I was raised as a jw until the age of 16, when I supposidly "drifted" to the worldly world (which I Love) I am 29 now and have my own family and am very happy. In the last month I have stopped feeling guilty & frightened about not being involved. I have always tried to compensate to my parents in other ways, but am getting tired never being able to make them really happy. I'm a good person and I'm sure that worldly parents would have been proud of me, yet my parents make it clear that their dissapointed in me for leaving the "truth" and are even feel ashamed of me when their jw friends ask about me & whether I've come back. I'm just getting tired of seeing the religion come first, I don't ever talk to them about religion, and they don't discuss it with me anymore other than to warn me that the world's coming to an end. I have always changed the subject but now feel it's getting time to try and point out a few things to them. (like the child molesting cover up's and wealth of the company.) I find these issues really disturbing., it opens up numerous new questions. I remember times growing up when we barely had food in our home, living on poverty line, but Dad always made sure we went to the 2 main weekly meetings, 2 hours drive away plus witnessing on Saturdays, just so dad could feel good about the effort we made, and to be able to put down so many hours. Looking back, all that fuel money could have gone towards food, clothes & other things that our family really needed, yet no one helped us or achnowleged the extra effort we made, anyway I could rattle on forever but would love some ideas on how to get them to see things without such a closed mind. Does anyone know how much it costs to make each watchtower & awake magazine? I think their 80 cents each now to buy, I"m sure I could Print a magazine like on my home printer for less than half that amount and use better quality paper!!! There must be a huge profit. I would love to hear some facts, because I know my father would never listen to me unless I could come up with "Facts"
Profit of watchtower & awake, can anyone tell me???
by jamey X 10 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Francois
You "would love some ideas on how to get them to see things without such a closed mind." You and about a billion other people. What you want is the lodestone, the Holy Grail, the Sistine Chapel of desireable change.
My friend, the JWs are a cult. As a cult, they are not amenable to change which is what would have to be applied here in order for them to be anything BUT closed minded. Some things you just can't change. You can't change the fact that the JWs are a cult, that they are closed minded, that they protect pedophiles, that they are false prophets, that they...y'see what I mean? In order for them to have an open mind, the entire place would have to come to a screeching halt.
Being A JW Means Never Having An Open Mind. Once you realize that, all your frustrations are at an end. And you can go about the rest of your life doing things, and wishing for things that are at least possible. What you want is impossible.
Sorry to rant, however I've been where you've been, so I can understand where you comin' from, you see where I'm at?
francois
-
Fe2O3Girl
Hello Jamey - Welcome to the board.
It is really good to hear that you have made a happy life for yourself outside the bOrg, it also sounds like you manged to escape before you werre pressured into baptism.
As far as getting the facts together on the behaviour on the WTBTS, well there is a lot of it! Pick your issue - blood, transplants, UN fiasco, child abuse cover ups, Malawi/Mexico, NWT translation commitee, 607bce, false prophecy, date setting.........
Many here have found that it does not matter how much hard evidence you present - even if the entrenched JW will look at it, it won't change their mind. However, some have had success in freeing their relatives from the WT - they are better to advise you.
In the meantime, leading a happy, successful, principled life outside the WT is an excellent display of who really has "truth".
-
Nathan Natas
Technically, there are NO profits, because the WTB&TS is a non-profit organization.
That doesn't mean they don't make money - they make gobs of it - but it all goes back into "the work(tm)" of maintaining hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate in Brooklyn and Patterson, feeding and sheltering the "Bethel family" - who all work for a monthly allowance of $100, and generating more money for next year.
Let me say a word in your father's defense - yes, he did all those things you mention, and he did them for the reasons you mention, but he also did them because he was led to believe that the destruction of the world was at hand and that the ONE way - the ONLY way - he could provide some measure of safety for his family was to "get with the program."
Consider the world your father grew up in - a world that while he was a child was climbing out of the depression, a world that required him as a young man to participate in a hellacious war against tyranny, a world that found the power of the atom could be unleashed by weapons of mind-boggling destructiveness, a world where a hot war only cooled off, with constant threats from each side to the other, a world in which there was no clearly defined path to safety and security - the things any sane human being wants most of all.
Into this, entering from stage left, comes the Watchtower, with their promises of metaphysical deliverance.
"Yes," they say, "there is a God who care - about you."
"Yes," they say, "there is a path to salvation."
"Yes," they say, "you only have to do what we tell you to do. Surely that is not too much to ask?"
Like most fathers since the dawn of humanity, your father wished to see you have a better life than his, and like all human beings, with incomplete and inaccurate information, he did what he could to try to secure it for you. Did he tell you what your life would be like in Paradise? Can you see that he wanted that to be your future?
Yeah, he was WRONG.
Life is a one-way street. No U turns are permitted. "Do-overs" are not allowed. We take our best shot based on what we know at the time, just like your father did.
-
link
Hi Jamey x
As someone whos family are all in the "truth" I can tell you that in my experience you would be hitting your head against a brick wall if you tried to tell your own family anything that was not supportive if their beliefs. Their minds will be closed and if you say anything about problems within the organisation they will look the other way and say "we don't want to hear about that".
With regard to finances, that is a pet subject of mine and I have done enough research to be able to say it is a very complicated area to investigate. This is because the laws regarding the accounts of charitable organisations varies from country to country. It would need someone in each of the major countries in which they operate to carry out the investigation work in their own country. I have done much of it for the UK and can say it is a very wealthy organisation here with a huge income. I have been in touch with the IRS in America but they do not want to cooperate with people outside the States.
From what I have been able to put together so far it is my current estimate that the Organisation in all its forms and including all its subsidiaries is worth around 18 billion U.S. dollars worldwide. Obviously this is only a guesstimate but I get the feeling that its not too far out.
link
-
DanTheMan
I too gathered from your post that you never were baptized. Is this correct?
I don't know the dynamics of your family, but most of the experiences I've read on this board lead me to believe that if you're going to start bringing up "apostate" stuff, be very careful, avoid the temptation to hit them with 100 things at once.
Oh, and as far as the magazine profits go, have you heard about the facility the WT built in Patterson NY? Many active JW's who visit the place (I visited while it was under construction but much of it was completed) are surprised at the opulence of the place. It has often been referred to as "Patterson Country Club" and the nick-name fits.
-
badwillie
I work as a commercial printing estimator for a very old and large multi national printing company. (So, basically a "worldy" equivalent to the WTS)
I just ran an estimate on what it would cost my company to produce 11MM copies (I think that was the average printing of each issue) of a WT or Awake! (errr..that stupid exclamation mark).
The unit cost per magazine is about $0.12 each. Keep in mind that we are PAYING top dollar for labor, also they probably buy the paper a lot cheaper than what I priced it at.
-
Gerard
Take a look at this thread and its info:
-
Eppie
Hai,
Well I don't know how long you've all been out but at the moment you don't have to pay for the magazines anymore. You'll only 'have to' give a voluntary amount of money. They are given to people at the door for free. So I really don't think they make that much money on the magazines. They probably do make a lot of money on all the free labour of the people at Bethel.
I can however remember our congregation that sold their old kingdom hall, gave that money to the organisation and then had to BORROW money from the organisation again to build a new one! Of course this was also largely paid by brothers and sisters.
So yeah overall they probably do make a lot of money, but I do not think that is the main goal of the organisation.
Eppie
-
johnny cip
look up . the jimmy swagart trail in 91 , and and the wt printing etc. it might be on freeminds.org. but there is a break down of the wt printing costs in 1990 on the web. at the time it cost the wt between $34.00- $40.00 per thousand copies, depending on were they were printed, and /or which presses they were run off.. thats between 3.4- 4 cents a copy.. at the time the wt was selling them in the u.s. at 25cents each . thats @600% profit each . times 22 cents by what is it 20 million a week , you are talking 4 million a week . thats paper ,ink , diastrbuting, SLAVE LABOR AND ALL... not bad. ha thats why i give jw's 8 cents for 2 mags and a lecture. maybe some here will post that site, or look around you will find it . if you want to stump your parents, ask them to prove that jesus choose the wt in 1919, only from wt books till 1919, it can't be done.. happy hunting. john