I was a Bethelite in ****** for many years then got reassigned to the field and then went on ******right up to covid.
During my years at the branch I was sometimes asked to be on a team who went to homes donated to the branch when some older one died.
This happens an awful lot, everything is left to the branch in the will. The unbelieving family is furious they didn’t get left anything and sometimes they tried to get their elderly relatives possessions and there was a legal battle but in the end a team of us would go and empty the property and another team would clean it up and put it on the market to sell it for the worldwide work.
All the possessions were sorted into trash or possibly valuable the things we thought were possibly valuable were sent to the investment department which at the time was run by Brother ******(name removed)
He was an expert in gold, silver and diamonds. Another brother was expert in fine art, but brother *****(name removed) was expert with expensive watches and jewellery.
He had a large vault safe which we used to joke about because there was millions of pounds worth of gold and diamonds, Rolex and expensive paintings donated.
He would periodically sell bits to local Jewish dealers and an interesting fact is one of the Jewish dealers he sold to became the buyer of one of the Watchtower houses.(meaning a block of flats in a very affluent area of a well known Metropolis).
Anyway after I left the branch I remained friends with ****** we often used to watch movies together and he would often offer me a glass of fine whiskey, he was always immaculately well dressed obviously came from money and was personally very wealthy himself.
His wife left him years before and his only son died of an overdose in mysterious circumstances and he was with him holding his hand when he died ever since he seemed to be self medicating with whiskey which seemed to be quite common in the branch especially bottles of spirits lots of sisters like their gin in the evening.
In his case it wasn’t only the evening and it was basically from morning worship all day. It became obvious and he was even driving down the road to the local supermarket where all those in the branch used to go coming back with bags of bottles.
It got to the point where the brothers confiscated his car as there was some doubt if he was driving sober or not
but then he got an old person’s electric buggy and used to go down to supermarket to load up on whiskey with that. They couldn’t really confiscate that and often would be obvious he was under the influence.This went on for years and it got to the point of him being announced he was no longer a JW.
The interesting thing is this all came to a head about the time of bottle gate as a similar thing was happening to Tony Morris the third, he was very unhappy about the situation especially as what was going on across the pond with Tony who is about the same age end of the story is ***** this brother was kicked out of Bethel even at his age and frail state and now I hear he died a lonely bitter old soul very sad story
Now some younger brothers are in charge of the vault full of gold and jewels donated and they work in close proximity to the investment department who are buying stocks and shares with all the donations.
Repulsive how WT has for over a century jugmentally criticised "Christendom" and other religious sectors for amassing properties and great wealth.
Yes they keep a lot of their wealth in real assets - property, precious metals and stones.
I once asked ****** why they don’t sell all the gold and jewels straight away when they inherited it? He said it came right from the top, not to have to much in fiat currency which is all traceable and taxable.
They are very mysterious with all the things they get inherited to them.
It’s actually quite surprising just how many brothers and sisters have died the last few decades who left everything to the Borg.
You can contest a parents will if this kind of thing happens. If contents were not specifically willed then there's no way watchtower.....
There have been many legal battles when unbelievers contested Wills where the old JWs left everything to the Borg, the Borg usually win the case. They don’t even let daughters come to collect their mother’s jewellery even if it was special to the family.
It was all sent to ****** (the appointed brother in Bethel) who had lots of contacts in Hatton Garden which is the Jewish gold and diamonds capital of the world.
I'am sure one of the reasons they push shunning of disfellowshipped and disassociated children so hard is because they know some parents will leave everything to Watchtower as a result. Evil.
New Living Translation
Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be severely punished.”
Luke 20:47
Josephus expressly tells us that the Pharisees had large female followings, and an absolute sway in the Gynaekonitis or women’s apartments, Jos. Antt. xviii. 2, § 4.
Instead of using the Torah to earn a salary, the scribes encouraged the belief that the people will be blessed by God if they support the scribes financially and practically. The rich could afford to be generous, but the widows wereoften more tender-hearted than financially astute. The scribes either took advantage of that generosity or, for those widows who had asked scribes to manage their assets, stole from them. Either tact is foolish considering God has said He will judge those who prey on widows (Isaiah 10:1–4).
Providing for One’s Family is Most Important
Earlier in His ministry, Jesus had also criticized the religious leaders for teaching people that it was their priority to give to the temple if this giving deprived a person’s family of financial support (Mark 7:10-13). Jesus taught, along with the Mosaic Law, that one’s primary responsibility was to support their family. If it was wrong for a person to tithe to the temple while neglecting their family, it would also be wrong to ask poverty-stricken widows to give to the temple, when they had no one to provide for them. This was especially true if this widow had children.
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