WTS profiting from Katrina Disaster

finis_mundi

I apologize if there is already a thread concerning this but the following article is intriguing: http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Society/Jehovah_s_Witnesses_Katrina_Disaster_Relief_Fund_Donation_or_Profits__36046.html

Elsewhere

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Jehovah's Witnesses Katrina Disaster Relief Fund – Donation or Profits?

WATCHTOWER SHAKEDOWN -"Sweetheart deal" disaster relief is deception.

YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHERE THE MONEY WENT-A recent announcement was made to all congregations it was directed that donations to assist victims of the Katrina Hurricane was to be placed in the general contribution called the “Worldwide Work” of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The WWW is a general donation fund that is distributed at the sole discretion of leadership of the Jehovah Witness. The WWW is used to buy paper to make literature, build new branch offices as well as fund the defense of child molesters within the organization.

A portion of this money is also used for disaster relief for members that are affected by natural disasters. The question remains how much money is actually spent on the victims?

When Regional Build Committee (volunteer building group of JW’s) comes in to rebuild a home of a member the owner signs an agreement. That agreement states that any insurance payment check will be signed over to “Worldwide Work” of Jehovah’s Witnesses when received.

RBC comes in and rebuilds a home with volunteer labor and some donated materials at a fraction of the cost and then the owner is required to send the full rebuild insurance check to WWW.

All homes are required to carry insurance so it results in a very profitable enterprise for home office. Then there are Kingdom Halls, they too carry insurance that pays for the damage that is rebuilt with volunteer labor and often donated materials. So when a KH is destroyed who profits? Home office again.

If there is a rebuild with additional costs the home office will not rebuild for free they make a loan with interest at 3% and then when the loan is paid off the KH belongs to home office. So how much WWW money is actually used? Very little.

It is a great generosity by local brothers and sisters that pitch in and do the work, it is a great kindness for them to donate thousands of dollars in funds, materials, clothing, food, and effort to support the friends. No one can depreciate that wonderful effort.

But the facts show when the organization raises money for a disaster they make a tremendous amount of profit that is never spent on those in the disaster area. In most cases with insurance payments they make a killing. As you will note there are no statements provided or other information about how WWW money is spent toward the disaster or anything else in the organization.

The Red Cross on the other hand provides a financial statement that shows in detail how every penny they take in is spent.You can access it from their website as they make it available to anyone that wishes to know.You in the end will be able to know exactly how many dollars they spent on Katrina as they will be happy to let everyone know the tremendous amount of money and volunteer effort that was expended to help others. They do this for every disaster they serve.

So the question remains if the Watchtower organization makes several million dollars that ultimately end up in general funds when members donate to a disaster could it be considered dishonest?

Profiteering off a disaster is the ultimate in dishonesty. If this is not the case then we would suggest a full financial statement of money received for Katrina and how much was actually spent on the friends to be provided by Jehovah’s Witnesses. This of course is impossible as all members have been instructed to donate to the WWW contribution box marked for general funds so now it is untraceable.

YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHERE THE MONEY WENT….Ever wonder why members are always told to donate to a general fund when a disaster occurs?

THINK…. Make sure if you are moved to help victims of a disaster that every penny of the money will actually go to help those victims. It will make profiteering from the suffering of others much harder to do as well as make sure your money is used to help and not based on trust.

HOW TO HELP:

Please remember to make sure your donation is being used to directly benefit victims of Katrina unless you wish to make an additional donation unrelated to the disaster.

At www.Silentlambs.org we make available websites where you can do this directly or access links if you wish to assist our work in assisting abuse survivors,there are arrangements to do that as well.

Added: (Thu Sep 08 2005)

Nothing wrong with a bit of repetition

Madame Quixote

Well, I guess that explains why you never hear about KHs suffering from arson attacks, huh? It would only benefit the society.

greendawn

They really know how to make money, and they really know how to mislead people as to their real motives.

MidwichCuckoo

Welcome finis_mundi.......I've noticed an influx of very creative names lately.

I think the Katrina thing has been mentioned before BUT it's good to keep this type of information 'active' for newcomers to the board. When I arrived here I was totally unaware of ANY of these WTBTS 'scams' (I'm sure UK JW are in the dark about most things) and I'm grateful to the posters who report this news.

moomanchu

Can witnesses put checks in the contribution boxes that state "money to be used for Katrina only"?

ocsrf

All homes are required to carry insurance so it results in a very profitable enterprise for home office. Then there are Kingdom Halls, they too carry insurance that pays for the damage that is rebuilt with volunteer labor and often donated materials. So when a KH is destroyed who profits? Home office again.

To the best of my knowledge the Society self-insures. This is a very common practice amoung large and wealthy corporations. That is not to say that they don't have some of there assets protected by paid insurance with outside companies. But, you are quite correct about the fact that everything gets done with volunteer work, so the actual burden to the Society is not the same as it would be for anyone else.

OC

Spectrum

Is this a private share company? Does anybody own shares in it that we know of?

rebel8