. It's just markups on deals and kickbacks called gifts.

LV101

onthewayout --- don't you think the stockholders are above the GB raking in the profit and the GB is underneath where the structure begins?

LV101

What is the WT's Motivation? Who Benefits?

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