The real story on why The Watchtower society lost a Kingdom hall in Bonham ,Texas.!

by koolaid-man 49 Replies latest jw friends

  • wha happened?
    wha happened?

    wasn't this the basis for the society to change how the ownership is handled with KH's?

  • ÁrbolesdeArabia
    ÁrbolesdeArabia

    I miss "e-watchman" Rick, when is he coming back to JWN?

  • Thoughtless
    Thoughtless

    This...this is interesting.

  • william draper
    william draper

    Who owns the KH building , if it is being financed by the Society , then the Society of course maintains ownership , till it has been paid for . If locals put up 50% or more of the costs , then it should be a shared ownership , when of course you have witnesses giving their labor for free to build the KH , this would raise a possible issue .

    People of the Watchtower should be setting an example , of not COVETING , their primary objective should be Teaching the correct understanding of Biblical importance . Of course some safeguards are necessary , you wouldn't want a KH owned by just one brother that may later decide , that he no longer wants anything to do with the JWs , and sells the KH , this would put extreme stress upon any organization , having to worry about such things , this of course doesn't mean the Society should claim ownership of all the KHs .

    SURE WOULD BE NICE TO SEE A COPY OF THAT LETTER FROM THE TEXAS CONGREGATION THAT WAS SENT TO THE WATCHTOWER . IT APPEARS THE SOCIETY REALLY ACTED IRRATIONALLY REGARDING IT .

  • Stirred
    Stirred

    Wow. This thread sure adds light to JW'strategice real estate direction. That they were burned once...they are mitigating as exodus puts them at risk for another move. Use smoke and lights (distractions of new publications/light/etc) to keep everyone distracted while they tighten the reigns.

  • JohnRossStar
    JohnRossStar

    I was in a FS group that went to Bonham and met in the old small KH to support the "faithful" in late 1985. They warned us to be careful who we spoke to. In '86 i helped out at the new KH build. A plane was buzzing around and some brother was waving at it and yelling Ralph Deal's name and said "it was probably him. He had the janitorial contract at Texas Stadium, was well off and flew a plane". We all tried to squeeze inside for some short meeting where a young brother was crying profusely on stage. I have pictures of that day.
    It's weird to look back at all this in a whole new light. I saw Ralph died in 2018 at 83. Really wish i had gotten to talk to him now but woke up too late.

  • enoughisenough
    enoughisenough

    on some youtube platform, I saw a letter to the elders...and I thought how very sneaky...what they don't tell the congregations. to my recollection it went this sort of way. This was when they were telling the congregations that there would be an equalizing to benefit the brothers of the world in having KH...We got to vote on it and as presented to the congregation it seemed a good thing. Instead of the old building fund that KH could borrow from, the WT would be handling the money so to speak. If a Kingom Hall say had a bank loan, the WT would become the loaner as it were (take over the loan??) and the congregations would pay the same payment to the WT. What the congregation wasn't told was that it was , from my understanding, a never ending payment and the property would become the WT's. Yes the congregation lacked 2 years to have ownership of a hall with the bank...when the WT took over, those payments didn't stop at the 2 years as it would have with a bank. They also told us how this would help to build lots more needed halls in the US alone. Well, as many know, what happened with the ownership is that many congregations got moved around and the Halls sold. I watched one video where a congregation had saved over 80,000 to pay for parking lot. The WT said to turn over the money and they would see to the parking lot...yep, they did, all right--they sold the hall. My understanding is that if any elder doesn't go along with some of this heist, then they figure out a way to remove him. I called it a heist because it was the locals who donated the money and did most of the work with the help of some from rbc/ldc ...but the ones who paid for and built it have no say in what happens to it. I find it heinous that a building can be Dedicated to Jehovah on one day and another be sold to any church or organization for any purpose. So much for the dedication-hypocrites. When one new hall was build, the chairs from the old hall was sold to a church...as publishers, you weren't allowed to do business with a church-more hypocrisy!

  • Sea Breeze
    Sea Breeze

    I was scheduled to go to the Quick Build in Bonham but had to work that weekend. One of our elders gave me the low down. Apparently, one of the apostates who had taken over the previous hall was racing his car up and down the street during the quick-build on the road it was on. A little while later all the brothers saw a tow truck pulling the same car down the road after it had apparently crashed.

    Supposedly everyone was laughing at how Jehovah took care of the problem. I was told this by an elder. Don't know if anyone else can confirm this or not.

  • joe134cd
    joe134cd

    Marked

  • James Jack
    James Jack

    enoughisenough

    You got it right. The congregation continues to indefinitely pay on a mortgage that never gets paid off.

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