Posts by Journeyman

42

UK Kingdom Halls for sale

by darkspilver in

jw
friends

" and a mighty cry went out over all the land: "sell !

sell !

Journeyman

Interesting article from a leading charities newspaper about The Kingdom Hall Trust, the body set up by the Watch Tower to seize all the halls in England and Wales.

https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity-vows-keep-expanding-mass-merger-boosts-income-96m-222m/management/article/1825811

Although the figures are not fully up-to-date, there are some useful numbers quoted here, including:

"The Kingdom Hall Trust has grown its assets from £9.6m to £222m in three years after it took over 1,279 Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations... [and has] become the owner of 726 buildings in England and Wales..."

"The trust’s total expenditure in the year to 31 August 2022 was £25m..."
"...£4m was spent on 'providing places of worship'...”
"...£6m was spent on 'assisting congregations'..."
"...£14m was donated to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain."

This link shows when the trust took over the halls (mostly in March 2022, but some up to two years earlier):
https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/275946/governance

In Scotland (which has a separate legal system and therefore separate charity laws), it seems each congregation is still a charity by itself - the Scottish register has 96 listed.

93

Regional Convention Attendance

by XBEHERE in

jw
friends

elder friend of mine texted me asking what my rc attendance was 2 weeks ago (family and i streamed it since wife is not well).

he told me that his rc in the jersey city assembly hall last weekend was low.

co told them that around 2600 were the total from 16+ congs that were assigned.

Journeyman

Thanks for starting this thread, XBEHERE. It will be interesting to see the numbers come in from various places (both in and outside the USA) as the convention season goes on.

This would be a good thread to keep all those anecdotes about attendance together, so we can see how much it's fallen across the board (as I suspect it will).

Here in the UK, the English RCs run from June 23-August 27 with the first in Sheffield and the last in Liverpool and London.

Interesting, the argument from that CO about people "breaking up" their attendance over several weekends. I thought the org always 'encouraged' publishers to only go to their assigned convention? Even allowing for those who are working to attend a 'listening' convention, that wouldn't account for many, maybe a few hundred - besides which, that should show up as a slight increase elsewhere. I've never heard of that excuse, certainly not on mass. That definitely sounds like reaching.

Time will tell whether any locations do increase slightly, as the numbers come in. But I doubt it.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Journeyman

LE was showing his usual chippy, passive-aggressive and sarcastic responses that we've all now come to know and "love" (sarcasm there too, of course!) - but TBH, although he told some truths about LE's attitude, I thought Old Goat was also quite argumentative and a little patronising. I note that several other commenters also called OG out too.

I don't wish to let LE off the hook, and I'm aware OG might not even be around any more as that thread was 12 years ago (his history indicates he turned 90 six years ago, when he last posted), but I have to call it as I see it.

Regardless of whether OG (or any other commenter) overdid things though, we can clearly see the LE character traits even from that very first exchange. After all these years of online interaction, he's never grown up, learned or adapted. It's something that Caleb noted about him in his recent summary of LE's online activity - no real growth or progression, just the same attitude, speech and behaviour.

34

An analysis of the recent 153rd Gilead Graduation talk by Jesse Morris (member of the US Branch Committee and son of Anthony Morris III)

by jwleaks in

jw
friends

article from the last days newsletter (june 5-11, 2023).

it has been said that by reading the watchtower and awake!

magazines, along with other publications of jehovah’s witnesses, a person will receive, over a period of years, a considerable and broad education.. …would you like to grow in knowledge, obtaining an education of even much greater value than can be received in any college?

Journeyman

Oh and by the way - here's another stupid thing: they've removed the issue numbers and cover dates on the reprinted mags, presumably so they can be reused in the ministry, but someone pointed out to me the other day that they haven't removed them from all the inside pages! D'oh! These are the kind of rushed, thoughtless moves that GB2.0 seem to make all the time.

Here's an example from the JW website of the reprint of the 2018 WT on the Future:

34

An analysis of the recent 153rd Gilead Graduation talk by Jesse Morris (member of the US Branch Committee and son of Anthony Morris III)

by jwleaks in

jw
friends

article from the last days newsletter (june 5-11, 2023).

it has been said that by reading the watchtower and awake!

magazines, along with other publications of jehovah’s witnesses, a person will receive, over a period of years, a considerable and broad education.. …would you like to grow in knowledge, obtaining an education of even much greater value than can be received in any college?

Journeyman

Not just next year. It's been like that since 2022.

They scaled back the magazines further in 2022, it's true, but this is an even bigger reduction.

From that announcement posted by jwleaks, they are literally only going to produce ONE new WT and ONE new Awake in the whole of 2024!

There will only be six magazines in total for the whole year - with each issue doubled up to cover two months, not just one - and four of them will be reprints of past editions. They started doing that last year, reprinting the mags from 2018 (Awake on Families and WT on the Future) but removing the cover dates to extend their longevity - but this is taking that even further.

I seem to recall AMIII (who he?) saying on an AGM video a few years ago that was their plan: to scale back to just rotating through a small number of repeated core topics with the public mags. How boring, and how counterproductive on the ministry.

Return visits and supposed "interested ones" will soon spot the repetition and get sick of it. I already know many people noticed after the lockdown ended that congregations still had stocks of old 2019/2020/2021 mags that were still being offered, and they were complaining that there was nothing new. It will be a pain for all those publishers - especially pioneers - who got their time in from magazine placements, too. Noone will want to see the same old subjects for two whole months then recycled again a year or so later!

They already scaled back magazines so much that they got rid of separate magazine servants. At this rate, they might as well scrap the whole literature assignment, especially when so many congregations are struggling to appoint ministerial servants!

GB2.0 really do seem to be their own worst enemies with these crazy decisions. Talk about running your own organisation into the ground.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Journeyman

Ah, the joys of virtue signalling. I'm sure everyone is really glad to know that he identifies himself as a "proud ally" of the LGBT community.

Personally, my ridicule of the bleached hair look is nothing to do with questioning his sexuality, and everything to do with thinking it makes him look like an arse.

34

An analysis of the recent 153rd Gilead Graduation talk by Jesse Morris (member of the US Branch Committee and son of Anthony Morris III)

by jwleaks in

jw
friends

article from the last days newsletter (june 5-11, 2023).

it has been said that by reading the watchtower and awake!

magazines, along with other publications of jehovah’s witnesses, a person will receive, over a period of years, a considerable and broad education.. …would you like to grow in knowledge, obtaining an education of even much greater value than can be received in any college?

Journeyman

They want the rank and file to see this massively-reduced output as a blessing of some kind.

I agree. They can't have it both ways. For decades, the org has claimed that the magazines are essential spiritual food, part of the "bountiful provisions" from God. Yet in the last decade, GB2.0 have slashed both the size and frequency of the magazines to a fraction of their previous content.

GB2.0 would probably claim that they've replaced this with all the videos and animated content, and that as a result the "spiritual food" is now even more plentiful, but we all know the online and media material is considerably dumbed down now.

There is so much that could be done with video and animation formats that would actually be interesting, but it's usually just sentimental videos or articles of bullet point lists with linked scriptures, rather than convincing reasoning or explanations, or even realistic scenarios of how Bible principles can be applied in everyday life.

Where in the past they would often include verses from other Bible translations and give at least some historical background for context (in publications like the SI book for example), now there is barely any of that in either printed material or the website.

We thought things were bad before, trying to keep up with all the magazines, but I'd much rather read through a WT or Awake of old than watch an episode of "The GB Show" on their televangelist channel, with their cringe-worthy comments like "we all loooove you verrry much!" At least those old articles were anonymous and not used to promote the individual writers, unlike the videos of the GB and their Helpers these days which portray them as 'TV stars'.

137

I find it interesting that after the cult people still hold on to religion....

by BeaverEater in

jw
friends

im not an atheist, makes no mathematical sense, nor does the buy(more) bull(shit) god make any logical sense... maybe a deist on my best day, in the end you cannot get something from nothing, paradox if you ask me... but in reality i just dont care.

while in, and moving out of the cult, its like a roller coaster, emotionally, yet, for me, over time, i just take it one day at a time, and if appeasing some special deity is required, well i guess i failed.

lol.

Journeyman

I find it interesting that after the cult people still hold on to religion....

I find it interesting that no-one applies this foolish 'logic' to any other area of life, yet many seem to think it is reasonable when it comes to religious belief:

"I was disappointed in the last relationship I had, so obviously all relationships are bad and I don't do relationships anymore."
"I was disappointed by the last job I had, so obviously all jobs are bad and I don't work any more."
"I was disappointed by the last house/flat I lived in, so obviously all homes are bad and I don't live in houses any more."
"I was disappointed by the last car I bought, so obviously all cars are bad and I don't drive any more."
"I was disappointed by the last political party I supported, so obviously all parties are bad and I don't take part in any politics." (Actually to be fair, I could agree with this one!)

Yet "I was disappointed by the last religion I was part of, so obviously all religions are bad and there is no God" is considered a 'logical' conclusion.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Journeyman

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

Journeyman

Ok, so he publicly apologises to Tibor for forgetting his birthday.

Yet no public apology to the (many) people who he has intimidated, harassed, dismissed, insulted and defamed (yes, for real) over the years.

No public apology to his wife who he has verbally and emotionally abused, humiliated and treated "like a rag for cleaning the floor".

No public apology for the terrible example as a man, a husband and a father, that he has set for his daughters.

No public apology to the patrons to whom he has broken his promises, and whose money he has squandered on sex tourism and other self-indulgences.

Fine. But we see you, and we remember. The internet has a long memory!