Posts by Doubting Bro

29

Assistance would be appreciated

by Plato in

jw
friends

guess some introduction would be nice, before anything.

i’m a 17 year old men boy raised on a very liberal, highly intelectualized jw family.

currently very anxious on starting medical school at a high ranked public university around here.

Doubting Bro

May I ask you how it is to be PIMO?

Not fun! Certainly the people in the congregation have pulled away from us, so there's not much socializing. I'm pretty sure many realize I don't believe because I never comment, never talk about JW things at the kingdom hall and I'm sure give off the body language that I'd rather be anywhere else. I don't recommend it as a long term strategy. Especially if your immediate family won't shun you.

Well, here is the thing: he has been incentivizing me and my sister this whole time to go to uni! He comes from a difficult background and he recognizes the value of education. All the family was very happy with my approval to study Medicine.

That's really awesome! Good luck in your studies!

29

Assistance would be appreciated

by Plato in

jw
friends

guess some introduction would be nice, before anything.

i’m a 17 year old men boy raised on a very liberal, highly intelectualized jw family.

currently very anxious on starting medical school at a high ranked public university around here.

Doubting Bro

Your English is fantastic! May I ask what brought you here? FYI - born in as well, was an elder, have a family and PIMO (physically in, mentally out). In other words, I attend a congregation but don't believe in JW.

Your reasons for being dissatisfied make sense. You certainly aren't seeing the bad side of the religion due to your parents (likely also born in) being reasonable.

Way too soon to talk about leaving or not. Are your parent open to you getting a university education?

76

In one sentence, can you pinpoint a single event that woke you up?

by Brian J in

my turning point: serving on a child abuse judicial case.

.

Doubting Bro

Straw that broke the camel's back was the whole UN thing. But, as in many of the responses, it was lots of little things that simply were too much and I had to take an honest look. Once I did so, I quickly realized that it was all bs

90

$5.5 Million to be transferred to World Wide Work from Assembly Hall fund

by Sour Grapes in

a letter was read tonight in our kingdom hall that the money that the circuits in the indianapolis area had in savings to build a new assembly hall will now be transferred to the www to build kingdom halls in lands where they are needed and a new assembly hall for us will not be built.. we had a beautiful assembly hall near downtown indy that was paid for.

it was sold a couple of years ago.

we were promised a new assembly hall to be built in southern ohio near the indiana border but they can kiss that goodbye now.

Doubting Bro

dropoffyourkeylee

Thanks for the local perspective!

90

$5.5 Million to be transferred to World Wide Work from Assembly Hall fund

by Sour Grapes in

a letter was read tonight in our kingdom hall that the money that the circuits in the indianapolis area had in savings to build a new assembly hall will now be transferred to the www to build kingdom halls in lands where they are needed and a new assembly hall for us will not be built.. we had a beautiful assembly hall near downtown indy that was paid for.

it was sold a couple of years ago.

we were promised a new assembly hall to be built in southern ohio near the indiana border but they can kiss that goodbye now.

Doubting Bro

Morph - I get that but the LDC takes direction from the branch and would likely need approval to build an AH. Probably need approval to build just a KH. I agree that 5m is a drop in the bucket when you are talking about a multi-billion dollar organization but I have to believe that this is part of a larger plan to reduce overall expenditures and consolidate as much uncommitted cash as possible. I don't think they are going out of business anytime soon but it seems really interesting. I know they are pulling these with KHs which doesn't really move the needle but if they are starting to do this with AHs, its just another thing that is curious.

Especially since they sold the building that was already paid for.

90

$5.5 Million to be transferred to World Wide Work from Assembly Hall fund

by Sour Grapes in

a letter was read tonight in our kingdom hall that the money that the circuits in the indianapolis area had in savings to build a new assembly hall will now be transferred to the www to build kingdom halls in lands where they are needed and a new assembly hall for us will not be built.. we had a beautiful assembly hall near downtown indy that was paid for.

it was sold a couple of years ago.

we were promised a new assembly hall to be built in southern ohio near the indiana border but they can kiss that goodbye now.

Doubting Bro

That's cold even for the WTS. I'm starting to think their cash crises is deeper than I thought.

52

Have you ever gone back to a meeting out of curiosity?

by stuckinarut2 in

just wondering if anyone has gone back to a meeting out of curiosity?

(perhaps to an area far from your old khall where you know no one).

with all the changes from 2012 onwards (videos, tv screens, new meeting format, new songs etc) it would be an odd experience to be in attendance!.

Doubting Bro

As a PIMO, I attend on a semi-regular basis and it is very surreal. Much different than the religion I grew up in.

18

Superbly Written Article in Canadian Magazine

by berrygerry in

jehovah's witnesses cover-up.

http://www.ucobserver.org/justice/2018/01/jw/.

Doubting Bro

I think that's a well written article.

104

Jehovah's Witnesses to settle sex-abuse case - San Diego Reader (California, US), Friday, January 12, 2018

by darkspilver in

jehovah's witnesses to settle sex-abuse case - san diego reader (california, us), friday, january 12, 2018.

Doubting Bro

Sorry Morph! I was writing a reply at the same time but 100% agree

104

Jehovah's Witnesses to settle sex-abuse case - San Diego Reader (California, US), Friday, January 12, 2018

by darkspilver in

jehovah's witnesses to settle sex-abuse case - san diego reader (california, us), friday, january 12, 2018.

Doubting Bro

Maybe you forget that the publishers actually bought the literature at the literature counter every month. So, the WT ALWAYS got paid even if the householder didn't pay for the literature!! It was the publisher that would decide to give the literature away without payment and so take the loss. Seriously, the WT would never give anything away willingly.

And the US government never attempted to tax them. The case had to do with Jimmy Swaggart v Board of Equalization of California where CA wanted to apply their 6% sales tax on the sale of religious literature. The SCOTUS ruled that the tax was constitutional. The WT's lawyers determined that CA and other states would apply this ruling to them because they were SELLING literature (a specific charge was made for each piece to the publisher) so they decided to move to the donation arrangement rather than collecting the sales tax in states that decided to impose it on their literature. A huge strategic mistake that has led them to some of the cashflow issues they currently have.

Name one time you received something from the literature counter prior to the change without paying for it? You can't. Pioneers got a discount but still had to pay.

Amount of profit has nothing to do with it and quite frankly, since the WT is not transparent about their expenses vs revenues, we have no idea what the actual costs to produce the literature is.