The Watchtower And Bernie Madoff, How Different?

by metatron 5 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  Perhaps one of you Theocratic Lurkers out there could tell me how the Watchtower is different from Bernie Madoff.

  Both offered outrageous promises. Both took people's money. Both failed to deliver.

  However, Bernie Madoff was caught and stopped. Furthermore, his fraud only existed for a few years comparedto the Watchtowers 120 year+ history of failed prophecy. This comparision illustrates the moral problem at the heart of the organization - the Watchtower is protected by the First Amendment and does not have to obey the same rules as any corporation on Wall Street. If they had to play by the same rules, they would be sued out of existence - in a New York minute! Further, Witnesses invested their whole lives not merely money.

  Consider what would happen if Bernie Madoff took the same arrogant attitude in court that the Watchtower manifests everyday:

  "You people are apostates and enemies of Almighty God! You are materialistic and unfaithful! I am directed by God and Jesus! You are directed by Satan the Devil! ................"

  The difference between Madoff and the Watchtower? Tell me why the Watchtower is not far worse?

  metatron
• 

  freydo

  Where Is Bernie Madoff Still a Hero? Prison
  Updated: 7 hours 47 minutes ago
  Michelle Ruiz
  Contributor

  (June 6) -- "Bernard Madoff may wear the same standard-issue khakis as the other inmates at North Carolina's Butner Federal Correctional Complex, but to them, he isn't just prisoner No. 61727-054. The $65 billion Ponzi schemer is considered a hero and a celebrity among fellow convicts, solicited for autographs and business advice, New York magazine reports in a feature story on newsstands Monday. Citing interviews with more than two dozen current and former Butner inmates, writer Steve Fishman describes a brazen Madoff who boasts about his crimes to a gaggle of admiring prison "groupies.".............The inside look at Madoff's life in prison paints him as a titan among the "soft" prisoners, including pedophiles and "rats," in his housing unit at Butner, where there are windows without bars overlooking landscaped yards, one inmate said. According to the feature, Butner inmates trailed Madoff as he walked a gravel track during recreational time and even pressed him for his autograph. He has refused to sign them, the magazine said, because he believes they will end up on eBay and does not want inmates making money off his name. (He made an exception for a prison artist who sketched him.)..............."

  http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/bernard-madoff-hailed-as-hero-and-celebrity-among-inmates/19505200
• 

  wobble

  About the only difference is that Bernie's Ponzi scheme has gone down the tube, the WT's is still limping along, but with the number leaving, or just marking time, in the Internet educated parts of the globe, one wonders if it can continue as long as some here seem to think.

  They need cash flow from new scheme members to keep it afloat, as did Bernie.

  How long before the GB have madoff ?
• 

  freydo

  Didn't want to change the subject, but I’ve been cogitating on several threads that seem to be related. Is it that the wtbt$ has evolved into nothing but a ponzi scheme? Been thinking about the Secret Society thread where even the wt talked about members at the lower eschelons not being aware of the real criminal agenda of the higher ups. And when you compare Bernie and the wtbt$, one bilked people out of life savings and the other bilked people out of their lives. It may not have started out that way in either case, but corruption set in that justified more corruption. I’ve also been thinking about the Muslims too and their plan to build a mosque at ground zero and how the fellow on utube said they don’t even deserve to be called a religion – but rather a criminal political ideology masquerading as a religion with the intent of killing all who don’t go along with their ideology. Is that any different than the wtbt$ that teaches that only their members will survive Armageddon? And I really can’t figure out why so many people are so bent out of shape about the change in the understanding of the generation when prophesy isn’t understood often until after it’s happened, and when the real travesty is that the whole corrupt wtbt$ is nothing but one giant ponzi scheme that only the ones at the top are aware of and are using religion and mind control to achieve. Endless debating about various doctrines and interpretations is like a shell game where the real issue isn’t addressed. If it were people might find it much easier to admit that they’d been had and walk away with as many marbles as they have left. And also convincing relatives might be easier by just laughing the whole thing off and telling them that it's a ponzi scheme instead of trying to convince them about all the failed dates, doctrines, etc.
• 

  wobble

  I have tried reasoning with some that it is just a Ponzi scheme, that doesn't seem to work either. maybe putting it in their mind will work at a later date, I hope so.
• 

  freydo

  Reminds me of Abe Lincoln.

  "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time,

  but you can't fool all the people all of the time."