Posts by teel

12

The Henrietta Riley fund - Watchtower hypocrisy at its best

by teel in

thanks to mary's excellent guide i just found out about the henrietta m. riley trust fund.

there was a heated discussion several years ago, here's the thread: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/11/54708/1.ashx.

basically it is an investment fund whose sole beneficiary is the watchtower society.

teel

What nugget said. It's my fault that I didn't put in my OP the fact that the fund is indeed in a third party's hand (although I don't find it impossible that it's a WTS puppet company).

The issue is very similar to the UN debacle. It's not about whether it is ok in itself what they do, it's that they enforce rules on the R&F that they purposely neglect.

I'm not well versed in the US law, being half a planet away, but I imagine they have at least one option available: refuse the donation.

For the record, here's the mentioned 1 Cor 10:25,26: 25Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." Now try to tell this to the elders when they question you why you're eating blood pudding Or more on topic, buy stocks in a tobacco company, and wave 1 Cor 10:25,26 to the elders.

12

The Henrietta Riley fund - Watchtower hypocrisy at its best

by teel in

thanks to mary's excellent guide i just found out about the henrietta m. riley trust fund.

there was a heated discussion several years ago, here's the thread: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/11/54708/1.ashx.

basically it is an investment fund whose sole beneficiary is the watchtower society.

teel

Thanks to Mary's excellent guide I just found out about the Henrietta M. Riley Trust Fund. There was a heated discussion several years ago, here's the thread: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/11/54708/1.ashx. Basically it is an investment fund whose sole beneficiary is the Watchtower society. The discussion was that this fund had investments in Phillip Morris tobacco company.

I'm bringing this back to top to spread the knowledge, because it was just unbelivably hypocritical, so much as I went to search for the fund. http://www2.guidestar.org has them listed, and if you sign up for free on the site, you can check the IRS Form 990s for the last 3 years. I couldn't find Phillip Morris on their portofolio any more, and I didn't wanted a background check on all the unknown companies, but one name stand out: Armor Holdings. Sure enough, it's a weapon manufacturer. http://www.armorholdings.com

The JW defense would be of course that it's a fund, and they can't control the flow of the money. Funny thing though that the WTS expects this from their loyal followers:

*** g00 10/8 pp. 25-27 Is It Wise to Invest in the Stock Market? ***

By considering the background of a company, an investor can also ensure that his money will not be used to support an unethical enterprise.—See Awake!, February 8, 1962, pages 21-3.

Can you say hypocrisy?

22

My JW Friend's Justification for the WT Being God's Chosen Organisation

by maputo95 in

below is my jw friend's "proof" that the wt is god's only organisation and mouthpiece on earth.

he has yet to reinforce his strange story by biblical text or the church fathers or any historical evidence.. please, suggest how i may respond to his assertion.

i believe that this is the fundamental doctrine of the 'borg' and the one on which wt credibility rests.. thank you.. .

teel

This "prophecy" relies on setting the year 1914 as Christ's second invisible coming. 1914 is based on a historically inaccurate date of Jerusalem's destruction in 607 BC by the babylonians. If (and that's a big IF) you can prove him that 607 is incorrect, then 1914 is incorrect, 1919 is incorrect, and the whole religion is nothing more than a group of power hungry men leading blind people.

Ask him to prove from outside the Watchtower that 607 was indeed the time when Jerusalem was destroyed. There are absolutely no historians (except dodgy JW ones) that would have a doubt that Jerusalem was destroyed in 587/586 BC. Your friend's main line of reasoning will be that the history is inaccurate, the Bible prophesised that Jerusalem will be destroyed for 70 years, and from historical records (yep, I'm sure you already picked up the weirdness of all) we know that the end of the jewish exile was in 539 BC when Darius freed them, and after 2 years in 537 BC they got home, ending the 70 years period the Bible foretold, so it must have started in 607.

The most obvious error in this is that the exact same sources that say 539 BC also say 587 BC as Jerusalem's destruction, so you can not just say one of the date is not reliable, and the other is. JW's have no problem with that anyway...

This is a major issue for us, ex-JW, so you can find a huge amount of resources on the net, including explanation how the 70 years prophesised doesn't conflict with the historical records.

22

How would hoah had fared in an IQ test?

by badboy in

jw
friends

any takers?.

teel

Wuz, do you have brain damage or something? Because last time I checked my brain was fully functioning, and I'd rather not have 90% of it scooped out on account of being redundant anyway. http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html

PSac: the IQ tests have different distribution scales. It's probable that those two tests used different scales, and both were right.

16

What is the greatest act of love God has done? Interresting question for non-trinitarians

by teel in

currently i am not taking any of sides, but here's an interresting topic, i would be interrested what can an anti-trinitarian answer to this.. i found this article here: has the jehovah's witness' god performed the greatest act of love?.

in a nutshell: john 15:3 "greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends".

jesus laid down his life.

teel

Currently I am not taking any of sides, but here's an interresting topic, I would be interrested what can an anti-trinitarian answer to this.

I found this article here: Has the Jehovah's Witness' god performed the greatest act of love?

In a nutshell: John 15:3 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends". Jesus laid down his life. Jehovah (or generally the Father) did not. Yet "God is love" ( 1 John 4:16 ), so there should be no act of love greater than what the Father has done. So what has Jehovah (or the Father) done that's greater than what Jesus did? For a trinitarian this is a non-issue: God indeed laid down his life for his friends.

15

Was the policy change to equate DA to DF because of Ray?

by teel in

as ray says in the last chapter of coc, before 1981 da was quite different from df.

"persons who resigned were not treated the same as those disfellowshiped", they were not shunned for example, except when the dad person enters into politics or military.. i put it on account of humbleness that ray says he doesn't think they changed the policy just to use it against him, he probably feels he wasn't so significant as to warrant such a far-reaching change.

but it seems way too convenient that the policy change came at that exact time, too much of a coincidence.

teel

As Ray says in the last chapter of CoC, before 1981 DA was quite different from DF. "Persons who resigned were not treated the same as those disfellowshiped", they were not shunned for example, except when the DAd person enters into politics or military.

I put it on account of humbleness that Ray says he doesn't think they changed the policy just to use it against him, he probably feels he wasn't so significant as to warrant such a far-reaching change. But it seems way too convenient that the policy change came at that exact time, too much of a coincidence. Peter Gregorson DAd himself before the change was made, and zap, suddenly he finds himself shunned, and Ray questioned for associating with a DAd person. Sounds like a political plot to me...

This just goes to show the heartlessness of the GB, they only care about their position, they wanted Ray out, so they made the final step to turn the JW into the destructive cult we all love to hate. This single step is causing so many of us huge problems, with fading, losing family, friends, etc. If there was a clean way out I would only be half as angry at them. And all this just to get rid of one man?

28

For how long can they massage the figures ?

by leo999 in

jw
friends

so looking at the worldwide report , the baptisms are down , many countries are 0 growth ,publishers, hours , and studies up because of changes in reporting methods .

but just how long can the propping up of numbers happen for , before the real downward slide starts ?

a year or two tops , which will be real close to 2014 .

teel

The more screwed up the world is, depressed economy, violence, pollution, etc. the more appealing the "Kingdom Message" is.

Interrestingly enough, we now live in an economic recess. I see no sign of the "message" to be better received... even that advantage has dried up it seems.

I was shocked when the brother overseeing the dept would make a lot of “guestimates” for different areas of the count.

I always suspected that... given that our district convention was organized in an open stadium, under the 40C (100F) scorching sun, most attendants were hidden under umbrellas, making counting impossible. So I always wondered how can they come up with exact numbers? And there were always dozens of people walking around on the outside, going to the loo, refreshing in shadow... they could be counted twice or not at all.

22

Please Suggest An Answer to This Conversation Stopper

by maputo95 in

please suggest an answer to this conversation stopper: i sent the first statement and he responded with the 2nd statement:.

equivocation:.

the bible forbids "taking in" blood.

teel

I'm sorry to say, but a JW will never consider a logical argument that goes against what the FDS says. Your friend responded to your "false logic" statement with just reinforcing the equivocation.

A good try would be beating him in his own game: you use equivocation too. "Abstain" could be interpreted as completely staying away from, and the quote doesn't specify whose blood you must stay away from. So "abstain from blood" = "drain yourself completely of blood". End of story.

2

To show actives if you can

by OverUnder in

jw
friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn3z6ka-xve&feature=related.

his talk is directed at jw's.

teel

I'm sorry, but I couldn't watch more than a minute. It is so annoying that after every 2-3 words of his the others have to voice their aggreement. His points are probably good, but it's just lost in a sea of "that's right".

5

For the people who like to date things

by glenster in

archaeological 'time machine' greatly improves accuracy of early radiocarbon.

dating.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100211111549.htm.

teel

Thanks, but I'd rather like to date women instead... if I weren't married.