Gayle, I never even thought of including inflation in my calculation but that's crucial. As to your comment, Morpheus, et me check my copy of the Circuit Overseers secret handbook and see if there's not more specific figures in there. Perhaps they make more than bethelites.
john.prestor
JoinedPosts by john.prestor
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Bethelite statistics
by john.prestor inhey guys, i'm working on a paper about exploitation amongst jehovah's witnesses ( i'm also preparing a book about jehovah's witnesses and interaction ritual theory, and another paper about jehovah's witnesses and discrimination against women).
i'm trying to calculate as exact figures as i can concerning how much bethelites are paid.
does anyone know the monthly stipend as of now?
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Bethelite statistics
by john.prestor inhey guys, i'm working on a paper about exploitation amongst jehovah's witnesses ( i'm also preparing a book about jehovah's witnesses and interaction ritual theory, and another paper about jehovah's witnesses and discrimination against women).
i'm trying to calculate as exact figures as i can concerning how much bethelites are paid.
does anyone know the monthly stipend as of now?
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john.prestor
Dozy, you're definitely right, and I don't know to take that into consideration. I guess I just need to acknowledge that and try to find some sort of figure for New York as to average rent? I'm still thinking it out.
new boy, that's also helpful information, thank you. By the way, loved your stories of Bethel!
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Bethelite statistics
by john.prestor inhey guys, i'm working on a paper about exploitation amongst jehovah's witnesses ( i'm also preparing a book about jehovah's witnesses and interaction ritual theory, and another paper about jehovah's witnesses and discrimination against women).
i'm trying to calculate as exact figures as i can concerning how much bethelites are paid.
does anyone know the monthly stipend as of now?
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john.prestor
Thank you guys, so this is in line with what the Circuit Overseer told me, good. The Special Pioneer information is completely new to me, I thought they received the same 200-300, glad you mentioned that sir82. I also didn't know it varied by country fulano, that's important.
What I'm trying to do is calculate figures as to how much a Bethelite could make outside of Bethel vs how much they make inside of Bethel to show how much the movement is saving/making off them, i.e., what exact amount it exploits from them. I'm going to use the NY minimum wage to calculate what an individual who works Bethelite hours would make outside Bethel (to my understanding, still about a 40 hour week, maybe a couple more from what I heard at an interest meeting at a convention), given how many Bethelites serve at Warwick, and then subtract what Bethelites make at Bethel from this figure (it's about 15k - 3k, so the movement saves/exploits them out of nearly 12k).
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Bethelite statistics
by john.prestor inhey guys, i'm working on a paper about exploitation amongst jehovah's witnesses ( i'm also preparing a book about jehovah's witnesses and interaction ritual theory, and another paper about jehovah's witnesses and discrimination against women).
i'm trying to calculate as exact figures as i can concerning how much bethelites are paid.
does anyone know the monthly stipend as of now?
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john.prestor
It was that bad back then? Jesus. 14 a month? I would have recoiled too.
I'm going off the 200-300 figure because that's what a Circuit Overseer told me in 2014 at a rural congregation when he visited; I was surprised he was so forthcoming, frankly. But that might not apply to Bethelites, of course.
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Bethelite statistics
by john.prestor inhey guys, i'm working on a paper about exploitation amongst jehovah's witnesses ( i'm also preparing a book about jehovah's witnesses and interaction ritual theory, and another paper about jehovah's witnesses and discrimination against women).
i'm trying to calculate as exact figures as i can concerning how much bethelites are paid.
does anyone know the monthly stipend as of now?
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john.prestor
I make mention of them but because the movement sacked them I didn't include them in my analysis, which looks at exploitation in the movement based on figures from 2016 (i.e., figures from the movement's 2017 Yearbook). I include Circuit Overseers, Elders, and Pioneers in addition to Bethelites.
Thank you for the interest, scratchme1010!
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Bethelite statistics
by john.prestor inhey guys, i'm working on a paper about exploitation amongst jehovah's witnesses ( i'm also preparing a book about jehovah's witnesses and interaction ritual theory, and another paper about jehovah's witnesses and discrimination against women).
i'm trying to calculate as exact figures as i can concerning how much bethelites are paid.
does anyone know the monthly stipend as of now?
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john.prestor
Hey guys, I'm working on a paper about exploitation amongst Jehovah's Witnesses ( I'm also preparing a book about Jehovah's Witnesses and interaction ritual theory, and another paper about Jehovah's Witnesses and discrimination against women). I'm trying to calculate as exact figures as I can concerning how much Bethelites are paid. Does anyone know the monthly stipend as of now? If I recall its somewhere between $200 and $300 but I don't know exactly where it falls. Can anyone link me to a document or site which provides this amount? Or does anyone know the exact amount?
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JWs studying with a neighbor: what should I do?
by john.prestor inso let me introduce myself first: i've lurked here for years because i'm working on a long-term research project concerning jehovah's witnesses and i've collected data from this site (seriously, you guys are awesome, i've learned so much from this forum i never would have learned otherwise).
i've also collected data at multiple kingdom halls and read scholarly works on jehovah's witnesses and non-scholarly works as well (e.g., crisis of conscience).
so i have a pretty good sense of jehovah's witnesses even though i was not raised in this faith nor did i ever join up.
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john.prestor
Thank you Giordano, it was pretty nerve-racking but I thought, you know what, I'm not letting somebody else suffer through the kinds of things I did as a kid. No matter your age, sexual repression, guilt, and fear are unhealthy and help no one. -
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JWs studying with a neighbor: what should I do?
by john.prestor inso let me introduce myself first: i've lurked here for years because i'm working on a long-term research project concerning jehovah's witnesses and i've collected data from this site (seriously, you guys are awesome, i've learned so much from this forum i never would have learned otherwise).
i've also collected data at multiple kingdom halls and read scholarly works on jehovah's witnesses and non-scholarly works as well (e.g., crisis of conscience).
so i have a pretty good sense of jehovah's witnesses even though i was not raised in this faith nor did i ever join up.
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john.prestor
Thanks for the warm welcome. I hope she stops by for coffee, she seems like a kind woman.
At this point in the research I'm calculating the degree to which Bethelites are exploited by the movement. For instance, if an IT technician could normally be paid 50k outside the movement, and the movement pays them 3600 a year (going off what I think is the most generous salary the movement offers, 300 a month [does anyone have a specific figure and citation or source?] they're paid 3600 a year. Minus the two and the movement saves over 45k by employing them at sub-par wages.
I was also able to include the secret rulebooks in my papers because of people linking to them on this site. Never knew of them before you guys.
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JWs studying with a neighbor: what should I do?
by john.prestor inso let me introduce myself first: i've lurked here for years because i'm working on a long-term research project concerning jehovah's witnesses and i've collected data from this site (seriously, you guys are awesome, i've learned so much from this forum i never would have learned otherwise).
i've also collected data at multiple kingdom halls and read scholarly works on jehovah's witnesses and non-scholarly works as well (e.g., crisis of conscience).
so i have a pretty good sense of jehovah's witnesses even though i was not raised in this faith nor did i ever join up.
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john.prestor
Freddo, I took your advice and it went great, thank you. She said that she isn't studying with them but that she knows one of the two women I saw, she's a family friend, but my neighbor seemed genuinely concerned when I said that their organization covers up child molestation (that was the only specific thing I mentioned, I said it was in the news lately) and said she appreciated me coming by and something to the effect of she wouldn't "want to get involved in anything crazy like that." I kept it brief and I said if she wanted to talk more she was welcome to come by my apartment for coffee. We shook hands and she said it was nice to meet me.
Thank you guy for the feedback, it really helped.
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JWs studying with a neighbor: what should I do?
by john.prestor inso let me introduce myself first: i've lurked here for years because i'm working on a long-term research project concerning jehovah's witnesses and i've collected data from this site (seriously, you guys are awesome, i've learned so much from this forum i never would have learned otherwise).
i've also collected data at multiple kingdom halls and read scholarly works on jehovah's witnesses and non-scholarly works as well (e.g., crisis of conscience).
so i have a pretty good sense of jehovah's witnesses even though i was not raised in this faith nor did i ever join up.
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john.prestor
So let me introduce myself first: I've lurked here for years because I'm working on a long-term research project concerning Jehovah's Witnesses and I've collected data from this site (seriously, you guys are awesome, I've learned so much from this forum I never would have learned otherwise). I've also collected data at multiple Kingdom Halls and read scholarly works on Jehovah's Witnesses and non-scholarly works as well (e.g., Crisis of Conscience). So I have a pretty good sense of Jehovah's Witnesses even though I was not raised in this faith nor did I ever join up. However, I was raised in a somewhat similar repressive, controlling religion which used fear and guilt to keep people in line.
That being said...
Today when I got home from grocery shopping I saw two well-dressed women standing in front of my apartment building; one was holding a "silver sword" under her arm. They knocked on a woman's window and she came out and said it wasn't a good time and they chatted briefly and the women left by the time I came back outside from putting away my groceries.
So here's my dilemma.
I don't know this woman, and I don't know how to gauge her interest in joining Jehovah's Witnesses; for all I know she just tried to put them off in my presence ("not a good time"). But from what I know about Jehovah's Witnesses their introductory material (What Does the Bible Really Teach?) does not give interested parties a balanced or even complete perspective on joining up. So I'm considering leaving this woman a letter telling her, "Look, this is your decision to make, and it's not my right to tell you what to do, but I think you ought to know... " and then mention a few things like disfellowshipping, the cover-up of child molestation, failed prophecies, etc. and maybe refer her to www.jwfacts.com.
I'm nervous, however, that this approach could be spun by the two Witness women into "persecution" or "opposition" or "Satanic influence" if I don't word the letter carefully and she shows it to them, at which point the letter could backfire and the woman might feel emboldened in joining up. I'm looking for your advice, guys, on how I should approach this, and frankly, whether I should leave any such letter at all.