the uk charity commission lists 'the advancement of religion' as one of its 'first group charitable purposes'.. it makes the "general assumption that the advancement of religion is for the public benefit".
the advancement of religion.
for the advancement of religion to be charitable, a religion has to:.
Sorry for the length to answer a simple question--painful memories surfaced and demanded voice...
Brilliant post Bridgett. However, it’s beyond me why individuals such as your self feel the need to apologize for expressing oneself.
“Damn the torpedos”…shout out to the mountain tops!
Flip
a circuit overseer, jarome sexton, ma circuit #4 is telling the congregations "the brothers were at ground zero", reading scriptures to firefighters and military personal and they would cry as they heard the words.
"as people ran across the bridge what did they see ' read gods word daily' ".
the dam doors were locked!
In regards to legitimate charitable works or emergency aid groups, religious or otherwise, there is a principle that is demanded of them that is, “to be seen to be doing the right thing.”
Billions of dollars of public money are being donated to these agencies and these agencies must publicly report their achievements and be independently verified in the effort “to be seen doing the right thing”. Should there be evidence of misappropriation of funds, there will be hell to pay.
Contrast this attitude of “being seen to be doing the right thing” with the attitude of the WTBTS, that it would be pretentious of us to ‘blow our on horn’ by having all of our wonderful 'charitable' achievements independently and publicly verified. Let alone broach the subject of defining the word 'charitable' based on WTBTS criteria.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have been taught to understand that public reporting of achievements by ‘charitable’ agencies is mere bragging designed as propaganda to generate an emotional response and milk the public of their hard earned money so administrators of these agencies can ‘pad’ their expense accounts.
I don’t know about anyone else but I would rather I have the chance to openly scrutinize a charitable organizations money flow and activities. Not only as a measure of efficiency but as a measure of recourse for the 'community' should their donations of time and money be taken advantage of.
Flip
i am a college student taking a course in religious studies.
we started studing christianity today.
my professor branched out several religions on the board.
Hi Miss Jones
As others have mentioned, Adventism appears to have gathered strength during the late 1830’s.
Take note of this article, which appears in the following issue of Sky & Telescope describing a significant celestial event that occurred in 1833.
http://www.skypub.com/sights/meteors/leonids/leonids_1833.html
I find the article interesting because it suggests a possible motivation for the business of apocalyptic behavior predicting the end of the world in 1840.
Historically, Jehovah’s Witnesses appear to be a ‘Johnny-come-lately’ in this regard, just in time to cash in on the hype.
Flip
the mind of the fanatic.
steve k. dubrow-eichel.
[this column appeared in the "perspectives" page of the wilmington (de) news journal, on 9/23/01.].
Salvation is by grace through faith yet we are admonished to show evidence of this by our good works.
This ideology is certainly inspiring to others as well and most likely the last thought on the minds of the clowns in control of the aircraft that plowed into the WTC, etc.
Flip
deep, dark secrets.. horrible, ugly things that dwell in shadows.. things no one speaks about.
topics that are avoided.. in some groups, it might be a murder, or an act of incest.. but with the watchtower, of all the dark secrets hidden from view,.
there is one uglier and more horrible than any other by far.. it is this:.
How it eats at their subconscious, telling them
that lives were wasted by mistake?
Met', how's it possible that those who control the WTB&TS are worried about what's left of their respective conscience's as long as the $checks$ keep coming in.
In-flow of cash from publication sales to Jehovah's Witnesses, return on real-estate and investments is all the validation whoever controls the WTB&TS needs to justify their actions to themselves.
Let's face it, no one outside the Witness community cares about how the WTB&TS has screwed up. Whoever controls the WTB&TS knows it and appears to be willing to do the unconscionable to keep it that way.
Flip
dear all,.
it is with much regret that i have decided to leave jw.com.
it is not a decision i have made lightly, in fact i had been thinking about it for many weeks now.. i am leaving because i cannot be a part of a forum that condones abuse and deliberate offensiveness towards other posters.
Prisca, if only I needed to learn how to gather the power to move Heaven and Earth and make you stay...I would.
Flip
on tuesday, august 4, 2001 at 3:42.a.m.
mst, duane floyd checketts, 77 died in his sleep due to complications from pneumonia.
he is survived by his wife bette and two children, douglas checketts, patty smith, and 8 grandchildren.. duane, who was fondly called duke by everyone who knew him was born in farmington, utah on march 8, 1924. his father floyd, was one of 10 children raised in a tiny house built by his own mormon father who immigrated in the early 1860's from birmingham, england.
In other words, the odds are that the speaker will speak from a pre-printed outline and use his death and funeral as an agenda to promote the Watchtower Printing Corporation and its religious interests.
Doug, LDH suggestion is very good, also it's worth a try to prepare and present a general outline much like you wrote.
I wrote much the same for my father and my active brother submitted the outline for approval. The material was used within the standard JW outline and I felt the elder did a credible job with it. However, this PO had a heart, your dads PO may not.
There were some surprised faces at the Kingdom Hall when the congregation discovered that one of the most frugally dressed, unassuming brothers anywhere, had a WWII military record that made the Rangers of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ look like a Boy Scout troop.
Unfortunately you may have to work within the ‘comfort’ parameters of the presiding elder.
But I feel if the compromise is palpable, it’s well worth it so that as many people recognize the contributions your father has made for his family and community, Jehovah’s Witnesses or otherwise.
Flip
does anyone remember the organisation in the 1980's, how the things that they said seemed to fit so perfectly with the world that existed at that time?
their ideas and prophecies as seen at that time seemed to be correct and everything was falling into place.
i was a teenager at that time and the 'truth' had a very profound effect on me, i saw my family leave the org.
The situation in the world is now so different from that of the 80's
Great post indi’, however the ‘…situation of the world…’ has changed somewhat since the 80’s, I doubt not as much as we think. Maybe your perception of it has matured and become more realistic, while others who simply remain fearfully ignorant become fodder for the ‘WTB&TS printing press’ and the disingenuous within.
But with its credibility now in doubt how will it hold on to its rank and file?
I doubt the WTB&TS is overly worried about its credibility other than how internally the health of the JW community affects revenue and assets, in that regard the WTB&TS has a history of dealing well with damage control because of its inherent frugality.
Also, I seriously doubt it worries about holding on to its rank and file for the most part. Financial investments and asset growth now can easily take up the slack even if the corporation loses a large proportion of ‘hangers on’.
Getting rid of financially irrelevant ‘whistle blowers’ would seem to be their most expedient need along with extending a more open hand to government in an effort to procure a stronger lobby in the effort to protect the ‘special’ way the WTB&TS does business.
Flip
my father was rushed by ambulance from his rest home to st. marks hospital in salt lake city, utah friday, but i only just heard about it.
i received a call from the floor nurse and she told me he is not expected to live.
his lungs are filled fill up with fluid and are continuing to fill u with more fluid: he has pneumonia.
There was only one thing I hadn’t told my dad, and I just did that a few minutes ago.
Right on, Doug, right on.
Flip
following on from the anybody else had visions?
thread below ( http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=10144&site=3).
i have offered a prize of 50 american dollars or the equivalent in your currency of choice for whoever can guess (or envision or whatever) the contents of a picture i have chosen.. i will be emailing the picture, in password zip format to [email protected] along with unambiguous details of what qualifies as a correct guess.
lol, julien. Or, in the effort to be consistantly accurate, use the WTB&TS tried and 'true' marketing principle, "...to be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target."
Flip
