JW ELDERS APPLY/RECEIVE CLERGY TAX EXEMPTION (page 2)

teenyuck

Hey all, this information is open to the public...meaning anyone can get it at the local tax assesment office.

You can find a piece of property and go look up the owner, where the mortgage is held, how much the mortgage was/is, and how much they have been assessed on property taxes.

Where I live, Franklin County, Ohio, it is on the internet. I can look up what my neighbors paid, how much the mortgage is and what the taxes are.

If you know of an elder who owns a home, go to the web and look up your county under "Government" on Yahoo, or type in the full county and state name on Google. You can find the county info pretty easy. Since it is public record, anyone can ask for it. It is not illegal or an invasion of privacy.

It is amazing what is public record, however, it helps if you are buying or selling a home.

MadApostate

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MadApostate

This is cut-n-dried PROOF that JW Elders consider themselves to be part of a "clergy class", thereby "flushing" the WTS's historic teaching that JWs have no clergy-laity distinctions.

The cited webpage should be linked from every XJW website.

Pathofthorns

At least in Canadian cities, some elders will be registered as clergy for hospital visitation purposes or to perform marriages.

Some of these elders, along with Bethelites, will take advantage of benefits offered to members of clergy, such as reduced or free rounds of golf at certain courses or discounts at places like Canada's Wonderland. (smiling)

To be honest, I don't see what the big deal is with this. A religion needs some form of registered clergy.

Path

Kent

Folks, the "clique" may be boycotting my posts,

I guess I'm disfellowshipped from the "clique" then, since I have posted your material on The Watchtower Observer. Some of it on the first page.

Don't you think it's upon time to stop this "clique" nonsense, Mad?

Yachyd Da

Kent

I need the new KM's as they come! Please send me scans!

Daily News On The Watchtower and the Jehovah's Witnesses:
http://watchtower.observer.org

NameWithheld

To be honest, I don't see what the big deal is with this. A religion needs some form of registered clergy.

I think the big deal is that the JWs try and proudly play the 'we are the true religion because we don't have a clergy' card. While ecveryone KNOWS that the elders are in fact 'higher' than the normal persion, and you must 'respect their athority'. How can someone have athority over you while saying out of the other side of their mouth that they are 'your servant'. As usual, the JWs try and pretend one thing while reality is the polar opposite.

outnfree

WOW, MadA!

You have been BUSY lately!
When I tell my mother (a real estate broker in NYS) that the Dub Elders are eligible for exemptions she will be madder than a hornet! And sure to tell the sisters when next they call at her door, too!

Path,

The problem is as NameWithheld states. Notice how development of a clergy-laity distinction is regarded by the Watchtower in the Proclaimers book as the beginnings of apostasy:

*** jv 35-6 4 The Great Apostasy Develops ***
Clergy and Laity
“All you are brothers,” Jesus had said to his disciples. “Your Leader is one, the Christ.” (Matt. 23:8, 10) So there was no clergy class within Christian congregations of the first century. As spirit-anointed brothers of Christ, all the early Christians had the prospect of being heavenly priests with Christ. (1 Pet. 1:3, 4; 2:5, 9) As to organization, each congregation was supervised by a body of overseers, or spiritual elders. All the elders had equal authority, and not one of them was authorized to ‘lord it over’ the flock in their care. (Acts 20:17; Phil. 1:1; 1 Pet. 5:2, 3) However, as the apostasy unfolded, things began to change—quickly.
Among the earliest deviations was a separation between the terms “overseer” (Gr., e·pi'sko·pos) and “older man,” or “elder” (Gr., pre·sby'te·ros), so that they were no longer used to refer to the same position of responsibility. Just a decade or so after the death of the apostle John, Ignatius, “bishop” of Antioch, in his letter to the Smyrnaeans, wrote: “See that you all follow the bishop [overseer], as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbytery [body of older men] as if it were the Apostles.” Ignatius thus advocated that each congregation be supervised by one bishop, or overseer, who was to be recognized as distinct from, and having greater authority than, the presbyters, or older men.
How, though, did this separation come about? Augustus Neander, in his book The History of the Christian Religion and Church, During the Three First Centuries, explains what happened: “In the second century . . . , the standing office of president of the presbyters must have been formed, to whom, inasmuch as he had especially the oversight of every thing, was the name of [e·pi'sko·pos] given, and he was thereby distinguished from the rest of the presbyters.”
The groundwork was thus laid for a clergy class gradually to emerge. About a century later, Cyprian, “bishop” of Carthage, North Africa, was a strong advocate of authority of the bishops—as a group separate from the presbyters (later known as priests), the deacons, and the laity. But he did not favor the primacy of one bishop over the others.
As bishops and presbyters ascended the hierarchical ladder, they left below it the rest of the believers in the congregation. This resulted in a separation between clergy (those taking the lead) and laity (the passive body of believers). Explains McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia: “From the time of Cyprian [who died about 258 C.E.], the father of the hierarchical system, the distinction of clergy and laity became prominent, and very soon was universally admitted. Indeed, from the third century onward, the term clerus . . . was almost exclusively applied to the ministry to distinguish it from the laity. As the Roman hierarchy was developed, the clergy came to be not merely a distinct order . . . but also to be recognised as the only priesthood.”
Thus, within 150 years or so of the death of the last of the apostles, two significant organizational changes found their way into the congregation: first, the separation between the bishop and the presbyters, with the bishop occupying the top rung of the hierarchical ladder; second, the separation between the clergy and the laity. Instead of all spirit-begotten believers forming “a royal priesthood,” the clergy were now “recognised as the only priesthood.”—1 Pet. 2:9.

So, now, the "Congregational Overseer" = Clergyman? The Watchtower itself sinks into the mire of apostasy!!!! (Nothing new to us, of course!)

The "big deal" is the hypocrisy. Once AGAIN!!!

outnfree

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts -- John Wooden

Amazing

Hi Mad: The Society has among its many corporatons, one that is called, Watchtower Bible and Clergy, located in Fortuna, CA, and is registered as a corporation under thier control. So, this is another departure from their prior claims of having no clergy, to no paid ministers ... to now filing for tax examptions for the PO ... fascinating. Keep us posted.

JW ELDERS APPLY/RECEIVE CLERGY TAX EXEMPTION

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