Posts by Anony Mous

posted

11
Analysis of the Property Ownership Model of Jehovah’s Witnesses
by Paul Bonanno in
1. jw
2. friends
analysis of the property ownership model of jehovah’s witnesses.

jehovah’s witnesses have developed a structured and financially efficient model for acquiring, building, and managing properties worldwide.

their approach maximizes resources contributed by members while ensuring that ownership and financial control remain centralized within the organization.
Anony Mous
I have never seen a KH in a place that will ‘appreciate’ in value. It’s usually the ‘lowest cost’ area, crime is high or noise pollution from an airport (or both).
I’ve worked in the RBC. The way it works is this:
1. You donate towards “your congregation’s” new KH - a goal is set and monthly contributions are directed
2. Once you make the goal, the WTBTS through the RBC assesses whether your congregation has saved enough money
3. The WTBTS enters into an “agreement” with your elders to loan your congregation the money it has saved to build or renovate your new KH
4. You build the KH
5. Your congregation now has a loan to pay off for the value of the new KH building (and also its upkeep)
6. The WTBTS sells the old KH at current market prices and since they are the owners, receive the proceeds
7. Once the congregation has paid off its loan, go back to step 1
So really, you pay 3 times for 1 building - once to begin construction, once after construction and once when it is sold. This cycle takes about 10-20 years, in most cases a similar scheme is started every 5 years for “major renovations” which involves things that should’ve been done like proper insulation, proper roofing, proper parking etc. The costs are assessed at market prices for the labor value + materials “for insurance reasons”, also, any discounts and cash back incentives from vendors are returned to the WTBTS, not the project. So really, you can end up paying 4-5x the value of the building in donations over the lifetime of the building. Do the same at the circuit level for circuit assembly halls etc.
187
Insight Book LIES - then tells the TRUTH!
by BoogerMan in
1. watchtower
2. bible
it-1 p. 493 communication - "when the circumcision issue was resolved by the governing body in jerusalem......".

it-1 p. 881 galatians, letter to the - "by reason of a revelation, paul, with barnabas and titus, went to jerusalem regarding the circumcision issue; he learned nothing new from james, peter, and john, but they recognized that he had been empowered for an apostleship to the nations.

" (galatians 2:1-10).
Anony Mous

There are third party references to the repeated destructions of Jerusalem and who truly ruled the area. Problem is people taking the Bible literally and then trying to see what fits and rejecting the rest of the evidence, the Bible was not written as a historical book, it was not intended as a chronicle or a textbook. The Bible as we know it is a rather small selection of available books about Jewish religious/moral teachings from its beginning as a polytheistic religion to the start of Christianity and its trinity. It’s been refined and edited over the ~500-1000 years that it took to be composed.
If you want to take the Bible literary and prophetic you have a lot of explaining to do from the first to the last verse. One date in one supposed prophecy is the least of your problems. You’ll have to explain all the mythical characters from Adam to David, you’ll have to explain the roughly 50 year time shift of Jesus’ character to the time he was according to modern tradition born & active vs the recorded dates on the mentioned rulers as recorded by the Romans, both the missing and added names from the various Biblical geneology records etc.
Even before the Romans, Jerusalem had been destroyed or captured and recaptured dozens of times. The Romans themselves did it at least three times before Christianity starts, yet the Bible somehow ‘forgets’ all those events and pretends there is a singular line of inheritance to the regional throne. Very convenient if you’re at the end of that genealogy at the time said genealogy is written.
31
Watchtower SlangJamaican Patois: Gods son came fe mash up the world😂
by Diogenesister in
1. social
2. humour
🤦‍♀️this 25 million different languages thing is getting ridiculous.

this link is hilarious!

they've only gone and translated into jamaican patois and boy this isn't just translation, they're literally using slang....what next?
Anony Mous

@andr: I was in a place where they have a regional ‘fishers’ language - it’s actually a mix of dialect words in 3 languages and a lot of “vulgar” words in each of those.
The branch office tried to make inroads by ‘harbor work’ (this was a well publicized thing they tried in the late 90s, early 2000s), made a special congregation, CO came and talked to us. Basically these people lived on or near the boats, would be out on sea for a few weeks, home a few days during the fishing seasons.
They got exactly 1 fisherman to ‘study’ but became a problem when it came to earrings and facial hair - it was hilarious for us trying to ‘civilize’ this person into a suit, shaven, without his earrings and going in service, and then the elders got all uptight when he came back from his voyages with his earrings, beard and smelling like oil and fish (it’s not solved by taking a shower). And then the fact he kept using words that were practically curse words in the ‘proper’ language.
7
WT June '25: Why Can't We Turn Studies Into Baptisms?
by raymond frantz in
1. watchtower
2. bible
https://youtu.be/t_mpdwsqpy0?si=okf4bsfsqfed0szp.

study article 27 under the title :"help bible students to take a stand for the truth" paragraph 1 *did you have reservations about becoming one of jehovah’s witnesses?

perhaps you were afraid that your workmates, friends, or family would turn against you.
Anony Mous

Maybe people are afraid that they too will turn into the assholes their study leaders are.
31
Watchtower SlangJamaican Patois: Gods son came fe mash up the world😂
by Diogenesister in
1. social
2. humour
🤦‍♀️this 25 million different languages thing is getting ridiculous.

this link is hilarious!

they've only gone and translated into jamaican patois and boy this isn't just translation, they're literally using slang....what next?
Anony Mous

I think you’re confusing Standard Scottish English with Scots like Doric and Lallan which to my knowledge have a limited written language.
I see this attempts more as a misguided attempt at “civilizing” the population with a completely different way of thinking about their language and of course a religion.
WTBTS will have to invent new words in a language that isn’t yours to explain an idea that is culturally foreign - or - more likely, introduce loanwords instead of having the population decide for themselves what the word should be.
I’m not saying languages can’t evolve a writing system, but forcing it on them (as is the case with Jamaican Creole) is what I have objection with. If you want to preserve the language, we have phonetic writing systems and audio recordings. I’ve already stated that it is currently impossible to distinguish the meaning of words without understanding of the inflection, which you could impose with diacritics but currently not embedded in the proposed written language - purely because the people that made up that written language didn’t understand that fact. Basically the written language of Jamaican Creole is different than the language of spoken Jamaican Patois, its a conlang as much as Klingon and High Valerian is, it has no bearing on the present use of the language or its people.
225
The point of existence and how it refutes the Trinity
by slimboyfat in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
rowan williams, the former archbishop of canterbury gave an interesting answer to the somewhat stark question, what’s the point of us existing?

as a christian, my starting point is that we exist because the most fundamental form of activity, energy, call it what you like, that is there, is love.

that is, it’s a willingness that the other should be.
Anony Mous
@SB: the solar eclipse is rather easy to find out because they happen very predictably:
In 34 AD, a total solar eclipse occurred on March 9th, but its path of totality was near Australia, not visible from Jerusalem.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Total Solar Eclipse:
NASA's solar eclipse tables indicate a total solar eclipse on March 9, 34 CE.
Path of Totality:
The path of totality, where the moon's shadow covers the Earth, was near Australia, not Jerusalem.

No Visibility in Judea:

This eclipse would not have been visible from Judea (where Jerusalem is located).

Other Solar Eclipse in 33 AD:

There was also a total solar eclipse on March 19, 33 AD, but its path of totality was near Antarctica, also not visible from Jerusalem.

Watchtower SlangJamaican Patois: Gods son came fe mash up the world😂

by Diogenesister in

🤦‍♀️this 25 million different languages thing is getting ridiculous.

this link is hilarious!

they've only gone and translated into jamaican patois and boy this isn't just translation, they're literally using slang....what next?

Anony Mous

@slimboyfat: I speak at least 2 and understand at least 4 of those languages (and no, it's not Klingon). The idea that they are supposed to be 'written' is the disconnect here.

They're unwritten dialects, the idea that they should be written can be considered condescending, rude, politically motivated but an outside entity from the USA suddenly 'speaking' a language that they don't know, have no proper translators for and don't understand the history of just to convert people.

It's mostly extremists that are looking to promote this idea that a language is "better" or "proper" when it is written, whether it is colonists and missionaries or modern "highly educated" activists (notoriously, all those groups historically belong to the same political side), they all have the same motivation - let the educated tell you how to speak, read and write - if you speak a language where you can't do that, then you're not 'smart'.

As the above said, you can't show this to a 'real' Jamaican, because they don't know what it is, the written language of Jamaican Creole was created by an elite class for their own feel-good educated class politics. The orthography was literally invented by demand of the government and a few highly educated rich people in Jamaica a few decades ago and it hasn't caught on for a reason. Just like there is no written language of Flemish, Ebonics etc, and trying to solidify those languages into a strict written language with grammar and rules is sorely misunderstanding the historical and cultural reasons for its existence.

Watchtower SlangJamaican Patois: Gods son came fe mash up the world😂

by Diogenesister in

🤦‍♀️this 25 million different languages thing is getting ridiculous.

this link is hilarious!

they've only gone and translated into jamaican patois and boy this isn't just translation, they're literally using slang....what next?

Anony Mous

@slimboyfat: I look forward to seeing more translations of WTBTS literature in other politically charged written conlangs:

Ebonics; Scots; Irish; Esperanto; Toki Pona; Klingon; Flemish; Walloon; High Valerian

What the new JW light position really is 👍

by ElderBerry in

i’m still an elder and i consider myself jw light.

as my fellow elders are.

we don’t throw our weight around like elders used to in the past, it’s all very easy going these days.

Anony Mous

@elderberry: what other belief system sacrifices their children on the issue of blood? What other belief system lets their children be molested when there are no two witnesses? What belief system tears apart families through shunning, kidnapping, parental fraud and adoptive fraud? Because those are the things the organization makes itself guilty on, that is the direction the followers get from elders, CO and the branch office.

And JW don’t study the Bible, you “study” WTBTS literature.

The Share of Religious Americans will continue to decline- New York Times. Why? New Pew Study

by Balaamsass2 in

locally, in northern california i have seen/heard a drop in jw and mainstream church attendance especially in person attendance.

(exception: a new creepy local new-age charismatic/pentecostal group: "bethel church" 11,000 and growing mega church(kundalini yoga/sex combined with prosperity gospel, trumpism, guns, rock music, dancing, glitter, speaking in tongues, and faith healing).. for me this paragraph sums it up regarding jehovah's witnesses: " ...smith described organized religion to me as having become a “polluted” idea in the american mainstream, because of the publicity around sex abuse scandals and financial malfeasance in many different faiths in the ’80s and ’90s as millennials came of age.

“the scandals violated most of the virtues believed to make religion good,” smith wrote.

Anony Mous

In regards the membership differences, it’s well known in religious leadership that more people are attending but fewer people become members or tie themselves to a particular church.

As far as the nature of increasing, more young people and Democrats have been attending church, many are indeed trying to get away from religious extremism on their side. Republicans on the other hand have been leaving the classic church, especially in blue districts as churches have in many cases betrayed their own standards in the hope of gaining followers in the last few decades.