Posts by Bugbear

17

JW leadership hypocrisy 1975

by Half banana in

it is felt that there is one law for the rich and another for the little people who are made to toe the line.

money equals power and it is a sad historical fact of humanity that where there is power there is abuse.. andersoninfo a few days ago produced the facts here that in 1975 the watchtower had spent nearly 2 million dollars to buy the neo baroque building in new york known as the towers.

when they sold it recently for 200 million dollars they made a profit of more than 10,000%.

Bugbear

I think that in good old Italian bookkeeping there are two sides of the business. The first side is income statement, and the other is balance sheet. The first is showing cash coming in and going out.. The other shows the overall result and the total assets that the Company/business has achieved during a longer period.

I think that the money from all these “sell outs” is immediately transferred to The Watchtower INC. in Pennsylvania, and their capital trustees specialists, consolidating the watchtower treasure fonds such as the Henrietta Riley fond and others. These people are eager to increase their fond values, because they normally get paid in percent of the increasing value.

I don´t know if any of the GB members is invited to eat a bit of cake, but I do know that this corporation is registered as a none profitable organization and therefore tax exempted according to US law. This is the same layout as those in Panamapapers and recently the Malta papers.

59

A Little Direction Please

by Brian J in

i'm an active elder, cobe, just got home from the meeting where i handled the treasures part and concluded by announcing a friend of mine has been d/f,.....blah blah blah...and over the last year have woken up.

i simply cannot spill my guts to my wife and children as it would be family suicide.

i have zero desire to bash, spread my feelings, or become an "apostate".

Bugbear

Brian!

Thanks for your post. Your situation is very similar to mine. Only that I faded 15 years ago. I left my books and papers 20 years ago, saying that my health and the pressure being a father of 6 children and having a full time job… made all extras not possible. 20 years later I find myself in a much better position.

As I remember in my congs. there was a number of elders, who was suffering from the same “problem” …. None of them is “within” today. Most of them “went on pills” suffered from severe depression…

I managed to stay outside during a long long period, trying to be nice to all the “friends”.. Not obviously being an apostate…. And the result is that all my children today are on my side. None of them are a JW,s. And to quote another poster

Despite everything, I have never been happier (or in better health!) and our life has never been better. My wife is still active with the local cong. but we have come to an understanding about where we each are and are able to accept each other as we are. I truly hope that you are eventually able to accomplish this. Please let us know how it goes.

28

Why I lost my religion

by Sour Grapes in

i was a jw for over 50 years and recently just stopped cold turkey going to the meetings.

years of sitting at the meetings with the boredom, the gloom and doom, repetition of doctrine, the gloom and doom, the fake love, the gloom and doom, the end being so close, do more - do more, just got to be too much for me to stomach.

i stopped praying to god and no longer thank god for the food before i eat.

Bugbear

Sour Grapes

Good post and very similar to my thoughts. But why blame God? It stroke my mind suddenly and intensive: “the reason for all this mess is simply because there is no God. He or She doesn’t exist.” All kinds of life from flowers, trees, animals, humans, insects, fishes, is simply trying to survive, by eating the others. There is no purpose, there is no test no salvation,,, just the simple fact “try to survive”.. There are no one to blame, No God, No satan, no Jesus, no angels… But from who comes the feelings of love, the love for music, humanistic thoughts? Why does mothers care for their children?

I was a member for more than 30 years. I am now +70, and I live with No God no explanation, and still very happy with my knowledge. My wife is still in, but all my children have been saved, and so my grand children… will come back with more thoughts

50

The wonder of scientific research

by amicabl in

this has possibly been brought up before however here goes.. constant reference is made by many posters to scientific research as being the only way to prove something factual that would otherwise have to be taken on faith.

there actually seems to be "faith" in scientific findings.. my experience over many years is that most scientific research is fake.

nothing oftencomes of the big announcements made to raise more money.. money, prestige, pride, human error, suppositions etc., are rife amongst the scientific community.. i realise that there have been many advances over hundreds of years but humankind is in a mess, although very different to even a century ago.. the medical profession now has vaccinations for everything, antiviral drugs etc.