Of course, this is entirely circumvented in Canada with the universal health care system.
Problems: The Bethel Family and Social Security Tax Exemption
by daniel-p 30 Replies latest jw friends
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Mickey mouse
Is it though? In the UK Bethelites still have to sign a vow of poverty because even though every citizen is entitled to free health care, everyone has to contribute in the form of national insurance contributions deducted from their earnings. Not sure how it works in Canada.
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daniel-p
Mickey, you're probably right.
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JWoods
Just a random thought, but wouldn't it be truly the BOMB to have a copy of Judge Rutherford's "vow of poverty" if this had been done in his day?
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Having "served" there, the "Bethel Family" isn't a "family" in any sense of the word. It is a Religious Order... and a crappy one at that.
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Mickey mouse
Just a random thought, but wouldn't it be truly the BOMB to have a copy of Judge Rutherford's "vow of poverty" if this had been done in his day?
It was a hard life for sure.
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moshe
I would be surprised, if the WT Org paid more than a few hundred dollars a year in Social security taxes per Bethel family member. Their reported Bethel income will garner them a couple hundred dollars a month in Social Security checks at retirement- which who be a lot of money, if they were still living at Bethel.
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JWoods
It was a hard life for sure.
Things were indeed tough all over during the great depression. It could almost drive a man to drink...
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leavingwt
Moshe,
They no longer pay any Social Security taxes for Bethelites.
As Bindery guys, we would grumble about the constant admonotion to "make Bethel your home" and "stay forever". This advice, coming from old geezers drawing a Social Security check, allowing them to live high on the hog, as they had no living expenses to speak of. They were drawing these checks, because Bethel did pay these taxes for them. They were not doing so for us. We viewed them as seriously "out of touch" with all things related to the financial needs of younger Bethelites. I didn't personally know one married Bethelite who didn't work G-jobs to put his wife into decent clothing.
We were well-aware, that were we to make Bethel our home and "stay forever", a Social Security check would not be awaiting us, as they no longer submitted these taxes.
This is not a secret. Bethel is upfront about this with Bethelites.
-LWT
PS: Someone reading this should be able to dig around and come up with the exact year that they stopped submitting these taxes. As noted earlier, this was already standard procedure, before I arrived there in 1994.
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blondie
***yb95pp.5-6Jehovah’sWitnesses—1995YearbookReport***
All of them are members of the Order of Special Full-Time Servants, a religious order that is devoted exclusively to the ministry.
Might it have started in 1995?
