The JW.org website is reporting that a court in Russia has convicted and sentenced 7 Jehovah’s Witnesses for practicing their faith.
Four congregation elders were given suspended prison sentences of five to five and a half years, and were ordered to pay fines that were subsequently waived. Nine Witnesses were acquitted.
According to the JW.org article, “the judge relied on the September 2009 ruling of the Rostov Regional Court to liquidate the Local Religious Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Taganrog. Although the 2009 ruling targeted only the legal entity, the judge determined that the religious activity of all of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Taganrog and surrounding districts was banned.”
What amounts to a show trial by the Taganrog authorities with no justifiable basis in law follows previous attempts in Russia to ban the JW.org website itself, which ultimately failed.
As this website observed at the time…
It would be much better if governments could zero in on material that incites hatred and trespasses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights rather than introducing blanket bans on entire websites or the activities of religious organizations. To censor in this way only stirs the persecution complex among cults, and stokes belief among cult followers that Satan’s system is against them and the end of the world must be imminent.
The simple truth is that religious organizations like Jehovah’s Witnesses thrive on evidence of persecution to validate their teachings. Western democracies tend to exercise proper restraint by upholding an individual’s right to practice a religion so long as doing so does not trespass the rights of others.
Of course, that’s not to say there isn’t far more authorities can and should be doing to limit the harmful impact of organizations like Watchtower, and their use of undue influence to inflict considerable damage.
Watchtower in particular thrives on society’s ignorance of its policies to claim tax exemptions and even charitable status. When a government extends such financial assistance to Watchtower, they are unwittingly endorsing and subsidizing the organization’s abuse (such as shunning, mishandling of child abuse, coercion to refuse medical treatment) and facilitating their continued export of it.
In addition to withholding such handouts and incentives, governments should also play a more active role in educating their citizens about undue influence and how they can identify it from an early age. Steven Hassan’s BITE model provides an excellent starting point for inoculating younger generations against the pervasive influence of cult-like individuals and organizations, whether these are religious, political, or criminal.
But I’m afraid banning religions is not the answer. If you ban a religion, particularly one that teaches that persecution of any kind is evidence of its claims, you give it greater currency in the minds of its followers – the very ones you should be trying to protect. You also weaken democracy, violate a person’s rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and leave the door ajar for totalitarian regimes to impose their unquestionable authority.
It would be far better if governments could take undue influence more seriously rather than holding their hands up in confusion when they reap the consequences of their inaction, such as the radicalization of their citizens or the increasing spread of human trafficking. At the very least, getting organizations that use undue influence to pay their own tax, and not calling them “charities,” would be a good start.
Further reading…
A well articulated, great article Cedars. You’re doing fine work with this. Thank you.
I completely agree Cedars. When I read the news article on JW.org I thought to myself, Oh God, here we go, way to stroke these peoples persecution complex. I have no doubt this will be used to the fullest to try and cement into the rank and file how this is Gods organization because the evidence shows how satans world is against them and persecuting them.
This is al around bad business.
Imposing a tax on one religion and not another is by definition unfair. Who will make the decision?
If there is one thing that France has thought us is that the JW will fight it to the European court, win, and every JW will believe that it was God’s will while Satan was obviously and without any possible doubt behind France.
I believe the best way to go is to actually bring civil and criminal law suits for particular teachings such as shunning, using quotes out of context, miss-handling sex cases, etc. Then, as part of these judgments, the JWs would need print the court’s decisions as the first article of their watchtower. They don’t want to comply? Penalize them further until they have no money left.
The JWs need to understand that what is at stake is not a general hatred for their religion, but a hatred for particular teachings. Let’s see how many of them will actually stand behind such teachings when everything goes down.
Stephane, what is your rationale for deeming that ANY religion should be tax exempt?
I like the simple Kingdom Hall benches they use here. It reminds me of the simple we used to have in some schools and at the back if some cinemas over fifty years ago.
Have the Russian authorities like the Governing Body learned nothing from their own history over the last Century?
As John Cedars had brought out so clearly and continues to do so it is not their outward form of worship that is the most objectionable but their internal policies that alienate and separate individuals from their own families and people from the value and worth of their own neighbours within the Community at large. This is what prevents people, neighbours and nations growing up to the full stature of what civilised nations should and can become.
Yep, a comment on the youtube video confirms your article:
“Brothers in Russia,we want you to want you to know that we are proud of you for standing up for our Jehovah’s name. We are with you unitedly, no matter what Satan and his representatives try to do to you.”
I strongly believe in the freedom of though and expression. To tax this in any way is to put a burden on the ability to communicate such thoughts.
Therefore, I do not believe that religion, education, or various social groups, should be taxed. There are already enough taxes on products, properties and people’s income as it is. Adding additional taxes on social groups as well is wrong.
For instance, if a Kingdom Hall’s property was taxed and the contributions as well, I am convinced that the financial load would be too significant to permit such small groups (congregations of about 100 members) to own their own halls. This logic, to me, applies to any – not for profit – organizations.
That being said, I also believe that these organizations’ financial books should be wide open. We have no idea how much the society owns and what it does with its money.
The taxing of a religious organization has nothing to do with freedom of thought and religion. Hopefully I don’t need to tell you that you don’t need to affiliate yourself with a church or religious organization in order to be religious.
As to, “To tax this in any way is to put a burden on the ability to communicate such thoughts”… I’m not sure I follow you. It’s rather like saying, “To tax Amazon in any way is to put a burden on their ability to send people books.” It just doesn’t make sense. A religious organization gives people a product, and that product is a set of beliefs from which they derive peace of mind. Why should it be incumbent on non-religious people to essentially foot the tax bill for the religious indulgences of their neighbors? If a religious organization or church is popular with its followers, why is it inappropriate for it to churn some of what it receives in donations back into society the way businesses do?
I agree with your first bit, but can you elaborate on “…to essentially foot the tax bill for …”. Exactly what bill is being “footed” by whom…?
I mean, if you’re not religious, and don’t donate towards any religion, you’re also not paying any tax in that sense (duh! :-P). You do pay income or corporate tax etc, but so do religious members (for secular jobs). If you save the money the religious members would have donated, then you even get some interest :-) (over which you might need to pay tax, but still for you personally it’s a net win).
Sports associations usually also don’t have to pay tax; their primary intent is not to make a profit. I am not a fiscal expert though. Do you think they also should pay tax?
I think I get what you mean (doubting whether JWs are a “net positive” for society so to say), but my point is that your argument is a very “indirect” one. Correct me if I’m wrong though.
There are two factors to consider. One is land usage. If I live next to a supermarket, the land is being used in such a way that churns money back into the economy, because the government is profiting from the takings of the supermarket by way of taxes. If you dig up the supermarket and replace it with a church, which pays no taxes, there is zero benefit to the local economy. Then there is the fact that if all churches, mosques etc were paying their taxes there would be substantially more money flowing into government funds, thus alleviating the need for individuals to compensate through tax on their earnings. I admit it takes a lot of thought, but the short answer is we would all very likely be paying A LOT less tax if religions were not tax-exempt.
Hmm I don’t follow your supermarket example. The people that bought food etc there will now buy their goods somewhere else (most probably, they still need to eat!), so the tax flow shouldn’t differ much; it just follows another route. Maybe a new supermarket will even be built elsewhere.
With regards to your second argument, that’s a conscious choice by government, I don’t really have an opinion on that. Just that I think it would be hard to make a “dividing” rule which religious organizations would be tax-exempt, and which wouldn’t be; but your stance seems to be that all should pay tax (including the JWs)? (In contrast with JWs being a special case)
I think the “rule” for most goverments is that all organizations (including e.g. local sports associations) with a goal of making profits are taxed, and those that do not, are tax-exempt. Now some here may argue the WTS is trying to make big money, but if so, then your articles about their sizing down tell us they seem to be failing in that regard then ;-) (Or they might be cutting costs with the only goal being to increase profits, but I doubt that).
Well the purpose of this article is not to argue that all religions should pay tax. You are picking up on my response to another commenter in which I was asked why religions shouldn’t pay tax and (in fairness to the poster) no convincing reason was forthcoming.
The tax argument makes more sense if you think about the economy as a whole and how much money is in it, and how much money the government has access to in terms of extracting tax and making sure all the cogs of a given country can operate smoothly. There is a finite amount of money in any economy, and if there is a large group of organizations (i.e. religions) that are tax exempt, the government needs to look elsewhere to raise revenue when drawing up their budget. The average taxpayer thus needs to compensate for the fact that there is a black hole where there would otherwise be a glut of organizations contributing to society financially rather than simply absorbing money and caring for their own interests. The same issue is apparent on a smaller level in Brooklyn, where for years the buildings used by Watchtower have yielded no money at all for the local economy, but now the local citizens are rubbing their hands because the considerable square footage of Watchtower’s Brooklyn complex will now be available for churning money back into the local economy.
Yeah, this sucks
The comment above was supposed to be a reply to Gareth’s comment. Cedar, I love your article, keep ’em coming.
Thanks!
Excellent article Cedars, of course watchtower should be taxed! The Satan angle is wearing a bit thin but it is further proof that watchtower is a cult. It continues to spout lies and engage in human rights violations.
I actually do not believe in Religion as most of them (if not all) believe they are the only true one and thereby, discriminate everyone else. That being said, I still respect the fact that religious people see their religion as ideas and beliefs rather than a product. Products should be taxed, not ideas.
Let me illustrate: You seriously do some awesome work over here. Now, if I choose to support your work by donating some money, I believe it would terribly suck if half of my donations do not end up supporting your works, but instead, your government. Without taxation, it would not take too much for you to be able to do this type of work 100% and that, to me, is facilitating the expression of thoughts.
Unfortunately, if it is true for you, it has to be true with the JWs. Cause in the end, if you must call their religion a medium for a product, then, your product would be “Think for yourself”.
I see religious belief as a product, you do not, I am happy for that to be the basis for our disagreement.
However, your example of donations for this website is an unfortunate one I’m afraid. I put donations for JWsurvey through my business, and these therefore go towards the calculation of my Corporation Tax bill with HMRC. So you see, I’m not asking anything of religious organizations that I’m not prepared to do myself. In the case of JWsurvey, the product is information and visitors can pay for it or not pay for it. In the case of a religion, the product is claims about the universe that may or may not be true, intended to impart structure or meaning in one’s life. And not everybody needs this product, but everyone ends up paying for it in some way or other.
Hummm…. I will need time to think about the “tax” topic further… its not such a clear cute thing. For instance, I know that good ideas do get through taxed or not. I need to work right now and will come back to this later. :) Take care man.
Yes, it’s definitely a complex and contentious issue. And like most complex and contentious issues, it requires considerable thought. Thanks for being open-minded! :)
I Agree, i don’t think it such a CUTE clear cut thing either. Lol
I agree with Cedars on this. Religion provides people with a product, that being a set of views and beliefs that contributes to the lives of those who agree with the particular doctrine. Taxing religious organizations is not an encroachment on their individual or collective right to practice freedom of religion much like a person who opens up a business, provides a product and takes advantage of their right to have that business, they still have to pay taxes and in so doing their right to that business is not being encroached or discriminated against.
Not to mention that these organizations like the JW’s are not paying taxes based on some medieval view but are taking full advantage of said tax free money by playing the stock market and other means to further increase their wealth.
I’m not religious but have to problems with those who are. However why should I or anyone else have foot the bill for those who are religious?
My understanding is that Russia’s concern is religious hate speech. They believe that because the JW literature demonizes other faiths, the literature is in violation of the law.
Yes, I’ve heard that too. Although I am intrigued as to whether the Russian Orthodox Church is subjected to the same scrutiny when it comes to demonizing other faiths.
This is exactly where I have a problem with the JW religion. They blatantly criticize and put down anything or anyone who is not a witness and feel that somehow they are in a different stratosphere from everyone else – “superior beings”. They will not accept any criticism of their religion and if they are challenged by any government for any matter, they use this as a perfect tool to demonstrate to their members that they indeed are being persecuted and therefore are the one and only true religion. It appears to me that most witnesses look upon the “worldly people” as worthless, because they are going to be destroyed anyway, and therefore should be viewed as bad association. While I do believe that everyone should have freedom of speech and be free to practice whatever religion they chose, I also believe that an organization who prints material that demonizes other religions, should be held accountable.
My son-in-law is from Ukraine and his father is Russian and I asked him about how the Russian government feels about the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, and he said that what he hears from back home (Ukraine) is that the Russian government feels that Jehovah’s Witnesses are a dangerous cult in that they refuse blood transfusions for their children and they break up families through disfellowshippings and they brainwash their children. All of this is true, so maybe realizing that the Witnesses are brainwashed, maybe that’s one of the reasons, why individually the judge didn’t make those witnesses pay the fines or serve jail terms. Maybe the Judge took pity on those Witnesses? I don’t think the Witnesses can claim “persecution” in this case since they all got off without paying the fines or going to jail. This time I think they will claim “divine intervention.”
can’t win with the mindset of JW, it’s either persecution from Satan or divine intervention from Jehovah.
everything is black or white.
Concerning lowering the taxes due to taxation of the religions…. I doubt it would be significant. That being said, Governments would likely increase the number and the quality of their services.
As for property taxes, I believe the example provided does not work out… If in two years, the residents of Brooklyn pay less on their property taxes, I will be baffled! I expect they will probably pay even more as the whole area will increase in value.
Stephane, here is a 2012 article on the Brooklyn sales…
http://7online.com/archive/8609235/
“The transition will take years to complete, with construction not yet underway for the Watchtower’s new headquarters in Warwick. But once the buildings are sold, it could bring City Hall millions of dollars a year in tax revenue. “
I know it will bring millions of dollars in revenue, but will they lower the taxes because of it? Probably not. They will have better roads, cleaner public spaces, better parks, better services. So yeah, in that regards, religion should be taxed. But to say that people will pay less taxes? I’d be AMAZED!
Stephane, here is an article on the subject you may find interesting. It perhaps explains things a little better than I can…
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/06/16/the-yearly-cost-of-religious-tax-exemptions-71000000000/
“While some people may be bothered by the fact that there are pastors who live in multimillion dollar homes, this is old news to most. But here is what should bother you about these expensive homes: You are helping to pay for them! You pay for them indirectly, the same way local, state, and federal governments in the United States subsidize religion — to the tune of about $71 billion every year.”
Of course, if governments ever did start taxing religions it would be another question entirely as to whether they passed on the savings via tax cuts, but it is beyond reasonable doubt that the religious and non-religious alike help fund religion.
In the United States, if you belong to a “charity”, you get to deduct off your income taxes, the gas you use going in service. That amounts to quite a lot, especially for pioneers who I am sure keep track of every mile they travel in service.
100% in agreement with this well written article! Educating people is the most effective and efficient tool to control JWs! The education in order to create awareness should be PREVENTIVE: Aimed at non-JWs completely unaware of most of the destructive beliefs of JWs!!!
Where I live in North Carolina the Bible Belt there are church’s of every denomination. Being a business man and having dealt with Pastors at times I came to two conclusions. 1) Most are doing it as a Business. 2) Most have above average income and living circumstances. As previously mentioned do away with the tax exemption and you will see a whole another set of dynamics when it comes to religion.
@anon, good catch on the “none fined” = persecution take by HQ. Does this mean if airport security agent stops and wands an international delegate sporting an obvious JW badge; holds them for further “search” and analysis; then passes them through checkpoint, it is persecution?
@John Baptist – very true. I think USA has most abundant examples of pastors using religion as an income earner and tax avoidance. While JW’s will argue, their elders do not get a jet, a mansion, a limo, servants, book profits, etc, the elite admin at the top have access to all these luxuries provided by Watchtower’s constant flow of donations and media sales, and HQ staff have access to items that the “sacrificing,” average, rank-and-file JW can’t afford.
However, from the purely patriot viewpoint, religions are exempt from taxes because the State and Federal charters exclude them from any mandate regarding defining what is a religion, and the foresight that taxation could be used as a device to “favor” a de facto national religion because at some point, a bureaucrat or judge would evaluate what-is and what-is-not a “religion”.
As is abundantly clear, Russia is sliding away from any democracy/republic semblances to its Western rival.
***standard disclaimer***
No above average IQ, former baptists turned JW were injured in the writing of this blog response, and any future damages are limited to $10 claim of verifiable damages.
I think if we look at religion as a whole, we will see that some religions give back to their community by providing services to their members and to the community like free food for the needy, free clothing to those in need, marriage counseling, youth programs, Bible school for the children, activities for singles, as well as provide help to their own members, like rides to chemotherapy or dialysis, help with food when a member of the church is ill, etc. They make care packages for active duty military, crochet baby hats and booties for newborns at the hospital, they volunteer to deliver mail to all the patient’s rooms at the hospital. They adopt needy families for holidays and provide gifts for the families. They often have prayer circles because they love and care about other people. In most churches that I know, to be a member means to have a lot of support from your church family, like car repairs, home repairs, maintenance, yard work, usually for the elderly or disabled ones in their congregations. This is just an idea of what some churches in my town do, I’m sure they do more that I don’t even know about. All of this is because members themselves are individually motivated to help those who are less fortunate than themselves.
I ask myself what do Jehovah’s Witnesses give back to the community? What do they give their own members? I’ll have to think about this because right off, all that comes to mind is quick-build KHs and disaster relief. Maybe you know of some KH that actually helps the brothers and sisters with things like food, clothes, etc? I don’t know of any. I can’t think of anything they do for the community.
My point is that some churches use their donations to help people who really need help. While some churches, well, you have no clue what charitable works they do, if any.
Disclaimer: The quick builds and disaster relief is not provided by the Watchtower. It is individuals who use their own time and resources to help their fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses.
I reckon I can’t actually think of anything the Watchtower does for anybody. How sad.
great post cedars!
Imacountrygirl,
You have made a great point. It is INDIVIDUAL WITNESSES that help out their fellow brothers and sisters.
My dear old Mum was handing cash over to a couple who had just had another baby until I heard about it and hit the roof!!! Where was the pride in that couple? Why did they not use contraception and wait to have their baby when they could afford it? Oh, they couldn’t possibly do that!
The WTBTS bleat on about caring for others and expect individuals to carry this out, rather than having a centrally organised approach. One thing I am certain of – the WTBTS do NOTHING for free.
My dear old Mum has been making patchwork blankets for the poor Witnesses who live in nearby congregations. I wonder how many blankets could be bought from the expense accounts of the GB?
The “charitable” activities of JWs can be characterised thus:
No desire to help anyone else but fellow Witnesses, except when there is a good PR opportunity or they are shamed into doing it by media attention.
Individual JWs expected to pay for any charity from their own pocket, in addition to any money they already put in the collection box.
If my points above are wrong, then someone give me evidence to the contrary.
Jesus fed and “cured” anyone who he came accross, regardless of whether they became followers of him or not.
Peace be with you
Excelsior!
the day religion became a business, is the day they should have been treated like one and began paying taxes.
for those who seem to be confused as to the difference between a business and a religious church, ill see if I can help ya out…a religious church is a place of encouragement, help, compassion, true love, patience, forgiveness, charity, shelter, guidance, respect, impartiality, empathy, holiness, mercy, and forgiveness. while a business is a place of product, hierarchy, money, goals, manuals, mandates, rules and regulations, chains of commands, records, aspirations, reprimanding, suspensions, manmade obligations, reports…
sooooo…anyone still confused o_o??
and if you aren’t still confused, then why are you fighting for these business’ masquerading around as religious churches??
Cedars, I absolutely love your articles, replies and comments!
Your website is fanatsic and it is where I go for all of my “theocratic” updates.
I have felt for a long time now, that religions should pay tax. I know that in my city in Canada, the local government is getting sick of every little space getting taken over by a small church or a mosque. They are really trying to limit this by zoning them out.
In reply to the question:
what is your rationale for deeming that ANY religion should be tax exempt?
1) from a tax accounting perspective any individual, organization, entity should attempt tax avoidance to fullest extent possible. There is no advantage to not seeking tax exempt status. Religions and non other non-profit organizationss don’t have profit and loss. And no, contributions they receive are not profits or income. They don’t distribute the capital gains to share holders.
2) from a philosophical viewpoint, why would you want the the boot of government to enforce your viewpoint? To tax individuals/groups/churches/ that you disagree with? This is a similar ploy to the anti-gun crowd who suggest taxing guns and ammunition because they feel that those items/products/opportunities are a risk to the community. The same goes for the anti-cigarette, anti-alcohol crowds: if we don’t like it, if it offends our sensibilities then tax it. You stop short of saying ban it; if I understand you correctly you say not to ban it because it would attract more adherents or solidify current members thinking concerning persecution. Correct me if I am wrong, but no where do you champion personal liberty, no where do you champion my choice/everyone’s personal choice to be part of what ever belief system they want without fear of government interference in the form of bans, censorship or even taxation.
3) everyone should be tax exempt, unless you endorse legalized plunder. Yes yes yes I know, if we don’t have taxes how would we have anything. As if all these “things” you fear (I taking a leap of assumption here and could easily be imputing wrongly) we would lose can only come for government. How does the mafia extract its protection payment? They tell the victim that they will “tax” you for protection: “look, you owe us $x.xx per month so that we can offer you protection (read: services), pay us what we demand or we’ll send out goons and collect by force”. In essence this is the gambit of any taxing authority. Pay or we will extract/harm/punish you. Without any moral justification, save for their “protection/services” argument, they legally plunder. And this is the system you endorse to make sure the Watchtower falls into line with what you consider right/moral/proper behavior?
“They don’t distribute the capital gains to share holders.” – that’s precisely the point, we don’t know HOW proceeds are used/distributed, because most countries don’t require tax-exempt organizations to make their financial records public.
“everyone should be tax exempt, unless you endorse legalized plunder” – thank you for showing everyone the logic of someone who argues against taxing religions.
A business sells products and services; has profit and loss and distributes those losses or profits to shareholders as investors.
Name any church that follows that model. I’m not saying that there are not any. I’m saying you would be hard pressed to name any. Churches/non-profits/NGOs are not businesses, nor do they engage in profit/loss/investment/shareholder activities.
This is a non argument. Of course religions can make profits and losses when income doesn’t offset expenditure. And you’re not telling me that religions aren’t involved in investment. Even in the UK there has been outrage at the links between the Church of England and “Wonga” – a payday loan company. As to shareholder activities, one of the benefits of being a tax-exempt religious organization is you don’t have to declare who’s benefiting from all the donations. If this is your strongest argument I feel sorry for you.
And thank you for showing the logic of someone who is more than ready to use the power/tyranny of government to enforce their moral edict/perception/bias.
Ergo: if I don’t like it, or it offends me, or hurts my feelings, then you deem it a hazard the community and ask for intervention in the form of government. I categorize you as statist beholding to the higher power, the government of your choice to enforce your personal morality.
I’m not especially bothered about how random people I encounter online “categorize” me – especially random people who believe that all forms of government = tyranny. Thanks for sharing your opinion though.
Why should any private business, church, business have to publicly declare their affairs. If they say they are non-profit, at the very least from a public/criminal aspect it is not up to them to prove it to ally public opinion.
You have no proof they are distributing profits and until you investigate and have proof then at most you have an unproven allegation.
Man oh man, so quick and eager to use the stick of government.
“Man oh man, so quick and eager to use the stick of government.”
“Man oh man,” so quick to allow any form of business or church to declare that all their affairs are above board and take their word for it. Shame that approach didn’t work so well with Enron, huh?
Anyway, thanks for sharing your opinion, which will remain public for people to consider. I believe the absurdity of your argument speaks for itself.
It is not meant to bother you or inspire you particularly. It’s just offering a different viewpoint to your readers. Not more nothing less.
Your comments do not deviate to far from camaraderie with statists. Perhaps on other issues you don’t do so. But there something that really gets under certain people’s skin about the Watchtower (and then by extension other religious organizations) and they find new unknown zeal to chase that car.
Righting the wrongs, eh?
Sorry, are you now hoping for a conversation? I thought you’d offered your opinion and I’d offered mine and we could leave it there. Is there some reason you’d like our little party to go on? I would rather excuse myself if it’s all the same to you.
Enron/AIG/Lehman Brothers al , did what they did with the nodding approval of your statist buddies at the SEC.
And they were all publicly traded and “regulated” by the same government you want to use to tax private non-profit organizations. What wonderful job your taxation/regulation scheme has done… let’s go ahead and give then power to tax the NGOs too, because they have done so well with the business that already have their books “open”.
To a statist or lover of authoritarian statism any argument that challenges the status quo is absurd. it has to be otherwise the status quo would be endangered.
I’m not aware of having any “buddies” at the SEC, or any other US governmental department for that matter.
This conversation is like a merry-go-round where they glue you to the seats. Is there any chance I can get off? I tend to reserve my time and energy for people who give some hint at being logical and coherent.
On a serious note, if you want to continue using JWsurvey I suggest you submit to my “tyranny” and stop banging on about your silly opinions, which are already well-voiced and there for other readers to appraise on their own merits. Any further banging on about “statism” on your part will be viewed as off-topic and you will be blocked from making comments.
At a time of low growth, this is just the kind of
publicity the org, craves. Wasn’t this the reason
Freddie Franz introduced the decree banning
transfusions, (To draw attention to themselves
and to create opposition thereby stiffening the
brothers resolve.
In Russia from 1917 to the 1990s there was
relentless persecution of religion, it’s estimated
that around 12million people were executed or
murdered.
Today in Russia religion is thriving.
persecution only empowers the believers.
The sad thing here is that persecution will give
added strength to an organization that is itself
totalitarian in nature just like the former Soviet
Union.
Seeking to control even the ‘Private Thoughts’
of it’s subjects through propaganda, And the
threat of extermination for dissenters.
Has any one really took a look at the financial side of wtbts holdings? They are very wealthy, pay no taxes, acquire & sell real estate, use donations including free labor to remodel, new construction(I have donated much of my time and expertise to this bunch of crooks) & now building the new watchtower or whatever they decide to call it university, with a university style construction of tennis courts, football fields, Olympic style pools, soccer fields, university style suites. just check out the total set of plans on file and you will be shocked to see that the total of the new wt world headquarters is nothing but a big scam and nothing but a new total business plan for the new young fools coming to wt world headquarters to donate their life to the GB who control them, What will this new world university teach? Stay tuned change is in the works. Bobby Ray
:-) yes, personal time and labor go into quick-builds. And, apparently, it takes personal donations of $$$$’s to go into the Society’s building fund, plus excess of $5,000 local expenses, and whatever can be got from the Convention donations, plus the literature “donations”. But, I have heard of some JW’s using the USA’s “faith-based initiative” programs to insinuate themselves into municipal community supportive programs. It falls under that heading of “uhm, we’re still trying to think what our image needs to be.” Individual JW’s sometimes reach into their bounty and donate to local charities, or assist individuals, but usually with an “eye” (or ear) toward finding a potential recruit.
The JW D/R effort pales when compared to smaller charities that have day-to-day support and missions whether disaster or not. And, while some missionaries do offer education and services abroad, the charity is tainted because it is given knowledge that JW’s recruit and steer individuals toward their philosophy.
I recall reading one elder’s interview by a local press, “we take care of our own.” Yet, every city I’ve seen, ongoing, sustained endevor to feed & clothe needy took a backburner to “preaching” and “teaching”–even when holding a bible study meant walking into a home where refrigerator was empty and householder doling out a $1 for a book had direct impact on budget for food or baby’s food. But, it’s not like the bible cautions that charity (even if it’s writing a check) not done to the least common denominator, the lowest of the low, has any repercussions. Matthew 25:45, 46. (yes, there is more bible beyond Matthew 24..)