Posts by Driving Force

Considering that Jehovah is not the name of the most high god of the bible, it does not really matter, keeping up appearances to keep that contact with your family is important.

Addressing a prayer to Jehovah, is effectively addressing a prayer to nobody.

The first time the name Jehovah appears in any written records was in 1270, this can be checked in the organizations own literature. In the old "Aid to bible understanding", in the last paragraph on page 884. However you will not find any reference to this in the Watchtower library or the index. (I wonder why?)

I still pray, but on my personal prayers I address the prayers to our heavenly father.

I have not got that far as to not believe in god, it may come, it may not.

172

May tv.jw.org program

by zophar in

jw
friends

the may broadcast on tv.jw.org.

we need money!.

http://tv.jw.org/#video/vodstudio/pub-jwb_201505_1_video.

Driving Force

Well I managed to watch the broadcast for 26 mins before I had to puke up.

30

Does the GB really care if the organization collapses?

by Driving Force in

i am sure that the gb does not care about the r&f jw.

it does not care about the organization collapsing overnight.. why do i say this?.

in 2013 the organization declared that the "faithful and discreet slave" consisted only of the seven member of the gb.

Driving Force

@done4good

You are right they cannot share the cash between themselves, this would be illegal.
The non-profit organization can be dissolved, but the assets need to be distributed to other non-profit organizations, decided upon by a plan made up by the directors of the organization in this case the GB. So assets are then distributed from one non-profit organization to other non-profit organizations which is legal as you said.
If the organization does collapse, because members leave, what then?

What if the organization realize that they may well lose their status as a non-profit organization, they really then need to dissolve the non-profit organization, and distribute the assets.

Considering their record of dishonesty over the years, and the many child-sex offenses they are having to defend, I am sure they do have an agenda.

And as you have pointed out, they do go to great lengths to protect the organization, and they will continue to do that as long as possible, but at some point they will have to do something, maybe because they lose too many members, maybe because they fear losing their non-profit status, distributing the assets to other non-profit organizations is not really so absurd.

30

Does the GB really care if the organization collapses?

by Driving Force in

i am sure that the gb does not care about the r&f jw.

it does not care about the organization collapsing overnight.. why do i say this?.

in 2013 the organization declared that the "faithful and discreet slave" consisted only of the seven member of the gb.

Driving Force

@ Finkelstein

naive and gullible ... population

Over the past couple of months I have read a great deal about "undue influence", "thought control" and how cults operate.

Unless someone is aware as to how a cult operates and how they use "undue influence" and "thought control" it is very difficult to recognize that such methods are being used. What we have is a problem with society and the education system. Our children are taught many things in school and college, but they are never taught anything about "undue influence" and "thought control. Even if just a couple of hours are spent during the whole schooling on these topics, it would equip them to be aware of cults and to recognize these things.

But I do agree with you the population is naive and gullible.

30

Does the GB really care if the organization collapses?

by Driving Force in

i am sure that the gb does not care about the r&f jw.

it does not care about the organization collapsing overnight.. why do i say this?.

in 2013 the organization declared that the "faithful and discreet slave" consisted only of the seven member of the gb.

Driving Force

@ LostGeneration

No appologies necessary, you were right in challenging my assumptions.
This shows that we are free to think for ourselves and no longer under the chains of thought control

30

Does the GB really care if the organization collapses?

by Driving Force in

i am sure that the gb does not care about the r&f jw.

it does not care about the organization collapsing overnight.. why do i say this?.

in 2013 the organization declared that the "faithful and discreet slave" consisted only of the seven member of the gb.

Driving Force

@ Lostgeneration
I spent a long time on this, and this was something that helped me wake up.

There are 115,416 congregations in the world (yb2014). Not every congregation has its own kingdom hall admittedly.

About 70 000 of these congregations are in industrialized nations, where property is not so cheap. I have traveled through almost all European countries, Scandinavia, US and Canada. Certainly the properties are quite valuable in these lands where most of the assets are.

Take whatever average value you want per KH, take whatever percentage of congregations have their own KH and do the math yourself. You will come up with a large figure. The WT does not make any kind of financial statement, so any figure is speculation. We know that the buildings in NY alone are worth over 1 billion dollars.

How much cash did the Watchtower fleece from the congregations in addition to taking the buildings?
How much are all the branch offices worth?
How high is the investments in hedge funds and other investments?
What value does all the inventory in the branch offices have?

Using the same figures for congregations, what is the annual income for the building fund? Just take the figure from your own congregation or the last congregation you belonged to, (you know the brothers you can estimate), and multiply that up. Take into consideration that almost all labor is free for the organization, and that is a vast amount of money that will never be spent on KHs and maintenance.

My figure of US$50 billion, is only a calculated guess, but I did spend a long time considering this and the possible financial situation in the industrial lands. I do not think that one of the pathetic buildings the organization builds for the brothers in a poor African land is comparable to anything built for the brothers in the US.

If this figure disturbs you, it disturbs me as well. I will not make any excuse for an organization that took 28 years of my life.

30

Does the GB really care if the organization collapses?

by Driving Force in

i am sure that the gb does not care about the r&f jw.

it does not care about the organization collapsing overnight.. why do i say this?.

in 2013 the organization declared that the "faithful and discreet slave" consisted only of the seven member of the gb.

Driving Force

I found this quite interesting.

http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=35951450

30

Does the GB really care if the organization collapses?

by Driving Force in

i am sure that the gb does not care about the r&f jw.

it does not care about the organization collapsing overnight.. why do i say this?.

in 2013 the organization declared that the "faithful and discreet slave" consisted only of the seven member of the gb.

Driving Force

@ Finkelstein

You are right, but you have to admit they appear to be getting desperate.

Closing branches, reducing printing, selling all in NY, taking away everything from the congregations, there is definitely an agenda with all this.

Great how they are now building their geriatric retirement palace.

30

Does the GB really care if the organization collapses?

by Driving Force in

i am sure that the gb does not care about the r&f jw.

it does not care about the organization collapsing overnight.. why do i say this?.

in 2013 the organization declared that the "faithful and discreet slave" consisted only of the seven member of the gb.

Driving Force

@ XBEHERE

I think almost every JW believes/believed at some time that it is God's channel, otherwise they would not have been baptized.
You are right cults are not that easy to define. Certainly before the introduction of the Slave being the GB, what I postulated could not be true, but this situation has only been apparent for about two years. The GB are not dumb, they know what they are doing.