slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  19

  Local congregation donation and expense report. Very telling

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in july the congregation received $2300.00.

  only 40.00 for the worldwide work and zero for ramapo project!!!.

  if this is typical no wonder the org.

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  slimboyfat

  Yes that’s right. When the accounts are read out they have money coming in to the congregation and then money coming in for the Watchtower society. Then in terms of expenses they have local expenses that are deducted from the donations to the congregation, plus the money sent from the congregation to the Watchtower society that is also deducted from the donations to the congregation. In my congregation I think the congregation donation to Watchtower was reduced from £600 to £300 over the past couple of years, and direct donations from local publishers to Watchtower are often low, and sometimes even zero.

  I think insiders have recently indicated that money bequeathed in wills is a major source of revenue for Watchtower, perhaps more significant than the regular donations, and enough to keep them afloat and comfortable for the foreseeable future.
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  53

  Watchtower vs Islam: Why the deafening silence?

  by raymond frantz in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  why has the watchtower failed spectacularly to evangelize to the muslims?

  considering the recent influx of muslim people in european countries you would think that some attempt from the religion that touts the are preaching the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth would have been made.instead the only meaningful attempt dates back to 1953 ,almost 70 years ago!!!!

  book " man's search for god.what do you think?

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  slimboyfat

  I forgot, I do know a brother and his wife who were sent to The Gambia and Senegal, which we were surprised to find out (as I think he was) are Muslim countries, and they have little success in terms of JW converts. At first everyone thought that any African country they were sent to would have tons of Bible Studies and baptisms. They didn’t enjoy it much in Senegal and the last I heard they moved back to the UK. So missionaries and pioneers are sent to Muslim countries.
  Without stating the names of the countries, the Britain branch used to oversee some Muslim countries in the Middle East where JWs are banned. So even where JWs are banned there is still some coordination to do some preaching in those countries, or at least to provide guidance for the JWs already in those countries.
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  11530

  It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

  by Newly Enlightened in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  original reddit post (removed).

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  slimboyfat

  I can certainly sympathise with Nic not wanting to waste any more time on this guy. It’s depressing, but probably the reality is that LE will carry on no matter what. As long as people are sending him free money he will string it out indefinitely. He’s lost half of his patrons but that’s probably not enough for him to call it a day. I wonder what proportion of his patrons don’t know about his behaviour, and the extent of it, and what proportion know full well, but just don’t care. If they don’t care, and he doesn’t care, just walk away and let them get on with it.
• 
  19

  Local congregation donation and expense report. Very telling

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  in july the congregation received $2300.00.

  only 40.00 for the worldwide work and zero for ramapo project!!!.

  if this is typical no wonder the org.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  slimboyfat

  I’ve heard congregation account reports where 0 (that’s zero!) pounds have been donated to the worldwide work. Once upon a time, donations to the worldwide work used to exceed congregation donations, but with each congregation now being required to send substantial donations, and with literature close to non existent, I think many JWs figure that the congregation donation is enough.
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  53

  Watchtower vs Islam: Why the deafening silence?

  by raymond frantz in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  why has the watchtower failed spectacularly to evangelize to the muslims?

  considering the recent influx of muslim people in european countries you would think that some attempt from the religion that touts the are preaching the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth would have been made.instead the only meaningful attempt dates back to 1953 ,almost 70 years ago!!!!

  book " man's search for god.what do you think?

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  slimboyfat

  I just heard on Radio 4 that a translation of the Bible has finally been made into Cornish. The lack of a Cornish Bible in the early modern period (there nearly was a translation but it never happened) is argued to be one cause of the demise of the Cornish language. There are estimated to be around 300 proficient speakers, all of whom acquired the language as a second language.

  It’s amazing the number of languages the NWT is now translated into. There’s a translation in Welsh now, and who knows perhaps Gaelic might be next. But if Watchtower ever produces a version of the NWT in Cornish then I think we can say they’ve ‘jumped the shark’ on Bible translation. 🦈
  
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  53

  Watchtower vs Islam: Why the deafening silence?

  by raymond frantz in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  why has the watchtower failed spectacularly to evangelize to the muslims?

  considering the recent influx of muslim people in european countries you would think that some attempt from the religion that touts the are preaching the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth would have been made.instead the only meaningful attempt dates back to 1953 ,almost 70 years ago!!!!

  book " man's search for god.what do you think?

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  slimboyfat

  I don’t know if there is a scan of the 1998 brochure anywhere. I think I remember there was an instruction (in a letter Atlantis posted on the forum) for local congregation to destroy any remaining copies of this brochure they had in stock a few years ago, so the brochure must be quite scarce now. Having decided on a gentler wording for the new brochure Watchtower probably decided they didn’t want copies of an older, more direct approach hanging around. I think the old brochure even quoted the Quran in places.

  Thanks for the information on Indonesia. I forgot to mention that JWs have had moderate success preaching to Turkish Muslims in Germany and Austria, where there are a number of Turkish congregations. Turkish Muslims are perhaps a special case because Turkey was until recently a stand out secular country among Muslim nations.

  Kazakhstan has a good number of JWs. It might be worth trying to find out how many of those are former Muslims. Over the years Watchtower has sent Gilead missionaries to countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, and Libya when those countries have allowed missionaries. Yes I am sure there are JWs from Palestine with Muslim backgrounds too because there were features about Israelis and Palestinians in harmony in the Christian congregation in the magazines.
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  53

  Watchtower vs Islam: Why the deafening silence?

  by raymond frantz in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  why has the watchtower failed spectacularly to evangelize to the muslims?

  considering the recent influx of muslim people in european countries you would think that some attempt from the religion that touts the are preaching the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth would have been made.instead the only meaningful attempt dates back to 1953 ,almost 70 years ago!!!!

  book " man's search for god.what do you think?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  slimboyfat

  I know witnesses who learned Urdu to preach to Muslims. I don’t think they had much success here but I think there are Urdu groups in England. I know of one person with a Muslim background who got baptised in a nearby congregation but it caused a lot of problems in his family and don’t know if he is still a JW. He had some personal problems and was already a black sheep of the family even before he became a JW. He was baptised around 1998.

  I just checked and there are Urdu groups in London, Birmingham and Glasgow listed on the JW website. There may be others. There are a couple of Arabic groups listed too.

  It would be interesting to research, but my guess is that the Muslim country with the largest JW presence may be Indonesia. It would be difficult to tell how much of the preaching in Muslim majority countries is directed at Muslims but there must be at least some.
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  8

  Sarah Kellen - Victim or Vixen?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  sarah kellen has been described as jeffery epstein's 'lieutenant' for allegedly sourcing and booking girls for 'massages'.. kellen’s [jehovah's witness] parents said they knew almost nothing about what their daughter’s duties involved because they became estranged from her at around the time she took the job with epstein when she was aged 18 or 19.. the split with her family came after kellen was thrown out of the church for allegedly leading an “immoral” lifestyle:.

  sarah’s parents told the daily mail they love her and would welcome her back as long as she rejoins the church and shows them she’s committed to the faith.. so, is she a victim or a sly fox?.

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  slimboyfat

  Apparently it was the modus operandi of Epstein, as with other serial abusers, to implicate his victims in the further abuse of subsequent victims, as a method of ensuring they kept silent for fear of implicating themselves. This results in a complicated ethical situation to untangle, although she probably started out as a victim. In any reasonable interpretation of what happened I don’t think the descriptions “vixen” or “sly fox” are helpful or appropriate.

  Besides which, I don’t know why attention is not focussed the wealthy and powerful people who spent lots of time with Epstein at his various horror houses. They entered into the situation, not as minors, but as adults of their own free choice. In fact I suspect I do know why they are not being investigated. Quite depressing world we live in.
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  53

  Watchtower vs Islam: Why the deafening silence?

  by raymond frantz in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  why has the watchtower failed spectacularly to evangelize to the muslims?

  considering the recent influx of muslim people in european countries you would think that some attempt from the religion that touts the are preaching the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth would have been made.instead the only meaningful attempt dates back to 1953 ,almost 70 years ago!!!!

  book " man's search for god.what do you think?

  1. 
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  slimboyfat

  All the images are patterns real photos, perhaps also a nod to Muslim avoidance of artistic depictions of nature. No painted animals or fruits as you usually get in Watchtowrr literature for example.

  No wait, there is, so forget that. 😇
• 
  53

  Watchtower vs Islam: Why the deafening silence?

  by raymond frantz in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  why has the watchtower failed spectacularly to evangelize to the muslims?

  considering the recent influx of muslim people in european countries you would think that some attempt from the religion that touts the are preaching the good news of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth would have been made.instead the only meaningful attempt dates back to 1953 ,almost 70 years ago!!!!

  book " man's search for god.what do you think?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  As suggested in the Good Reads review, this brochure Real Faith - Your Key to a Happy Life appears to be an update in 2010, but if Muslims are the intended target audience then the hints appear so vague to me as to be barely perceptible.

  https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/real-faith/what-is-real-faith/

  Many of the people in the photos look variously Asian, it tends to use “holy scriptures” in place of Bible, emphasises that Jesus was a “prophet”, emphasises the oneness of God, mentions that Moses got the Ten Commandments from angels, touches on the theme of violence. I guess it’s a very gentle attempt to target literature these days. I wonder if there are equivalents for Jews and Hindus.