Posts by OneEyedJoe

23

Minor Update to circuit accounting scam

by Justnowout in

many outside are now aware of the scam.... the brother announces a "deficit" at the assemblies.

what they dont announce is that the so called expenses include a predetermined donation to the branch.

meaning, the assembly hall is paid for so the basic expenses should be utilities, maybe some speaker expenses and a 52nd share of property taxes and the like.... however the "deficit" always seems to run into the thousands with "expenses incured" totaling 7-10k.

OneEyedJoe

the minor update...? Previously the US branch office was asking a little over 4$ per attendie, in US dollar. I recently found out the new expected contribution: a little over 7$ per attendie. A huge increase. It puts in perspective the reduction of assemblies from two days to one. Its yet another money grab! They cut in half the number of days a circuit or group of congregations uses the hall but double the expected contribution. Thus, the hall is used more and donated for more. Sons of b****s

At my recent assembly they got a different guy than usual to do the accounts report, and he clearly had no idea what he was doing. Normally (if they mention it at all) they mention the per-publisher amount as if it was derrived by taking expenses and dividing by the number of publishers. This guy came out and literally said, "due to some changes in the formula that the branch uses to determine the per-publisher cost, the cost is now $8.50 per publisher for this assembly. This means that our expenses will come to $9xxx...." (normally it's like 6-7K for 2 days, now it's 9K for 1?)

I hope that lead many in attendance to realize that their donations don't actually go to covering the cost, but are more like paying for a movie ticket, where the price for them stays the same no matter how many people are in attendence. Once they cross some threshold, it's all profit.

1

DA LETTER

by Brainfloss in

(xxxxxxx) congregation of jehovah's witnesses.

this is to inform you that (xxxxxx) body of elders are no longer brainfloss' elders.. .

brainfloss.

OneEyedJoe

lol. I like it. Don't DA, DF everyone currently in the org!

83

Blown away-- where to go from here

by All for show in

jw
friends

i stumbled upon this website a few weeks ago due to the jw.org ridiculousness, since then i haven't been able to pull myself away.

the thoughts, feelings, and concerns i have had the past few years aren't just mine.

it's global.

OneEyedJoe

If you haven't stumbled upon it already, jwfacts.com is another great place to go to research the organization. If you're like me, you'll be amazed at how deep the flaws are. I saw a few flaws here and there (like you, I took issue with the stance on education especially, among a few others) but after reading through jwfacts it amazed me at how deep the flaws went.

It's always good to hear of another person waking up out of this cult. I hope your husband comes to his senses quickly, as that will make the transition much easier for you than it has been so far for me.

Good luck on your journey!

21

More WTS cash-grabbing: "Funds on Deposit" program for Circuits

by sir82 in

jw
friends

at a recent circuit assembly "business meeting" for elders, a new program was announced: "funds on deposit".. here's how it works:.

each circuit determines a "floor" and a "ceiling" for an amount to hold in their circuit checking account.

when the "ceiling" amount is exceeded, the amount above the threshold is wired to the wts and held by them.. if the circuit checking account drops below the "floor" amount, the circuit can send a request to the wts to request that some of their "funds on deposit" be returned to them so that their checking account resumes a "safe" level.. as explained by the elder explaining the program,, "in other words, the branch is acting exactly like a bank - the circuit will make deposits and withdrawals as needed.

OneEyedJoe

I wonder if the circuit will actually ever get their "funds on deposit" back when they need it. More than likely, they'll just have a "caring for the needs of the circuit" part on the next assembly to beg for more money.

16

Could they become a real cult?

by HowTheBibleWasCreated in

i study religions.

i never call new world religons cults.

until they become like heavsn gate etc.. the jw religions is setting itself u for this.

OneEyedJoe

The JWs are responsible for more deaths than heaven's gate, due to the blood ban, and past organ transplant bans, vaccine bans, etc.

Just because there's no cult coumpound and the suicides (by refusal of medical treatment) don't all happen at once doesn't make them less of a dangerous cult. The JWs may not be isolated by the physical walls of a cult compound, but they're still isolated from the world they live in. The suicides may have a passing resemblance to a legitimate religious objection to certain medical treatments, but upon further inspection they are nothing more than ritual suicide forced on cult members by the leaders.

11

I am curious from a comment made, were there any protests and any conventions this year?

by nonjwspouse in

i don't recall reaading on here about any.. i just wondered if any actually happened?.

.

oops i misspelled "at" in the title.

OneEyedJoe

Sunny - that seems like a great idea.

I wonder what might work best - obviously a big sign would be most noticable, but it would probably trigger the cultist defenses and just shut down the brain. A small sign that's big enough that they will be able to make it out that only says "jwfacts.com" on it might actually work better. Sorta like what they tell you when you're working on volume and pausing on the school - sometimes speaking softly makes a point more memorable since people will have to really pay attention to hear it.

Of course you've got time and you can try out different approaches. I say go for it.

1

Confirmation on delegates for international conventions

by joe134cd in

i have 2 unrelated question.. (1) i heard through the grape vine that delegates traveling to special conventions are only required to book a certain number of nights in a society approved hotel.

this differes from my experience where i was required to book the whole package (e.g flights/accomodation etc).

i was told the reason for this change in arrangement was due to people complaining about the high costs involved with the society arranging everything.

OneEyedJoe

As for the first one, they just read a letter the other day saying that international delegates can book the travel themselves (I think there might've been something about the approved hotels in there, but I don't remember really clearly) but they have to stay 3 days prior to the convention and 3 days after (so a 9 day trip total).

Maybe they were getting called on the travel arrangements scam too often so they went for something a little more subtle - free rooms or commission at the "approved lodgings"

28

Circuit Assembly Summary

by piztjw in

i thought to give a more comprehensive summary, however this pretty well sums up the entire wasted day.. stand and sing.. prayer thanking the gb.. only jw's will survive "the end".. do more.

preach more.

indoctrinate your children more.

OneEyedJoe

Bumping this for the poor souls like me that have their assembly this weekend.

Fun fact from our assembly - a whopping total of 3 baptized. A record low for my circuit (narrowly lower than the previous record - 5 baptized this spring). Combining with the baptisms from the other assembly and convention this year, we're on track for growth at 1.4-1.6% for the year.

God is speeding up the work to be sure!

19

Did You Ever Communicate With Disfellowshipped Persons?

by minimus in

jw
friends

we were supposed to treat them as dead!

did you follow this direction?

.

OneEyedJoe

Never! I wanted to show them love by shunning them so that they would see the error of their ways and come back. In reality, though, I essentially never ran into a df'd person that I knew. I'd like to think that I would've seen how terrible shunning was if I'd ever had a friend df'd, but I suspect I wouldn't have.

16

Awake! and public Watchtower almost identical for appearance and content

by yadda yadda 2 in

i was in a chinese take-out the other day and saw a couple of very recent awake and watchtower magazines on the counter, amongst other magazines.. i had a good flick through both of them and noticed how very similar both magazines now appear in terms of appearance and content.

i was left with the distinct impression that the public edition watchtower is now basically indiscernable from the awake!

regarding content.

OneEyedJoe

Yeah, when they went down to one awake per month, they said it was because the awake would be changing to have a greater emphasis on biblical topics, and as such it was more similar to the WT so we didn't need two anymore. Essentially, they've directly admitted that there's no difference between them anymore.