Jesus said to him: “Foxes have dens and birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay down his head.” - Luke 9:58
-Let's Review: It's a cult! -
WTS buys £1,000,000 luxury sea-front property in Wales, UK
by Simon 157 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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snare&racket
WOW, this is news to me. How did you come by this? This is my neck of the woods.
My pals family (not JWs) own all the land surrounding this house. What a small world, they are neighbours to this property and have the same view.
Also it is Geraint W, he runs the bethel farm and the welsh translation!
I don't see the purpose in this extravagance! Has anyone told them we are in a recession? Also I didn't see any translating equipment .....AND.....30 mins from that house is a property owned by the society, used for CO housing, that is central to the Welsh speaking areas! This is a ridiculous purchase and blatantly a holiday home in the menai straights!!!!
Keep in mind, in the uk bethel you are punished for having a window open if the heating is on. You are sat down and told about the precious contributions..... here THEY are buying houses, looking onto the menai straight and snowdonia national park, because.....? Would a small house in a cheaper area not do? A small rented office space?
p.s. looks like a JW welsh bible is on it's way......
Snare
Never a JW.... if Oxfam bought this beautiful house because they wanted to translate a brochure into welsh..... there would be outrage! IBSA is a UK charity!
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Phizzy
Once this is confirmed by a Land Registry entry, I do think the Media should be alerted to such misuse of Charity Funds i.e Tax Payers money.
The WT may be able to spin this for the R&F, lets face it, if the WT said it was good for them all to fart in each others faces every day, they would do it, but the Press and other Media, i.e local Welsh T.V will not be so ready to accept whatever spin they put on this.
We must be 100% sure of our facts first, it could turn out that something would let the WT/IBSA off the hook, and we end up with egg on our face, I cannot think what though.
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Slidin Fast
Phizzy, you are on to something there. When you think of the uproar caused by MPs expences this sort of misuse of charity money could go down a storm in the media. Luxury accomodation bought tax free by a charity that never seems to help anyone, gold dust.
This could even knock the Essex bethel project on the head if it causes a media storm. That happened before when the GB got cold feet after the debacle in France over their charitable status. There was a huge project on the drawing board that was dropped like a hot brick.
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wizzstick
Don't see a big problem with that purchase.
The problem is simple. They just don't need it.
They have extensive office space in Mill Hill. More than enough for a translation commitee. If, for some reason, they needed to rent office space for the duration of the project in Wales then that would have much less of a cost attached to it than buying a luxury house.
To keep reminding the JW's to donate, donate, donate whilst purchasing a property like this is simply insensitive. Why oh why are such groups given tax free status when they can buy like this is unbelievable.
As pointed out above, Christ spoke of having nothing. This purchase again highlights how laughable their claims of being true Christians are.
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Laika
This (if true) plus the new donation arrangement and other cost cutting measures suggests the watchtower religious leaders are becoming lured in by 'materialism' in a way they've always criticised other religions for.
Interesting development...
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Heartofaboy
marked
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digderidoo
Try telling people in North Wales around Snowdonia and surrounding regions that Welsh is a dead language, it's their first language both in homes, the workplace and socially, they only speak English to English people.
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Magnum
never a jw: Don't see a big problem with that purchase. They need to house people working there for whatever interests the WT has. End of issue. Luxury? maybe, not lavish. I don't intend to minimize the WT possible misuse of funds, but this would never top my list, nor would it be a big deal even if a member of the governing body uses it as a vacation home. There's much bigger problems with this organization.
What??? I'm taking it that, as your name indicates, you've never been a JW. If you had been a JW like me and had lived in all the different primitive settings I have for 30 years (because of being a JW), you might see a big problem with it.
As Oubliette quoted above, Jesus said: “Foxes have dens and birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay down his head” (Luke 9:58). Aren't they supposed to be like Christ? If they need to house people, they could put them in trailers like FEMA uses and set an example for the flock. If you've never been a JW, you have no business presuming to make a comment like "nor would it be a big deal even if a member of the governing body uses it as a vacation home." My 30 years of misery & suffering as a JW give me the right to have a problem with it and find it to be a big deal. I didn't suffer, sacrifice, and donate for 30 years so they could buy stuff like that. It's a huge deal to me. It was a huge deal to me when I worked behind the scenes at circuit assemblies and saw circuit overseers turning in receipts for $75.00 steak meals with drinks (alcohol), knowing that many publishers who couldn't afford gas for the ride home contributed money to pay for those fancy meals.
They have no right to claim there is a need for money in the org if they're spending it on stuff like this luxury house. There are poor JWs who go without medical and dental treatment to give money that they trust will be used for truly noble, good causes - not providing luxury vacation homes for the JW elite.
Because of being JWs (and pioneering a long time), my wife and I have gone without medical and dental treatment. I have had some pets that were dear to me that had to be euthanized because I didn't have the money needed to treat them. My heart is still broken from that. What have you given up for the org? It burns my ass up that they bought this - as does their building their new luxury compound in Warwick.
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Vidiot
Jeezus, it's like they're not even trying to be subtle about it anymore.