by expatbrit 207 Replies latest watchtower scandals
Excellent Expat Excellent!
Thank you for you effort and time.
I was thinking since they used the excuse of wanting a library card for the UN one can only assume this time it will be:
"We were undercover researching the dangers of cigerette smoking".
Thanks again Expat
Cassi
This belongs on page one of the "active section".
BTTT where it belongs!
hawk
Who contols this trust and what percentage of its holdings is Phillip Morris?
Hello Pork Chop:
The trustees are Comerica Bank of Detroit. As such, they would look after investments. However, the Watchtower is sole beneficiary. Obviously if a sole beneficiary has ethical objections to a type of investment and this was made clear to the trustees, it would be good trustee practice to avoid those types of investments, thus avoiding ethical conflicts with the beneficiary. The Watchtower is careful to specify on financial statements of their own corporations that their investments conform to their "Christian principles". Why not here?
In addition, we can make the safe assumption that Henrietta Riley was a Jehovah's Witness. What would she think about an investment into Philip Morris? If she had made such an investment while alive for her own benefit, what would the Society's reaction have been? One could argue that this is a trustee failure, but it is also a Watchtower failure, for as mentioned, with a large $ trust like this, they will certainly monitor it and have copies of the annual returns.
The percentage of the total holdings comprised by this investment is small, as mentioned in the original post ( a market value of under $20,000). But, to repeat, it is a matter of principle, rather than amount. If principles were not involved, my only criticism would be that the trust didn't buy enough shares. However, the fact remains that the Watchtower will benefit from an investment in a tobacco products group, a type of business they have condemned publicly as immoral.
Expatbrit
OK, I'm not much into stocks and how they work, so I'll play devil's advocate and ask this:
Is it possible that since this person(sister?) donated this to the WTS, that the WTS doesn't really know what they are holding? Is it possible that they accepted the investment donation and didn't bother to look at how it was set up? I guess they should if they are concerned about some companies being immoral and all but could it happen that way?
At this point, I can't really fault the WT for this. It seems logical to conclude that this one slipped in, either inadvertantly, or by the nefarious design of someone at Comerica havin' a li'l fun. If now, it is in there two years running, then you have something. It might have been purchased only shortly before the tax return was filed. How Jehovah let's things like this slip by him, er, Him, I'll never understand. It's as if he, er, He is not interested one whit in the sanctification of his, er, His grand name.
The irony of the way this woman, Henrietta Riley, if she was a witness, would have been taken to task if she was caught with cigarette stocks in her portfolio, is not lost on me however.
The bigger hypocrisy, to me, is the WT being such a huge business, and acting like one, while condemning other churches for their dealings with the merchants of this world.
Hello Undercover:
Is it possible that they accepted the investment donation and didn't bother to look at how it was set up?
Good question.
The Trust has existed since at least 1998, as I have the return for that year. I also have the 2001 return, so I've just taken a look at it. There are no holdings of Philip Morris on the 2001 return. This means that those shares were purchased sometime between May 1, 2001 and April 30, 2002. Consequently I don't think the Society can say "we didn't know what we were getting" as an excuse, because they didn't get any Philip Morris shares to start with.
Expatbrit
Expat ...
Who is administering this trust?
They must produce a statement that would go to the Brothers at Headquarters?
hawk
Another principle the WTS just loves to apply in cases of wrongdoing of a seemingly minor nature is this one:
Do you not know that a little leaven ferments the whole lump? - 1Cor. 5:6 (NWT)
Now as expatbrit points out, the portion of this trust that is allocated to the Philip Morris company is a mere fraction of the total value of the trust.... in actuality about 1%. However, most of us accept that smoking - in terms of "sinful" behaviour - doesn't rank as highly as say, child molesting or adultery or murder. Let's say murder and child molesting gets a high rating, of 100, for example.... smoking, by contrast would only rank maybe a 5 or even a 2. Yet the WTS, in its divine wisdom chooses to disfellowship people for the "grave sin" of smoking, while at the same time turning a blind eye to people who molest children.
By their own standards and principles, this entire trust is "tainted", because that one itty bitty portion of it caused the whole thing to be tainted. However, when money is involved or the matter of "not bringing reproach on Jehovah", somehow the WTS manages to turn a blind eye to those infractions. The average JW, on the other hand, would be kicked to the curb as soon as possible for as minor an infraction as disagreeing with something they read in a Watching the World blurb from the Awake!
Love, Scully
