I am not sure whe it originated, but I talked about it with my relatives last summer in Czech Republic. My siblings and my parents (who are trapped in JW world) told me that the branch office was demanding more donations. Last week I talked my mom who told me that their KH is Czech Republic got pledge and were required to donate 30,000 Czech crown every month to support the organization. This was money on they pay on top for necessary KH expenses like utilities, KH maintenance, and city services. 30,000 crowns equals 1,500 USD, which is a better salary in the Czech Republic. Outside Prague, people make about $1000-1200 and pensions are about half of that number. So for the local people it is huge amount. I may be heading to CZ later this year and I will ask my relatives in different KH and in Slovakia (they have Euros), how much they were asked to donate.
Posts by kaik
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111CONGREGATION FLEECING RESULTS?
by The Searcher inhow much did your congregation and its bank account get taken for?
share your horror story!.
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36
The do not call list
by LisaRose ini have posted before about my experience trying to get on the "do not call" list.
despite repeated requests, a phone call to the hall and mailing a letter, and then giving a copy to a jw, they just keep coming by.
i was going to put up a no soliciting sign, then i can call the police on them, but my husband doesn't want me to do it.. so, i decided if they come back i would have some fun.
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kaik
Maybe my areas have too small homes for JWs to stop by and check if they made nice move-in after Armageddon.
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What is the key to free yourself from the Organization?
by suavojr inthey key to free yourself from the organization is having mental clarity of what is happening in relation to the watchtower, inside and out.
their basic concept is that they are god's sole organization on earth.
there really is no basis for anyone to make that statement.
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kaik
Everyone has different reasons and background. For me the big eye opening was study of the Revelation book, The grand climax at hand. We studied this book in 1991-1992 and I felt it was all BS. The doctrines did not make sense, did not alligned with the Scriptures, there were outright absurd. There were no critical thinking with this book. Prior this one we studied commentary to James, but at this point I looked around and everyone was eating that cr.p. I could not align a concept of 1920's conventions with world wide apocalyptic vision written in Revelation and I just could not accept it as a truth. Once I had felt that WT did not had truth, they could not be the God's channel of communciation. It was easy to see them as false religion. Two years later they started changing the doctrine of the generation, but I was already out.
I think once people realize that WT does not represent God organization, nor it serve him, it is easy to see the fallacy of their theology.
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The do not call list
by LisaRose ini have posted before about my experience trying to get on the "do not call" list.
despite repeated requests, a phone call to the hall and mailing a letter, and then giving a copy to a jw, they just keep coming by.
i was going to put up a no soliciting sign, then i can call the police on them, but my husband doesn't want me to do it.. so, i decided if they come back i would have some fun.
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kaik
LisaRose, maybe the JW wanted to check if your house will be habitable after Armageddon so they can move in once the earth is cleansed from unbeliever. So far, I had only one visit from JW in past 20 years, and no single one at my present location. Maybe you planted seed of doubt into the truth.
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CONGREGATION FLEECING RESULTS?
by The Searcher inhow much did your congregation and its bank account get taken for?
share your horror story!.
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kaik
?me? I am not sure which country you are in, but in CZ they were generally asked to pledge equivallent $5 per week for publisher. People who do not put that amount are looked as a spiritually weak. My parents told me that one sister donated entire pension only to find out that the money were not used for local KH needs, but were sent away. Since both my parents are retired and on fixed incomes, they do not donate much, probably $5 per month instead per week.
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C'mon Analysts- The game is on! Let's play.
by Hairtrigger inas has been established on this forum many times over, the wtbs/ gb /fds is aping the policies of the catholic church in almost every detail.
the catholic church owns prime property all around the world given its supreme standing in the dark ages and after.
does the wbts have a bigger game plan in mind ?
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kaik
I was posting on housing bubble around 2006. It was already well documented phenomenon as it was bursting before the outbreak of the Great Recession. Some states like FL were hit earlier, other not until 2008. The Great Recession started in IV. quarter in 2007, and it took 8 months to work into stock market and bank collapses in summer/fall 2008. I am sure Brooklyn knew that real estate market was crashing. They know selling real estate because market is rebounding. Prague Branch office was closed in 2008 and economy tanked in 2009. The buildings and properties are still in WT possession six years after the closure. They still did not sell them; however, I heard that they will be on sale again. Properties had recovered into pre-recession level and they may liquidate it. WT can fetch from the sale of the Prague branch easily $500K, and this is not only property they have there. Additonally, Czech government is returning all properties sized by communist regime after 1948 back to religious orders. Among handfull churches like Catholic, JW were the only among 7 religious organization that asked for property return into WT hands... 7-Days adventists refused to deal with long time gone properties.
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What if you were a JW during WWII? Would you give in to Hitler and fight?
by Brother Mike inso i pose this question to everyone.
if you were a jw and lived in germany in wwii, how would you deal with the harsh cruelity of hitler?
would you join his side so you may have a chance to live (meaning you'd serve in the miliatry and be on the front line) or would you keep on serving god and be executed?
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kaik
I knew JWs who were in concentration camp. I think it was there were my distant relatives encountered them and became drawn into the cult. Many JW went to camp to face martyrdom and wanted to die for the truth. I heard story from elderly JWs who were interrogated by gestapo in my hometown. Gestapo under the threat of death wanted them to renounce faith. People who did, were shot, but who stayed in were sent to camp. Interrogation happened behind the closed door and every interrogation ended with gunshot sound (into air or into head), while JWs were in the waiting room hearing the shots. Majority did not renounce faith because they were stron in it. Also I heard that some JWs were accused of colaboration and were DFs because they did such things like shaving gestapo and SS-men. The nazis trusted nobody, but allowed JW to work as barbers without fear getting their throats cuts. I had relatives in camps, so not only JWs sufferred.
Under communism in Czechoslovakia, JW split into two groups. One that pursued collaboration with the communist regime under exchange of non-inteference by the government and other hardliners who wanted to suffer martyrdom. The moderate wing in 1960's won and the hardliners were DFs. My elder was a guy who was during Stalin era sent to labor camp in the 1950's and tortured. After this experience, some JWs believed that communist government could read and censor WT that were printed underground in exchange of not persecution. Some JWs thought that communist tools of opporession, the individuals could be brought into truth. This had happened. After 1989 various JW groups were unified together under directive of Brooklyn.
Nazi and communist regimes were barbaric. However, martyrdom was something that made people drawn into the faith. They wanted to die for theri faith and suffer in exchange for promised eternal life.
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After JWs inherit the earth...
by Zoos in... will they destroy all great pieces of religious art?.
just finished watching monuments men.
great movie!
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kaik
neah, some member of the GB will collect all these artwork in his private residence.
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How many have stopped attending at YOUR Kingdumb Hell?
by hamsterbait inon a recent thread about the fleecing of the sheeples, one poster said their congo was down to 85 publishers from 102.. the last hall i attended had 80-odd publishers 20 years ago, now only 30.. how much of a decline at your kh?.
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kaik
In my congregation 22 years ago in Czech Republic had over 100 publishers. I have not stepped in KH for almost 20 years, but I heard from my parents that the number is down to 70 or so. When whe had district assemblies we could attract about 10,000 and last memorial I attended had more than 600 present.
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I was "totally" stopped in my tracks by an "atheist" comment.
by booker-t ini must admit i can at times be a little "egotistical" when it comes to knowledge and the bible.
i have studied the bible for so long and have always had a passion for the bible as a jw and as an ex-jw.
i guess that is all i have left when it comes to religion and as humans we do tend to stroke our egos.
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kaik
There are thousands of fundamentalists who believe literal meaning of bible, know verses; yet they cannot apply logic and critical thinking skills into it. For thousands of years people asked for reason why we die, what is our purpsoe, why there is evil, and why bad things happen to good people. The think the bible has the answer, but cannot agree on it. People decided to put too much their hopes, answers, and expectations into the scrolls written thousands of years ago by men that became without proof are upheld as a word of God. Strory of Adam and Eve, Flood, Exodus are moral stories written by literate men recording stories discussed by elders at the camp fire.