SPAIN: Spanish Branch Signs Endesa Electricity Contract
Endesa Energia S.A.U. is the largest electricity supplier in Spain and the second largest operator in Portugal. It is a subsidiary of Enel Group. It has more than 10,000 employees serving more than 11 million customers. According to a strictly confidential letter recently leaked, the Spanish Branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses, based in Madrid, has signed a global contract […]
Do Jehovah’s Witnesses have a Clergy?
The official website of Jehovah’s Witnesses answers the question Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Have a Paid Clergy? this way: Following the model of first-century Christianity, Jehovah’s Witnesses have no clergy-laity division. All baptized members are ordained ministers and share in the preaching and teaching work. Witnesses are organized into congregations of about 100 members. Spiritually mature men […]
USA: Stephanie Fessler v Watch Tower
Stephanie Fessler is a former Jehovah’s Witness and a victim of child sexual abuse. On Tuesday, February 7 2017 starting at 11am, she will have a trial by jury in Pennsylvania against defendants Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of New York, the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Inc., Spring Grove Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and her […]
Circuit Overseer Guidelines
In the first century of our Common Era, the apostles and other older men made timely visits as traveling overseers to the Christian congregations. The visit of Paul and Barnabas to congregations in Asia Minor ‘strengthened the disciples and encouraged them to remain in the faith.’ (Acts 14:21-23) The governing body in Jerusalem sent Judas […]
Is the New World Translation an ‘Extremist’ Bible?
According to jw.org, ‘Russian authorities are attempting to ban the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures published by Jehovah’s Witnesses, labeling it as extremist.’ To counter the Russians’ claims that the New World Translation (NWT) is extremist, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have called on experts to decry Russia’s threat to ban their version of the Bible. […]
How Watch Tower Creates a Bleak Future for Gay Jehovah’s Witnesses
SHORT-TERM THINKING is a mindset that permeates the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ religion. Perpetually on a doomsday footing, the religion actively and tacitly discourages long-term planning. During the decades in which I was a believer, based on the alarms sounded by the Governing Body, it was not uncommon to hear followers estimate that Armageddon would arrive within […]
Literature Litter
I was born in 1977. I am a fifth generation Jehovah’s Witness on my mother’s side. I’m a third generation on my father’s side. This doesn’t include overlapping generations! My great grandma’s uncle was of the “Anointed”. He was a “Colporteur” of the tens and twenties of the 20th Century. My great grandma died out in service […]
Forbidding Education
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever” – Mahatma Gandhi Jehovah’s Witnesses wouldn’t think too much of Gandhi’s quote. They believe that the end of the world could be tomorrow, yet most live as if it won’t be. They believe too that they are going to live […]
Concerning the “Coming”
A 90 year old Jehovah’s Witness in Germany has been sending many letters to his local congregation, other congregations in Germany, to the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (the branch) and even to Gerrit Loesch, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Here is one such letter. It is translated from German into […]