Posts by nelim

8

Is anyone interested in getting a full financial report on the WTBTS of Britain?

by defender of truth in

this report provides information on watch tower bible and tract society of britain including:*.what their money is spent on*.amount raised for every 1 spent on fundraising*.5 year financial information*.how your donation helps.

here you can request the free report:www.charitychoice.co.uk/charity-report/watch-tower-bible-and-tract-society-of-britain-68372.

and this is a link to purchase a full in-depth report:http://choice.charityfinancials.com/store/buyreport.aspx?cn=1077961.

nelim

I have created an overview of most of the figures of the IBSA and WTBTS for myself. The relation is quite complex. WTBTS produces the literature and hires accomodation (and people I guess) from IBSA to do that. Then it sells that literature to IBSA (for distribution I guess) at production costs. But the IBSA reports mention that all costs it makes are reimbursed by the WTBTS. Maybe both are true, but it's fuzzy to me.

Here is what I noticed, this is 2006-2013:

donations are quite stable, per year ~15M pounds in cash, and ~3M pounds in legacies (by testament after someone dies I think?), with a peak in 2013 (5% up), but there was also a peak in 2007 (30% up), so I'm guessing these are outliers
someone donated ~5M pounds as property in 2011 to the IBSA
literature producing costs are stable
there has been a big inflow of money from the German branch from 2011 onwards
there has been a big increase of grants/overseas support particularly in 2012, but also 2011 and 2013 (I guess for kingdom hall building), the German money seems to have been used to support Africa and other continents with building halls and other local congregation needs there
very little is being used for humanitarian aid (that's not news though!); e.g. 2011 reports grants of ~20M to support overseas missionary work, but only 110 thousand to support Haiti shelter relief buildings + kingdom halls (of course!)
convention costs were quite stable, but significantly more expensive in 2012 (60%) and also, but less so, in 2013 (40% compared to 2011); OTOH these costs are 5% of the total or so
I think New York coordinates shuffling money around to keep the balances in check; every year's report mentions other countries donated to ranging from Brooklyn HQ to Europe to African bethels.

Anyway, mostly looks to me like "business as usual". I can't see how they can finance ever-expanding bethels (and accomodating people there) though, the funds seem to be stagnating, not increasing. Although with these cross-country "injections" (grants and overseas donations) it's hard to draw definite conclusions from the London branch alone.

44

August 2015 WT - Let's Review the BS Children

by InjusticeSystem in

found these gems in this edition:.

- keep in expectation!- prepare now for life in the new worldthe passing of time should not cause us to lose hope thatkingdom blessings will be realized.

there are solid reasonsto keep our scriptural expectations alive.

nelim

For instance, some members of the Bethel family in the United States have been reassigned to the field...

ROFL! What a nice way of saying they have been laid off from Bethel!

16

Better Bible Translation?

by Sofia Lose in

which bible translation is the best, according to biblical scholars, anybody knows?

please chime in.. i plan on getting it and doing comparison with the new world translation.

sl.

nelim

As far as I know, no translation is perfect. They all have their mistakes here and there in some verse. I usually use biblehub.com to compare with several. I think the NASB is mostly good. Young's Literal Translation is hard to read, but in a few places it does matter to get a sense of the original words as well as possible in English. Hope this helps, note that I'm a layman though.

146

Why I remain one of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Brother Jeramy in

allow me to begin with a clarification: when i say i am one of jehovah's witnesses, i don't mean that i am an advocate of the watchtower society or a devotee of some of its more controversial false teachings.

i mean that i am a christian, a disciple of jesus christ dedicated to jehovah god, and who remains in union with my brothers and sisters who make up the family of faith that globally refers to itself as jehovah's witnesses.

some totally understand the distinction between the family of brothers and sisters and the corporate organization known as the watchtower society (wts).

nelim

1) Do you consider it ethical to preach to people that they have to join a religious group that will force them to (a) lose their life due to blood issue (b) be terribly traumatized in case of sex victims and how elders typically hush this up (c) split up families over disagreements about faith?

If the governing body had a "take it or leave it" approach; like "this is our opinion, if you agree, nice, if not, also fine!" then I might agree with you. But they do not, and anyone who disagrees openly is put under enormous pressure.

2) You say you are not an advocate for the WT Society, but if you preach, then your goal is to get people baptised, which will put them under WT society control. Or do you preach to people warning them not to get baptised or otherwise they might face dire consequences listed under point 1)? I figure then the elders will want to speak to you if they hear about that. That would brand you an apostate.

3) "It is not all wrong". Well, I heard a couple of times at the meetings that 'we' should use the following illustration at the door when preaching to others: would you drink a glass of orange juice if it had only a tiny drop of deadly poison in it? The idea was to compare their religion with that; although it could have "mostly good things", but it was not acceptable to God because of the tiny drop of poison (false teachings). And now you're defending that things are not all wrong?

Such a statement is hard to refute, but I think 99% of all typical JW teachings are unscriptural or when unrelated to the Bible, just straight-out nonsense. Problem is that the Bible is inconsistent, so it depends on where you put emphasis, that defines whatever for you "truth" is. Truth is, it's inconsistent and therefore cannot be the "Word of God".

8

Explanation Of New Bible Translation

by Sofia Lose in

i have been a little troubled with the explanation on the new world translation given during sunday's meeting.

the mag read that with less words the understanding would be more clear, and offered examples where certain texts had 27 words and now only have 19 words and the meaning is clearer.

i am not okay with said explanation.

nelim

If less words are used and translation is simplified, then Jehovah is praised for a "better to understand" Bible.

If more words are used then Jehovah is praised for receiving a "consistently accurate" translation. Same original meaning consistently translated using the same phrases in the target language.

Whatever. Every day its own bullshit. The NWT is better called a "consistently inaccurate" translation, e.g. about worshipping Jesus (consistently "do obeisance to"). Googling "do obeisance to" gives dictionary and anti-WT sites as first 10 hits even, lol. That should say enough.

21

Paint Nite - fun evening and a new hobby

by Simon in

we (and by 'we', i mean my wife) decided that we should try something new and she, erm, i mean 'we', liked the idea of painting.

so i enthusiastically (i.e.

begrudgingly) went along for the night to the "pain nite" event she'd booked us for a couple of weeks ago.. the premise is pretty simple: it's held in a pub or restaurant, all the art supplies are provided, the instructor then walks you through how to reproduce a painting they have chosen for the night and you have a glass of wine or beer, do some painting, have something to eat, have some more wine, more painting, more wine, realize you are drinking the dirty paint water and so on.. here's the site: https://www.paintnite.com/.

nelim

"Pain Nite" lol! I'm sure it felt like that the first time? It would for me! Very nicely done, it's inspiring :-)

12

2015 April 28, BOE!--Orchestral Accompaniment!

by Atlantis in

2015 april 28, boe!..

re: orchestral accompaniment for singing at congregation meetings.. .. click the green download button.. http://wwwb.fileflyer.com/view/mh6kxar.

.. .. petra!.

nelim

Haha! Oooooh dear! At least the plinky-plonk piano indicated the rhythm clearly, and still everyone was singing 'all over the place', out of tune and out of beat. At least in my former congregation :-) With those violins etc it's probably going to be even worse!

6

How do you feel about the Red Letters?

by zophar in

jw
friends

curious as to how you feel about the actual words ascribed to jesus in a red letter edition translation bible like niv on biblegateway.com?.

do you feel these teachings are inspired and or beneficial to a productive life?

it seems to me that the actual words of jesus contain real wisdom and show how to live a fulfilling life.

nelim

Relating adherence to "Truth" is already deep into dangerous territory. Elaborating: truth is all things which are true. Personally, you may adhere to whatever you like, but if you preach that to others it tends to get into an organization pretty quickly with all the dogmatism associated with that. That's because sayings of Jesus are not consistent, so it depends on which parts you put more emphasis, what your religion/adherence/whatever is going to look like in practice. Calling this "Truth" means you're denying inconsistencies. Which means critical thinking has been turned off, which opens the door for mind control.

113

Are you religious or are you spiritual? Wake up to what?

by Deltawave in

there is a huge difference between been religious and been spiritual.

been religious is about been superior to others in the sight of god.

however, been spiritual is about self awareness, inner peace and unity with the natural world.

nelim

What does "being spiritual" mean? The dictionary definition says, amongst others, "

of, relating to, or consisting of spirit; incorporeal." ... but if it has to do with the supernatural, where exactly is the boundary with religion? If one writes rules/guidelines how to "be spiritual", isn't one starting a new religion then, effectively?

16

Do you think the 'Rama Singh misquote' situation is uncalled for?

by neat blue dog in

let's be honest with ourselves, even if you have an ax to grind with the wts.

i mean, the quote in question was merely a statement of what he believed to be a fact, or else he wouldn't have said it.

there was nothing in the quote (and everyone has the right to make accurate quotes under the fair use doctrine), that even remotely suggested that he was pro-creationism or anything like that.

nelim

It is a misquote. If they were just interested in repeating his opinion, why did they put his title "professor of Biology" there? And why did they not include the full sentence, at the very least? "... including biologists, non-biologists, and the lay public."? Mr. Singh is talking about educated people in all kinds of professions, not just biology. Which reduces the value for WT quoting him. And why didn't they (honestly) put something like: "Rama Singh, supporter of evolution and professor of ...., makes the following observation: ..."? That would have been honest towards Mr. Singh.