I don’t believe that the Watchtower has any money flow problems. The ex-JW head of the printery said the cost of printing a WT mag was about 3cents and I was expected to freely donate 25 cents for each of them!
The very thing they condemn Christian Churches as doing is what they do, take in money for selfish gain. I know what my church does with its modest income and its all good.
Correct me if I am wrong. Several years ago a NY newspaper reported that the Watchtower had 910 Million Dollars of cash. Was that the sum total of their surplus to date (from day one) ? Or was the $910,000,000 the surplus (profit) for that year? I also think that year may have been one of the years when the Watchtower was still an NGO in the United Nations' Department of Public Information.
The UN had rules for NGOs. An NGO had to allow political freedom and some think their "conscience matter" stand on voting was due to that. Of course, where voting was not mandatory for citizens, such as in Australia, try and do it without being DF-ed.
Also, the NGO had to have democratic process for leadership. Yearly corporate meetings were held where old timers attended and voted for the one candidate for each office on the GB who are the corporate representatives. Remember, the office of President, treasurer and so-on are required by United States law for an incorporated business or charitable organization.
Also, the United Nations required the Watchtower to have open and transparent books. That would allow outsiders to investigate their finances. Since that exposure by the NY newspaper the article is no longer available online. I wonder if someone could find it on microfiche at a NY library.
910 thousand, thousand Dollars! And they call buying a few thousand dollars worth of rice for starving children in Africa “painting the deck on a sinking ship”! It is so sad that the actual teaching of the “Sheep and the Goats” in Matthew 25 has been totally ignored by the Watchtower. Jesus gave criteria for being approved as “Sheep”. TAKE CARE OF THE PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL NEEDS OF OTHER HUMAN BEINGS. EVEN THE LEAST. Without judging who those least are. I wouldn’t want to be guilty of ignoring someone in need because I blindly judged someone as not being held fondly in Jesus heart. How can I know who Jesus sees as one of HIS least? By having followed the WT leaderships direction to ignore what Jesus actually said one should do they have directed their members to become a “goat”!
If the Watchtower is a “Charitable” organization where is the proof that US law requires that they are in fact “Charitable”?
In A World Without Poverty Is Near under the heading A Fine Provision we read:
Jehovah’s Witnesses have always tried to reflect God’s concern for the poor. (Galatians 2:10 "All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." ) Often when disaster strikes a land and true Christians are affected, arrangements are made for necessary help to be given. More important, the Witnesses show concern for the spiritual needs of all, including the poor. “
"Have always tried” does not equal “Often when”.
“The poor” would mean ALL poor persons anywhere in the World which is most people. Not just the indicated “true Christians” which JWs will read as ‘other JWs ’.
"More important” is followed by works that have nothing to do with criteria for being called one of the “Sheep” in Matthew 25 but the thing the Watchtower wants most is placements or at least counter sales in the KHall where publishers are expected to pay for printed materials that are often piled up at home then trashed or left in a Laundromat then trashed by customers who know the worthlessness of the WT mind numbing indoctrination.
“Needs of all” would include “all” which already includes “the poor”.
Whoever wrote that paragraph didn’t even think about what he was writing and JWs with any time in the org know the train of thought this actually means. 1.)They don’t do “Charity”. 2.)They don’t give assistance to just anyone, it is always other JWs first and usually only JWs. 3.)They are mostly interested in keeping the flow of printed materials going and if they have to feed a few thousand African publishers to keep them from dying so that they can maintain a presence with persons willing to distribute printed materials out of appreciation for not starving.
I was shocked at these ideas for most of my life spent in the Watchtower. Starving Children are not part of a “Sinking Ship”. They are people. Helpless people. Would anyone with a heart walk by a starving child outside your local McDonalds and not get them a $3 Kid’s meal? It takes only about $1 a day to feed and educate children through Save The Children. They could do it!
$910,000,000 buys 2,493,150 starving kids food, medicine, and education through a “worldly” Christian Charity each year. That is probably the total of most of the actually starving children in all of Africa.
It distresses me that I would send them checks at the end of the year. That was money I donated based on false representations. False representations, fraud, made through correspondence carried by the United States Post Office. That misuse of the US mail comes with $10,000 fines per offense. I want my money back so I can send it to Save The Children or The Florida Baptists Children’s Home
http://fbchomes.org/1/residential_care.html ) who geared up to take in 150 children the few days after this 2010 earthquake in Haiti. http://www.gofbw.com/news.asp?ID=11283
They have bought all needed supplies and are only waiting for the Government to send them kids. The FL Baptist's Children’s home takes kids from DCF, families who become homeless, orphans, kids from jailed or other impaired parents who voluntarily bring them in. Local businesses give free stuff like bowling alleys who give the kids free bowling. The kids get free shopping, outings. That’s what I support.
Read the Bible for what it actually does say. Jesus meant what he said. "For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
I pray for Blessings for those who read this and come to this web site that they may have their eyes opened wide to the diabolical nature of the Watchtower and accept Jesus as their only means of salvation "By faith alone in Christ alone",
Paul