Posts by cookiemaster

39

"Deficit" at JW Assembly

by cookiemaster in

i've recently been at an assembly here in romania and there was an announced they were running a 10,000 euro deficit and urging all attendees to donate more money besides the already 5k has was donated during that day.

i really don't understand these things.

it's their own assembly hall.

cookiemaster

Thanks for all the responses guys! It's amazing how oblivious I was to this while I was a JW. I guess I never questioned these financial arrangements because even the thought that Jehovah's organization is ripping off its followers would've been a sin.

Crazyguy - Considering the attendance, it comes off at around 10 Euro per head. I think 99% of those in attendance would easily afford to donate that amount. Most probably spend more during the break while buying coffee and snacks. There's been a huge amount of economic growth in these past two decades and we live in a richer part of the country.

Our circuit (or whatever they're called these days) has some really rich JWs too, one being a millionaire football coach famous throughout the country. He's treated like royalty at every convention. You should see the car park with all the BMW and Mercedes SUVs lined up one after the other. Really makes you laugh at the hypocrisy of everyone vigorously applauding talks about leading a simple, modest life, while almost nobody is actually following this teaching.

So yeah, the amount per head is pretty affordable but to be honest I think most in attendance have donated less than that. They're pretty stingy with the donations. My parents donated 3 Euro, LOL. Really, most spend their money during the break on food, drinks, ice cream, and barely give a second thought to the donations. The apathy level is huge. Maybe the rich guys are making up for it but somehow I doubt it. They still make around 10K per assembly, which is practically like printing money for them. The hundreds of assemblies throughout the country each year must produce millions in profits.

39

"Deficit" at JW Assembly

by cookiemaster in

i've recently been at an assembly here in romania and there was an announced they were running a 10,000 euro deficit and urging all attendees to donate more money besides the already 5k has was donated during that day.

i really don't understand these things.

it's their own assembly hall.

cookiemaster

OnTheWayOut - WOW! You just blew my mind. I've never known this. Thank you! Of course, I've always had my suspicions and since I've been awake I've been paying more attention to these things, but wow... the extent and deliberate planning of this is unbelievable, especially considering how spontaneous and sincere it seems to the average JW.

39

"Deficit" at JW Assembly

by cookiemaster in

i've recently been at an assembly here in romania and there was an announced they were running a 10,000 euro deficit and urging all attendees to donate more money besides the already 5k has was donated during that day.

i really don't understand these things.

it's their own assembly hall.

cookiemaster

I've recently been at an assembly here in Romania and there was an announced they were running a 10,000 Euro deficit and urging all attendees to donate more money besides the already 5K has was donated during that day. I really don't understand these things. It's their own assembly hall. State of the art JW assembly hall built less than 10 years ago. How are they running these huge "deficits"? Why would it cost 15K a day to have the assembly at your own bloody assembly hall. It all seems like a huge donations scam to me. Sure, they have some costs for the utilities, toilet paper, decorations, etc, but it's definitely not 15,000 Euro per day.

It's October so it's not very hot or cold. The cheap bastards never turn on the AC anyway. Utilities are very cheap here in Romania. My neighbor is the manager of a hotel with 100 rooms and she says that the electricity cost is around 1100 Euro per month for the entire hotel. How would an assembly hall generate such high expenses? Anyone else notice this apparent deficit scam?

22

Will they drink the Kool Aid?

by Hecce in

as you know the question regarding the “kool aid” is related to the tragic events at guyana and jim jones.

blind obedience and faith in this man resulted in a massive loss of lives.. sometimes we see the same pattern of blind obedience to the watchtower from the witnesses.

this could be on major items or small details.

cookiemaster

Hi Hecce,

Sorry to take so long to reply. My mother is 63. She's been a lifelong JW and all her close friends were JWs. Now, they all shun her. She's also made three reinstatement requests which have been refused by the local elders. I've had to teach her how to live again as a normal person and make friends outside the cult. It hasn't been easy but at least she's not so lonely anymore. Still believes JW doctrine though, at least most of it. I guess lifelong indoctrination is hard to escape.

49

Dietary Quirks Among JWs

by millie210 in

i recently had to accompany an older family member out of state to a family reunion.

it was a big reunion and not much was overtly made of the fact that i am "misguided" and not attending meetings (lost soul that i am) which was nice.

the thing i noticed that i was most struck by was all the dietary quirks in evidence during our 3 days together.

cookiemaster

My JW mother is a hypochondriac and a germophobe, and she was battled tens of make belief illnesses, among her real ones. When I was a kid, she practically gave away most of the family's savings on medicinal cures sold by a local JW homeopatic doctor (who was later disfellowshipped for being a con artist). Even today she still complains endlessly about certain imaginary smells in the house that bother nobody other than her and believes all kind of homeopathic crap.

She's tried all kinds of idiotic health diets that do nothing for you. Her only real diseases identified so far by doctors have been depression and pernicious anemia (which almost killed her due to initial blood transfusion refusal). I'm sure she has several mental disorders that exacerbate her hypochondria and germophobia. What's worse is that she continues to try to waste money on all sorts of miracle cures and diets presented to her by other JW nutcases. I've noticed that many JWs kinda encourage each other on these increasingly "special" dietary and medicinal paths.

22

Will they drink the Kool Aid?

by Hecce in

as you know the question regarding the “kool aid” is related to the tragic events at guyana and jim jones.

blind obedience and faith in this man resulted in a massive loss of lives.. sometimes we see the same pattern of blind obedience to the watchtower from the witnesses.

this could be on major items or small details.

cookiemaster

Two years ago my mother was ready to die by refusing a blood transfusion. I've begged and pleaded with her and eventually she did get the transfusion, thanks to which she's still alive today. Due to all the brainwashing, she felt so guilty that she told the elders what she did. She didn't want to admit that I've convinced her to take the transfusion, which would've meant my disfellowshipping, so they considered her unrepentant and said she's disassociated.

A few months later a girl from a neighboring congo was in a car accident. She was just 18 and in a coma. Her parents refused to allow the doctors to give her a transfusion. She died. I know of at least a dozen cases of JW deaths due to blood refusal, throughout the country, in recent years. I think thousands of JWs drink the kool aid worldwide, every year, at the cost of their lives.

23

Does anyone under the age of 25 know what KFC stands for? (What about WT or JW?)

by stuckinarut2 in

as we have seen, the society has so smoothly rolled out the rebranding of the organization in just a few short years!.

(in fact, i remember a thread post here a few years back, where it was mentioned that all halls are going to get the jw.org signs on them.

it was initially laughed off and doubted) https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/279409/jw-org-signs-put-on-all-kingdom-halls-new-directive.

cookiemaster

I'm 24, from Romania, and I know what KFC stands for. You make a very good point however. The more they rebrand, they further away they move from their previous names and identity, which means that fewer people will find out about their history and past transgressions.

11

Are JWs the most corporate religion?

by cookiemaster in

i find it pretty shocking how corporate the jw religion is.

i never saw it this way when i was in but now that i look at it from a different perspective, it seems quite clear.

much of the terminology used by jws is corporate inspired.

cookiemaster

Thank you everyone! Really insightful replies from all of you. I'm shocked by how blind I was to all this. The more you look into it, the more corporate it looks. Other aspects that seem corporate that I would mention is their affiliation with the UN and their stock investments in other companies, their greedy use of the JW workforce to create a real estate empire and others.

11

Are JWs the most corporate religion?

by cookiemaster in

i find it pretty shocking how corporate the jw religion is.

i never saw it this way when i was in but now that i look at it from a different perspective, it seems quite clear.

much of the terminology used by jws is corporate inspired.

cookiemaster

I find it pretty shocking how corporate the JW religion is. I never saw it this way when I was in but now that I look at it from a different perspective, it seems quite clear. Much of the terminology used by JWs is corporate inspired. It's also the case for their dress and grooming code, the hierarchy of the organization, the conventions and the talks there, even the goddamn name tags. Most of the things JWs do seems to be corporate inspired. The GB is the board of directors, there's equivalent of company memos, brochures, etc.

To me, it seems that in recent years JWs have been going even more corporate. The new style of conventions where talks often contain videos and presentations. The cart witnessing. The JW.Org pins. The entire re-branding they've gone through. The shift toward the focus on real estate money. The new style mid-week meetings. Everything seems to be going into an even more corporate direction.

To me, when you compare this to most other religions, it seems very bizarre and absurd. All religions are absurd in my opinion but at least some religions try to create a most mystically oriented image for themselves, but JWs seem to strive to be a corporation in almost all regards. What do you guys think? Is there any other cult or religion that does this? (Maybe Scientology?)

13

Thoughts from the International Summer Convention in Romania

by cookiemaster in

we just had a huge international convention here in romania.

at least huge by local standards.

22,000 in attendance in one location and around 44,000 throughout the country.

cookiemaster

Thanks everyone for your interesting replies. Yes, they still do the gift exchanges and the native costumes thing. The brothers and sisters here waited everyone at the airport dressed on full on native costumes. It was pretty cringy, especially as the clothing is traditionally quite thick and there was a heat wave going on.

The whole job thing is insane. They just demonize having a career and make it seem like any well paying job will demand of you to be there 100% of the time, not even being able to take a few hours off for a meeting, which is just false in most cases. The videos they present have such unrealistic scenarios, it's almost laughable. Even if some scenarios are realistic, it's often worth the effort to work more. Especially for people who have old or sick family members or other issues to deal with, and want to have physical and financial security.

They show these movies with JWs that live prosperous middle class lives while doing almost no real work and spending their time pioneering. That's not how the real world works in my experience.