New donation arrangement in action locally

by respectful_observer 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  respectful_observer

  Recently they announced at my hall that a large donation had been made to the local congregation-- nearly $100,000. They then proposed a resolution that we continue our new(ish) practice of only keeping enough money on hand locally for monthly expenses, and send the entire amount of this large donation to the Watchtower Society.

  Aside from the fact that our congregation has already sent well over a half-million dollars to the WT in the last 12 months, I don't understand the motive of the person who made the donation. Didn't they know it would just get sent along to the WT and disappear forever? Why bother giving it to the local congregation at all? Why not just pop a check in the mail to the branch and call it a day?

  What's funny is that our KH is in desperate need of renovation (hence the previously large savings account). It's a historic building on prime piece of land in a wealthy community. We've been on the RBC/LDC "waiting list" for years now. It will be interesting to see the local reaction when, instead of renovating, the branch decides to sell the hall for a huge wad of cash and tells the congregation to move to the cheaper town next door and build a cheap new "standard" hall there. At that point the WT will have been able to suck several million dollars out of just one congregation.
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  Magnum

  Interesting. Please keep us informed of any further developments.
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  suavojr

  respectful_observer

  Is this happening in the USA? I am surprised the members of your congo are willing to give so much. Do you have JW executives?
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  StarTrekAngel

  Tax shelter.

  Although you could also use the annuity arrangement and get a better long term tax plan.
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  respectful_observer

  Tax shelter.
  Although you could also use the annuity arrangement and get a better long term tax plan.

  Agreed, but you would get the same tax benefits whether the check is written to the local congregation or the WTS. All I can think, is maybe it's a periodic distribution from a trust where the sole named beneficiary is the local congregation and the trustee has no choice but to write the check out to the local congregation.
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  Mary

  Doesn't surprise me really. Big Brother wants as much cha-ching as they can possibly get their grubby greedy hands on because someone's got to pay for all these multi-million dollar lawsuits that keep getting levied against the Borg. Who better to pay than the local congregations!
  
  While I don't know if it's written in stone, I remember about 10 or 12 years ago at one of the (last) circuit ASSemblies I went to, they came up with "a new resolution". The gist of it was that they would pledge to send X amount of dollars to Crooklyn even if there wasn't enough left over to pay the bills for having the assembly. Everyone would just have to pony up some more $$$.
  
  It sounds like this is the consensus at the congregation level too. Despite the fact that your KH obviously needs major repair work done, the elders are given some not-so-subtle hints that Jehovah will bless them more if they send all that money to headquarters. So unless whoever gave that money specifically stipulated that it was to be used at the congregation level, in all likelihood, that's exactly what's going to happen.
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  BluesBrother

  You know, the elders in this situation must be particularly brain dead and totally indoctrinated - unless they are forced into it.

  To go from the mind set of being all about fund raising for "our K/H Project", as I knew them to be , and then want to simply hand over the cash to "Mother Org" on the strength of one BOE letter ........that is amazing !
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  ToesUp

  Vote with your wallets!!
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  DesirousOfChange

  Vote with your wallets!!

  We've been doing that for years!

  Just say NO.

  Doc
  
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  WTWizard

  That is a super whopper of a waste of money. For 100,000 toilet papers, you could get more than ten monster boxes of silver at today's prices. The same would buy you 7 grand bags of 90% silver (a "grand bag" is the amount that has a face of 1,000 toilet papers--4,000 quarters, 10,000 dimes, 2,000 half dollars, or in any combination that yields this face value).

  Fast forward. Neptune has reached 9 Pisces, the dollar has become toilet paper, and the congregations are floundering because nothing of value is coming in. Would this person be better off with the above mentioned quantities of silver, or with the knowledge that he sacrificed the same for some scumbag god that cares nothing except for our damnation and enslavement? And even "blowing" the money, you get the pleasure now (even though you are still destitute later). Sacrificing the present without getting anything in the future is so pointless. And, when this is spread through the whole congregation, I think they would be better off just getting the silver now and waiting for the dollar to become toilet paper shortly. That way, they would be able to stay rich.