an elder in my congo gave a talk.
he was always interesting to listen to and one of the nice guys.
(the nice elders are always targets of the bully elders, no?).
Religion, every religion is just the corruption of power over faith.
That elder just proved he was a human with self righteous brown nose inclinations. That he is a JW is only incidental. He'd still be the equivalent jerk in a SBC church, a mosque or the Buddhist temple down the street from me.
this is a work in progress so let me postulate a few and then post your observations.. i think when we examine this subject we will be able to understand how they picked this recent batch of new comers who can just about manage to even tie their shoe laces and clearly are almost complete idiots.. i'm sure they test any gb hopefuls as to loyalty and courage to face pressure and make defenses for the corporation sound at least plausible and with in the limits of understanding imposed by the corporations edicts.. i know anthony morris came from wealth and he mentioned in one of his talks that his aged father tried to warn him about giving money to the wt corporation and he said that what his dad didn't know was that he was the society (he may have been trying to get some money from his wealthy dad to give to the corporation as sort of an investment in loyalty that would catapault him to gb stardom and who knows maybe even chief honcho.. so i wonder can some buy their way to the top?
after all it is a scam operation based on bullshit and all the members of the elite are money hungry if not for themselves then for their sock puppet jehovah/me.. what say you?.
DD, good theory, but if they have dirt on them, so does someone else. Better to get a not so bright company man who has no dirt, along with no intellectual inclinations, preferably no children, and one who isn't too fooled by any of this. Without true conviction or conscience but rather their looking for a good retirement situation and clout. They had guys who were intellectually curious. They had them with a conscience. That backfired. Some crazy visionaries with weird ideas, quite megalomaniac. . .these new guys are sometimes suspicious by their very stupidity-who couldd BE that stupid, right? Those guys got no where to go but the streets.
I agree that they are no way in charge of anything but stupid deliveries of poorly thought out speeches.
so, i left about 5 years ago and at that time, the official ruling on number of members was a little over 6 million.
i google jw out of boredom the other day and find they are now claiming 8 million members.
sooooo.... hold on 2 million increase in 5 years?
while researching a comment on the long-running naga rebellion in india, i came across this charming image.
a woman wearing a burqua (so obviously muslim) walks her son to school.
its described as being a festival day, so the boy is dressed as the lord krishna.. from the indian newsnation: http://www.newsnation.in/photos/entertainment/only-happen-in-india-1021/slide1#more.
a little background first....i have been dating my boyfriend for a year.
both of us are disfellowshipped.
we attended the same congregation 7+ years ago when we were both married.
warning, novel ahead:.
after a few months of lurking on this site, i've decided to take the plunge...i don't really care so much about introducing myself, but somehow there is some relief in the thought of getting my little story out there, just getting it out of my system.
i am the oldest of 5 kids.
Welcome. My mom took her time about the JWs, all the while insisting we followed it. Her weakness? Smoking. She is as raised in it, sort of. She is hardcore now.
Just get out and forget about it. Removeyourself from the influence. The bible says you will know his people by their love, not that they are rolling men, have a particular doctrine or understanding. Surround yourself with good and loving people. Leave off the idea that there is one true religion. Put your faith in God and leave off following fallible men.
would it really affect them?
how would it affect volunteers at any construction project since that work would now be taxable.
any materials they buy would be taxable.
I think anyone with a charitable/non profit status that has tax exemptions should be MORE carefully monitored and that ONLY actual charity should be exempt. If they get 1,000,000 yearly and provide $100,000 worth of food to a food bank or to buy clothing for poor people, let them take that off their taxable income. If they have a building that is exclusively used as a food bank, let that bit not be taxed. But seriously, the WTS had a billion dollars worth of property that they never had to pay taxes on-in Brooklyn alone. And what did they do? house people to publish their magazines. That serve no actual charitable purpose WHATSOEVER. All churches, mosques, temples should pay the same property taxes as everyone. If God can't afford it, they don't need to be there, IMO.
http://time.com/3939143/nows-the-time-to-end-tax-exemptions-for-religious-institutions/?xid=newsletter-brief.
june 28, 2015 .
nows the time to end tax exemptions for religious institutions.
God willing:) (and yes, I say that with a wink to all the unbelievers)
so i went out today with my broken leg and got accosted by an old lady, with some magazines.. it was my first ever encounter with a jw in ten years, and i had said 'i know you are jw's, i'm not interested thank you.
" twice.....then she started talking about my broken leg and how wonderful we are made and how amazing the healing process is.... and that's when it all started...."i used to be a bethelite pioneer, now i'm an atheist doctor...".
she was with me a good 30 mins, her elder husband left very annoyed but she stayed, and she was dying to hear everything i spurted out, despite aggressively defending every point, from military engines to paedophilia.
I was having a big discussion with my JW aunt who thought she could tell me a thing or three-but everytime I brought up a scripture she changed subject after saying we'd need to sit down with the bible and have a real talk-and not go from subject to subject. I could have stayed on the FIRST subject. But in anycase, I thought on it a few days and decided (haven't told her yet) that I have no interest in destroying her faith. Her life has been a total train wreck and now she is sober(she has been in and out of that and JWs my entire life), in a happy relationship and has a good job. I love her-she has always been more like my big sister than my aunt. She has a stability that I haven't seen in her before. I know it isn't "the truth" as it usually is part of her downfall, but I also know that I don't want to send her down the last dark alley of her life. Being able to prove something from the Bible that I don't have confidence in is a ridiculous ability, but just because I have it, does't mean I need to use it.
A stranger in the street? Yeah, I'd like to talk to one of them. Nothing personal, just their teachings/practices and a bible.
I think you did good. Anyone who is going out and about presuming to be bible "teachers" ought to be able to defend their faith. I don't want to be the passive booby who lets them take authority in a conversation and gloat about it later. I don't want to feed that beast!!
http://time.com/3939143/nows-the-time-to-end-tax-exemptions-for-religious-institutions/?xid=newsletter-brief.
june 28, 2015 .
nows the time to end tax exemptions for religious institutions.
Forget about a religios exemption and have a merit test for specific charitable exemptions
The money donated to a church or non profit that actually feeds,clothes or shelters the needy. Actual costs of healing ill people or operating clinics. Thats it. Teaching them to read while indoctrinating them should not count. Any kind of enforcing of evangelical interest would disallow exemptions. Religion or any non profits cannot just wipe their tax slate clean by those designations. Yep its more complicated I guess they could prove their true charitableness by doing things with no benefit to them.
