InquiryMan

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Posts by InquiryMan

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  6

  bethel brother murdered by fellow JW

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  this took place in the "branch-town" of selters in germany in front of more than 30 other witnesses.. it was a knife-stabbing that took place without a word or anything in advance that could explain why it happened.. quite a tragedy... .

  http://www.fnp.de/tz/region/lokales/tod-eines-taeters_rmn01.c.8415611.de.html.

  (if one puts the url in google-translate, one might understand what it is all about for those who do not speak german)..

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  InquiryMan

  google translation can get some strange renderings:

  The injured, who worked in the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany soda, died an hour later.

  soda of course should be Selters....
• 
  6

  bethel brother murdered by fellow JW

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  this took place in the "branch-town" of selters in germany in front of more than 30 other witnesses.. it was a knife-stabbing that took place without a word or anything in advance that could explain why it happened.. quite a tragedy... .

  http://www.fnp.de/tz/region/lokales/tod-eines-taeters_rmn01.c.8415611.de.html.

  (if one puts the url in google-translate, one might understand what it is all about for those who do not speak german)..

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  InquiryMan

  http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fnp.de%2Ftz%2Fregion%2Flokales%2Ftod-eines-taeters_rmn01.c.8415611.de.html&act=url
• 
  6

  bethel brother murdered by fellow JW

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  this took place in the "branch-town" of selters in germany in front of more than 30 other witnesses.. it was a knife-stabbing that took place without a word or anything in advance that could explain why it happened.. quite a tragedy... .

  http://www.fnp.de/tz/region/lokales/tod-eines-taeters_rmn01.c.8415611.de.html.

  (if one puts the url in google-translate, one might understand what it is all about for those who do not speak german)..

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• 

  InquiryMan

  This took place in the "branch-town" of Selters in Germany in front of more than 30 other witnesses.

  It was a knife-stabbing that took place without a word or anything in advance that could explain why it happened.

  Quite a tragedy...

  http://www.fnp.de/tz/region/lokales/tod-eines-taeters_rmn01.c.8415611.de.html

  (if one puts the url in google-translate, one might understand what it is all about for those who do not speak German).
• 
  54

  Does the Watchtower contain photo's of the Devil

  by jwfacts in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have not been able to find any photo's of satan the devil in the watchtower.

  there are photo's of the serpent with eve, satan's hand offering kingdoms to jesus and a shadowy cloaked figure speaking to jesus on the mountain.

  apart from that i cannot locate any of a proper looking devil.

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  InquiryMan

  There was an illustration of him showing a pretty, but haughty angel... Cannot remember which publication. Perhaps blondie knows?
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  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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  InquiryMan

  One can enlist children when the parents belong to a faith community. When they are 15 they can choose themselves according to law. There has been no reports whatsoever in the press that this is a move on part of the government.

  This is an excerpt from their annual report written to the authorities:

  In 2009, the religious community that we are from 2010 will only apply for grants for the baptized members. Reason for this change is that we want to do it the same way in Norway that Jehovah's Witnesses do elsewhere around the world, although we are aware that in accordance with Norwegian law we also have the opportunity to count non-baptized persons as members, as we have done until now. The new practice means, for example, that we no longer make use of the opportunity to to include children of baptized members as eligible members..
• 
  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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  InquiryMan

  Yes, exactly, that is why I was surprised that someone suggested that was the motive of reducing the number of members...
• 
  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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  InquiryMan

  It is kind of interesting how much you put an American way of thinking into the Scandinavian tax model... Religions are not taxated here. If the Wathctower society had been threatened with some sort of of taxation it sure would have been in the news a long time ago.... Media here very easily pick up JW related news... Even the new understanding of 1914 and civil service made its way into the newspapers weeks before the Watchtower was published.
• 
  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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  InquiryMan

  Of course we do not know if they have any hidden motives. But according to law all are allowed to include children in their membership basis.. So definitely the witnesses have not done anything wrong in doing that....
• 
  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

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  InquiryMan

  Thanks for the excellent explanation in english you provided ;-)

  The amount is now risen to NOK 357 a year. That is roughly 45 Euros or slightly less or close to 60 dollars.
• 
  13

  Change in membership rolls Norway

  by InquiryMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watchtower society in norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.. now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities.

  as a registered faith community, jws, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government.

  that is calculated on basis of the number of members... in times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. the money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as norway has a state church.

  1. 
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  3. 
• 

  InquiryMan

  The Watchtower Society in Norway has voluntarily and on their own initiative reduced their membership rolls in order to fit to the world wide practice of witnesses when it comes to membership enrollment.

  Now, they only incluce baptized members, not children and non-baptized publishers in the number they report to the authorities. As a registered faith community, JWs, alike with all other registered religious and philosophical communities, receive support from the government. that is calculated on basis of the number of members... In times past they included children, thus making the membership into some 15,000, whereas now they report just slightly above 11,000. The money paid is a sort of repayment of taxes paid by inhabitants, as Norway has a state church. They give away several hundreds of thousands dollars by doing this.

  I do not think one can play the greedy card against them in this case.

  When a person gets baptized or DA or are DF they will get a certificate of enrollment or closure of enrollment.