It's typically more the case where they notice who DOES donate rather than who does not donate. And again, it's really the accounts servant who is supposed to have a general idea and nobody else. Even if they do have an idea, it's supposed to be anonymous and they will never say anything to you about it. Don't worry at all about the money thing.
OnTheWayOut
JoinedPosts by OnTheWayOut
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21
Do they notice who no longer gives donations?
by onightdivine inbecause i haven't put in a single dime for over a year now in the box at the kh.
the usual custom is to put money in there right after the meetings.
but heck, i already spend so much in car fuel just to attend - i don't care really if the gb starves and dies.. oops.. anyway, do the elders take note who's donating and who's not?.
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What other Shenanigans can we expect to see in the next 2 years?
by John Aquila inits been a little over 2 years since i left the watchtower.
in that time the magazines have been cut, the birth of jwtv, jw-org.
carts for preaching, removed district overseers, cut assemblies, demand all the money from the congregations, stop construction and layoff bethelites, change the format of the tmschool .
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OnTheWayOut
J.A., you've left in exciting times. I wouldn't be surprised if the building work actually does get underway, but in a shell game of sorts- close 4 or 5 Kingdom Halls on valuable properties to open 1 new Kingdom Hall for all of them. That way, they can focus on the preaching work since there are so many to mow the lawn and less maintenance on a new building in a rough part of town.
Expect AWAKE to go away or go 100% digital, maybe WATCHTOWER too. Conventions will be smaller and crammed into Assembly Halls way more than before. Expect Friday sessions to end (if they haven't already). Maybe they will start charging $3 to park a car at Assembly Halls and say you should NOT carpool to save money. Expect them to ask people to bring toilet paper to the Assembly Hall and take every single piece of food trash away with them instead of throwing it out there. -
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Cult or Religion
by Richard C B inwhat is a cult and what is a religion?
its open to debate.
who has the authority to say for certain what is a cult and what is a religion?
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OnTheWayOut
While I tend to agree with the likes of Dawkins or Hitchens that all religion is damaging and potentially dangerous, your question leads us to modern terms. In modern society, whether they know it or not, the people want their religion to make them feel good while they do what they want. Sit in a pew on Sunday and whatever you did on Friday and Saturday night is forgotten. Confess something serious to the priest and do your "Hail Mary's."
In modern society, the higher the control your group has on you, the more it would be defined as a cult. Mary Kay can be defined as a sales cult and may be worse for members than Jehovah's Witnesses (but I doubt that last part). Fundy groups and meditation groups and even exercise groups can be cults. Some of it is good- Alcoholics Anonymous is very cult-like, but in most of these non-religious groups, the members are free to take just parts of it and leave the rest. Not so in JW's and not so in some other religions. But the average Christian or Muslim can think for himself and reject the extremes of their group.
So it isn't an easy question. Who is a cult, and who is not? To be safe, I would assume all religion is cult and proceed with caution.
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Beliefs
by Stephanie Twist inwho do you believe jesus is?
is he superior to micheal the angel?
bible verses.
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OnTheWayOut
Jesus is a fictional character along the lines of Mithra or Zoroaster or Dionysus. Having such a character as a minor god or son-of-god was all the rage in the first and second century. It is highly possible that Jesus was known to be fictional but was a figurehead of hope and change that Paul and James preached in their efforts to make a living and to spread hope to the hopeless.
Sometime after Paul had passed on, Jesus may have seemed like a good example of passiveness so the Romans may have pushed for adopting Jesus as "real" instead of "fictional" in order to cause people to be less aggressive toward Roman rule. The stories about Jesus were written and set in the past before the fall of the temple, making it easy for him to prophesy about that fall of the temple.
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Watchtower
by Stephanie Twist inwhat is the watchtower?
why do kingdom halls think it is important to go over a session during the services?
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OnTheWayOut
The Watchtower is the primary literature from the rulers of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to the rulers, "The Watchtower shows us the significance of world events in the light of Bible prophecies. It comforts people with the good news of God’s Kingdom and promotes faith in Jesus Christ." They also say "The purpose of The Watchtower is to explain Bible teachings—and particularly what the Scriptures say about God’s Kingdom." In reality, the magazine explains the Bible in a way that suits the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses and uses excerpts from the Bible to say whatever they want to print in the magazines.
It is the main way that they change and announce their doctrines to people. Once a new doctrine is printed and studied at the Kingdom Halls, all of Jehovah's Witnesses are supposed to accept the change without question. The same article is covered via Question & Answer by every congregation every weekend. No congregation does what it wants, but always follows an approved study schedule from the rulers. The half-hour talk that precedes the study of the magazine will be different at each Kingdom Hall, but the talk is still from a Watchtower-Corporation-Approved outline.
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WT Society SEC Records : Hedge Funds, Cayman Islands, Financial Losses - Links
by flipper inso my wife and i were curious so i researched some financial links and found records indicating that the wt society has been operating at a loss since the year 2012. as you read the links it shows a loss of 10 million $$$ in 2012, about 16 million $$$ in 2013, and a whopping loss of 56 million $$$ in 2014 - where the expenditures exceeded the revenues for each of those years in the amount i've mentioned.
also there is a link on this same website with the sec records indicating that the wt society and it's representatives funneled 40 million $$$$ into hedge funds in the cayman islands as early as 2007. if you look online on other sites you can see evidence that indicates the wt society attended hedge fund conferences to look into more shadiness in 2011 and isn't it curious that by 2012 the wt society started showing losses.
anyway here is the link : https://www.watchtowerlies.com/the_watchtower_revenue.html .. feel free to check this link out and other links on that link indicating the cayman island connection.
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OnTheWayOut
Flipper wants to apologize for not return replying to the individual comments like he typically does. He says his computer is broken again and it may be a week or more before he gets back on here. So thanks all, he says. -
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Have they announced the new meeting arrangement yet?
by JimmyPage ini was thinking it will be at the midweek meeting and not today.
is that correct?
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OnTheWayOut
They have some full meeting example on video for how the thing will go. I could never bring myself to watch a complete meeting, but it's there. -
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My Mother Died Two Weeks Ago
by Perry innone of my jehovah's witness relatives called to tell me or my family.
just found out this morning.
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OnTheWayOut
So sorry to read of your loss and your family lack of communications. -
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Is Watchtower beginning to buckle
by Truthexplorer inis wt beginning to buckle under the weight of everything that is happening?
heavy criticism from the media and the plethora of websites and youtube videos popping up; and now the obvious issues with finances clearly evident.
the pressure for change must be immense and therefore necessary!
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OnTheWayOut
I have been all over the map with "What is Watchtower doing?" After reading and contemplating, I am pretty sure they are not just hiding assets. It won't work, first of all. They can see that it won't work, so it's too much trouble to try to hide money from governments and lawyers representing victims.
I am pretty sure they are spending too much money on Warwick.
From past JW history, I know that members don't tend to donate money hand-over-fist. If you get a big donation in one place, it reduces a donation in another place. Example: Congregations hear that they are sending a monthly amount and need a few hundred more bucks this month, and next month at the assembly the same dubs give 5 dollars because they gave so much back at the congregation box.
I am positive from their laid back cart work that Headquarters doesn't care for the members to "place" high numbers of magazines. But I also know that dubs have been trained that spirituality is tied to high placements and they have to be untrained about that.
All the operations problems have got to be getting noticed even by the average members who know only to "OBEY OBEY OBEY." The organization took all their local money and talked about a great building program then kept saying they don't have enough money. Magazine production keeps getting less and less and members are expected to use the internet to get their meeting supplies of literature.
Watchtower is definitely buckling under all of this. Australia's Royal Commission, pedophile lawsuits, negative numbers on money, the need to sell Brooklyn at lower numbers than they expect, whispers among the members, and top it all off with apostates knowing everything they do before they announce it.
What does it mean? If they can't dazzle members with brilliance, they will have to baffle them with more bullcrap. A totally changed midweek meeting is not really totally changed. It seems like a repackage of standards with an opportunity to give members more Q&A and video and makes it easier on all the members, be they speakers or just attenders, because they don't have to open a bunch of study materials but just download the meeting materials. The time of this just makes for a huge distraction. Instead of whispering about problems, they are talking out-loud about exciting changes. Expect more things like this. C.O.'s might be getting the axe soon, expect it to be some exciting new program. When Kingdom Halls are sold off, I doubt they will just move congregations over to the next hall. Expect some heavy rumors about how great it is to rearrange congregations and territories and to widen out and meet more JW's including new potential mates in larger congregations while doing this small sacrifice to support the building work in some "other" part of the world. Expect negative growth numbers to be spun into how the great tribulation must be starting soon.
Will all this work? To some degree, many will be baffled enough by bullcrap. But more and more are waking up.
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Using the internet can destroy your Faith.
by James Mixon inthat's the conclusion of a study showing that the dramatic drop in religious affiliation.
in the u.s since 1990 is closely mirrored by the increase in internet use.
of the u.s population had no religious preference.
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OnTheWayOut
Since faith is better defined as "pretending to know what you do not know," I have to agree that if you use the internet properly, you will destroy your own pretending to know what you do not know and you will either learn differently or will realize that you do not "know" what you thought to be true based on your faith.
Yes, the internet destroys faith. And good riddance.