[extropy-chat] FWD (SK) Re: Watchtower Society "filthy rich"?

[Terry W. Colvin]

< http://www.cftf.com/miller/miller11.htm >

Excerpt:

...in our investigation I found some interesting figures relating to
the Watchtower's finances. Some time ago, I had asked one of the elders
in our congregation if the Society published a financial statement for
its members. The response I received was one of suspicious indignation.
However, in a publication entitled Comments from the Friends written by
David A. Reed, I found information indicating that the Watchtower Bible
and Tract Society is wealthier than I could ever have imagined. The
figures I found are far from being a complete financial statement, but
they are revealing nonetheless. The publication stated, "The Watchtower
head quarters complex in the Brooklyn Heights section of New York City
consists of more than thirty buildings with a current real estate value
of $186 million." 

This is only the Watchtower holdings in Brooklyn, New York. Keeping in
mind that the Society is an international organization, I am sure they
have property and other holdings all over the world. Also from the same
publication I found figures taken from a credit reporting service that
states the annual sales for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of
New York, Inc. for 1991 was $1,248,000,000.00. According to the report,
this was up $1/4 billion from just over $1 billion in 1990. The article
went on to relate, "The figures, not published for the sect's members,
are evidently provided to credit reporting services, so that the firms
doing business with the Society will extend credit."

After finding this information, naturally my original question
resurfaced in my mind. Inasmuch as the Watchtower Society doesn't
provide medical care for the indigent, shelter for the homeless or help
to feed the starving millions of the world, what are they doing with the
vast fortune they have obviously accumulated through the efforts of
their followers?


Sender:
Paul W Harrison
________
interEnglish (Finland)

----------------------------

I imagine both the establishment and upkeep of their churches, not to
mention their vast publishing effort in many if not most of the world's
languages, costs oodles to maintain. There are plenty of people who won't
fork over a penny for their literature when they come to the door (which
they did here yesterday again: I'm one of those who staunchly refuse to
finance their efforts). Evidently in recent years they have revamped a lot
of their printing technology; that, too, costs a lot of money.

Like most ecclesiastical organizations, however, I suspect they're simply
sitting on a lot of their capital in the form of real estate and property.
The mainstream denominations are ostensibly the "guiltiest" in this area:
consider how much the Church of England owns in your part of the world, Eva.
Here I've seen it reckoned that the amount of holdings and investments the
State Lutheran Church dwarfs that of even Nokia Phones.

Sender:
Paul W Harrison
________
interEnglish (Finland)

--------------------------

For a good read on insiders' view of the Jehovah's Witnessess, see if you
can find a copy of The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses, Heather and
Gary Botting, University of Toronto Press, 1984.   Interesting stuff.....


Laurie Forbes


-- 
“Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress.” Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
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