Also in this issue, The Watchtower has the annual "How to Give More to Watchtower Corporation!" article here.
The opening story of WT providing assistance in some war-torn area is typical. There is no reference to where this happened, when this happened, or how many people were assisted during this incident. I would suspect that this was an event 30 or more years ago and affected a couple of congregations for a few weeks. Financial assistance probably only came from the France branch.
Watchtower flip-flops on "charity" right within the article.
In the face of natural and man-made disasters, we do not tell needy brothers and sisters to “keep warm and well fed.” (Jas. 2:15, 16) Instead, we seek to provide for their physical needs.
Let's be honest. WT provides very little in the way of physical needs. When I left bethel, they couldn't have cared any less about whatever my physical needs would be. I can honestly say that in my hour of need, WT headquarters itself told me to "keep warm and well fed." What they really mean to say is in the very next paragraph. Here comes the flip...
As Jehovah’s servants, we are eager to help needy individuals in a material way. However, people also have a spiritual need. (Matt. 5:3) .... As an organization, we use some donated funds to provide material help, but donations are used chiefly to promote Kingdom interests and spread the good news. We thus show our love for God and for our neighbors.—Matt. 22:37-39.
The "charitable work" of Watchtower is certainly not to help "worldly" people in their dire straights, or even to help needy JWs. WT "charitable work" is to recruit more people into the bOrganization. Of course they can say "donations are used chiefly to promote Kingdom interests" because that phrase really means nothing. I'll never forget the elders meeting at the circuit assembly where it was the routine to approve the expenses. One of the expenses to be approved was for the purchase of a gas grill for the COs apartment, worth something like $350. There was a collective gasp. A brother volunteered that he had a gas grill that he wasn't using anymore that he would volunteer to donate. The guy in charge hummed and hawed as several more raised issues with such an expense of donated funds. Finally, he leveled and said, "this needs to be approved because the grill was already purchased." There were a lot of unhappy campers in that crowd until that incident was forgotten. Whenever I hear something like "donations are used chiefly to promote Kingdom interests," events like that immediately come to mind.
WT isn't the type of charity that has their books open for public review and audit to verify how the money is collected and spent. Having worked at bethel, I can honestly say that WT organization is a massively wasteful operation. On one hand, I've seen how there will be penny-pinching on one project with reports on how much money was saved. Yet there is a long list of failed projects and just plain waste that gets ignored. What can you expect from an organization that takes such a dim view of secular education? Of course there are going to be lots of idiots at the top.
Anyway, I just thought I'd add this observation to the material for this WT lesson. It makes sense that WT and the crazy 8 at the very top will demand that the R&F shut up and do as they're told. They certainly don't want any of the sheeple to stop and say, "Hey, let's think about this for a minute. Why does the CO and WT demand that congregation accounts be announced and audited, when the organization's accounts are kept completely secret? What's the big deal about the hundreds of dollars a congregation handles, when millions of dollars are completely unaccounted for? They're selling real estate for hundreds of millions, yet still publishing articles like this saying that they need more. Why?"
