Jehovah's Witnesses---A Religion That Does Nothing For Anyone (page 3)

minimus

Those in cults, do like being told what to do.

Organised religion made Christianity a cult, minimus. Whe I became a JW... It was not a cult... and it is not a cult to those who truly believe. Until, of course, their freedom of speech and thought are stiffled.. and they leave. EARNEST BIBLE STUDENTS.. that is what they were called and in this (UK) country they were known as the INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION. All was well until the Almighty Watchtower and our $$ hungry cousins across the Atlantic, turned into a fierce printing & publishing/marketing machine. {SIGH}

minimus

When Russellites were born, it became a "cult".

Podobear

America has a lot to answer for...

the IBSA (the UK ) was full of true Bible Students.. would seem to me that an awful lot of good people, who are not in a cult are mixed in with quite a few that are, because they have made it that way. Nah.. don't agree being one of Jehovah's Witnesses is not being in a cult... being a Jehovah's Witness (accepting a label), probably is. Mine was a way of life, not the following of a group of men and a Printing & Publishing Corporation.

I was never a Russellite or the follower of any man other than the great man himself... by the definition you follow minimus.. that is a cult too???

moshe

They are just social parasites- JWs suck out anything of value to benefits themselves and they contribute almost nothing back- one community in B.C. found out just how selfish the local KH is and they wonder, if maybe the KH should have it's charitable tax exemption lifted

-Economy forces B.C. town to re-examine tax breaks for churches

Providing spiritual guidance may not be enough to warrant exemption

By Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun; Canwest News ServiceApril 16, 2010

Should churches and religious organizations continue to receive automatic tax exemptions?

Should community groups?

A couple of years ago, the little town of Gibsons, on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast, began to ask those questions in earnest. Squeezed between a contracting economy and a provincial government that was off-loading costs to municipal governments, the town, like many other small towns across the province, had to account for every tax dollar it collected and spent.

So in the 2007-08 tax year, Gibsons' council put the town's dozen tax-exempted properties on notice: By the 2009-10 tax year, they would have to justify the reasons why they received their exemption or risk losing it.

Eight of those properties were churches or had religious affiliations. Gibsons was challenging the automatic tax-exempted status that religious institutions have always enjoyed.

"The town of Gibsons is a progressive little place," Mayor Barry Janyk said, "and we just felt it was the appropriate thing to do if the taxpayers of the community -- the businesses and residential owners -- were being asked to contribute. And I don't see from the response that we got that any of the dozen potential listers were objecting to it."

To big city taxpayers, it is not a lot of tax dollars Janyk is talking about. The municipal portion of the permissive tax exemption Gibsons is allowed to forgive amounts to $60,000. But that is three per cent of Gibsons' total tax bill -- not insignificant when a town must struggle to pay for services.

"So," Janyk said, "do we want to give three per cent of our tax bill to the Legion and the Baptist church and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, which is in there too? Don't forget we're a very small town, not only in terms of population, with about 4,300 people, but in terms of footprint as well, only about two square miles."

The justification process begins with the tax-exempted properties filling out a form that asks several questions, including: What services and programs do you provide? How do they benefit the general public?

The local United Church, for example, cited its thrift store that provides clothes to needy families at low or no cost, the rental of its hall to the public, the staging of local school plays and the counselling services of its minister. "A great organization," said Janyk.

The local Legion cited its offering of its hall space for public meetings, which, Janyk said, met the criteria, though any profit the Legion made from things such as liquor sales, he said, would continue to be taxed.

But one tax-exempt property that has given the town pause was the local Jehovah's Witness hall.

When asked what services and programs it provided, the Jehovah's Witness answer, Janyk said, was: "To assist the local unincorporated association of Jehovah's Witnesses in carrying out their religious objective of preaching the good news of God's Kingdom and promoting public religious worship."

In other words, providing a place of worship for local Jehovah's Witnesses, or those who wished to become Jehovah's Witness.

And how did that benefit the citizens of Gibsons at large?

"The response was:" said Janyk, " 'To assist any who attend these public meetings by means of moral and spiritual instruction based on God's word in the Bible.' "

But proselytizing, Janyk said, was not exactly what the town has in mind as a service to taxpayers.

"We're going to have to look at that, and ask if this meets the objectives of a tax exemption from council's perspective, or is there something more we could ask from the Jehovah's Witnesses.

"And my personal feeling is, I think we could ask them to open their hall for public purposes and not to just the members of their congregation."

And if the Jehovah's Witness do not comply, they could lose an exemption worth $1,400, Janyk said.

SirNose586

Good article, Moshe. Justify yourselves or pay up, dubs!

moshe

Why couldn't a KH set out a barrel to collect food for a local food pantry? They could, but they see no need to help the poor, who could be destroyed next week at Armageddon. Why couldn't the JW's do a quick build Habitat for Humanity house?- they could, but why help a poor family (not JW's) get a nice home, who will likely be destroyed at Armageddon next month? JW's as a rule, won't even volunteer for a charity walk-a-thon, either. Who is gonna sign up on their sheet as a donor- JW friends at the KH?

When I cornerd a JW mother in service about not being charitable, she protested. So I did a Q&A on her. Suppose they are having a community clean up day next Saturday- would you help? "NO", Suppose, the community needs volunteers to be crime watch block captains- would you volunteer? ,"No", Are you a member of the PTO (parent-teacher org) at you child's school? , "no"- Why not, I asked? Do you expect other parents to do all the work to help your daughter's school? She didn't want to answer- all she wanted to do was get away from me!

By then she was getting into her car ( I had been following her and her elderly partner back to the car from the house this whole time) and she was visibly flustered. I loudly called her a social parasite as she was driving away.

Heaven

When I was younger, my Mom told me that JWs are not to contribute to 'worldly' charities as these are not of God and that not much of the monies donated actually get to those who need it. Basically, the implication was that all charities are crooked. JWs are supposed to contribute all their 'extra' money to the WTS, anyways.

As for getting involved in the community, again, this is 'worldly' and not of God. It's all part of the paralysis instituted by the WTS.

truthlover

I dont know much about what others do -- I do know Jw's in my area contribute to the hospital, fire hall, police donation for underprivledged kids , myself -- to all the above plus the Alzheimers society, a second hospital , SPCA - as a matter of fact, I have to put a budget together for the yearly onslaught of phone calls and give what I can

During blizzards, contacted all the neighbours to see if they were ok - took food to others,

Dont paint everyone with a brush, its not nice

moshe

-Jw's in my area contribute to the hospital-

It looks like we have some JW's who are thinking for themselves in that KH. That's great!- and I guess they are OK with coming to this forum, too.

Can anyone show me in the WatchTower where donating to all these charities is the Christian thing to do? I was a JW for 16 years and I never once saw a WT article mentioning that or heard a talk at an assembly encouraging charity donations- but I heard plenty of talks asking for $$$$ for the Woldwide work of the WT publishing cult.

Can someone do a WT CD scan for "charity" and see, if the WT was for or against them?

added- When my home burned in 1982, we received nothing from any JW, but local churches left toys , clothes, food on the porch at our relatives house for us. That did stumble us a bit- those bad churches helping us. Now when the brothers found out we had good insurance, they were johnny on the spot with hands out trying to get $$ from the insurance for cleanup- just to help us out you know. Maybe, this was just a rogue KH and all the rest of them were much nicer.

Jehovah's Witnesses---A Religion That Does Nothing For Anyone

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