JeffT

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Posts by JeffT

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  50

  The money question...

  by Tornintwo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am intrigued to know if there is truly any evidence of financial irregularities in the jehovah's witness organisation or if any one or group are raking off funds or benefitting financially...?.

  whilst i disagree wholeheartedly with most of their teachings and practices, dogmatism, legalism and superiority complex, i don't honestly think there's anyone making millions at the top.

  yes you could say that the gb are comfortably off, don't have to pay bills etc but they do actually get up in the morning and 'work', they aren't going off in private jets to tropical islands or driving bentleys.

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  JeffT

  Talesin, I've thought for a long time the US needs to do something about how it treats non-profits, so far we haven't. In the US the IRS does require an information form (990 in different versions based on size of the organization). These are not made public as all IRS information is supposed to be private. Private organizations are not required to release financial statements.

  I believe that what we need is something like the SEC for non-profits. It wouldn't regulate their activities, but it could require public release of audited statements so we know what we're getting for having granted them tax exempt status. My sense is this is an uphill battle.
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  50

  The money question...

  by Tornintwo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am intrigued to know if there is truly any evidence of financial irregularities in the jehovah's witness organisation or if any one or group are raking off funds or benefitting financially...?.

  whilst i disagree wholeheartedly with most of their teachings and practices, dogmatism, legalism and superiority complex, i don't honestly think there's anyone making millions at the top.

  yes you could say that the gb are comfortably off, don't have to pay bills etc but they do actually get up in the morning and 'work', they aren't going off in private jets to tropical islands or driving bentleys.

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  JeffT

  What NewYork44M said. I'm not an auditor, but I was an accountant for a lot of years and did some internal audit work. With the WTBS you have a lot of money flying around with a lack of accountability and oversight. It's a recipe for mismanagement and fraud. The worst kind of fraud are the quasi-legal kinds. Like Simon noted, the chairs that cost three times what they should. Is that stupidity or theft? Hard to tell the difference and very hard to prove in court.
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  21

  I have noted many threads and posts on political inclinations....

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  which i think is great, since as witnesses we never displayed any political inclinations.. but whilst political alligence means we are taking on new values, we are once again subject to trusting what the leaders say, and subject to propaganda from the media.. personally i see the irony of this situation, and must confess to being very skeptical, about supporting any political party.

  in fact i am glad as a witness i abstained from voting, because i believe history has shown the vote that would have shaped my conscience would have been misplaced.. anyway how convinced are you of your new political views?.

  the rebel..

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  JeffT

  One big problem with American politics is the focus on the Presidency. Constitutionally, what the President can actually do is limited, or supposed to be. Laws are enacted by Congress, not imposed by the President. This is routinely ignored by everybody involved, candidates, media and voters. So we have all these people running for President promising to deliver a sky full of butterflies and unicorns when they don't have any reasonable chance of doing so.

  Not every problem needs to be fixed in Washington, DC. A lot cannot be fixed in Washington. Your local officials have a much greater influence on your life, but the media and voters don't spend enough time looking at the options. I live in what is effectively a one party locality, and increasingly at the state level. The result is a lack of serious discussion of alternative ideas.
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  21

  I have noted many threads and posts on political inclinations....

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  which i think is great, since as witnesses we never displayed any political inclinations.. but whilst political alligence means we are taking on new values, we are once again subject to trusting what the leaders say, and subject to propaganda from the media.. personally i see the irony of this situation, and must confess to being very skeptical, about supporting any political party.

  in fact i am glad as a witness i abstained from voting, because i believe history has shown the vote that would have shaped my conscience would have been misplaced.. anyway how convinced are you of your new political views?.

  the rebel..

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  JeffT

  I'm not a member of any political party, this is after being a moderate republican (there were such things when I was a teenager) , a socialist, a moderate Democrat (also a vanishing species), and a right wing Republican. At this point I look at political affiliation the same way I look at religion: if you're not an independent you're buying somebody else's BS. (just my opinion).

  I agree that most news outlets are biased. I get my news from a variety of sources on the internet. Breaking news on CNN, the only TV news I watch regularly is Al Jezeera America. The local network affiliates are good for weather and sports.
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  20

  Passionless loveless JW.ORG. How? Why? My experience with these Pharasees.

  by Witness 007 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so i studied with this guy who is now an elder in my moms hall.

  she has cancer and is black and blue from it.

  we are like real family so i invite him over for drinks and pizza.

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  JeffT

  They love to quote James 1:27 in support of their neutrality "to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

  The part of the verse that comes before that, not so much. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress"

  
  
  
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  15

  Is it true that they decided not to build Walkill Recreation center and then buried the foundation?

  by Indian Larry in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i saw this on ex jw reddit:"this may not be news to you but it was to me.

  forgive me if this has already been posted before.

  it came from a reliable source working on the warwick project.. wallkill bethel had broken ground and laid the foundation for a new recreation building.

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  JeffT

  Since we heard that they planned to finish Warwick early it has been my assumption that they decided not to build something. Sounds like it was the rec hall. Depending on the type of foundation, they should be able to clean the dirt off it and use it in the future.

  FYI, they wouldn't be able to get permits to build on a toxic waste site. I've been down that road with development projects.
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  49

  Who would you vote for Today?

  by James Mixon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  d. trump or h. clinton and why.. i would vote for gun slinging trump..

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  JeffT

  Hillary has this in the bag easily. Everyone knows that right?

  2007 called. It want's its prediction back.
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  7

  i think the terrorists get the better end of the deal

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the terrorists get 77 virgins in paradise wheras the victims only get a panda and a table full of vegetables.

  just sayin'

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  JeffT

  In "Shibumi" by Trevanian, the protagonist says "Arab men prefer virgins because the rightly fear comparison."
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  52

  1914—The Turning Point in History - Really?

  by berrygerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1914the turning point in history.

  30 from the human standpoint, the world troubles and global wars foretold in the bible were far from the thinking of the pre-1914 world.

  german statesman konrad adenauer said: thoughts and pictures come to my mind, .

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  JeffT

  There are any number of books about the start of WWI. Read Europe's Last Summer by David Fromkin. I read another one about the same time, I can't find the title right now. They all make the same points: 1) the common narrative about WWI is that nobody had any idea a war might start until the assassination of the archduke lit the fuze and the world blew up and 2) no serious historian believes that narrative.

  The British and Germans were locked in a naval arms race that consumed large chunks of their national economies. The Germans had been working on war plans for decades, and acting on those plans. They built huge railroad platforms in every city so they would be able to load troops on trains quickly when the war started. The put together elaborate timetables of which units would go where and when. The built the largest siege guns in the world with the specific intention of using them to pulverize Belgian forts when they violated that country's neutrality.

  Meanwhile, the French and Russians were drawing up coordinated plans to invade Germany from two directions.

  This is not a picture of world that has no idea there's going to be a war.

  Top all that off with the fact that what happened is nothing like what the WTBS said was going to happen.
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  6

  Hodgkins Lymphoma Returns

  by azor in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  my sister was diagnosed with hodgkins lymphoma earlier this year.

  we thought treatment worked as she finished her chemo treatment a month ago.

  i just got a call from her that she has lumps on her legs and she has been extraordinarily tired.

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  JeffT

  I'm sorry to hear this, at least part of the problem is so unnecessary.

  What is the Watchtower's current position on stem cells? There are some options involving high dose chemo and stem cell transplants. But I don't know if that's also forbidden.

  If you want more information, I have some resources I can send you.