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ChristianFreedo:
My Story part 2: Trouble At Bethel

By my third year at Bethel I was really enjoying it and determined to make Bethel a life career. Although my desire to marry Judy, the single Bethel sister, did not work out, I would just stay and be single if I had to. I did not like the grind of life on the outside. I could never see myself working a 9-5 job (still can’t after 30 years), having a family and settling down. I was a March hare, full of energy and the desire to be the best in my field, whatever that was.

For some reason, I was put in the position to advance quickly in the organization.

Misguided as I was by a bunch of cranky old men in high positions, I was blissful in my ignorance. I was a true believer. To me, Jehovah was in charge of this organization, and I was responsible for the authority he gave me. I would turn in anyone who talked apostasy! Yet at the same time, mostly due to my crazy youth, I could be as wild as any other Bethelite. My friends and I regularly made beer runs to New Jersey to save money. I usually had a case of beer in my closet. (Not that we had much time to drink it!) But I enjoyed life there in spite of the unbearable heat in the summer and the freezing cold in the winter in Brooklyn.

Some Bethelites are loners. They spend most of their time reading, preparing, rehearsing. I, on the other hand, did not. Nearly two years of pioneering meant I could talk to a large crowd with ease. I had no fear of people or opposition.

In my 1st three years at Bethel I became aware of the moral shortfallings of many a Bethelite, from smoking to swearing, racial fights and so forth. Some managed to avoid going to meetings at all! Their parents had shipped them off to Bethel like it was the military or something, a last chance to straighten them out. Bethel broke you: you either made the grade or ended up a nut job. A few even took the suicide route, it was so traumatic. Waking up early to bells, few females, 20 minutes to eat, often no dinner, not to mention living in New York City. I knew one guy that chickened out after the taxi ride from the airport to Bethel!

What I was at first clueless about (as most Bethelites) was the great disparity between personal opinions on matters of belief, and official doctrine. Back in the 70s, it was a rite of passage to be an elder who had been there for several years and having your own view of, say, the 144,000 or 1914 or some other prophetic date. Someone like Fred Rusk (teacher) or Fred Franz (whacked theologian) took great pride in confiding their personal opinions to a few select Bethelites, just for shock value. It was like saying, “They don’t control my mind.” In the case of a few, they didn’t. Example?

One week Daniel Sydlik (GB) came out to the family ands said that it was appropriate to be dressed up like you were going to a meeting when you come to the table (at least a tie). That went over like a lead balloon, and the rebellion was met by none other than Fred Franz, who came to breakfast all next week in an old white T-shirt that said, [I] “Where in the hell is McCook, Nebraska?”[/i] There was no controlling him. We thought that was so rad. Freddy was idolized by many. To me he was like an old Baptist preacher with a dry sense of humor, but more than ten minutes of listening to him drove you up a wall. In some ways it was like living in an old folks’ home. Brother Maxwell Friend liked to feed the pigeons (a no-no in NYC), and brother Suiter (GB) used the breakfast podium to lash out at him without mentioning names, “Those who feed the pigeons are not our friends.” Plus there was no shortage of unintended humor, with George Gangas (GB) thanking Jehovah for his shoelaces and Karl Klein (GB) giving a lecture in his prayers. I felt like a Catholic schoolgirl with the old nuns!

The boys who lived at 34 Orange St. were infrequently busted for loud music and beer parties. To be one of the dozen or so that lived in a nearby brownstone apt. (owned by the Society) was sheer independence and was in a class of cool in its own right. But they usually didn’t stay at Bethel very long.

But alas, not all was light-hearted and fun. Serious matters were afoot! Never a dull moment in God’s household.

Skeletons In the Closet

Some were reading their Bible too much. Now as a Bethelite, we all had to read the New World Translation all the way through, and I had read it three times as well as the Living Bible. But some Witnesses questioned their dating system, notably their “Gentile Times” calculations. The trouble began when a handful of brothers were commissioned to write the book Aid To Bible Understanding. In researching their chronological dating system for the “last days,” historical research overwhelmingly indicated that their precious date of 1914 (supposedly the invisible return of Christ) was nothing more than the start of World War I. My overseer, Tom Cabeen, began to share this with me, a little each day in a hushed tone behind the printing presses. It was intriguing but dangerous! According to all historical records, Jerusalem was destroyed in 587-586 BC, a full 20 years later than the Witness date. Neither was there found any basis in the Bible for a 2520-year “Gentile Times.” Russell’s dates and concepts had been constructed with inaccurate history.

Each day I would tell Tom, “Okay, that’s enough for today.” I had to go down in the Bethel library and do my own research on the dates, the identity of the “great crowd,” and more. I had to prove it for myself, and the history of their flip-flops and miscalculations were quite obvious. I researched speed-wise through every bound volume of The Watchtower, in their own Gilead library, from 1879 to 1979 on certain subjects. I typed my findings up and kept them as notes. I eventually became bold enough to share it with my new roommate, Robert Sullivan (still one of my roommates after 28 years) and he was shocked as well. The most obvious conclusion that one did not expect was that all these doctrinal inventions and changes were for one purpose: to control the masses. If you have ever wondered why I focus on mind control so much, here is the answer. It was the first and most obvious thing I noticed in reading their literature—how to control what you think. The actual doctrines were really irrelevant, it was how clever you are in convincing others. That is why to this day I have never engaged in debates with pro-Watchtower apologists—they have learned from their masters how to wear you out with absurd and tedious arguments, and people miss the forest for the trees in the process. Yet even the card sharks on the street were more clever (they could master optical illusions as well). The NY streets teach you a lot of things. One finding stands out:

The choosing of another class of Christians, those who would live on the earth but not be born again or anointed by the Holy Spirit, was based on this pivotal date of 1914. Counting ahead to the year 1935, President Joseph Rutherford was looking for an explanation as to why there were so many coming into the organization, while Rutherford believed the Bible spoke of only 144,000 going to heaven and ruling with Christ. He began searching the book of Revelation for some kind of answer, and Rev. 7:13-17 was seized upon. This was providential, as it also seemed to solve another of their big problems—how to gain more control over the local congregations. Up to this time, congregation overseers (called elders) had been elected into office, and many had full control of their congregations, much to the dismay of Rutherford. Now, a two-fold interpretation of this passage would “kill two birds with one stone.” First, the “elders” of verse 13 were identified as these special 144,000 (represented by the Board of Directors), and not the congregational overseers. Thus, the term “elder” was dropped, and all of the congregational overseers lost their positions of responsibility. Those reappointed would now be called by a new name, “company servants.” That meant that many previous “elders” were not reappointed to office, and Rutherford assumed complete control over who would be leaders. Many of the former “elders” became disgusted and left the organization. —The Critical Years 1975-1997, R. Watters

Knorr and Franz

Nathan Knorr was not a very likeable person—gruff and cold, he had a love/hate relationship with members of the Bethel family. He never really trusted the young brothers, even instituting working on Saturdays a half-day just to insure the Bethelites did not have enough time to take a weekend vacation. Gilead missionary students were at times denied return air or boat fare back if they could not complete their assignments, resulting in at least two suicides borne from despair.

In 1975 several key “yes men” were called into Bethel from their various responsibilities around the world, such as branch and zone overseers, to become part of a “Governing Body,” a new arrangement that was an attempt at becoming more Biblical, with more than one person making theological decisions regarding the masses. Now they could all vote on what would become “the truth” in future days!

Knorr and his resident seer, Fred Franz, did not support this new idea of diluting the power base with such “new boys.” At the Spring 1975 Gilead graduation class in Queens, NY, Franz gave a scathing talk on why he and Knorr were opposed to such an arrangement, a rare and candid moment to say the least. 2000 of us listened to this rant. Yet the new Governing Body came to pass, and Knorr died shortly thereafter, a broken man who began to cry often and soon lost his senses altogether. Franz was elected 4th President, but the GB had other things in mind for him, as he was later isolated in his last days and moved out of Bethel altogether. The Governing Body were itching to get their hands on power. This was even vocalized on more than one occasion by the soon-to-become 5th president, Milton Henschel. “What power [does the Governing Body have]?” he once said during a Bethel elders meeting that made my hair stand up. “I haven’t seen any power!” Yikes!

By 1979, the archeological dating errors became known to several in the Spanish JW community in NYC, and it got back to the GB around Memorial time in 1980. Those who “talked” were dragged before special committees set up after hours in isolated parts of the factory at 117 Adams Street. I remember that very day; Cabeen told me that Cris Sanchez was being interrogated in a closed session. Cris and Norma, the most humble people you can imagine, had aided in translating the New World Translation from English to Spanish, and had lived happily at Bethel for many years. Suddenly they were accused of “conspiring against the organization” and were called names before the others present, even by GB member Dan Sydlik. Denounced as leeches, a cancer, and worms, they were given a few hours to pack up their belongings under total silence and leave the headquarters—they were now disfellowshipped. They appealed their disfellowshipping but the appeal was denied immediately.

Others were implicated and disfellowshipped as well, such as fellow translators Nestor Kuilan and his wife, as well as Rene Vazquez. The local elders who at first believed the testimony of these ones were later exonerated by reporting them to the Service Department. Members of the Bethel family were generally in the dark about the whole thing, and most remain so to this day, believing simply the explanations that are offered by the GB that it was a planned conspiracy against Jehovah’s organization, and that these men and women were apostates and “spiritual fornicators,” being “mentally-diseased” and “corrupt.” The witch hunt was on.

Paranoia Reigns
“If some tinge of doubt about Jehovah, his Word, or his organization has begun to linger in your heart, take quick steps to eliminate it before it festers into something that could destroy your faith…do not hesitate to ask for help from loving overseers in the congregation. They will help you trace the source of your doubts, which may be due to pride or some wrong thinking.

…act quickly to rout out of the mind any tendency to complain, to be dissatisfied with the way things are done in the congregation. Cut off anything that feeds such doubts.” —Watchtower, 2/1/96, p. 23-24

Naturally, many in the Bethel family were concerned and wept at the breakfast table when they heard what had happened with the Spanish brothers. I could see my chest heaving in panic, hoping others at my table did not notice that their table head was freaking out. How could they do this?? Meantime, the Service Department was busy rounding up any evidence they could in order to disfellowship Raymond Franz, as they felt he and Edward Dunlap were conspiring against the organization. Lee Waters of the Service Department even made the statement that “They (the ‘apostates’) had been building a platform [upon which to attack] for many years.” Yet there was no conspiracy, no plans, an no one wanted to leave Bethel or seize power! While Lyman Swingle (GB) stood up for Ray Franz and prevented him from being disfellowshipped at that time, Franz was spied upon and later disfellowshipped for eating a meal with his boss, a former Witness (see Time Magazine of Feb. 22, 1982, p. 66). Edward Dunlap was disfellowshipped after members of the GB pleaded with him to ignore the facts and maintain their present understanding for the sake of unity. THEY WERE THE CONSPIRATORS. THEY WANTED TO RETAIN THEIR POWER OVER THE MASSES. Very obvious!

Dozens more left the Bethel family or were disfellowshipped in the months to come, as they apparently “knew too much.” We worms kept a low profile while every day we had to listen to the various GB members, like the bootlickers they were, made continual denouncements of the ‘wicked.’ I became ashamed of the GB forevermore.

Dozens of members of the Bethel family who had been attending clandestine Bible studies every Monday night after the family Watchtower Study had to be very careful. The letters of Paul to the Romans and Galatians were of particular fascination to us, as they pointed to a much better and superior understanding of life and a relationship with Christ than the Witnesses were allowed to enjoy. I joined one of these secret studies, and we carried Watchtowers to the hideout, just in case a “spy” knocked at the door!

At this point, you are probably asking, “So what was the big secret you were learning about from the Bible?”

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ChristianFreedo:
New Responsibilities

Out of the 100 brothers who came to Bethel in my class, only two were assigned to the pressroom, where books and Bibles were printed. Myself and Lewis Williamson. Lewis was from a holler in Kentucky and because of my okie background we became close buds.

Lewis and I both ended up working on the big MAN web presses that printed all their Bibles as well as anything on the fancy Bible paper (which is really the same paper used to roll cigarettes). There was no air conditioning in the factory, and we would run those big presses in the summer with 100 degrees outside and 110 degrees inside, sweating our butts off and breathing the heavy ink that the presses spewed out constantly. For my first year of Bethel I had a constant sore throat just from all the ink in my lungs! But we both became press operators in less than a year. I was also the only one in my group that I know of that got assigned to room with a Bethel “heavy,” Milan Miller, who traveled around the world setting up the MAN presses, which were worth about a half million apiece at the time. In addition to sharing a great room in the 117 Columbia Heights building, I learned a lot about the Society from Milan, a kind little man that I respected a lot. The rest of the new boys got assigned to live with up to 4 or 5 others in the Towers Hotel, which had been newly purchased and renovated for housing. Try sleeping with 4 others in one open room, who come in from their congregation meetings at all hours of the night, and many of them were fond to drink! Not fun. But I had lucked out.

Every new boy is assigned to a Bethel table and is expected to show up at least every morning for breakfast and the daily text discussion with Knorr or Franz or some other Bethel overseer. Four on each side of a long table, with a table head on one end and a table “foot” on the other. The table head was a Bethel Elder (a step above a regular elder, more on that later), and the foot was usually the same or a regular elder who could take over if the table head was missing. Food was passed from one side and if you were #10 you may not get too much to eat! Most all the food was grown on several farms the Watchtower owned in the New England area, including livestock, fruit and vegetables. That’s how we could live on $14 a month. It was virtually a commune.

At my table, they had one of only two single sisters that I knew of at Bethel. Her name was Judy Martin, and as far as I know she is still at Bethel, as I see her picture, slightly aged, in some of the publications to this day. I grew to love this girl secretly, but didn’t tell her for a long time. When I finally did, she was not at all interested. I was crushed. But I was lucky it didn’t work out, for she never would have left the Watchtower.

(When I first arrived at Bethel I went up to the tower top at 124 Columbia Heights and looked around all of Manhattan, saying to myself, “This is the only safe place in New York City!”)

I quickly gained a lot of experience in the Pressroom, running several presses and even becoming a press mechanic for a few months, and was then put on a special project. We were testing new nylon plates for the MAN presses that would save much time and end up with better quality printing. We were trying to get away from using lead plates with raised type on the presses, which was time consuming and the quality was not good. This eventually led to the Society purchasing a huge 2-story press from Wood Hoe which had never been tested, for $1.6 million. It had printing cylinders 6 feet long and 4 1/2 feet in diameter. Each revolution of the cylinders would produce 4 complete “Truth” books, and create about 100,000 of them a day, with an elevator that shot the unfinished books upstairs to an automated bindery.

This machine was a monstrous joke! It had failed to work properly for three experienced press mechanics, so I was assigned to get it working if it was possible. The biggest problem (aside from causing the entire building to sway and shutting down the lathes in the machine shop below us, as well as installing the massive rolls of paper every 35 minutes without stopping the press), was the untested quality of the plate cylinders themselves. The cylinders, while huge and very heavy, were made up of thousands of laminated rings of metal, some of which were magnetic to hold the new nyloprint plastic plates onto the press without special clamps. What the big problem was that as temperatures inside and outside the metal changed, the rings became like the different layers of a laminated wood table all moving or sliding against one another so that they were no longer smooth. The results were that the press printed books that looked like they were printed with rubber stamps, with light and heavy spots. After finally getting the other mechanical bugs out, I ran 100,000 books that were so bad they had to be recycled. Max Larson, the factory overseer, took me off the project and declared it a lost cause, eventually selling the press to China or something. I still have a copy of one of the books, that was sewn together but not yet bound, but which was improperly cut by the upstairs bindery into the shape of a perfect tombstone, and I wrote R.I.P. on the front to keep as a souvenir.

From that time to the day I left I was a floor overseer in building 3-6, in charge of all the Bible printing. (The day before I left I was appointed Assistant PRESSROOM Overseer.) That gave me time to learn how to work with the brothers in a personal way, as an overseer and a big brother in a sense, because they were all so young and inexperienced, and Bethel caused a lot of turmoil for most guys in one way or another. Taken away from home and all former friends, you work in New York City 5 1/2 days a week, make $14 a month meaning unless you have your own money you can’t go anywhere much or barely even see a movie. You have to eat in 20 minutes and walk through the snow or heat to the factory twice a day, only to come home and often not even have enough time to eat dinner because you were assigned to one of the 280 congregations in NYC and the subway might take you 45 minutes or more to get there (in suit and tie), so you would be late for your 3 meetings during the week if you sat down at the table after work. Then on weekends you were expected to go out in service and be a ministerial servant or elder or something in your local congregation! No time to think for yourselves, all the thinking was done for you.

Five of my six years at Bethel were very enjoyable, despite the “boot camp” atmosphere. The last year was intriguing to say the least, but often uncomfortable.

I was pretty lucky because I was only robbed once by 13 year-old kids with guns. (After they got my watch and $10, one came back to apologize because his mother went to church!) Back then, most of the violent crimes were committed by young thugs, as they couldn’t be easily prosecuted because of their age. We would walk through the projects and sometimes bottles would be thrown at us, but I stayed at Bethel for 6 years, going out to Linwood several times a week and often alone late at night, and I never got harmed. I attribute that to being street-wise and to PRAYER.

Although Linwood already had 7 elders, they liked me so much they pushed the issue of my becoming an elder without me knowing it. Policy was you had to be 30 to be an elder, but they had recently made some exceptions for 25 year-olds IF the congregation elders pushed the matter, and they did. I was one of two of the first young elders to be appointed at Bethel at that time at 25 years old! I was pleasantly surprised, and within a year, due to the friendship of Tom Cabeen and others in the pressroom (Tom was my overseer), I was appointed a Bethel Elder.

[As] of 2006, Bethel no longer appointed this position, probably due to mistrust and jealousy. Why? Because a Bethel Elder, who was a regular congregational elder that was valued also as a leader at Bethel and nominated by one’s overseer, had an unusual amount of authority, much like a circuit overseer, only better. You were trusted more than a circuit overseer, because you worked at the Big House and knew what the old guys really wanted of you, and you were daily accountable to them. You knew their cultspeak and all the hidden rules that the local elders didn’t know. You knew when to keep your mouth shut, and how to report certain problems within the congregations.

What privileges did Bethel Elders have? For one, they became table heads, could give comments at the family Watchtower study, could deal with moral or emotional problems with Bethelites, and were allowed to attend special meetings with the Governing Body members (this was to later be providential in allowing me to sit in and hear Bert Schroeder rail against the wicked apostates in 1979). But more interestingly, they were allowed to act as weekend circuit overseers in a sense, visiting congregations within a 200-mile radius of NYC for a special Friday night talk, Saturday field service and meetings with the local elders, and a special talk on Sunday. I did this every other weekend, and got to see Boston, Philly, New Haven, Mahwah, Ebbetts Field, Mystic, Wilmington, Bel Air and countless other New England cities. The Society paid my travel expense.

What was a real learning experience was to see all the problems in the congregations that you didn’t see in NYC. I never gave manuscript talks from the Society, I made up my own. I had three slide talks that I liked to give. One of them was called, “Growing Up.” After giving it to a congregation near Watchtower Farms in upstate New York, I was pulled aside by one white elder who complained about an interracial slide in my talk. They just happened to have a young couple, the boy was black and the girl white, and they had been trying to discourage them from dating. Apparently I made them mad! Hypocrites! I learned so much at Bethel.

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In the next section, I will lay the groundwork for the Ray Franz Incident that occurred in 1979, which was the greatest shakeup the organization had seen in decades, and would lay the groundwork for the coming demise of the entire Watchtower organization as we know it. I will reveal the final days of Nathan Knorr (3rd president) and his resistance to the Governing Body arrangement, the outspokenness and strangeness of Fred Franz (4th president) as well as his demise, the writing of Aid to Bible Understanding and why it is no longer in print, along with another book that dared to change doctrine under their noses, and the rise to power of Ted Jaracz and his cronies who are still in charge.

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ChristianFreedo:
How the Watchtower Was Financed (pre-1990)
by Randy Watters

How is the kingdom work financed?

Some might think it is done by money obtained from the Bibles and Bible literature produced by the Society, but this is not so. The small contribution received from persons that take literature does not cover the cost of operating the Society's activities. The Watchtower, May 1, 1960, p.265

The Watchtower has always been careful in their wording of sentences, so as to convey an idea that they are not actually verbalizing. The above statement gives the impression that the sales of books and literature does not cover their cost of producing it. However, they did not say this specifically, but used the phrase, "operating the Society's activities." If they were to be honest, they should say, "The small contribution received from persons that take literature covers most all of our entire organizational needs, including missionaries, branch offices, and so on. The other small percentage comes from free will contributions."

Conveying the wrong impression is their specialty. Note the similar statement from the May 1, 1948 Wztchtower, p. 140 (my comments are added in italics):

"Hence, in sincerity, persons often inquire as to how a work of such magnitude is maintained, it being obvious that there is no monetary gain to the field ministers for publishing the message and likewise no monetary gain to the Society. [Not for just talking to the householder, no! But for selling the books & magazines, yes!] True, some money is contributed for the literature printed, but the money donations received at the time that the Society's printed publications are placed with the people are applied toward printing and distributing more Bible study helps; but such money donations fall far, far short [they only cover most of the costs] of sufficiency to carry on the Society's global work. Money gifts, in addition to the gifts for the literature, are financing our work in all lands. All this is by the grace of Jehovah God."

Similarly, the next statement appears in an insert of the Our Kingdom Service, a bulletin given to those who are actively engaged in selling the Society's literature:

"Where does the money come from?

"This is a question often asked by people of this materialistic world. It is no secret. Some of the printing and shipping costs are covered by the contributions received for the literature placed in the field. But monies from this source nowhere near cover the Society's expenses in this inflationary age." Our Kingdom Service, Dec. 1980, p.3

The bulletin goes on to appeal for contributions to keep the presses at Brooklyn rolling.

People often ask how the Watchtower can print their books and magazines and make a profit, since they seem to cost so much less than other books on the market. A basic understanding of printing costs and the Watchtower method provides the answer. The following is an illustration.

To illustrate: The most expensive cost in printing is usually the labor. The Watchtower has solved that problem by having all their work done by volunteers--none are paid. Second, there is no middleman to be paid--the Watchtower does all the advertising, marketing and shipping. Third, the more copies of a book printed, the lower its cost. While it may cost a secular printer $5 each to print 5000 copies of a book, that same book may only cost him $2 per book if he prints 100,000 copies. This is due to more efficient use of labor and machinery, buying paper in huge quantities, etc.

To illustrate, let's look at what a typical book on the secular market might cost:

Retail cost: $12.95

Wholesale cost to bookstore: $7.77

Cost to publisher: $3.50

Cost of materials in book: 45 cents

As you can see, most of the book's cost is absorbed in labor and marketing costs. Of course, the same is true in all forms of manufacturing. The final product may actually only cost the manufacturer 5% of the retail price with items such as cosmetics, certain fast foods, housewares, etc. The retailer, however, only makes about 30-40% in profit.

HOW THE WATCHTOWER DOES IT

The Watchtower has created an instant market for its publications. To release just one new book at a yearly District Assembly brings automatic sales of at least five million books. At a NET profit rate of over 50% per book, one can grasp the immediate benefit. (Having been involved in figuring the costs of their books and magazines while working in the printing offices in New York, I am aware of their expenses and overhead in this area). With a magazine circulation of well over eleven million per week and approximately 16 cents profit per magazine, their income from magazines alone would exceed $1,780,000 per week. Mind you, theirs is a guaranteed market, regardless of how good the magazines are.

This circulation must be carefully maintained, however. Two meetings per week (the Service Meeting and the Theocratic School) in the local Kingdom Halls are scheduled by the Branch offices in order to demonstrate the sales pitches for the books and magazines. Each month there is a special offer, and sample presentations are rehearsed at these meetings, as well as the morning meetings for field service held all over the world in each Kingdom Hall or private home. In other words, each Witness is exposed to at least two and possible more hours per week in a sales meeting atmosphere, to prepare them for and to encourage them in selling as many books and magazines as possible. These same Witnesses take their books and magazines out to the public, proclaiming that they represent "God's organization" and are financed strictly by contribution, and proceed to point out the wrongs of the churches in their passing of a collection plate! Such hypocrisy goes unnoticed by the Witness himself, for he is ignorant of the Society's methods.

The Annual Summary of the British Branch of the Watchtower has been made available recently for the years 1982-1985. We have reproduced the 1985 statement in this article, and also give the figures for the other years in a chart. This is helpful, since the U.S. branch of the Watchtower will not give out any financial figures. These documents, which remain hidden from the Witnesses themselves, illustrate the real source of income for the Watchtower. On pages 119-120 of the publication Organized To Accomplish Our Ministry, printed in 1983, the Watchtower discusses how they are financed. Not only in this book, but in many other articles claiming to give the financial picture of the Watchtower over the last 15 years, they fail to disclose their primary source of income. Rather, they seek to convey the impression that their income comes strictly through free will contributions, with a few estates being denoted as well. No mention is made of the MAJOR source of their income, which is the distribution of books and magazines. The local Witness, in turn, makes the deceptive statement that contributions are to COVER the cost of literature received, as if the price they pay is what it cost to actually produce the book. He is unaware of the facts.

IS IT WRONG TO GENERATE FUNDS THIS WAY?

It is not wrong for a religious organization or nonprofit corporation to receive income from the offering of literature. This ministry receives about 30% of its income from contributions for literature (the rest comes from free will donations). What is WRONG is to seek to hide the MAJOR source of their income from those who support the organization, while deliberately and consistently conveying a different impression in order to set themselves apart as "Goddirected," as opposed to the way other organizations are financed. Jehovah's Witnesses will point out the wrongness of churches having raffles and Bingo games, tithing and passing the collection plate in order to support themselves, yet are completely oblivious to the fact that they are the ones carrying on the REAL deception. At least many other organizations, including many cults, make it known that their particular programs help fund their organizations! The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses stands out among all of these, for they have not even hinted at their TRUE source of income.

THE ANNUAL REPORT

The British Branch report reproduced in this Newsletter is divided into receipts (money taken in) and expenses (money paid out). If we ignore the transfers between the Brooklyn Branch and the British Branch (which always result in a gain to the Brooklyn branch office), we can figure the percentages of income that come from donations and legacies (wills, etc.) and compare that with their total income from the sales of books and magazines, in order to see their real yet carefully disguised source of income.

While figures are not available from the main branch in the United States, it is obvious that the figures would be similar. Unfortunately, such documentation cannot be obtained in the U.S. at present.

Studying four successive years of reports from the same branch office reveals a steady increase in book and magazine sales, and a decrease in charitable contributions percentagewise. This information is helpful in pointing out to the Jehovah's Witness and their studies that the Watchtower is keeping information from them that reveals their real source of income. Rather than God moving on the hearts of people to contribute to the Watchtower, they are steadily increasing a financial empire, training salesmen as they go. One is not counted as a true Jehovah's Witness in the records reviewed annually by the Circuit Overseer if he does not spend time selling books and magazines door to door. Thus, to be a JW, you must help fund the Watchtower by selling their literature.

EXPANDING THEIR EMPIRE

The Watchtower continually portrays themselves as being modeled after the early church in matters of giving and financing their work. Note this statement in The Watchtower of Feb. 15, 1970:

"Some may argue that it costs more money today to carry out the functions of a church, and if voluntary contributions do not cover expenses, then some means must be used to raise the money. But think a moment. Bible principles do not change, do they? If God enriched the first Christians and moved their hearts to generosity, will he not also do that today among true Christians, and that without high pressure persuasion? (2 Cor. 9:8-14) But is there a body of Christians today who follow Bible principles when it comes to money, and who work zealously to aid others spiritually?" (p.101-102)

The impression is given that all of the Watchtower's funding comes through contribution. Apparently only about 10% does.

In addition to regular expenses, the Watchtower has special projects that are funded by other means, often in the form of loans or special contributions. In 1980 special efforts were made to obtain loans and pledges in the individual congregations, by means of letters read to the congregations and sent by the branch offices. Details were not made available in the Watchtower magazines, however.

Several large projects were in the works in the late 1970's. The first big move was the acquisition of the Towers Hotel in Brooklyn Heights, New York, in order to house more workers for the headquarters there. This way, 1000 more workers could live and work there. Since their food is grown and raised on Watchtower Farm 90 miles upstate from Brooklyn, and volunteers aren't paid except for a few dollars a month, it is relatively inexpensive to bring in more workers.

Much greater, however, was the need to expand the printing operation both in quality and quantity. When I came to Bethel in 1974, the printing equipment was greatly outdated. One of the first presses that I operated was built in 1926! Even the newer ones were letterpress machines; an older, inefficient design incapable of printing on good paper or in more than two colors at a time. When I was later appointed as a floor overseer, I was also involved in experimental methods of printing, and would travel to places like the Government Printing Office in Washington D.C. or W.R. Grace Inc. to see how "worldly" people were printing.

I think the most amazing thing I learned was that the Factory Committee and the Governing Body (as well as the late Nathan Knorr) were quite unawares of what "efficiency" was all about. The attitude I continually picked up from men such as Calvin Chyke and Richard Wheelock of the Factory Committee was that 'this is God's organization, and we don't care how the world is doing it.' As a result, much money was wasted in gross inefficiency. Press operators would often be told to run their presses prematurely and throw away the printed material, just to impress paper salesmen or important people on tour.

This can be illustrated by what happened in 1979. The Governing Body decided that they wanted to upgrade the quality of the magazines, using better paper and better pictures. The Factory Committee decided that instead of scrapping their old, outdated presses, they would renovate them. They brought in Japanese press manufacturers to estimate the cost to renovate 60 presses, including some being used in other branches. The estimate was for 60 million dollars to convert these older letterpresses to offset printing! The Factory Committee wanted to go ahead with it.

This brought panic into the hearts of four of us who were the overseers of the pressroom. We had done experimental work for about two years, and knew this was a wrong move for them. They had already purchased a custom WoodHoe press for $1,600,000 that turned out to be a lemon that they couldn't even sell. I know, because I was asked to try and get it operating. I did, but the quality was like rubber stamp printing! The press sat there for several years, while tour guides boasted of its capacity to print 100,000 books per day. We finally printed 200,000 books, all right, but many were trashed and the others were sold to Bethelites at half price. Attempts were made to sell the press to buyers in China, but it fell through.

Anyway, we knew the cost of renovating the 60 old presses to far exceed what was necessary. Three of us worked together secretly on a cost comparison project that proposed to SCRAP all the old presses, and buy brand new Harris offset presses (like the ones we were already using to print My Book of Bible Stories). For a cost of only $12 million, we could buy twelve presses that would take the place of all 60 of the others, and yielding much greater quality! We worked feverishly getting figures together, talking with "worldly" printing experts. The Pressroom Overseer then submitted this proposal to the Factory Committee, and secretly submitted a copy to one member of the Governing Body (who is still at Bethel), just in case they decided to reject it. Well, reject it they did, laughing it off as the presumptuous efforts of young whippersnappers. But a couple of members of the Governing Body did not think it so foolish to save $48 million, and some time later, after hearing nothing from the Factory Committee, asked them about it. The Factory Committee then submitted the proposal to the GB after checking the figures with us, and thus they finally carried the plan out. No thanks were given to those of us in the pressroom! However, that was no surprise; and besides, we were occupied with discovering what the Governing Body knew about 1914 and the Gentile Times that they weren't telling anybody.

Although this was their most expensive near-mistake, there were other mistakes unknown to even those working at the headquarters. In the late 70's efforts were made to introduce a new phototypesetting computer system much more complex than was currently used on the outside. Equipment was rented from IBM at a cost of about $30,000 per month that sat there for over a year, because of problems with programs and personnel. Why personnel? At Bethel, an overseer may be put in charge of a department that knows nothing about the department itself. He is simply an authority figure. If it appears that others with lesser seniority than he is trying to suggest what to do, he may resent this and cause problems for that individual (usually a "new boy" brought in from the outside, not used to Bethel's unwritten "pecking" order), often forcing him to leave Bethel in frustration. Many left in frustration over the computer issue alone during 19791980. Finally, they brought in a JW computer expert, housing his family in a private flat next to Bethel, sending the kids to school and paying him several thousand a month salary besides, just to get the system operating.

The Watchtower of Feb. 1, 1982 makes mention of the Towers Hotel project as well as the printing expansion and the computer equipment. Of course, no mention is made of the above details, for this would expose too much.

To help cover the cost of purchasing additional equipment, the cost of The Watchtower and Awake! magazines went from 10 cents to 15 cents per copy as of Sept. 1, 1981.

Currently, the Watchtower has been using other hotels in Brooklyn Heights that were purportedly purchased by private JW businessmen who agreed to loan space out to the Bethel complex, using such facilities until their next project is completed. What is it? A brand new 31-story building right next to the office complex at 30 Columbia Heights.

With the Sept. 1, 1984 issue, the Watchtower and Awake! went to 20 cents per copy. (The price went up to 25 cents in Sept. 1987.)

Summary

The Watchtower verbally shuns any kind of fundraising or the giving of pledges or the paying of ministers. Yet at the same time, they [1] carry on the most extensive literature sales in the world, unrivaled by any organization, [2] they have repeatedly solicited pledges, in the form of the "Good Hopes" donation arrangement or "contribution prospects", 1 and [3] have regularly given a salary to Bethel home workers, Circuit and District Overseers, and missionaries.

Why doesn't the average JW see through all of this doubletalk? Because he simply doesn't know the facts. He has been told that the Society doesn't make any money from selling literature, and that it all comes through donations. Imagining himself in a superior position, the JW then derides other religious organizations for their financial practices. Moreover, he is ignorant of what the Bible says about supporting Christian ministry, because the Watchtower has distorted this as well. He is trained not to question the Watchtower, fearing that he might become an "apostate" for such doubts. Such techniques are reminiscent of Orwell's Socialistic Society (Ingsoc) typified in his book 1984:

". . . The speculations which might possibly induce a skeptical or rebellious attitude are killed in advance by his early-acquired inner discipline. The first and simplest stage in the discipline, which can be taught even to young children, is called, in Newspeak, crimestop. Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction." 1984, p. 174-175