Posts by slimboyfat

38

What changes would stabilize JW membership?

by StarryNight9 in

i've seen many topics about how things are changing or might be changing in jw doctrine/culture.

some have extrapolated how those changes would result in declining jw membership.

i'm curious to know what changes others think would stabilize those numbers.

it was announced at our clam that there "was no shipment of the october study editions of the watchtower" and that they were asking if people could just use electronic or make their own copies.. is this just happening in ohio, or did you hear the same thing?.

slimboyfat

The writing is on the wall.

20

Our Christian Life And Ministry Answers

by bola in

jw
friends

please i need the answers to the our christian life and ministry from the month of october, 2018 to december, 2018..

slimboyfat

On this website we prefer questions we can’t answer over answers we can’t question.

37

WATCHTOWER Is Trying To Put Cameras In All of Their Kingdom Halls

by minimus in

jw
friends

one of my best friends is in the security business.

he told me the other day of how the watch tower has been in contact with his good friend and business associate.

evidently they are inquiring about putting cameras into every kh so that they can do 24 hour monitoring.

slimboyfat

If they put them in the TV screens then the adoption of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four will near completion.

The ubiquitous telescreens in Orwell’s dystopia served not only as propaganda outlets but as information gathering devices.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen

Make a wrong facial expression during a GB broadcast (facecrime)? Zap!

42

Watchtower Corp of New York worth over$ 2 billion

by Diogenesister in

in the montana sex abuse court case for the first time watchtower has been required by the courts to give a financial statement to the court to assess awards of punitive damages for negligence and (for the first time)malice in non compliance of mandatory reporting laws.. watchtower corp of new york has finances in excess of $2 billion while cc of jw is worth $49 million.

this doesn't include the pensylvania corp or what overseas branches may have.. pretty healthy bank balance by any standards..

slimboyfat

Corney those figures you present are very interesting. Can I ask are they publicly available? I would interested in both sets of figures for all the years from 2009, or earlier, if availabe.

They look credible to me and I think we can draw some conclusions.

There seemed to be a significant drop in the assets of the Pennsylvania corporation in 2015. It was the same year that Lett issued the call for more donations.

Then the combined assets of both corporations increased from 2014 to 2017 by $315 million, or 19%.

This was the period during which Lett begged for more donations, congregations were instructed to send excess funds to HQs, and KHs began to be sold and the funds sent to the society.

In other words confiscating local KH funds resulted in a $300 million boost in Watchtower assets. That would mean Watchtower gained around $20,000 from each congregation on average. That is a trick you can only pull once, as is selling KHs and assembly halls, because when the local bank balances and KHs are gone they are gone.

42

Watchtower Corp of New York worth over$ 2 billion

by Diogenesister in

in the montana sex abuse court case for the first time watchtower has been required by the courts to give a financial statement to the court to assess awards of punitive damages for negligence and (for the first time)malice in non compliance of mandatory reporting laws.. watchtower corp of new york has finances in excess of $2 billion while cc of jw is worth $49 million.

this doesn't include the pensylvania corp or what overseas branches may have.. pretty healthy bank balance by any standards..

slimboyfat

Okay so the most likely scenario is that the €1.6 billion includes the HQs but not local KHs?

Is there any way to find out?

What about assembly hallls, remote translation units, and any other property?

42

Watchtower Corp of New York worth over$ 2 billion

by Diogenesister in

in the montana sex abuse court case for the first time watchtower has been required by the courts to give a financial statement to the court to assess awards of punitive damages for negligence and (for the first time)malice in non compliance of mandatory reporting laws.. watchtower corp of new york has finances in excess of $2 billion while cc of jw is worth $49 million.

this doesn't include the pensylvania corp or what overseas branches may have.. pretty healthy bank balance by any standards..

slimboyfat

Morph, if the $1.6 billion figure does include KHs and all other property assets then they are effectively broke. Because their property in total is certainly worth a lot more than $1.6. So the only way they could have a net value of $1.6 billion is if they have significant debt. If they are in serious debt then it’s an indication that they have little cash on hand. If they have little or no cash in hand then they would need to sell KHs, assembly halls and/or other property to pay for damages awarded against them. At which point the integrity of the organisation itself becomes difficult to maintian.

A news article states the intention of some to either force Watchtower to change its protection policies or else go broke defending them. This seems a realistic prospect, so it’s interesting to see what they will do, assuming it’s not already too late for them to turn the situation around.

42

Watchtower Corp of New York worth over$ 2 billion

by Diogenesister in

in the montana sex abuse court case for the first time watchtower has been required by the courts to give a financial statement to the court to assess awards of punitive damages for negligence and (for the first time)malice in non compliance of mandatory reporting laws.. watchtower corp of new york has finances in excess of $2 billion while cc of jw is worth $49 million.

this doesn't include the pensylvania corp or what overseas branches may have.. pretty healthy bank balance by any standards..

slimboyfat

I am just going by what they said on the podcast, which was based on what was said in court. If documents were provided to the court with greater detail are they publicly available?

Yes the problem with the $1.6 billion figure is that it’s either too high or it’s too low.

If it’s the money Watchtower has in cash and other liquid assets that’s far too high a figure.

If it’s the total value of all assets including KHs then it’s far too low.

So what are the possibilities?

That the figure includes HQ and other property, but excludes KHs?

And/or Watchtower has taken on significant debt which counts against their assets in their net worth? If that’s the case they may be in serious trouble, because even selling KHs may not be enough to cover payouts, and stay operational as an organisation.

Even if Watchtower don’t end up paying the full $35 million, the news story itself is bound to have a chilling effect on Watchtower donations. And more is surely on the way.

42

Watchtower Corp of New York worth over$ 2 billion

by Diogenesister in

in the montana sex abuse court case for the first time watchtower has been required by the courts to give a financial statement to the court to assess awards of punitive damages for negligence and (for the first time)malice in non compliance of mandatory reporting laws.. watchtower corp of new york has finances in excess of $2 billion while cc of jw is worth $49 million.

this doesn't include the pensylvania corp or what overseas branches may have.. pretty healthy bank balance by any standards..

slimboyfat

The Swiss branch was another one they sold, after 100 years, or something. You can only sell assets once. Once it’s gone it’s gone. Ultimately Watchtower depends on donations from JWs for funding. How can Watchtower ask JWs to pay $30 each for cases like this, on top of everyday running costs? It’s not sustainable whatever way you look at it. Any nest egg they have from property sales is far from inexhaustible. In fact it may not have been all that large, and already near exhausted. They’ve already cut, and begged, and sold assets. So what do they do next?

42

Watchtower Corp of New York worth over$ 2 billion

by Diogenesister in

in the montana sex abuse court case for the first time watchtower has been required by the courts to give a financial statement to the court to assess awards of punitive damages for negligence and (for the first time)malice in non compliance of mandatory reporting laws.. watchtower corp of new york has finances in excess of $2 billion while cc of jw is worth $49 million.

this doesn't include the pensylvania corp or what overseas branches may have.. pretty healthy bank balance by any standards..

slimboyfat

The figure I heard was $1.6 billion from John Redwood in a podcast. He also said this was a net figure and includes the value of property including Kingdom Halls.

There are 13,500 congregations in the United States. If on average each KH is used by two congregations or slightly more that indicates around 6000 KHs in the United States. How much would each KH be worth? If each KH was worth $266,000 on average then that would account for the whole figure of $1.6 billion with no cash left over.

This doesn’t even take into account the value of Warwick, Patterson, Wallkill, Assembly Halls, and whatever other property they own.

Surely their property holdings alone are worth far more than $1.6 billion? So the figure raises more questions than it answers. For one: what other corporations are associated with JWs and what is their net value? Does the Pennsylvania corporation have many assets? It seems like this would be a reasonable question to ask in court if the purpose of the exercise is to ascertain the ability of JWs to pay compensation.

How much money does Watchtower actually have in the bank? Very little, could be the answer. Unless conspiracy theories about them holding lots of money in other corporations is true.

But at the end of the day their money comes from donations from JWs. And JWs are not wealthy, or generous with donations. So the idea that Watchtower has a huge secret reserve somewhere does not seem very credible. Where would it have come from?

If Watchtower does end up paying $35 million for this latest case, that’s equivalent to JWs in the United States putting their hand in their pocket and paying $30 each, for this one case alone.

And some people still argue they are not in financial difficulty?