following from a post by neverendingjourney.
we should come up with a new name for this arrangement.
feel free to post your ideas!.
Following from a post by neverendingjourney
We should come up with a new name for this arrangement. Feel free to post your ideas!
I think these work well:
Extortion
Milking the cow
Investment Funds
Court Order Funds
NB: tithing is not accepted anymore!
at the risk of being shouted down, i thought i'd point out that "tithing" means giving 10 percent of your income to a church.
it comes from the old english word teogotha meaning tenth.
i've seen nothing that establishes tithing in the watchtower.. while i'm all in favor of pointing out the watchtower's lies, hypocrisies and faults, the language we use matters.
very true!
i would suggest we should come up with a new name for this new arrangement. I will start a post!
dear brothers:.
we are writing as a follow-up to the letters dated january 24, 2014, and march 29, 2014,. to all congregations regarding the adjustments now underway to accelerate construction of king-.
dom halls and assembly halls.. .
@nicolaou, i did not see the letter and the elder i spoke with only referred to it.
i really do not like that word (apostate), as used to represent someone who decided to remove themselves, or was removed from the influence of the watchtower... but i am curious.. how long have websites like these been in existence?
when did this movement begin?.
personally, how long did it take for you to dare exploring information outside the watchtower publications, about jehovah's witnesses (especially online)?.
My doubts about the whole organisation started in 2004- when i left bethel, then started to be curious about how things are being run. In 2008 started searching on the internet for some answers, i can say that from 3 years, i technically lost any faith in the organisation - started to hear about the peadophiles and was in a cong that a molestor was identified and the whole thing was hush-hush, and since 18 months i no more care what happens in meetings (no more influenced by WTS).
Unfortunately my family are hardcore JWs, so for the family ties i have to pretend everything is fine although i do my best not to be involved in discussions related to the organisation since my facts are not accepted by anyone!
dear brothers:.
we are writing as a follow-up to the letters dated january 24, 2014, and march 29, 2014,. to all congregations regarding the adjustments now underway to accelerate construction of king-.
dom halls and assembly halls.. .
We had the local needs last Friday and the elder read out the first page. Without explaining that the all the funds in our account will be transferred to the society he just said we will hand you slips of paper (These were locally printed, nothing official) and would ask you to put how much money you can put every month due to the new arrangement and drop it in the contribution box. Then said we need answers by Sunday (i.e. 2 days).
There was no further explanation or more details on how or what is happening.
So after the meeting you find some heads of families trying to understand what does this mean. One brother has a Direct Debits (monthly payments from bank) made to the cong account, and the said this money is to cover the expenses, so should I fill what I want to send to the WWW in this slip? Guess what the answer was: Yes!
Absolutely this was wrong, and since I was standing there I explained to him what the process is(Brothers put what they can donate, elders decide how much is they want to leave for expenses and rest goes to WWW) and what will happen (thanks to the posters on this forum - polishing the new light!) to my surprise the elder agreed with me! This shows how no one knows what needs to be done!
A later discussion revealed that another letter was received to explain the procedure and inform the elders that whatever money they decide to send to the society they have to stick to it and not send any less! The elder raised his concern and was worried since for the last 3 months we barely got any contributions to cover the basic expenses!
in the last couple of years the org has gone money crazy, selling off over a billion dollars worth of property and now a new tithing program.
just wonder what every one thinks is the reason for all this now?.
My take on this arrangement after reading several posts is:
1- The WTS can project the future income they are getting for any planning purposes/investment - that’s why companies like subscription services, they are the best business model - steady stream of money.
2- By taking the surplus from KH accounts, the congregations technically are poor and would always rely on the WTS for any funding - More control on KH
3- With the new CO arrangement WTS cuts any Organisational ties with the congregation - elders are not appointed by them
4- If a money rich congregation had paedophile among them and there was court case, the court cannot link to WTS (check point 3), and cannot sue the congregation because they don’t have money!
i heard that the witnesses used to smoke back in the day.
is this true?
if so, what was the reasoning behind this?.
So what about e-cigarates? Is this wrong too?
after the reading out of the letter about the "new donation arrangement" this week, there is going to be a flood of money pouring into the org's coffers!.
not only from the bank accounts of the sheep, but soon after from the bulk of money in kingdom hall accounts worldwide!.
question: has anyone calculated how much cash could be grabbed from the 113,823 congregations on earth?.
I am part of a congregation with a balance of between £20,000 and £30,000!
I think congregations with higher percentage of retired brothers and sisters have tendency to be rich.
As I come from a developing country, the accounts for several congregations are maximum in their few USD100s.
For this analysis I would suggest taking out all the congregations in poor countries and assign a minimal amount and then the developed country assign your $5K figures.
I believe the figure will be halved, but still that’s too much money to handle in one go - Wondering what the purpose is for this.
Need to check where they plan to invest them and start buying shares!
the gb can kiss my ass.. i'm writing "0" on the little slip of paper they pass out.. hey here's a thought:.
you know that "widow's might" stuff they're always talking about?
well i'm pretty dang sure that the lady was giving from the heart not because she filled out some dumba$$ piece of paper pledging two small coins several months previous!.
Thanks Splash.
the gb can kiss my ass.. i'm writing "0" on the little slip of paper they pass out.. hey here's a thought:.
you know that "widow's might" stuff they're always talking about?
well i'm pretty dang sure that the lady was giving from the heart not because she filled out some dumba$$ piece of paper pledging two small coins several months previous!.
Was the letter read in any congregation? Here in UK asked 2 friends and they dont recall anything like this has been read in yesterdays meeting.
Tonight we have our meeting and will see if they read it.
I stopped contributing years ago and dont know if this is to expose people like me and what would be the outcome - not planning to fund the court cases account!
