does anyone have any accurate information on the profit margin the wtbts has on all its publications/cd's etc?.
even my loyal jw relatives are complaining about the constant moaning from the platform for more contributions.
i'd like to be able to give them some accurate knowlege for a change.. thanks everyone!.
See you are in the UK. By law all charities have to make public their accounts. Check out the following link.....
Interesting how variable the income is. Also, the aims include missionary work but nothing that I would classify as 'charitable' such as feeding the poor, tending the sick, etc...
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?remchar=&chyno=1077961
Eyeslice
ok. i'm almost finished with c.c.
really good published evidence against the gb.
i don't think i will become an atheist as many have but where do i go now.
JT,
Many of us here have been through exactly the same as you are now. I left after nearly 50 years in, right from being a little child. I have not been in a KH for a year now.
My advise is take things very slowly, rushing will only unnecessarily upset relatives and close friends.
It is difficult to pick up the pieces though. What do people like us do about Xmas, birthdays, etc? Again, I think that this is something to take slowly. After being out for just 6 months, I didn't feel able to give my daughter a birthday present (she still attends), but next year when she is 18, prehaps it is a special occasion that I can use to break the 'birthday' ice.
Eyeslice
witnesses pray many times a day.
at the field service, at the meetings, before each meal and even more.. i don't know if you're like me, but i didn't pray because i felt like it, but because i was told to.. personally, 1 long honest prayer a week would have been much better than 20 routine prayers.
did you feel that it was natural to pray 3 times a day or more?.
I suppose that many here prayed because we told to, in that as MS and Elders we were required to pray at the start and end of meetings. I still pray as I continue to believe in a God who is interested in us personally.
I was onced asked to pray over the emblems at a memorial once and had perhaps the only 'spiritual' experience in my life. I felt completely consumed by the prayer, it was a very intense experience.
Eyeslice
at the end of george pal's 1960 classic "h.g.wells' the time machine," the main character returns from 1899 to the year 802701 to rebuilt civilization.
mankind has forgotton about science, religion, technology, art, agriculture, everything.
after he has left, his housekeeper notes that the only things the time traveller took with him are three books.
For sheer optimism - The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
For the intellect - Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
For mild humour plus social conscience - The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
For the radio programme 'Desert Island Discs' you are given the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible and therefore can only nominate one to take to your hypothetical desert island, in which case I would take The Achemist.
Eyeslice
lately something has bothered me as regards to many on jwd who wonder what to do, once they have found the organisation to be a destructive, mind controling sect.
aside from these ones deciding how to exit without causing a judicial meeting nor a stir among the publishers, it whether or not they want to risk their marriage and or family ties.. many on this site have related how their marriage fell to pieces because the dub mate could not accept their loved one "leaving jehovah", and they could never meet in the middle to save the marriage.
others who leave, push their dub mate away by their constant verbal expressions against the organisation...because they think they should....hence, the marriage falls apart.. here's the hard part i don't know the answer to.
Gumby,
My advise to anyone in this position would be take it easy, don't make rushed decisions.
I was JW through and through, grew up in it, married at the KH, all the family in. I did not fade slowly, I simply stopped going to the KH. Yes, my wife was upset, but overall my leaving has had absolutley no effect on our relationship. What I haven't done is be too pushy about my new views, and I try not to appear apostate. It helps that my wife and I have a very loving relationship and that she respects my views.
Eyeslice
i haven't been to a meeting in months.
but, i recently found out my father has cancer and he came to the hall in my area and asked me to go with him, so i did.
it was the co visit.
Mustard seed, drag-net, whatever, the vast majority of the rank and file are confused about what the WTB&TS acually believes. Another classic, the difference between New Jerusalem and the Jerusalem above - 9 out of 10 won't have a clue.
Regards
Mike
the passage below is an extract from salman rushdie's satanic verses.
as you well know, he is not the greatest of religion, in particular islam, and by way of a return compliment, the world of islam is not his greatest fan either.
in this extract, salman the persian reflects on the multitude of rules and regulations this purveyor of new religion, the prophet mohammed, has laid down for the faithful.
The passage below is an extract from Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. As you well know, he is not the greatest of religion, in particular Islam, and by way of a return compliment, the world of Islam is not his greatest fan either.
In this extract, Salman the Persian reflects on the multitude of rules and regulations this purveyor of new religion, the prophet Mohammed, has laid down for the faithful.
So my point? JWs are not the only ones captive to dogmatic, rules-based, inflexible religious institutions.
Amid the palm-trees of the oasis Gibreel appeared to the prophet (Mohammed) and found himself spouting rules, rules, rules, until the faithful could scarcely bear the prospect of any more revelations, ??. ,rules about every damned thing, if a man farts let him turn his face to the wind, a rule about which hand to use for the purpose of cleaning one's behind. It was as if no aspect of human existence was to be left unregulated, free. The revelation - the recitation - told the faithful how much to eat, how deeply to sleep, and which sexual positions had received divine sanction, so that they learned that sodomy and the missionary position were approved by the archangel, whereas the forbidden postures included all those in which the female was on top. Gibreel further listed the permitted and forbidden subjects of conversation, and earmarked the parts of the body which could not be scratched no matter how unbearably they might itch. He vetoed the consumption of prawns, those bizarre other-worldly creatures which no member of the faithful had ever seen, and required animals to be killed slowly, by bleeding, so that by experiencing their deaths to the full they might arrive at an understanding of the meaning of their lives, for it is only at the moment of death that living creatures understand that life had been real, and not a sort of dream. And Gibreel the archangel specified the manner in which a man should be buried and how his property should be divided, so that Salman the Persian got to wondering what manner of God this was that sounded so much like a businessman. This was when he had the idea that destroyed his faith, because he recalled that of course Mahound (Mohammed) himself had been a businessman, and a damned successful one at that, a person to whom rules came naturally, so how excessively convenient it was that he should have come up with such a very businesslike archangel, who handed down the management decisions of this highly corporate, if non-corporeal God.
Eyeslice
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041212/d86tr8sg1.html
report: jackson prints found on porn mags.
dec 11, 10:01 pm (et).
Sally - exactly - but none here are the police, the defense, the prosecution or the jury.
The story is in the public domain but that does not mean that any of us have the facts. I am merely saying that we risk being judgemental if we come to conclusions without the facts.
you and me are free to view a person HOWEVER we choose...we as free thinkers can presume a person is anything we want
There is the grave danger of bigotory and prejudice in the above words. Truely free thinkers are very careful with their words and opinions
Eyeslice
yes you read that correctly, but first let me say that i'm not going to learn anything (as if that would happen anyway), but i'm going to gloat.. the last couple of times i went there a few months ago was because i was being forcedstrongly encouraged (http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/9/74780/1202255/post.ashx#1202255) and i felt intimidated when i went.
now that i have become a regular reader of various discussions here, i know i can walk in there with my head held high and look at them with just as much disgust in my eyes as they have in theirs because i haven't been begging to come back to such a unloving and hateful organization.. i also want to take a good look at my step-mother.
i know for a fact that things on the homefront have been much less than a "loving theocratic atmosphere" between her and my father.
There is a word of caution here, particularly if you were a baptized publisher. If you go to the meetings, even only occassionally, the elders will regard you as being under their authority.
I was totally regular in meeting attendance and field service, etc. right up to the last meeting attended. But since then have only stepped back in to the hall once at the memorial (there are reasons for this). Hence, I consider myself no longer under the authority of the congregation. The longer this goes on, the freer I can become to speak my mind and not risk being disfellowshipped for apostacy (would cause family problems) - I am no longer under their authority and show it by not associating at all. Gloating does not come into for me. If you are free, then enjoy it.
Eyeslice
i once managed to weave a long passage from the firework maker's daughter into the introduction of a public talk (the bit about uncle rambashie's river taxi) and so was hooked on philip pullman long before he published his 'dark materials' trilogy.
i have since read all three dark materials books which seem to me to be pretty hard on god and organised religion.. forget harry pooter, they're kids stuff, these books are very dark!.
eyeslice
I once managed to weave a long passage from the Firework Maker's daughter into the introduction of a public talk (the bit about Uncle Rambashie's river taxi) and so was hooked on Philip Pullman long before he published his 'Dark Materials' trilogy.
I have since read all three Dark Materials books which seem to me to be pretty hard on God and organised religion.
Forget Harry Pooter, they're kids stuff, these books are very dark!
Eyeslice
