I had not seen this before but it literally had my jaw drop open. Especially note the two letters at the bottom of the page
The Watchtower Way of Laundering Money
by Lady Lee 17 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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MerryMagdalene
I remember reading this eye-opening article as well, Lady Lee. The greed and manipulative dishonesty is disgusting! Tax-dodging, and deliberately confusing retail cost with what it costs to manufacture and distribute this stuff.
For example, a deluxe gold-edged Bible can easily cost $20 or more, a reference book may be $40 and up, a full-color wall calendar may sell for at least $5, an encyclopedia on CD-ROM costs from $50 to $100 or higher, music compact discs commonly cost close to $20 and some videos are often sold for much more. A failure to contribute enough to cover costs will ultimately restrict what the organization may otherwise be able to accomplish in furthering the worldwide work.
~Merry
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Elsewhere
http://www.davidgladden.com/jw/Docs/branch_organization_manual_bo-e.pdf
Branch Organization Manual, page 11-1
9. We want sincerely interested ones to receive the valuable magazines on a regular basis. When the interested one is initially found, the publishers can include
them on a magazine route and in this way cultivate the
interest. Or if the person is genuinely interested and not
easily reached by a magazine route, a subscription may
be offered. Usually it is best to start a new subscriber
with a six-month subscription, which can be renewed if
there is sustained interest. Generally those who are truly
interested show it by a donation. -
Sunspot
To put thisin my perspective, this was "my" U.N./WTS expose. Back when I came online as a fervid WTS defendent and was gradually taking "peeks" at the websites containing negative and valid info about the Org---THIS lawsuit with the Jimmy Swaggart ministries was my first real long and hard look at "Mother's activities".
How sneaky, underhanded and completely smarmy this psuedo-religion IS! (And how completely gullible and clueless I was for believing this crap was "from God" for those 30 years!)
It started me on the painful road of dscovery, and the Lifton's Criteria for determining how to recognize if you are in a cult....cinched the deal for me.
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rebel8
I was a pioneer b4 the change, and pioneers got a discount on literature. Yet we were instructed to sell it at full value at the doors and be sure to tell the householders we were only charging the amount needed to reimburse us for it--we were not making a profit. Yet we were making a profit. I brought this up in pioneer school and they said it we were to continue doing/saying that and not tell anyone we were selling it at a higher price than we paid for it.
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ICBehindtheCurtain
This Borg is so full of it!!! TOTAL HYPOCRICY!!!! But Karma is a bitch, and I hope they PAY!!!!
IC
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Nosferatu
The side benefit to the Watchtower was that they received monies TWICE for the items, if all went as planned: Perhaps a dollar or two for a small book when you picked up the literature from the Kingdom Hall, and if you received a donation for the book from the householder, you were required to bring this back to the Hall and deposit it as well.
I remember when the donation arrangement came in, and I smelled this one like a bad fart. Red flags went up in my mind and I thought, "isn't that ripping off the publishers?"
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morning glory
Does anyone know if this following link is part of the WTS printing operation?
http://www.watchtowerfarm.org/servlet/StoreFront
Welcome to THE WATCHTOWER FARM REPRINTS
FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING
Watchtower May 15, 1957 pp.313-315 Appreciating Basic Christian Publications:
…Their zeal for knowledge may even prompt them to dig back into things that were published long before they came into the truth, expanding and deepening their understanding, and ever growing in Christian maturity. Do you dig into our older publications to expand and deepen your knowledge on subjects about which questions arise? Have you really studied these earlier publications? How is your background of knowledge? Never think: "Oh, I know most of that." For you will find, indeed, that you do not and that you will be strengthened by your additional study...once you have completed your study of them you can then look to even older publications. Only by studying earlier publications and digging back through previous issues of The Watchtower kept in the library at your local Kingdom Hall. There is much in the way of spiritual riches and aid toward mature knowledge in these earlier publications, and their study is most certainly worth your time.The modern day history of Jehovah’s Witnesses is a rich and illustrious one. It is the history of men and women with faith, who truly believed that they had discovered the Truth concerning Jehovah’s plan for mankind and felt it was their responsibility to preach that plan to the world.
Charles Taze Russell, Joseph Franklin Rutherford, A.C. Frey, Maria Frances Russell and Gertrude W. Seibert are just a few of the many faithful brothers and sisters who did not just preach their faith, they lived their faith. In spite of their imperfections and flaws they demonstrated a deep belief in God and a willingness to sacrifice their time and money in order to accomplish the ministry that lay before them.
Since the publication of JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES: PROCLAIMERS OF GOD'S KINGDOM, which introduced us to some of the early books written by Jehovah's Witnesses, many brothers have approached us regarding their desire to add the vintage and rare writings by the early Witnesses to their theocratic library, but were unable to do so because of the prohibitively high cost of these books.
THE WATCHTOWER FARM REPRINTS chooses rare and hard to find books from the shelves of the Bethel Library and reprints them for sale to the public. We do this because we believe that these old books should be available to all interested persons and that our brothers should not have to pay hundreds or even thousand of dollars for original copies of these books just because they are no longer being printed and are hard to find.
You can now purchase your own copy of these rare, vintage books for a fraction of the cost. Our reprints are a word for word duplicate of the original. We do not change the language or even correct misspellings. Our goal is always to protect the integrity of the original manuscripts.
Our books are professionally bound and we use the highest quality paper and covers for our books."
Nearly all of the publications that it offers are NOT on a contribution basis but rather these items are being sold for a specific price. If these publications are being printed on WTS presses,and not sold on a voluntary donation basis,I may see a contradiction here? Any thoughts
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DigitalFokus
i am thinking of getting a subscription of the WT and just toss it as soon as it comes. just to spite.
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Balsam
Morning Glory,
You asked: Does anyone know if this following link is part of the WTS printing operation?
http://www.watchtowerfarm.org/servlet/StoreFront
Welcome to THE WATCHTOWER FARM REPRINTS
This is a brother and sister to so far as I know are active but they are no longer in bethel and are trying to support themselves by reprinting some of the old publications that do not have copyrights on them. Their an older couple trying to eek out a living. I bought some these older books from them and they were great.
Balsam