Here is some great news! Warwick is in the middle of the most gorgeous part of upstate NY. If you go in late summer or early fall you can catch the best renaissance faire in the country just down the road. I went 30 years ago and it is literally minutes down the road and a lot more fun than bethel. Nicer driving than the City, too. It's muggy upstate, but no concrete to hold in heat and huge buildings to keep air from moving. I love tuxedo park. If I had more money than God I might move there, too.
JWdaughter
JoinedPosts by JWdaughter
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28
Brooklyn Bethel Tours Through The Roof
by freemindfade inwas speaking with someone last night who just recently toured the us bethel's.
the brooklyn tour i heard was awful, very limited and disappointing and conducted by a local pioneer and not even a bethelite.
well from what they are telling the folks on the tour since the tm3 bit encouraging (guilting) people about going to disneyland on vacation when you haven't visited bethel, monthly tours went from 6000 to 16000!
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Reason of financial problems WTS
by Gorbatchov ina non-witness insider told me this week that the wts has financial problems.
that lead to halting down their building plans and lay off the special pioneers and.
bethelites.. the reason of the financial stagnation is beside some bad investments,.
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JWdaughter
Dumb as rocks is what many of us were. NOT. Being naive is not the same. Choosing to stick ones head in the sand is not necessarily dumb. Look at how many suffer tragically after learning TTATT? If the truth is not the priority, then they can just let things go, keep playing the game and not be tormented about it. People in churches often go with little conviction-just to keep family happy they play the family game. Its not stupid, its strategic. When it matters, get out. If not so much, why destroy your life to prove a point or be right? Some of us HAVE to take the journey OUT, one way or the other. Others can stay in and still be fine. -
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Reason of financial problems WTS
by Gorbatchov ina non-witness insider told me this week that the wts has financial problems.
that lead to halting down their building plans and lay off the special pioneers and.
bethelites.. the reason of the financial stagnation is beside some bad investments,.
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JWdaughter
I will state at the outset that I am ignorant of most of the issues involved.
However, I think that they have the money to complete their two big projects as they are selling off old stuff in more expensive neighborhoods. The rest of it though. . .
One thing I read somewhere (and that soon disappeared) was in reference to a kind of investing that is basically gambling with a bigger bite than normal investing as if you lost, you could lose more than you actually invest. . . not sure if that is the hedge funds, or what. However, as there are definitely incidents of financial malfeasance both in and out of the organization, I could see that the organization could be very screwed by one person with too much authority who made a bad decision in investments that could seriously screw things up. Which may well have cut into the hundreds of millions in reserve that we have assumed for some time. Wishfully thinking? Maybe! Unheard of? Unfortunately, no.
I also think that those lawsuits/claims have been nipped in the bud, expensively, before they become lawsuits. JWs now like to brag about how few lawsuits there are now. . . well, usually claims are made before lawsuits are filed. They could be paying hundreds of millions that never got to the point of becoming "lawsuits". We don't know, but while the RC church paid out a LOT in lawsuits, I imagine that there were many there that they never let get to that point because it was a losing battle. They just paid them to shut them up, like they have done with so many claims in the WTBTS already. Not letting them go to trial is one way. Not letting them get to a lawsuit is even better.
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Jehovah's witnesses are the fastest growing religion.
by hoser inthat is what the speaker said in his public talk this morning.
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JWdaughter
Mormons are Mormons until excommunicated or they ask to be removed from church rolls or they die. JWs are counted if they are minimally active publishers. That doesn't require baptism even. -
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Kingdom Consolidation and Sales are coming – Reliable Source
by thedepressedsoul ini heard form a reliable source that a kingdom hall consolidation is going to be happening in the us.
currently they are looking at every kingdom hall to see if they could and should sell it.
any kingdom hall that has not been updated and is in a bad location (long driveway, not in a visible location etc...) will be sold.
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JWdaughter
One interesting thing to note, on the JW.borg home page, there is a link to information about how they are financed. Here is something of interest to local congregations
"Any donations that are forwarded to the branch offices of Jehovah’s Witnesses are used to relieve victims of natural disasters, to support our missionaries and traveling ministers, to help construct our houses of worship in developing countries, and to print and ship Bibles and other Christian publications."
I wonder if there is soon to be a clarification on the new arrangement regarding loan forgiveness and the building committee. We know that there was a recent letter about "proportional" contributions relating to new KH construction. How will all this shake out? I am curious.
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Where's Mouthy?
by Village Idiot init's been a while since she's posted.
i'm hoping she's ok.. for those who are new here mouthy (grace) is our forum's adopted grandma.
she has been posting here since the beginning.
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JWdaughter
Well, in case she sees this, she knows we all love and miss her. She's earned a break from all this nonsense though, don'tcha think? -
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"The Calendar of Jehovah God" - a historical tidbit
by OrphanCrow inin 1935, clayton woodworth (editor of the golden age - later the awake!
magazine) devised a 'new' calendar that he proposed was far superior to the pagan calendars that have been used in human history.he wrote a three part series for the golden age (i am not sure if these were actually published) that laid out his justifications for how this new calendar was more accurate and of course, was right in line with the divine plan.
the calendar was published in the 1935 yearbook, but the watchtower magazine later published a retraction to the calendar.
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JWdaughter
A retraction in WT literature. Was that a one off? How was it phrased? -
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So do the baptised JW call themselves "Ordained Ministers"?
by nonjwspouse inin resent my search for the possible construction ( which i see no evidence of in building permits, etc) of a new kh that my mil has been claiming for almost 3 years now, i ran across this local linkedin profile.. at the end it states this:.
volunteer experience & causes.
ordained minister.
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JWdaughter
They have always referred to themselves as ordained ministers. Which makes trying to claim persecution for being IDd as JWs or ministers extra ridiculous. Anyone claiming to be a minister gets extra scrutiny when convicted or accused of a crime. They set themselves apart. -
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Is Prince still a Jehovah Witness?
by Greybeard inis prince still a jehovah witness?
from the look of his new album, i think he has different ideas.
it will be interesting to see how they deal with this.
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JWdaughter
If DFd we would know. Probably just faded like many of us. Or has better lawyers.
I wish him only the best. He is human and got sucked in while vulnerable.
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Kingdom Consolidation and Sales are coming – Reliable Source
by thedepressedsoul ini heard form a reliable source that a kingdom hall consolidation is going to be happening in the us.
currently they are looking at every kingdom hall to see if they could and should sell it.
any kingdom hall that has not been updated and is in a bad location (long driveway, not in a visible location etc...) will be sold.
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JWdaughter
I know that most local congregations are immigrant. We have 2 hall's with 7 congregations very close to me. Two are English. The rest are Spanish, Korean, Cambodian, and Vietnamese(smaller congregations). My mom lives in the country, 30-40 minutes away. Both hall's in the sticks, hidden in 2 smaller towns. 5 congregations, all English-speaking, over a much larger area. I figure the one in the rich area (2 congregations, lots of rich retired folks) will be relocated soon. Residential property is $. The other one is in a depressed area and has 3 congregations. I think they will stay put. The ones right near me are both on main drag-one is a brand new retail style hall (relatively small, btw)The other is right next door to a pot store (no prescription required). Not new style