The GB made a serious mistake in going to the donation system instead of having a set price for the literature. By making it more voluntary the JWs became less inclined to donate. But, had they kept to the old system they would have had to file sales tax reports in every State in the USA that has a sales tax and pay the tax which in California is over 8% in many localities. This wouldn't have been a problem for the Watchtower, as they would just let the rank and file pay the tax for them. However, in California the State Board of Equilization would know how much money the Watchtower is making through magazine and book sales in the State, and this is something the GB doesn't want the JWs or the government to know.
Athanasius
JoinedPosts by Athanasius
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25
Is The Borg Losing Money Drastically Or What???
by cognac inthere has been about 5 trillion talks on donating money.
never heard so many talks on this before... they have said in talks a few times that when the society charged per mag or whatever, the society got a lot more in donations then they do now and the cost in production has gone up.
anyone have any feedback on this?.
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Why are so many leaving?
by Dorktacular ini've noticed as of late that quite a few people are posting "good bye" threads.... why?.
sometimes people have disagreements or arguments, but does that mean they can't remain friends or talk?.
hell, if i left my wife every time we had an argument, we wouldn't have stayed married through our honeymoon!
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Athanasius
I always thought this was a JW discussion forum, not a site to view porn or to discuss one's sexual preferences. How many JW lurkers have stopped visiting because some of the content here merely confirms what the Watchtower has been saying about the internet and viewing "apostate" sites?
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23
Written Review
by Mysterious indo they still do this?
i used to memorize the pattern of true and false answers.. my mother told me that when she was younger the elders used to actually mark your answers
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Athanasius
Back in the 1950s when I was a kid they used to collect all the review papers when time was called. The school conductor would grade them and then hand them back to the JWs at next week's TM School. He would then mention which question most got wrong and what the highest score was. Don't remember if he would announce who scored the highest on the Review. However, I remember once he announced that the highest score was 100%. That was my mom who answered every question correctly that time. That made her day. My best score was 75%, which wasn't too bad for an 11 year old. However, after a few years they changed the policy and let everyone correct their own papers and no grades were announced after that. They also dumbed down the Review. For me it made the Review less fun.
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Most JW's Really Hate Going to the Conventions/Assemblies. Some Admit It.
by OnTheWayOut inso the wife and i met up with an old friend.
the woman actually grew up around my .
wife, i knew her as a young adult.
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Athanasius
The JWs today have it much easier with the conventions. When I left in 1984 they were still doing 4 and 5 day DCs. In fact in 1969 my family and I attended a 7 day DC at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Nevertheless, I always hated going to the JW conventions no matter how many days long. They were a complete waste of good vacation time.
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suicide and explosion at Kingdom Hall on Sat. July 27
by kool aid man06 ina bizarre explosion at a church east of kansas city killed one man on saturday afternoon.
atf agents said the explosion at the jehovah's witness' kingdom hall on foggy bottom drive was intentionally set, and that the person who died appears to have committed suicide.
witnesses described large amounts of smoke pouring out of the building, which they said was just recently completed.
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Athanasius
I haven't followed this case in detail, but how do they know that it was a self-inflicted gun shot? Could it be a murder made to look like suicide?
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29
What's your favourite country you've visited?
by lfcviking inmine is australia.
the's so much to do there, the climate is so warm, the wildlife there is so vast & interesting, you can scuba dive the great barrier reef, there's so many cool beaches and overall it seems quite civilised.
i'd love to go back there again for another jolliday.. what's yours?.
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Athanasius
Ireland and Russia. Loved Dublin and Cork. However, St. Petersburg, Russia was the most beautiful city that I visited.
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What should I do with the old magazines?
by sacolton ini've got two boxes full of watchtower and awake magazines dating back to 2000 maybe abit further.
should i just trash them?
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Athanasius
If everyone dumped their old Watchtower books and magazines off at the KH it would create a problem for the JWs. Since JWs aren't supposed to engage in independent thinking, the local Witnesses would soon be writing to Brooklyn requesting instructions as to how to deal with the new situation. With so many requests for clarification, this would require a "questions from readers" article or a spot in the Kingdom Ministry about "What to do if old Watchtower literature is returned to the Kingdom Hall?" Should they deduct the returned literature from future service reports? If the literature is in good condition can it be reused in field service? Should they ask for a donation if they are using returned literature in the field service? Should returned literature be given to new JWs to complete their Theocratic library? The list of questions could go on and on.
It will also be bad for moral seeing a stack on returned magazines on the KH steps on Saturday morning on magazine day. Saturday is still "magazine day" isn't it? -
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What should I do with the old magazines?
by sacolton ini've got two boxes full of watchtower and awake magazines dating back to 2000 maybe abit further.
should i just trash them?
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Athanasius
Burning books, no matter how much one disagrees with the content, reminds me too much of the Nazis and their book burning fires. "Where they burn books, they also burn people," a wise man once said. It has also been said that the JWs worst enemy is their own publications. So I agree with Open Mind's suggestion to leave the magazines at places they are not wanted. Also as several have suggested, just leave them at the KH and let the JWs waste time trying to figure out what to do with them. I remember when I was a JW that people would occasionally leave a stack of magazines on the KH steps. Some of the JWs found this depressing, because of the hours spent trying to place the magazines and to then have them all returned. I don't recall whether publishers were required to deduct these returned magazines from their next field service report or not.
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Steven T. Byington / Bible in Living English
by cathyk inthere's an article posted by william dalton at the andover townsman on steven t. byington, translator of the bible in living english.
there are some interesting tidbits about the man which i didn't know, including the fact that he was an anarchist!.
you might want to head over to the comboxes, because there's only me (with a neutral post) and a couple of rah-rah jw posts.
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Athanasius
I remember when the Bible in Living English was released in 1972. One of the elders in our congregation loved it so much that he often used it in his talks, sometimes to the exclusion of the NWT. Many of the renderings in Byington's Bible are superior to the NWT. Interestingly this elder left the JWs a few years later. No doubt the Bible in Living English was a factor.
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What was wrong with the 'occultic green' bibles?
by Gill inwhat was wrong with the 'green bible'?.
i understand (rightly or wrongly) that the 'green' had occult connotations that some did not approve of.. is this true and were the early jws too involved with hidden, esoteric, occult meaning that 'others' found uncomfortable and so they had to go to the sobre black bibles?.
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Athanasius
I remember talking to a Circuit overseer in the 1960s when the red pocket NWT came out and he said it was bound that way because the Society got a good deal on red vinyl. Later in 1969 when the first Kingdom Interlinear Translation (KIT) came out in purple, it was said that the Society got another good deal on vinyl. By the way I remember Bill Centnar used to call the KIT the "Purple People Eater."