I am also puzzled as to why they have not begun meeting in KH again. Most or all or the churches I know of are having church as usual (midwest US). Understandably there may be some countries or localities where they might be smart to not start back yet, but it could be done here.
dropoffyourkeylee
JoinedPosts by dropoffyourkeylee
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Anyone get the feeling that the cult is really in trouble.
by mickbobcat inso all the bs and hyperbole aside, to me it really looks like the cult is in trouble.
shrinking member, selling halls.
the move to televangelism is really strange to me.
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My old JW cult hall permenantly closed.
by mickbobcat ini was watching a video by smurf girl that said that her old halls where permanently closed.
so i did a google lookup of my old hall and it said permanently closed.
so is this that big that the cult is really shuttering all these halls for good?
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dropoffyourkeylee
This thread prompted me to look up the google listing for ‘kingdom hall near me’ and I was a bit surprised to see one for just about all the halls around here (midwest US). They have spammed up the reviews with a bunch of 5 star reviews from various JWs from all around.
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WT UK admit they are a building company
by Splash inhttps://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03858051.
they have registered their business at companies house under business code 41100 - development of building projects.. opening their latest full accounts filing it says on page 4 under principle funding sources:.
”the society currently has two funding sources, one of them being the construction of new facilities or places of worship, which is invoiced at cost to other charities with similar aims”.
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dropoffyourkeylee
They are at least admitting publicly what they are doing, that is;
Use volunteer labor to build a facility, use it as a KH or Assembly Hall for a while, sell it to another party, then repeat. It is one of their funding sources.
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Remembering Rutherford
by Sea Breeze inhe seems to me to be the angriest and most ill-tempered of all the wt presidents, especially after his stint in prison and failed prophecies.. “regarding his misguided statements as to what we could expect in 1925, he [rutherford] once confessed to us at bethel, “i made an ass of myself.”” watchtower 1984 oct 1 p.24.
rutherford died at beth sarim on january 8, 1942, at the age of 72.
[220] cause of death was...carcinoma of the rectum..."[21] .
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dropoffyourkeylee
Thanks DJW for your posts, if uninterested, one can simply scroll down. Some of the literature is hard to find, like 'Children'.
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KH's Still All Closed- How Bad is WT doing Financially?
by OnTheWayOut inmost churches are back to in-person worship.
not jehovah's witnesses.
is watchtower still managing to fleece the flocks as the sheeple no longer get literature, no longer go to the kh, no longer walk past the donation box?
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dropoffyourkeylee
Like any organization, for-profit or otherwise, the WT will adjust to survive. I think they were overextended with too many Bethelites, too many higher cost facilities. There are a few underlying financial-related problems that won't go away:
Declining membership in affluent countries, increasing membership in third world countries; hence lower donations.
Aging and dying core members, who tend to donate more. The religion is less attractive to the younger populace.
Increasing number of lawsuits and expensive settlements.
Their 100+ year old business model; ie print paper literature and sell it; is a thing of the past and won't be coming back.
Financial issues alone won't bring the WT down, maybe something else will, but they will adjust financially.
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What Did You Think Of The Songs Sung At The Kingdom Hall?
by minimus inwhen i was younger we had song books and i recall that some of the songs were pretty catchy.
then they revised it took some of those songs out, and added more.
i have to admit some songs were pretty good.
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dropoffyourkeylee
I used to keep a list of some of the old and antiquated words in the songs. I kind of liked them, as they were undoubtedly a carryover from the days the JWs used the King James. One was a verse about something being 'wise and meet', with meet being an old English word for appropriate. Another was something about Jesus dying 'on Calvary', which is a Latinized name that appears in the KJV but not in the NWT.
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Another shocking tidbit from the "Douglas Walsh" trial of 1954.
by EdenOne ini'm reviewing the entire transcript of the douglas walsh case, and found this shocking bit that normally doesn't come up in the search engines, but it should:.
pages 370-375. hayden cooper covington on the stand:.
q: “in your experience of your own congregation in new york, did you have children there of eleven or twelve being baptized?”.
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dropoffyourkeylee
Reading the Walsh case convinced me that some of the 'doctrines' were made up in order to support the WT legal efforts, particularly their efforts to get the JW men draft exemption as ministers. A lot of the arguments in the trial were to establish that a JW like Walsh had similar education and experience as a seminary graduate in other religions, and thus could get the exemption. Walsh, if I remember correctly, was a pioneer (a newly invented designation, for the express purpose of proving the person is a 'minister') and a congregation servant, but he was quite young (19 or 20, I think). He was most likely baptized as a teen or younger. Covington in his testimony was trying to forestall the prosecution's argument that Walsh's identity as a minister JW was invalid because of his age at baptism. -
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KH's Still All Closed- How Bad is WT doing Financially?
by OnTheWayOut inmost churches are back to in-person worship.
not jehovah's witnesses.
is watchtower still managing to fleece the flocks as the sheeple no longer get literature, no longer go to the kh, no longer walk past the donation box?
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dropoffyourkeylee
I overheard the local while wife was on zoom for the midweek meeting. They had received more donations than expenditures this past month in that report. Their utilities and other KH expenses are way down of course without meetings being held. I think they send a monthly 'stipend' to the WT, the amount of which I don't know, but it was set up to be the same as their mortgage at the time. Besides that they had sent no extra amount to the WT for the month.
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Another shocking tidbit from the "Douglas Walsh" trial of 1954.
by EdenOne ini'm reviewing the entire transcript of the douglas walsh case, and found this shocking bit that normally doesn't come up in the search engines, but it should:.
pages 370-375. hayden cooper covington on the stand:.
q: “in your experience of your own congregation in new york, did you have children there of eleven or twelve being baptized?”.
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dropoffyourkeylee
The Walsh trial should be required reading. It gives a unique insight into the WT leaders’ thinking at the time and the groundwork for later.
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What Did You Think Of The Songs Sung At The Kingdom Hall?
by minimus inwhen i was younger we had song books and i recall that some of the songs were pretty catchy.
then they revised it took some of those songs out, and added more.
i have to admit some songs were pretty good.
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dropoffyourkeylee
My personal theories:
The old pink 1966 songbook I grew up with had a lot of songs that sounded a lot like traditional hymns, in fact I think some of the tunes may have been the same as hymns with different words. The feel produced was a familiar and comfortable one to the American protestant (non-Catholic) heartland from which the WT movement got its roots. Since then a few things in the landscape have changed. Overseas growth and outreach to non-protestant backgrounds meant that the songs didn't seem familiar to potential converts. Some of the songs and/or tunes were written by non-JW or worse yet, ex-JWs (anathema to JWs). There may have been copyright issues for some of the music. Also, some of the old words, while seemingly innocuous to some, probably came across as disturbing in other areas of the world (her breasts are like towers; bees that were molested; etc).
The various songs and songbooks introduced starting in the '80's I think have been their attempt to modernize and get away from the US hymn-feel. Other churches have done the same (ie Christian rock). I don't think the WT had been entirely successful in their attempts, but I think that is where they are going. (I personally don't care for most of the new tunes, although a couple of them are not too bad)