by DaCheech 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I have posted in the past days reguarding credit broke witnesses in my family.
Many others are this way due to pioneering, using the welfare system, or just not going to school!
my thinking is this..... this trend might backfire on the society! They will not have any witnesses leaving them in their wills since there is no $$$$$ in the bank!
And any cheap witnesses just will not donate $$$$$$$$$ of more than is the barely necessary
Money is the foundation of everything, good or evil.
I never gave anything to the Watchtower, except my car and time.
They didn't build anything with my contribution.
this trend might backfire on the society!
I'm guessing that it is already backfiring on the WTS!
At least up until the 90s, the WTS could break even on its publications by "selling" study books and magazines directly to Publishers and "placement copies" on consignment that would end up at that back of peoples' closets. They were making big money on the cassette tapes when they were available in the 80s, because those were special items that members wanted to have in their personal collection. Then they had to switch to the Voluntary™ Donation Arrangement™ to evade the payment of sales tax to the government, and wouldn't you know it, those JWs were just as cheap as Mother™ and barely donated anything! The WTS had to switch to paperback book publication and scale back on magazines - they even made Awake! a monthly periodical instead of semi-monthly as it had been for over 50 years!!
The hounding for donations really seemed to ramp up after that too. Every time there were "announcements" scheduled on a meeting or convention part, you just knew they were going to start begging for people to put money in those damn boxes. It was sickening by the time we quit in 95. Incidentally, the reason my grandfather stopped going to church was because the preachers kept bugging the parishioners for money!! The irony!! Everything comes full-circle in Watchtower Land!! LOL If only my dad could see it.
Witness still encourage people to have life insurance paid to them, right?
Actually, officially the WTS has most recently encouraged JWs to get life insurance to help out their families not the WTS. Of course, if you have no children, grandchildren or parents dependent on your life insurance, the WTS does suggest you could give it to them. As in the case of any assets owned by a family member, we might think that family should automatically inherit even if we are financially fixed. But I have have always felt it is that person's money and they can give it to whomever they want. Have some individual JWs dishonestly manipulated family members, I have no doubt but I don't think it is a general policy.
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w98 1/15 p. 22 Planning Ahead for Our Loved Ones/Protect Your FamilyWhat you will do to protect your family in the event of your death is a personal matter, but a Christian named Edward says: "I have a life insurance policy to benefit the eight members of my family. My wife is a signatory to my bank account. So if I die, she can draw money from the account. . . . I have a will to benefit my family. If I die, whatever I leave behind will be for my wife and children. I wrote my will five years ago. It was prepared by a lawyer, and my wife and son have a copy.
In a sense, making such arrangements is a gift to your family. Of course, planning for the possibility of death is not like a gift of chocolates or a bouquet of flowers. Yet, it shows your love. It proves that you want to ‘provide for those who are members of your household’ even when you are no longer with them.
Past official comments on life insurance:
*** w60 9/15 p. 576 Questions From Readers ***
Is
it proper for a Christian to carry life insurance? Is it not a form of gambling?—S.P., U.S.A.Life insurance and other forms of insurance cannot be condemned as gambling but are rather a form of investment. One is not trying to insure that one will not have an accident or will not die, but is only seeking to provide in the case of an emergency. It is Scriptural for a man to provide for those that are his own, and if he wishes to make such provision in this way, that is entirely up to him.—Gal. 6:5;1 Tim. 5:8.
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g70 8/22 p. 12 Taking a Look at Life Insurance ***Life insurance should be treated as valuable property similar to a savings account, stocks or bonds. It takes some of the economic sting out of death. It can serve a useful role.
