it must be pointed out in favour of christendoms religions that they do not discriminate against people regarding their religious beliefs.
many old age jehovah`s witnesses are residents of christendoms age care homes.. isn`t this a conunudrum ?
they, jw`s condemn christendom as part of the world empire of false religion and they cast off their old faithful members to their enemy christendom , to look after them without lifting a finger themselves.. in the meantime they are raking in millions of dollars $$$$ in selling off real estate properties in new york and elsewhere around the world.
In the Uk there are a lot of JW's who thought they'd be in paradise by now and who are living in Jah-Jireh homes set up by brothers who received not a jot of help from the WTCorp.
Mind you, they generally pay for this care at normal industry rates but at least they can sit in their urine stained chairs chanting "new" kingdom songs while watching Herd flash his Rolex on JWTV.
november 13, 2017 to all bodies of elders in the united states branch territory re: making the best use of our kingdom halls.
If I was a still in, bored out of my brain social witness I know what would be a win-win plan. Here goes ...
ONE yes ONE meeting per week. That way you can have seven to ten congregations meet at one KH. Dubbies only have to travel once and so don't mind a longer distance drive.
This meeting would be Public Talk 20 mins/WT study 30 mins/Bible reading 5 mins/ministry part 10 mins/CLAM part 10 mins. Two songs/prayers/announcements 15 mins.
Total 90 mins.
Then a program for family worship.
Week one Broadcast of course
Week two "God loves a cheerful Giver"
Week three "Bring your gold and silver to the "temple"
Week four "The resurrection hope costs money"
(Week five) "The Governing Body loves you so donate.
More halls to sell. Lovely Loot for Lett and Co.
i think with all the child molestation lawsuits the watchtower corporation is and has been hit with is the main reason for all the prime property sell off recently.
the silent lambs protest back in 2001, and the dateline prime time expose probably was the death knell for the watchtower's hey day in brooklyn.. their membership is drying up, young people are leaving in droves, the situation is no doubt far worse than the annually published yearbook figures show and so they ceased it's publication permanently.
and those left remaining are experiencing a huge grab of money from their congregations accounts and now are required to make pledges about how much they can contribute which i think is a last ditch effort by the governing body to squeeze more money out of the rank and file watchtower indoctrinated drones.. i think all this is happening because even those still loyally attending are hearing reports of these tremendous pay out that the watchtower is making to the victims of their self serving policies that put young ones at great risks so that even the rank and file don't want to contribute to pay court costs and so are withholding giving contributions to a very great extent.
In the UK of course we have the great Chelmsford White Elephant being trumpeted on jborg and in letters - second only to the great Warwick White Mammoth. There is a focus for the money.
So last year I believe (from the charity commission website) that donations (IBSA /Watchtower London) were well up.
My guess in our hall of 80 is that there are 4/5 of us (nominally active) who talk quietly behind our hands and who I believe have stopped donating due to "generations", ARC, money grabbing, hall sell-offs. I guess there are a similar number who for the same reasons minimally donate but don't say anything.
But the rest is business as usual and there is the usual handful of gullible nice old ladies and gents who sit in their paid off homes living off of state pension and on their dead husbands (or their own) pensions and donate and hang off of every word the GB spout on JWTV.
in case any collectors don't have these yet:.
correspondence 1977-1980 between carl olof jonsson and the watchtower society.
http://kristenfrihet.se/english/corr.htm.
Of course, every year that has gone by since this correspondence just widens the gap between reality and the "607BCE/1914/generation living in 1914 will see the end" false prophecy by the Watchtower.
In 1977/1980 time hadn't run out for Watchtower's (then latest) false prophecy. Of course it took a knock in 1975 but now over 40 years on it is simply ludicrous and is now only carried upon the creaking column of overlapping F.W.F as ex-Splaned on TV by jwdotborg.
i started studying with witnesses about 21 months ago.
started going to meetings in march 2017, went to the memorial and attended my first convention.
i love it.
It was a cold stormy night and the Captain was asleep in his bunk. A knock comes at the door. "Sir, sir! There's a vessel in our shipping lane 20 miles out and it won't move!"
"TELL IT TO MOVE!"
"We have! It won't, Sir!"
"I'LL TELL IT TO MOVE!"
"UNIDENTIFIED VESSEL, THIS IS CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER THE 23RD! YOU ARE IN OUR LANE, MOVE 20 DEGREES STARBOARD, IMMEDIATELY!
reply: "This is Able Seaman Jonah Jones; you must move Sir!""
"WHAT??? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? THIS IS "BB-63" - THE MIGHTY MISSOURI, FLAGSHIP OF THE 7TH FLEET; I HAVE 9 X 16" GUNS AND I CAN BLOW YOU OUT OF THE WATER! NOW MOVE 20 DEGREES STARBOARD SAILOR!"
reply: "This is the lighthouse, Sir ..."
(with acknowledgement to the late great Steven Covey)
Be a lighthouse.
for a organization that "doesn't ask for money" they sure do ask a lot.. i've been noticing that over the last few months "disaster relief" has been brought up in almost everything jw.
wt, congregation study, broadcast, special updated video, etc.... & i've noticed two things every time it gets brought up, which is a lot lately.. they talk about giving physically and how much money will be needed for the disaster relief work.
that we should be generous.
If you want an interesting read in the UK type
IBSA charity commission accounts
or
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Britain charity commission accounts
... into Google and look at Britain Branch financials in all their glory.
Maybe some tech savvy person can link?
lett announce to his braindead indoctrinated rank and file masses the wt corporation is short on funds and so they have money problems.
he made light of his role and the rest of management's predicament by saying on a public broadcast: "in doing the math we found that the amount of money flowing out will be much greater than the amount of money coming in at this time".
clearly the guys on the gb have very little business sense to let things get so out of hand with tons of projects in the works and having to close all of them except for warwick, and one in england.. i have to wonder just what type of math these dead heads on the gb even know or consider when making all their plans for the future of the corporation they have leadership over.
Had a letter read out on Tuesday ... (on here, thanks to wifibandit)
"Go to Chelmsford! (New London HQ) Go to Bittacy Hill! (Old London HQ) Last chance to see the mighty printing press in London HQ before shutdown. Rollup Rollup Rollup!"
Straight afterwards 4 dopey braindead sisters are organising a car party to go and visit 200 miles away.
There's no hope!
i'm just curious to get people's views on this.. the bible students seem to start of as quite a liberal group under charles taze russell, albeit he had some whacky teachings going on.
obviously things began to change under rutherford.
but what decade did it become abundantly clear that the society was indeed high control religion or even labeled a cult?.
In more recent times I would say the 1980's.
I grew up and was baptised in the 70's and looking back on how things changed "no-zombie" has hit the nail on the head.
Had things gone Ray Franz's way I believe that the jw's would have morphed into a bit more of a mainstream religion with whacky beliefs.
Sadly it went his uncle's (and Jaracz's) way so we got rigid DF'ing (even non baptised "approved associates" were treated as DF'd in the 80's).
Now we have the mess we are seeing today.
in 2013 the revised nwt came out and changed the old edition's "fornication" and its related words "fornicating," "fornicator" etc.
in all their roughly 70 occurrences.
has the word completely dropped from usage in the witness world?
Because in jw land "Porneia" encompasses ...
Handjobs/Blowjobs/Cunnilingus/Breastjobs/Anal/Vaginal sex
Any other penetrative sex that my sheltered mind cannot think of...
Oh ... and shagging the family dog or sheep ...
can anyone remember this?.
in a mid-80s i seem to remember a publication with a box on a page.. inside the box it was saying something like 'some have wondered if 1934 could be the correct starting date, if 587bce was the fall of jerusalem.
but history has shown it was 1914'.. does this ring any bells?.
WT 1st Nov 1986
Pasted from WT CD-ROM 2014; Bold Print added by Freddo
*** w86 11/1 p. 6 A Dream Reveals How Late It Is ***
[Box on page 6]
When Did the “Seven Times” Really End?
Some people argue that even if the “seven times” are prophetic and even if they last 2,520 years, Jehovah’s Witnesses are still mistaken about the significance of 1914 because they use the wrong starting point. Jerusalem, they claim, was destroyed in 587/6 B.C.E., not in 607 B.C.E. If true, this would shift the start of “the time of the end” by some 20 years. However, in 1981 Jehovah’s Witnesses published convincing evidence in support of the 607 B.C.E. date. (“Let Your Kingdom Come,” pages 127-40, 186-9) Besides, can those trying to rob 1914 of its Biblical significance prove that 1934—or any other year for that matter—has had a more profound, more dramatic, and more spectacular impact upon world history than 1914 did?
