blondie

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Posts by blondie

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  19

  Publisher numbers versus baptised witnesses.

  by amandm in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i grew up as a witness, and left about 10 years ago, i'm currently researching witness numbers for a project i'm working on, and i can't seem to get an accurate number of baptised witnesses - hardly a surprise!

  from their website it looks like they list the number of publishers instead of the number of baptised witnesses, so it totally works to obscure how many actual witnesses there are, apart from the fact it's morally dubious to class a publisher as a minister of god as they refer to publishers on their uk section of the site.

  i also am trying to work out how many leave every year, even approximate figures would be great, from their own website it just looks like they try to massage figures to make them look as favourable as possible.

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  blondie

  @SlappySlap

  I believe a jw is considered inactive after not turning in a time report for 6 consecutive months.
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  13

  I genuinely burst out laughing.................

  by The Fall Guy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ...when i read a reply to an email which i sent to a devout couple of jw's, showing the luxurious accommodation which "vows of poverty" jw's have been living in.. https://ibsaproperty.com.

  the reply began by apologising for their "bad french.

  " brilliant!

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  blondie

  @careful

  "vow of poverty" is a legal term that the IRS requires for the WTS to qualify as a religious non-profit avoiding paying taxes.

  https://www.irs.gov/publications/p517#en_US_2018_publink100033528
  

  If you are a member of a religious order who hasn't taken a vow of poverty, your earnings for ministerial services you perform as a member of the order are subject to SE tax. See Ministerial Services , later. However, you can request that the IRS grant you an exemption as discussed under Exemption From Self-Employment (SE) Tax , later.

  Vow of poverty.

  If you are a member of a religious order and have taken a vow of poverty, you are already exempt from paying SE tax on your earnings for ministerial services you perform as an agent of your church or its agencies. You don't need to request a separate exemption. For income tax purposes, the earnings are tax free to you. Your earnings are considered the income of the religious order.

  Services covered under FICA at the election of the order.

  However, even if you have taken a vow of poverty, the services you perform for your church or its agencies may be covered under social security. Your services are covered if your order, or an autonomous subdivision of the order, elects social security coverage for its current and future vow-of-poverty members.

  The order or subdivision elects coverage by filing Form SS-16. The election may cover certain vow-of-poverty members for a retroactive period of up to 20 calendar quarters before the quarter in which it files the certificate. If the election is made, the order or subdivision pays both the employer's and employee's share of the tax. You don't pay any of the FICA tax.

  Services performed outside the order.

  Even if you are a member of a religious order who has taken a vow of poverty and the order requires you to turn over amounts you earn, your earnings are subject to federal income tax and either SE tax or FICA tax (including estimated tax payments and/or withholding) if you:

  • Are self-employed or an employee of an organization outside your religious community; and

  • Perform work not required by, or done on behalf of, the order.

  In these cases, your income from self-employment or as an employee of that outside organization is taxable to you directly. You may, however, be able to take a charitable deduction for the amount you turn over to the order. See Pub. 526, Charitable Contributions.

  Rulings.

  Organizations and individuals may request rulings from the IRS on whether they are religious orders, or members of a religious order, respectively, for FICA tax, SE tax, and federal income tax withholding purposes. To request a ruling, follow the procedures in Revenue Procedure 2019-1. To find the revenue procedure, go to IRS.gov and type "Revenue Procedure 2019-1" in the search box.
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  6

  I have a cousin who moved to 800 Red Mills Rd, Wallkill, NY, 12589

  by rickroll in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so i know this is a dubber property but what do they do there?.

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  blondie

  @fulano

  I don't know since it was some time ago. I was told by an active jw that WT Farms no longer exists, but that might just mean it was renamed or they could be wrong.

  I know that the ones I knew liked not having to be among the maddening crowd.

  The 65 were only connected to the farm activities, not the printing. The printing part was not referred to WT Farms to differentiate it from the printing activities. But that may have been something Bethelites said. At the time I lived in that area, there were just over 1,000 Bethelites at both locations (actually Pinebush was closest, Wallkill was the post office that the WTS used).
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  26

  Article: Window for Child Victims Act sex-abuse lawsuits opens Wednesday: What it means

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  https://www.silive.com/news/2019/08/window-for-child-victims-act-sex-abuse-lawsuits-opens-wednesday-what-it-means.html on friday, attorney irwin zalkin held a news conference in manhattan announcing that two alleged victims, heather steele and michael ewing, will file lawsuits in state supreme court in brooklyn on wednesday.

  the lawsuits will name as defendants eight members of the governing body of the jehovah’s witnesses (jws).

  now located in tuxedo park, n.y., the jws world headquarters occupied a building with a large watchtower sign in brooklyn.

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  blondie

  APOSNT, just remember that you may also be hoping the victims have to be there for the court proceedings. I don't feel it would good to hope that they would have to be there and go through this.
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  5

  Saw a post on reddit...

  by Biahi in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many exjw’s don’t remember their birthdays or birthdates, some actually guess and are off by a year or two.

  i’m always proud to say my age, and i’m a woman, here’s why.

  i thought i would be dead in 1975. i turned 16 in 1975, and i thought god would kill me because he knew i hated being a jw, even though i hated it, i thought it was ‘da troof’.

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  blondie

  I never knew how a jw could say they did not know their birth date. How ever did they get a drivers license without giving DOT one?
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  6

  I have a cousin who moved to 800 Red Mills Rd, Wallkill, NY, 12589

  by rickroll in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so i know this is a dubber property but what do they do there?.

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  blondie

  Probably WT Farms: not as many about 65 people in various houses in the farm area. 4 Bethelites from my congregation in NY worked at the Farm and lived in a renovated farm house, with a married Bethelite couple to act as the manager/supervisor and his wife cleaned the house and made meals for about 5 single male Bethelites.
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  34

  "Armageddon is imminent!"

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  remember top shelf tony da turd broadcasting that world wide 2 years ago at the end of the convention?

  well 2 years later do we see the slightest hint of the nation's declaring peace and security or going after religion?

  so how was it imminent?

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  blondie

  Or as my husband says, we are living in the toenails of the image shown to Nebuchadnezzar.
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  6

  JW visitors addicted to JW.org

  by NVR2L8 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  how things have changed!

  a childhood friend and her husband stayed with us for a few days and, except for when we went sightseeing, they spent most of their time on their digital devices viewing and listening to content from jw.borg.

  a few years back i recall a stearn warning against the use of such devices at an assembly.

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  blondie

  Soon, they will find JWN and become addicted, perhaps?

  The WTS has opened the door to the internet to jws who woops find something they said they weren't looking for (in the case of porn that is)

  As the WTS shows here (in 2015), using the internet can be a gateway to pornography (WTS opinion not mine)

  https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/402015444?q=pornography&p=sen
  

  8, 9. (a) Why did one young man have sexual relations with an immoral woman? (b) What situations can the example in Proverbs chapter 7 help us avoid?

  8 At Proverbs 5:8, God’s Word warns us to stay away from immorality. In Proverbs chapter 7, we read the story of a young man who went for a walk at night near the house of an immoral woman. The woman was on the street corner, “dressed like a prostitute.” She walked up to him, grabbed him, kissed him, and said things that created wrong desires in him. He did not reject those desires, and as a result, he had sexual relations with her. Even though he did not plan to sin, he did. Then he had to live with the terrible results. If he had understood the danger, he would have stayed far away from her!​—Proverbs 7:6-27.

  9 Like that young man, we could make poor decisions because we do not understand the danger. For example, at night, some television channels show immoral programs, so it could be dangerous to keep changing the channels just to see what is on TV. It could also be dangerous to click on Internet links without knowing where they lead to, as well as to visit chat rooms or Web sites that include immoral advertisements and links to pornography. In these situations, what we look at can make us have immoral desires, and this can lead us to disobey Jehovah.
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  22

  Interested in a refresher about the anointed

  by frozen2018 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've had very little to do with jw's since the early 1990's.

  however, i do try to stay a little informed on what they are up to as i have several close relatives who are devout.

  i rely on this site to keep me updated.. over the weekend i learned that a couple of my relatives, a father and son, have decided that they are anointed and had some bread and wine at the last memorial.

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  blondie

  I saw this reading down:

  "No More Additions!"

  and my brain read

  No More AUDITIONS

  Time to go to bed

  
  
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  15

  Ever heard of this angel power?

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1961047#h=16:285-23:710. we may also safely conclude that angels, god’s spirit messengers, travel at tremendous speeds.

  thus once when daniel began to pray, god dispatched an angel to him in answer to his prayer.

  this angel, although coming from beyond the realms of outer space, reached daniel before he had concluded his prayer.—dan.

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  blondie

  Nice points all. I really enjoyed the puns and humorous views.

  I remembered this being said when I was younger (about 10) and other out of this world opinions (probably born in the mind of "Fred" Franz).