I remember a family man in our congregation, wife two or three young kids, really nice guy. He sold his farm and moved to where the need was greater. The farm had been in his family for at least two or three generations, I'm sure he made some good money on the sale. He planned to live on that until the Big A. I know he had a nervous breakdown about 1980 when the money ran out, I didn't hear what happened to him, or the family, after that.
Posts by JeffT
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65Armageddon in 1975 'probability' or 'possibility'? Irrefutable Proof the Watchtower Said 1975 Was "Game Over!"
by PhilsWager2 init's hard to know where to put this link to a polish book some of you older members probably read, while our newer members are seeking answers to questions the watchtower vehemently deny's!
do i put this under "jw scandals" or "jw beliefs"?
for decades without the internet many of us did not have access to all the publications written by early watchtower writers because access was hard, only men like raymond franz jr(god rest his brave soul) had the golden key for entering the library of all publications jws made.. can some of the older members remember people who sold their homes and others who bought things in the summer or fall of 1974 knowing they won't be paying for their purchases because jehovah will destroy all the creditors records when he kills them!
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Simplified Suggestion-- The Generation of 1914
by FusionTheism inthe governing body has recently placed a large priority on simplicity and clarity in their teachings and publications.
the watchtower study edition, march 15, 2015, pages 8-10:.
in recent years, the spiritual instruction provided by jehovahs organization has reflected an increased emphasis on simplicity and clarity.
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JeffT
Even simpler suggestion: drop the whole thing, admit you don't know and let everybody make up their own minds about what, if anything, it means. -
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Should I Make My Wife Watch the May Broadcast?
by TTATTelder infor some background, i am still in.
still an elder.
very much awake.
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JeffT
The Watchtower's own words are what convicts them. At the time my wife and I decided to start our research, knowing it would probably lead us out of the organization, we had no outside information at all. (This was well before the internet). All we knew was that what we were hearing from the organization did not match reality.
I think a gentle "Hey, look at this, I found a video of a GB member let's watch it" sort of invitation will not raise the shields into anti-apostate mode. Then you can make some "gee, I didn't think that's what they've said in the past" comments and go look up (as suggested above) previous comments about soliciting funds.
It might add up to a real eye-opener.
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Does Tithing at Church Count as a Charitable Donation?
by OrphanCrow init has been interesting to see the shift in financial strategies that the wts is implementing recently.
from reading recent threads, it appears like 'they' are adopting a tithing donation system, similar to what is practised in "those wicked churches of christendoom".
i am curious as to who it is that stands to benefit the most tax wise in this recent shift.
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JeffT
They can't issue a receipt if they don't know who to give it to. I can throw $500 onto a plate when they pass it, and I won't get a receipt. But I can still deduct it. Proving that I gave it is a different problem.
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15
Does Tithing at Church Count as a Charitable Donation?
by OrphanCrow init has been interesting to see the shift in financial strategies that the wts is implementing recently.
from reading recent threads, it appears like 'they' are adopting a tithing donation system, similar to what is practised in "those wicked churches of christendoom".
i am curious as to who it is that stands to benefit the most tax wise in this recent shift.
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JeffT
Although not an income tax expert, I am an accountant, and have dealt with other tax issues.
Generally, anything you give a charity counts is a tax deductible contribution. The church is not obligated to give out receipts, it is the obligation of the giver to keep track of the donations and have available proof of the donation. Unless they have good reason not to accept it, the IRS will treat any written record as proof, in other words a handwritten notation on a calendar that you gave $15 last Sunday will do.
Interesting sidebar: those green handshakes to the CO are not deductible by the giver and ARE taxable income to the recipient. Of course, who's going to prove that?
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38
Types and anti types
by Deltawave inaccording the watchtower study of may 10th, it has been made clear no prophetic meaning should be given to a a scripture or passage unless the bible itself gives clear interpretation of it.
therefore daniel 7 especially gives it's fulfillment to nebuchadnezzar only.
no future kingdom or 2520year wait til 1914. no gentile times or "this generation".
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JeffT
I just put a new post about this on my blog, "The Governing Body Saws Off the Branch It's Sitting On."
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WT cash flow speculation
by campaign of hate inso it was reported that the wt made $60,000,000 in canada last year (?).
working on the assumption that this figure is from not only donations, but from property revenues and other ventures from the branch, we get a figure of $528 per publisher, per year.
the calculation: 60,000,000 / 113,617 (2014 av pubs) = $528 a year per publisher.
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JeffT
Maybe they're anticipating loss of tax-exempt status.
Extremely unlikely. The IRS has made it clear that they don't want to be in the business of deciding what is an exempt religion. They have been very tolerant of churches that engage in political activity. I think they'd go after those before they tried to revoke the WTBS' status.
As I've said, if they sell off a bunch of kingdom halls and invest the money, they could be set financially forever.
I agree with John Aquila, they're doing something else with the money. I'm going to put my accountant hat back on and see what I can think of.
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WT cash flow speculation
by campaign of hate inso it was reported that the wt made $60,000,000 in canada last year (?).
working on the assumption that this figure is from not only donations, but from property revenues and other ventures from the branch, we get a figure of $528 per publisher, per year.
the calculation: 60,000,000 / 113,617 (2014 av pubs) = $528 a year per publisher.
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JeffT
Your $100K is low. I did some research awhile back, the Halls I could find records for on line were valued at 200-400K. I estimated that their holdings in Kingdom Halls alone are worth one to two billion dollars.
They've sold a ton of real estate in NYC over the last few years, producing something close to a billion dollars. Properly invested that alone should produce about four million dollars a month in income.
As noted above, their expenses are minimal. I can't see why they would have a cash flow problem.
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Freedom of speech can only guarantee an audience of one
by Brokeback Watchtower inin my house i feel that freedom of speech is important but it can only guarantee an audience of one.
i know women need to vent and i try to give them as much space as possible without interjecting any judgement on the validity of what is been vented in other words i give space for these events as best i could and try to listen with an open mind because there truely is a message there some where but i admit i'm a dense male to the female of our species.
but i tend to shy away from over venting and cringe at being subjected to them and so while a person has the right to free speech in my house they don't have the right to an audience of more than one.
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JeffT
In my opinion, free speech doesn't come with any audience (unless you count talking to yourself). Anybody is free to say anything, and all the rest of us are free to ignore it if we want to. -
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Evidence based folks: what is your stance on GMO's and why?
by cappytan inso, the anti-gmo movement scored another victory today.
chipotle has opted to only use non-gmo food items.. hooray for them.
i'm pretty neutral on the subject, mostly because, other than questionable treatment of farmers, i have seen no evidence to avoid gmo's for health reasons.. basically, my neutrality boils down to the stance that i'll buy non-gmo, so long as the price is reasonable.
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JeffT
What Frank said.
I have a son and daughter in law both working toward advanced degrees in environmental science, we've talked about this a lot. The real complaint against GMO's is not that they are dangerous to eat (as Viv pointed out, they aren't). What we don't know is how they will effect the environment, and the plants around them.
If we could insure careful handling, and move slowly in allowing them, I'm OK with it. But we need to be careful and study the problems as we go.