i've seen claims over the years that wt is in the real estate, book publishing business and is a for profit enterprise at it's core.. can those of you that believe this to be the case tell me who benefits from all this wealth?.
the governing body lives in relatively humble conditions no?.
i've been curious about this for a while.
“scratchme1010”: “
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You hit the nail right on the head! Although money and wealth are often a large integral part of the modus operandi of religious cults, regardless of any monetary advantages there is always an ever present psychological and anthropological need for such folks to procure power over others, which in turn is a most ego-feeding proposition, for sure.
"jehovah's witnesses are too cultish for my liking" what do you think about my new word invention?.
“OUTLAW”: “The Three Expressions of Bro. Let[t]”
I believe there are more than that. More like 30, I would imagine.
so our sunday meeting was on the 25th (christmas) and my active jw wife and i were out of town enjoying some family time with relatives.. apparently there were many others in our congregation that missed as well.
so few were there in fact that sisters ran the mics.
(actually it was a sister running one of the two mics) a friend of my wife commented to her about how the brothers just aren't stepping up and it "makes her want to cry.
“sparrowdown”: “Vid and Rub ( lol,that sounds like a private porn session )”
LOL!
well i think as the exposure becomes greater of the wt hypocrisy and cover up that the likelihood of this happening great.
no retirement funds for all those laid off when they were no longer profitable due to old age has got to bite these guys in the ass some day.. and maybe in the process of man's enlighten world view and a better understanding the cruelty of disfellowshipping member and enforcing a communication ban ones family members may open them up from another class action lawsuit over such egregious action caused by a religious printing organization domination over peoples action through deceit and clever lies about supernatural claims of authority.. either way i think they are going to need a lot of outside legal help in the future as lawsuits will pile up around the world which that alone could dry up all their funds in defense costs..
“LostGeneration”: “Forcing someone to speak to someone they choose not to speak to for religious reasons would be a VIOLATION of the 1st Amendment. And why in the hell would you want to talk to someone who is being FORCED to talk to you in the first place?”
In that particular sense, I believe you are right. . . . . Although, looking at the other side of the coin, it is really the many families and friends of those disfellowshipped who are being forced – i.e., coerced through intense and dishonest “undue influence” – to completely shun, or to NOT speak with, one of their own who should unfortunately find him/herself disfellowshipped by the Watchtower corporation, and it is likewise the disfellowshipped individual who is in the same way forced (coerced!) by the Watchtower corporation to NOT speak to or be spoken to by their close friends and family. So, if anybody is being forced to do – or in this case NOT do – something (communicate in any way), it is the many unfortunate victims being forced as such by the Watchtower!
This vigorously enforced policy by the Watchtower corporation is an obvious and glaring perversion and hijacking of the natural bonds within friendships and especially within the family unit, which is a profoundly intimate and sacred institution.
The real and profound damages caused by the Watchtower’s stubborn and belligerent insistence on enforcing this harsh and harmful policy just in the name of Pharisaically demanding their own interpretation of the strict “letter of the [Biblical] law” – and far beyond – makes them most culpable in their glaring travesty against the simple “law of love” to which they hypocritically claim to espouse.
The Watchtower may not get all the legal kamuffins they really deserve, but, well, all I can say is, Shame on them!
well i think as the exposure becomes greater of the wt hypocrisy and cover up that the likelihood of this happening great.
no retirement funds for all those laid off when they were no longer profitable due to old age has got to bite these guys in the ass some day.. and maybe in the process of man's enlighten world view and a better understanding the cruelty of disfellowshipping member and enforcing a communication ban ones family members may open them up from another class action lawsuit over such egregious action caused by a religious printing organization domination over peoples action through deceit and clever lies about supernatural claims of authority.. either way i think they are going to need a lot of outside legal help in the future as lawsuits will pile up around the world which that alone could dry up all their funds in defense costs..
“Brokeback Watchtower”: “Perhaps the pay out could be in the order a fair wage for those years of slavery and a grant of money set aside /available for psychological counseling.”
That sounds like a good idea on the surface. But I don’t think that even the Watchtower corporation would have the funds to accommodate all the victims on an individual basis. Also, I can’t imagine that any adjudicated settlement payouts of that nature would apply in a grandfathered fashion; i.e., retroactive.
However, at least for now, perhaps there could be some focus toward lobbying the federal government to at least reconsider the Watchtower’s tax-exempt status in consideration of their fundamental and glaring travesties of the Charter of the United Nations, not to mention the general fairness of natural law.
I agree that something should be done in a widespread concerted and crowd-funded endeavour. But, at least for now, maybe practical and progressive “baby steps” is all we can rightly hope for.
are you a devoutly religious person?.
if, yes--this is for you.______intellectual honesty is a willingness to be wrong when facts and evidence clash with beliefs.lacking neutral objectivity, people can’t really listen!
they defensively filter anything which clashes with belief.
The various twists and turns among the different sides playing out in the big political arena is like a kind of higher-level process of “evolution” in itself.
The incessant stirrings of the left-wing, right-wing, liberal, conservative, democrat, republican, socialist, environmental, independent, etc., etc. – they’re are all like the components and constituents of the colossal aggregate of human ideologies coexisting and subtly morphing within a humongous “test tube” of human sociopolitical evolution – slowly being whirled around in that giant test tube in a manner reminiscent of whatever gradual set of processes of auto replicating and self-improving genetic cypher (DNA information) which ever so gradually and imperceptibly unfolded to conjure up the present state of biological evolution.
But what is to come out of this higher–level outworking of evolution in the sociopolitical landscape? Well, I believe that whatever gains ascendency within that anthropological realm must, out of logical necessity, be not so much the “strongest” but the “best” in terms of what “works out” in the most practical efficacy of human society as a whole.
Kind of similar to what has had to come out of the more classic biological evolution of life itself on this planet: It’s not so much what we may think of as the “strongest” – or “fittest” – but, rather, whatever happens to be the “best” toward the general efficacy of the continuing and improving propagation of the relentless juggernaut of life throughout the all-encompassing “tree” of the origins of all species.
But in the case of the human sociopolitical landscape, things tend to eventually “work out” within the balancing of societal forces toward whatever necessitates the continued – and hopefully refining of – propagation of the human species, and the society in which they cohabitate.
Simply put: It will (and must) “all come out in the wash.” So, no worries. The “good” will prevail. It must. After all, considering what we have seen in physical biological evolution, it’s a logical imperative!
listener on here started a cool thread about the april 2017 wt which can be found here.... https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/4881380162928640/watchtower-april-2017-overview.
it got me to look at it closer and in the opening study they use terminology i've never heard used before namely, "vow of obedience and poverty".... 19 currently, there are some 67,000 members of the worldwide order of special full-time servants of jehovah’s witnesses.
some perform bethel service, others engage in construction or in circuit work, serve as field instructors or special pioneers or missionaries or as assembly hall or bible school facility servants.
“Richard Oliver”: “Those in special full-time service (receives money from the branch) has to sign a vow of obedience and poverty for at least 30 or 40 years.”
That reminds me of how in the Sea Org of Scientology, they actually get people to sign a contract promising to work for them for one billion years! (Maybe in that sense, the dubs get off a bit easy.)
i'll start with the first study article.. this study article deals with vows made to jehovah.
three main vows are discussed.. 1) your dedication to jehovah.
we are told that it is not possible to claim that our baptism was not valid .
“careful”: “When I was in, there was an occasional re-baptism, most often because the person involved didn't understand what he or she was doing, sometimes having gotten baptized without having gone through the 80 questions first. At some of the big assemblies with 80+ baptismal candidates, some newbies just got in the baptismal line and got dunked.”
Maybe those youngins and newbies could use the defence that they had too much to drink before they spontaneously decided to cut into the baptismal line. I mean, sometimes that defence can be taken into consideration in court for certain crimes. (I showed up drunk at district conventions a couple of times, but I had already been baptized. Just say’n.)
note: although some of the interviews in the following video are in english, the majority is in tagalog/filipino, if that's a problem please don't watch it.. investigative documentaries: jws in the philippines.
broadcast on thursday 22 december 2016 on the gma news tv in the philippines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mydu2bq-lwm.
Whenever I come across that geographical restriction thing, it makes me really sick and angry! (Amazon dot com is really bad for that too.) I just can’t understand why people want to restrict online content for other countries. It just defeats the whole purpose of the global Internet. Some people must really be selfish and controlling.
https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/commercial-real-estate/10-biggest-nyc-real-estate-stories-2016-69239.
december 23, 2016. the 10 biggest nyc real estate stories of 2016.
wikimedia: jud mccranie .
Joseph Franklin Rutherford was basically just as whacky as Charles Taze Russell, but one thing he certainly did have going for him was a bold entrepreneurial sense which gave him the foresight to turn Russell’s little cult, the International Bible Students Association, into a thriving new religious sect. Rutherford had the ability to manipulate and play people so as to acquire a diligent, driven volunteer workforce to serve his needs from the bottom up while he projected his clenched-fisted leadership from the top down.
In that respect, Rutherford was pretty much on par with Donald Trump – persevere and win at any and all costs. Rutherford’s tangible legacy carried through time his own unique brand of organized religion, replete with various anomalous and disingenuous twists and turns reminiscent of his bearded predecessor, but one thing he accomplished well: He put the Watchtower corporation on the map and changed an integral portion of the skyline in Brooklyn, New York.
And in terms of stalwart ambition and old-school stubbornness, I’m sure he could have taught Donald Trump a thing or two.
