Thanks, Zack. That was pretty much my impression. You can definitely make an argument that the society has virtual control of the kingdom halls, but not actual ownership of them, at least based off of everything I presently know. I think having ownership of thousands and thousands of kingdom halls could have some legal repercussions that they're not willing to entertain at the moment. Either way, it's a scam. The poor brothers that donate the money and contribute their labor to building them will never see a dime.
neverendingjourney
JoinedPosts by neverendingjourney
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29
So..You donate your money, and then you have to pay intrest on it??!!
by Lady Liberty ingood morning everyone "happy thursday!!",.
just reading another thread, and it made me think of a question i could never answer as a jw.
how is it that when your hall wants to build, you recieve the "loan" from the society, but then you have to pay the loan back with intrest??!!.
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So..You donate your money, and then you have to pay intrest on it??!!
by Lady Liberty ingood morning everyone "happy thursday!!",.
just reading another thread, and it made me think of a question i could never answer as a jw.
how is it that when your hall wants to build, you recieve the "loan" from the society, but then you have to pay the loan back with intrest??!!.
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neverendingjourney
Do we know for sure that the kingdom hall deeds are put in the name of the Watchtower? I thought they set up a local trust composed of loyal elders whom the deed was given to.
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Did You Know or Know Of "Straight" JWs???
by Ragnarökkr inwhile you were in the truth did you meet or know of any straight jw's.
i once met this brother who was married, that in itself was a dead give away, occassionally he would turn up in a brown suit smelling of very cheap aftershave (secret christmas pressie i bet)that was another clue.
anyway one day i found out this straight brother beat his wifde and kids, and regularly.
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neverendingjourney
I see you point, but I don't think it's inappropriate to talk about homosexual issues and the Watchtower. It's an important subject that needs to be addressed. This is a public forum and some people are still bigoted against gays. You can't stop that. I think it's a good thing to read about the pain and torment gay JWs were put under. It's another layer of the story that needs to be told. I don't have any use for people that like to speculate about whether someone is or isn't gay. That's one of the things that bothered me so much about JWs, and I talked about it on the other thread. I guess it's just part of the way things are right now. Until the day that the vast majority of people drop their prejudices against gays and sexual preference becomes insignificant, there will always be people there to speculate about someone's sexual orientation. That day can't come soon enough.
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I am going to TRY and leave JWD for the time being!
by AK - Jeff ini am an addict.
and that is one good reason to back off some.
but the overriding reason is that my nerves have been frayed lately by the actions of a hidden 'stalker', a jw who is hiding behind a cyber-curtain.
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neverendingjourney
Jeff:
I'd like to offer a suggestion. Tell this perons that you are going to contact the police. If they still don't leave you alone, follow through with the threat. I once had a JW try this kind of funny business on me, not because he thought I was an apostate; he simply thought it was funny. I threatened him with going to the police and he promptly revealed himself. Stalking is against the law in most jurisdictions. You don't have to put up with it, especially if you think this person might be a threat to you or your family. Best of luck to you.
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Did You Know or Know Of "Gay" or Bisexual JWs???
by minimus inrecently, a former witness expressed his opinion to me that he knew more than a few witnesses that were gay.personally, i know of a bisexual ex-elder who was unhappily married for a few years.
now he's "out", pardon the pun, of the organization.
i know of a newly appointed ms who is married to a sister but most people suspect he is gay.
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neverendingjourney
Growing up gay in the truth is hell, you are made to feel like some sort of perverted freak, you're constantly threatened with death and ultimatly you know its going to cost you your family and all the friends you grew up with.
That's my point exactly. The JW obsession with homosexuality even extends to those of us that aren't gay. If you're seen to be just a little bit off, you can easily be accused of being gay. I had several girlfriends growing up, but I never got married. I realized that this wasn't the truth in my early 20s, so I didn't want to have any more relationships with JWs because of it. Since the years passed and I didn't get married or find a new girlfriend, gossipy sisters began to wonder whether I might be gay. There is nothing about me that would even suggest that I could possibly be gay, but the mere fact that I wasn't conforming in every respect led to that kind of speculation.
There was a young JW that I knew who was never really accepted. He seemed to be a little too "worldly" for the friends' taste. Ironically, he got baptized because he wanted to marry a young sister, but the relationship ended up falling through. A gay rumor started up about him and he was never able to live it down. There was absolutely no evidence that he was gay. Someone said they say him with another guy and that was enough. He eventually had to move away to escape the rumor. It's a travesty the way gay issues are dealt with in the JW world.
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Did You Know or Know Of "Gay" or Bisexual JWs???
by minimus inrecently, a former witness expressed his opinion to me that he knew more than a few witnesses that were gay.personally, i know of a bisexual ex-elder who was unhappily married for a few years.
now he's "out", pardon the pun, of the organization.
i know of a newly appointed ms who is married to a sister but most people suspect he is gay.
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neverendingjourney
I don't think the topic is inherently ridiculous. They way homosexuality is dealt with in the religion is an extremely important issue. It's a travesty how gay people are treated. They're made to feel as if they're inherently evil people because of the feelings they carry within them. I feel extremely bad for the elder that I talked about in my earlier post. He is/was an upright, decent person who happened to be gay. He was publicly embarrassed and made to feel ashamed for acting on his natural sexual preference. That type of thing needs to be addressed. Acknowledging that there were/are active homosexuals in the JW ranks also goes to show that their belief that gays can change with the power of the Bible and prayer is utterly ridiculous.
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This site is BAD for me!!!
by Metamorphosis init's making me want to rush the convincing of my wife - i want confrontation now, and i want it to go good, and i want her out with me!
how can you folks do this to me... before starting on this site i was just trying to get by myself w/ my decision - see what you've done!!!!
now i'm convinced i have to talk to her and make her see what i see!!
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neverendingjourney
before starting on this site i was just trying to get by myself w/ my decision - see what you've done!!!! now i'm convinced
That's why the crack down so hard on "apostates." They know there are gaping holes in their theology that can easily be exposed. When I was a dub, I thought that an apostate was the lowest creature on the planet, lower than a murderer or a pedophile. At least those guys could repent and come back to "Jehovah's organization." But an apostate, those guys hardly ever make it back...
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Has money taken over...
by emptywords ini have found that at every assembly being circuit, district or one day, they are always, always in deficit, why is this, at the last circuit assembly they said that it cost 6,000 for electicity for two days, and that to me was just embarrassing, i asked the sister next to me if what i heard was correct, and yes she said in debt for the weekend because of electricity.. another thing is the soliciting of property from older ones, i know that they do this with anyone that has property (especially older ones that have no heirs).
to leave their assets to the wts, because the governments will take it if you die.
but also what they can leave to the wts would be appreciated if they have family heirs left, i have seen this soliciting in the wt mags on occastions.. what is you're experience if any on this.. cheers.
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neverendingjourney
It's ridiculous, isn't it? I mean, if they had passed around a plate for the brothers to drop those pieces of paper in, well, that would have been antiscriptural. But having a brother go by each row to pick them up is perfectly okay. What a crock!
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Has money taken over...
by emptywords ini have found that at every assembly being circuit, district or one day, they are always, always in deficit, why is this, at the last circuit assembly they said that it cost 6,000 for electicity for two days, and that to me was just embarrassing, i asked the sister next to me if what i heard was correct, and yes she said in debt for the weekend because of electricity.. another thing is the soliciting of property from older ones, i know that they do this with anyone that has property (especially older ones that have no heirs).
to leave their assets to the wts, because the governments will take it if you die.
but also what they can leave to the wts would be appreciated if they have family heirs left, i have seen this soliciting in the wt mags on occastions.. what is you're experience if any on this.. cheers.
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neverendingjourney
The way the accounts are set up during the assemblies is a racket, pure and simple. I remember when our assembly hall was being built they constantly made solicitations for money. They would give you a piece of paper and ask how much you could contribute per week for it in order to make "appropriate calculations." The poor brothers in our hall had to stretch their budges for years in order to pay for it. Many brothers spent just about every Saturday working on the construction of it for a few years until it was completed. After it was built, they thought that it'd be a lot cheaper to have our assemblies now because we didn't have to rent a place. When we started having our assemblies there it was a shock to see that the expenses were still several thousand dollars. We couldn't believe it. Of course, the shipment of cash to the society was all kept a secret.
What bothers me so much isn't really the fact that they sent money to the society. From everything I've heard, it amounted to four or five dollars per attendee. The problem is the dishonest way they go about doing it. They misrepresent the truth in order to keep an appearance of being different from "worldly" religions that pass around a collection plate. When I discovered what they were doing, I finally realized why they didn’t want us going to a restaurant during lunch. It keeps more money in your pocket that way, money you can fill the contribution boxes with. They even use pretty young girls to lure men to boxes. Assholes!
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When DID the Jews return?
by Doug Mason inthe wts says that the key date in the jews return from babylon is tishri 1 537 bce.. the wts uses that date to arrive at its incorrect date of 607 bce for the destruction of jerusalem.
in turn, its 607 bce date is used to provide the date of october 1914 ce for christs parousia and the setting up of gods kingdom government.
the wts claims to be the sole representative upon earth of gods kingdom.. the date of the jews return is thus crucial to the watchtower societys (wts) existence and authority.
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neverendingjourney
Here's a thought, Scholar. If you'd like to be taken seriously, why don't you try to sound less like a cult member than you currently do. I swear this "celebrated WT scholars" and "celebrated ones" stuff makes you sound like a member of the Manson Family, especially since these "celebrated scholars" are anonymous. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I sure as heck don't like to get my history from a cult member.