Annual meeting 2023....

by mikeflood 15 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Big Dog

  Ron W, what it means is that you can have a church that is not an organized legal entity. You set up a pulpit and start preaching and you are a DeFacto church. When a church wants to be officially recognized as a not for profit the IRS they will form a not-for-profit corporation and then apply to the IRS for not-for-profit status.

  What the WTBS did was simply remove the "church" element from the corporate entity. This was accomplished by resolutions and consents filed in the corporation so that that religious arm is stand alone and the publishing arm is a separate legal entity. Outwardly not much of an effect and almost no one would notice, but for certain legal and tax purposes a significant distinction.
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  no-zombie

  Hi Ron ... basically Russell founded the WBTS originally as a 'for-profit' business. However was Russell was the 'Faithful and Discrete Slave', which made it a religious organization also. It got bigger and bought more and more properties and expanded internationally. In the course of time, various governments (for various reasons) and market fluctuations began to make some in the WBTS to think that the whole Society could be at risk of collapse if there were financial problems (which some eventuated). By now there were many corporate entities globally and in a move to mitigate problems the GB assigned a new president to split the business side of things, while the GB controlled church doctrine. This was done, so in the worse case scenario, the GB could let parts of the WBTS go bankrupt without its contagion cascading completely.
  

  In reality of course the GB still controls both.
  
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  Ron.W.

  Many thanks for those answers guys. I heard about it at the time and have always wondered exactly why they did it.
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  mikeflood

  The news about NOT reporting time for publishers is really big. Next is gonna be everyone else.

  I'll bet that after the hailstone message, the WT is gonna be unrecognizable.

  They're gonna say 'let's go to the interior rooms' like that Bible verse, their business model isn't sustentable anymore.
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  JW GoneBad

  Most are wondering: What prompted the WT GB to suddenly decide to eliminate the publisher requirement of reporting their monthly hourly field service activity?
  
  Here's a possible scenario and time of events that could have transpired over the last month or so leading up to GB Herd's announcement at the Annual Meeting abolishing Publisher monthly hourly field service reporting:
  
  Not sure when exactly, but within the past couple of months the Catholic Church's CSA law firm lead attorney representing WT in the Pennsylvania statewide CSA investigation may have contacted WT's lead attorney Philip Brumley. The following conversation "maybe" takes place:
  
  C C CSA Attorney: "Hello Mr. Brumley. As I handle your & WT's CSA case a matter of great concern regarding children in your religion has come to my attention."
  
  Philip Brumley: "And what concern is that?"
  
  C C CSA Attorney: "While interviewing numerous elders from various congregations regarding allegations of mishandling of Child Sex Abuse throughout the State of Pennsylvania...it has come to my attention that your Church requires children as young as 6, 7, 8 years of age & possibly younger to submit monthly hourly reports to show how much time they've devoted proselytizing in public for the Watchtower Organization. Is this true?"
  
  Philip Brumley: "Yes it's true. A large percentage of our members are made-up of children possibly as young as 6 years old. They're referred to as 'Publishers' who engage in the ministry like the rest of us older ones & at the end of the month they turn in a monthly report showing how much time they've spent in the ministry along with placements of literature they've handed out to strangers or interested ones."
  
  CC CSA Attorney: "Philip...I'll be honest with you. It's difficult enough defending your Organization against allegations of Child Sex Abuse! Now this...what you're describing to me sounds very much like the exploitation of children. The Courts & Jurors alike come down very hard on Organizations who capitalize-on & take advantage of children in this manner. Something needs to be done immediately to deflect & keep the Pennsylvania AG from drawing too much attention to the amount of time you engage your children in the Public Ministry."
  
  Philip Brumley: "I see your point! I'll relay your concerns to our Organization's Leadership & get back to you." (Click)
  
  Weeks go by before WT attorney Philip Brumley gets back to the Catholic Church's CSA attorney. Here's what "maybe" was said:
  
  Philip Brumley: "Hello Counsel. I've met with the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses on numerous occasions since we last spoke about your concerns regarding the involvement of our very young children as 'Publishers' in the Public Ministry & requiring them to report their monthly time spent. We've decided to make an immediate announcement at our up & coming Annual General Meeting to the effect that effective November 2023 no Publisher henceforth will be required to turn in a monthly hourly field service report. Hope that helps Counsel."
  
  C C CSA Attorney: "It's a start but hardly enough I'm afraid! I must tell you that my scope of work & fees in defending WT have practically doubled if not trippled if we consider the Exploitation of Children as another charge/allegation! I'll be in touch!" (Click)
  
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  Diogenesister

  I think you have it exactly right JW Gonebad There may also be an element regarding the headaches around new data protection and privacy laws to consider as well as the child/minor exploitation angle