Posts by link

12

in the Money

by Phil in

i have read the posts on the so called wealth of the jw organization.

where is the proof that they have all this money in the banks, somewhere.. with all the people leaving the org i can only assume that more concrete information would be available from people that have actually worked in the accounting department and would furnish this to the fbi.

where is this concrete information.

link

A lot of financial information about the organisation is in the public domain and some details are available on the Internet. For example here in the U.K. the Charity Commission makes financial information on all registered charities available to the public.

With the Society the trick is to find out the names of the Companies and Organisations that they use to cover their tracks. If anyone cares to make the effort I can gaurantee that they will be surprised at the extent of their wealth. Certainly it is far more than the average Dub would ever dream of, and thats just the portion that you can see.

I am currently in contact with the I.R.S in the States to see how their disclosure laws operate with regard to the accounts of charitable operations. If anyone already has this information it would save me a lot of work!!!

2

The Watchtower's Membership for Political Practice.

by Voyager in

thousands of jehovah's witnesses are unaware that the watchtower society, has another corporation working for them.

this is called: jehovah's witness holocaust-era survivors fund, inc. this is part of the results of the watchtower signing on, as a member of the armenian national committee association.

to get proof of that go to: www.anca.org/anca/actionalerts.asp?aaid=16 scroll down all of the interfaith religions, until you come to jehovah's witnesses, and the public affairs office address and web.

link

Voyager,

The information given in your first link is over two years old and The WTS was still an NGO at that time. Do you not think that they ceased membership of this organisation at the time they dissassociated from the U.N. in October 2001? It appears from the web site that organisations had to be NGO's in order to participate.

link

24

I need your expertise.

by avengers in

jw
friends

yesterday i got this e-mail.

is this on the level?your kind attention is needed;.

with due respect, trust and humanity,i and my family send to you this letter seeking for your help and assistance although we have not meet each other before but we hope that this letter will meet you and your family in good condition of health.this is not intended to cause you any embarrassment in whatever form, rather compel to contact your esteemed self,is borne out of this difficult situation that my family has been engulfed in since my beloved husband and bread winner of our family was killed.. .

link

Can I come back on this one.

If anyone else gets this same message from Mary Elsworth and is tempted to follow it up I would like to offer some help.

Mary Elsworth was born in 1963 and would have finished High School the same year as Independence hence she was at school all the time that I was teaching in Rhodesia. She would not have been old enough to be "married to a lawmaker in the Rhodesian Government" The Rhodesian Government only existed for 2 months after her seventeenth birthday.

What you do is this: Tell her that you will help he out if she can answer you one question before you commit, and within the next twelve hours. Ask her the name of the High School that she went to.

The reason that you want the answer within twelve hours is that you do not want to give time for research.

Quite likely she will come back with the legitimate name of a Rhodesian High School or might even say that she went to school in R.S.A. (South Africa). Either way say you want to ask one final question: What was the name of the headmistress at the school at the time she left? Again you need the answer within twelve hours. If she comes back with a name post it here. I have all the names of Heads of schools in Rhodesia at that time and have access to S.A. Heads names so I can tell if it is legit.

However, for other reasons I can tell you now this is not legit.

link

11

The internet, really a good place for information?

by sleepy in

jw
friends

.

is the internet really a good place to find information?a lot of people have learnt the truth about jehovahs witnesses through the internet, via web sites that proclaim to expose the truth about them.. but is the internet a safe place to gather information on important subjects?grated its very easy to find what you are looking for most of the time,but just how trust worthy is the information found within?often when i look at sites that discuss subject i have a good knowledge of there is a lot of nonsense talked by people who havent got a clue but just want to have a say.it is not always easy for the "novice" to determine who is the "expert" and who is not.. the internet suffers from this problem more than say books, because it is so easy for just anyone to write what they want, whereas to make a book you have to go through a lot of effort and it will have been read and checked by other people.. i tend to treat the internet like i treat people.i only listen if people can give a good explaination as to what they are saying or believe, if none is provided i will ignore the information whethr it is correct or not as there is no basis for me to trust it.. so in order to give good information we must always try to explain why we belive something to be the case.. dont just trust what you read (most people dont anyway)always look for the reasons why, and think of counter arguments , only then except what is writen and still be a little sceptical.

link

sleepy,

You really hit the nail on the head with this one, for me at any rate.

There are some subjects (very few) that I know inside out and often find total rubbish given on some web sites about them. Unfortunately some people read these web sites and believe totally 100 per cent what they see. They then repeat the information to others and before long it becomes established fact. I know because Ive seen it on this Board.

There is only one way to use information found on the web and that is with caution. Look at the author or originator and find out all about him and what his agenda might be. Look for other sources of the same information and compare it. Then make up your own mind based on the most likely scenario from all the information that you have. Finally if it boils down to opinion that cannot be established by the facts, always present it as such when telling others.

Obviously when facts and figures are presented by an established and competent body or authority, you have to take them seriously.

As far as the Watch Tower Society are concerned, I do not believe that they are solely worried about their members looking at apostate sites. Unless someone is already on their way out this is not very likely to happen. What is a major concern for them is the fact that authoritative bodies such as the U.N., Inland Revenue (I.R.S.) and Charity Commission Local Authorities etc.etc.etc. These freely publish information on the net that the Society would much rather nobody knew about because it gives the lie to the things they publish themselves.

This is easily spotted by their members who have a legitimate right to be viewing the information. They then start to have doubts and might just peek at an apostate site to check things out. It is not the apostate site that starts the rot, in my opinion it is all the legitimate information sites that bother them the most.

link

24

I need your expertise.

by avengers in

jw
friends

yesterday i got this e-mail.

is this on the level?your kind attention is needed;.

with due respect, trust and humanity,i and my family send to you this letter seeking for your help and assistance although we have not meet each other before but we hope that this letter will meet you and your family in good condition of health.this is not intended to cause you any embarrassment in whatever form, rather compel to contact your esteemed self,is borne out of this difficult situation that my family has been engulfed in since my beloved husband and bread winner of our family was killed.. .

link

Andy,

I did not say it was a scam. I did not say do not help 'the lady'. I just said that it was not the lady in the photograph who wrote the letter.

Your thread asks for expertiese. I happen to have some "local knowledge" so I am offering my expertiese for what its worth. I have personal reasons for not wishing to disclose the source of my knowledge and these have to do with other persons who come to the board but do not post here. In other words IDENTITY PROBLEMS!

link

24

I need your expertise.

by avengers in

jw
friends

yesterday i got this e-mail.

is this on the level?your kind attention is needed;.

with due respect, trust and humanity,i and my family send to you this letter seeking for your help and assistance although we have not meet each other before but we hope that this letter will meet you and your family in good condition of health.this is not intended to cause you any embarrassment in whatever form, rather compel to contact your esteemed self,is borne out of this difficult situation that my family has been engulfed in since my beloved husband and bread winner of our family was killed.. .

link

I am an ex Rhodesian (Zimbabweian) and for reasons that I can't go into here, I can gaurantee that the person who wrote the letter is not the lady whose photograph appears on the passport.

link

Edited by - link on 15 February 2003 6:4:37

5

Work ethics and religion

by link in

jw
friends

during the fairly lengthy time that i have been coming to the board i have noticed that a number of people here are self employed and some also employ others.. if you do employ other people, or if you have an opinion, do you find that religious belief makes any difference to work ethics?

by that i mean are people with a firm religious belief likely to be more honest, conscientious and reliable that those without (christian or otherwise)?.

i do have a reason for asking this question.

link

Silverleaf thanks for that. The reason I asked the question was that there were two people that I had in mind when I posted this thread. The first one is a fornicating drunkard who is absolutely brilliant at his work and does not charge a lot. However he is also a thief and a liar who would rob you of your last penny if he got the chance. I would constantly have to be on the watch with him.

The second one is an exJW now Born Again who I would trust completely in just about every way. However he is not as good at his job and would come at a higher price. I would battle to get the job I wanted from him but I would never have to be looking over my shoulder.

The point is that I dont have to ask these people their religion, I already know it and looking at what I have written here tends to help me see that I have probably answered my own question. Thanks

Francois

I will e-mail you later with some info to see if you can help.

Thanks.

link

5

Work ethics and religion

by link in

jw
friends

during the fairly lengthy time that i have been coming to the board i have noticed that a number of people here are self employed and some also employ others.. if you do employ other people, or if you have an opinion, do you find that religious belief makes any difference to work ethics?

by that i mean are people with a firm religious belief likely to be more honest, conscientious and reliable that those without (christian or otherwise)?.

i do have a reason for asking this question.

link

Francois,

Many thanks fo the response. I'm a bit tied up at the moment but will get back to you tomorrow.

Thanks

link

5

Work ethics and religion

by link in

jw
friends

during the fairly lengthy time that i have been coming to the board i have noticed that a number of people here are self employed and some also employ others.. if you do employ other people, or if you have an opinion, do you find that religious belief makes any difference to work ethics?

by that i mean are people with a firm religious belief likely to be more honest, conscientious and reliable that those without (christian or otherwise)?.

i do have a reason for asking this question.

link

During the fairly lengthy time that I have been coming to the Board I have noticed that a number of people here are self employed and some also employ others.

If you do employ other people, or if you have an opinion, do you find that religious belief makes any difference to work ethics? By that I mean are people with a firm religious belief likely to be more honest, conscientious and reliable that those without (Christian or otherwise)?

I do have a reason for asking this question. At the tender age of 63 I am wanting to start a new business venture (not my first by any means) and I need to recruit some technical expertise. I need someone to design, install and run a fairly complicated web page and set up e-mail systems linked to the site. They could do this from home and from almost anywhere in the world, subject to time zones. Im not looking for finance and would pay the going rate or could offer a partnership.

I do not have the necessary knowledge or ability to do the technical stuff myself and I dont really have time to start learning it all now.

Apart from technical ability, which I can assess, I most certainly need someone who is completely honest, conscientious and reliable and wondered if religious belief could be used as one of the criteria for determining this. Does anyone have any thoughts on the matter?

link

26

If I knew it was wrong I wouldn't do it!

by WantTheTruth in

even after a year of thought regarding religion, and inparticular the jw faith... i am still no further forward as to whether i should go for it.. i realise that practically everyone who reads this post will be anti-jw; but i appeal to your unbias/ neutral side... if thats possible.. both sides have their own point of view... both are very convincing; i am just not sure what will "clinch the deal".. all i know is that i cannot go on like this for much longer!.

soul-destroying is an understatement!.

yours in desperation.... wtt

link

Hello Want The Truth and welcome to the board,

I can sympathise with you because I have been exactly where you are at the moment. I decided not to go for it even though my wife and all my immediate family joined up at different times in the past.

My reasons for not becoming a Witness after almost seven years of study and investigation boiled down to just a couple of things that did not include the usual criticisms about false prophesy etc although 1914 was always a no-no as far as I was concerned .

My main concern was that the organisation is an immensely wealthy (multi- billion dollar ) operation that does very little that you could compare to the Bibles message of love and compassion. If you dont believe the financial figures I suggest that you do some serious research on the Society.

I found that in very, very many ways the Watchtower Society differed little from every other religion in its structure, organisation and accumulation of great material wealth for itself. Comparisons can even be made in things like Bethel = Monastery, Elder = Priest etc. etc.

I came to the conclusion that they have duped people like my family into believing that Jehovah does not exist outside their organisation and to look too closely at the organisation and how it operates is a sin. With these beliefs instilled in them they will never stray and will always cough up the money to make the Watchtower richer and richer.

My advice to you would be to leave it alone and keep looking. Just because someone cannot point you in the direction that you feel right for you at the moment does not mean that that direction does not exist.

Regards

link