Posts by lifeisgood

42

What Are Their Motives?

by headisspinning in

i have a question.

if jws are a cult, what is the motivation of the leaders?

what are they getting out of controlling all these people?.

It is perfectly legal. These are private corporations. They are under no obligation to tell the JW members anything. And I'm not talking about the public corporation. You have to look through all the corporations to see who the true owner is. It is one of the older corporations that Russel set up. It is hard to follow, we had a huge graph made from index cards taped to a white board with lines drawn with white board markers.

Whoever set this up knew exactly what they were doing.

And, in every country, whenever the government sets up rules to thwart this kind of thing, the WTBTS just set up some new scam to skirt the law. It is all legal, not ethical, but legal.

Whoever is actually behind this is extremely skilled at manipulation. The governing body are just useful tools, and they are either too stupid or too scared or enjoying playing their game too much to rock the boat. These men, the governing body that is, are not Christains, they are not moral, they are not spiritual. I don't know how much of the truth of all this that they know but they keep it going by lying to the JWs. They destroy lives without thinking about it. They destroy lives on a whim and then a few years later totally change the doctrine that destroyed the lives and don't allow those disfellowshipped to come back and be forgiven. It is insane.

But the people who control the money and call the shots are far worse.

42

What Are Their Motives?

by headisspinning in

i have a question.

if jws are a cult, what is the motivation of the leaders?

what are they getting out of controlling all these people?.

lifeisgood

sabastious,

The governing body do not control anything. The lawyers do. The governing body has to ask for things. The lawyers can cut a check to the shareholders at any time and they do not have to disclose this to anyone, these are not publicly held corporations. The shareholders can have a meeting and vote on it and they are not required to tell the governing body.

It became very obvious to me that someone is sitting behind the scenes directing this activity. Not a single person, but a group of people plus the lawyers. It isn't the governing body, they are mostly idiots. That is why we did this research. We could not get it down to a list of names but we did get it down to shares that are still intact and the governing body does not own these shares.

I have a theory, I cannot prove it, but I have seen similar situations in other cults. Also, the tone of the WTBTS publications is, well for lack of a better term, demonic. Forget about the happy pictures, just read the text straight through and don't answer the stupid questions. And picture the tone of voice. I don't believe in demons as being spirit creatures, but that concept of being demonic, utter evil, that is the voice I hear when I read the WTBTS publications. Forget the dang pictures of people smiling. My theory is that the people calling the shots know exactly what they are doing and the governing body are useful idiots who are easily manipulated because this is really what they believe. They believe their own lies, that they are God's mouthpiece. Total nonsnse. But, whoever is controlling this huge financial empire is not an idiot.

42

What Are Their Motives?

by headisspinning in

i have a question.

if jws are a cult, what is the motivation of the leaders?

what are they getting out of controlling all these people?.

lifeisgood

Their money goes to the real owners of the WTBTS. Some of my friends and I researched this serveral years ago. You start with Russel's original corporation. It had very few shareholders. I think that they had 50 shareholders. They introduced new shareholders later by giving shares based on contributions but then they got all those people to agree to sell or give the shares back. So, the original 50 shareholders are still intact. Not the actual people, of course, but whoever the shares were willed to, and then whoever they were willed to after that...up till today.

If you look at the list of corporations that the WTBTS has set up including the ones Russel set up, the list is very long. And the corporations are interlocking, it is very difficult to figure out which corporation The reason for this is to hide the money flow, and to shield the people who own the original stock from lawsuits and public sight.

The governing body members get perks but they are not stockholders.

The WTBTS has over ten billion dollars in assets. The governing body owns 0% of that. The current owners of the original stock are the owners of the assets. You will never hear their names mentioned. They are very well shielded by multiple interlocking corporate ownership and lawyers. You do realize that the lawyers call all the shots now.

The WTBTS has an extensive portfoloio, we verified some of this a few years ago. They own bonds, stocks, commodities, real estate, boats, planes, cars, jewelry, gold, antiques, and other valuables.

The WTBTS gives no money to anyone. When they build a kingdom hall the local congregation is on the hook to pay for it. Assembly halls, the same thing. They claim that they give circuit and district overseers a little money but I remember how the elders asked for a resolution every time they came to town to give them money out of the kingdom hall contribution box. They pay the brothers and sisters who volunteer to work at the societies offices, farms, and factories very little and this money comes from contributions.

79

Why I no longer believe the Bible is "God's Word" and I no longer believe in "God"

by lifeisgood in

jw
friends

i became a christain at the age of 9. not by going to a church or asking a preacher to baptize me, or anything like that.

i started reading my mother's king james bible cover to cover at the age of 8. my father was very abusive and when he was abusing me, i would close my eyes and pray.

i never hated my father, which is one good thing i got out of prayer.. when i turned 13 i became a lay preacher and traveled, on my own, preaching in any church that would let me.. when i was 15 i studied with the jws and was baptized after four months of study.. i was a zealous christain but not a zealous jw, according to them.

lifeisgood

tec,

I like how you judge me and tell me that I was not really a Christain.

"Reading the bible constantly, even memorizing every word cover to cover; being a lay preacher, etc... none of these make a person a Christian. I think I might say that you did not know Christ BECAUSE you became a JW. It isn't a judgment. I believed them too. Why? Because I did not know Christ. Had I known Him, I would not have believed the falsehoods and half-truths being told in his name, or about him. I would have known that theirs was a stranger's voice, and not to listen to it."

Please do not talk to me anymore.

13

Worldly people don't suck

by streets76 in

jw
friends

my wife (never a jw) is ill and undergoing a series of treatments that will last for many months.

it's a physical, emotional, and financial drain on both of us.. my wife has run her own business for many years and has an extensive client list that includes some very well-to-do folks.

one of those clients called her one day and offered to pay all of her medical expenses.

lifeisgood

My ex wife, her mother and brother, all Jehovah's Witnesses from birth, live in the house that I bought and paid off and gave to my ex when we divorced. In the state that we divorced in the house is almost always divided equally. I gave her the house in order to take care of my children. The ex, mother in law and brother in law are so crazy and so belligerent that none of my children will live in that house. My youngest daughter is 18 and lives with a nice family, she goes to college. She got a job recently and told me that she is getting her own place because under no circumstances will she move back into that house to live with those lunatics.

The idiots did not have fire insurance and the brother in law started a fire by doing something ignorant. The house was severely damaged.

My children have been trying to help their mother fix the house. One of my daughters went to the Kingdom Hall that my ex and her mother are assigned to. The "elders" came to their house, looked around, didn't say hardly a word to anyone, and left. They made no offer of any kind of assistance. My daughter went back to the hall and asked them what they planned on doing. I don't know what the elders said in response but the answer was nothing.

I offered to pay for materials if the expense was not outside of my ability, and there are other groups that will give limited amounts of help. What my ex needs is people who know how to do the work. I was on the quick build committee for years and a quick build could restore the house in one weekend.

So, the "elders" are perfectly happy to know that these "witnesses" are living in a burned out house while the elders do absolutely nothing to help them.

None of my children are Witnesses. They all left the Jehovah's Witness religion because they cannot stand the hypocrisy. And for the past two years they and I have been spending whatever extra money we had to buy materials to fix the house. Some of the work they did themselves, some of it we hired skilled workers for whatever that trade was.

Oh, my ex, her mother, and her brother have done ZERO to fix the house, my children have done it all. One of my daughters has to act as the general contractor because there simply is no one else. The wonderful elders couldn't even get someone from the quick build committee to play that role for my daughters.

These Jehovah's Witnesses just make me sick.

39

Went round and round last night

by sinis in

jw
friends

so, my mother is still in.

last night at my parents home she starts in with me on how she is going to ask my sig other to the memorial (puke), and that i should not forbid her to go.

we went round and round about how the jw's are bs, gave many examples and it always came back to some twisted circular reasoning, that i still do not fully understand.

lifeisgood

Snoozy,

I was born in the 18th century.

When I said "According to the Bible and the WTBTS the husband has headship over the wife. Your mother cannot make a decision affecting your wife. Only you can do that." I was referring to what the Jehovah's Witnesses teach. Since sinis' mother is a Jehovah's Witness and this is what they teach, it seems fair to me to use their teachings.

I am married to a woman much younger than me and she would hit me with a tire tool if I said she had to do this.

79

Why I no longer believe the Bible is "God's Word" and I no longer believe in "God"

by lifeisgood in

jw
friends

i became a christain at the age of 9. not by going to a church or asking a preacher to baptize me, or anything like that.

i started reading my mother's king james bible cover to cover at the age of 8. my father was very abusive and when he was abusing me, i would close my eyes and pray.

i never hated my father, which is one good thing i got out of prayer.. when i turned 13 i became a lay preacher and traveled, on my own, preaching in any church that would let me.. when i was 15 i studied with the jws and was baptized after four months of study.. i was a zealous christain but not a zealous jw, according to them.

lifeisgood

tec,

You really don't know very much about human history given your answer to this question, "What about all mankind that lived thousands of years before Jesus? Did they not deserve to learn the truth, be shown how to live in order to please God?"

You said "God tried to tell them. He sent prophets and servants. Most were not willing to listen."

The only description of this that you could have is the Old Testament. Most of the Old Testament describes entire nations being murdered without any chance of them making any sort of repentence because they were occupying the land that was promised to Israel. 'Jehovah' didn't even give the Israelites permission to tell them why they were being murdered, let alone give them a chance to repent.

The vast majority of humans before Jesus had no knowledge of the Bible or of Jehovah, and the vast majority were not approached by "propets and servants" and told that they needed to change.

What you are saying is a total fantasy.

1

nevermind

by lifeisgood in

jw
friends

nevermind.

lifeisgood

nevermind

79

Why I no longer believe the Bible is "God's Word" and I no longer believe in "God"

by lifeisgood in

jw
friends

i became a christain at the age of 9. not by going to a church or asking a preacher to baptize me, or anything like that.

i started reading my mother's king james bible cover to cover at the age of 8. my father was very abusive and when he was abusing me, i would close my eyes and pray.

i never hated my father, which is one good thing i got out of prayer.. when i turned 13 i became a lay preacher and traveled, on my own, preaching in any church that would let me.. when i was 15 i studied with the jws and was baptized after four months of study.. i was a zealous christain but not a zealous jw, according to them.

lifeisgood

rebel8,

Do you mean that 1Corinthians 11 explains to us how women are inferior? I believe it.

25

Great reply to "Apostates only tear down, they never build up!"

by SweetBabyCheezits in

jw
friends

i'm sure many of you are familiar with that line.

it continues to be a card played frequently by the wt society.. is there any truth to it?

"apostates" do tend to tear down.

lifeisgood

I stayed in the Jehovah's Witness cult longer than I should have. Because I was afraid of life outside the cult. And afraid of losing all my friends and family. And afraid that I was wrong somehow and I was condemning my wife and children.

Later on I just couldn't do it anymore and I left. No big drama, no meetings with the elders, I just never went to a meeting again.

I wasn't overly sad over leaving the cult. I was sad about some other things but the cult had no answers for them. It wasn't too long until I never even thought about the cult or its teachings or my former friends any more.

Now, I am happily married to a wonderful woman who DESPISES churchianity and I have great relationships with all my relatives. The non-JW relatives never even asked me about leaving the JW cult. MY JW relatives try to talk to me about it once in a while and I just smile and say "ohhhh".

The governing body are a bunch of lying scumbags who just manipulate people to do what benefits the governing body.

The thing that makes me so upset about them is that if they REALLY wanted to give people spirituality then they could. but they would rather manipulate and abuse their followers instead. Scumbags.