Posted by Mary [Joshua] on March 31, 1999 at 17:58:13 {ohFII14TUcSpdplHcja6Ihs.EqJaAw}:
In Reply to: ***To Friend-why insult me? posted by Friend on March 30, 1999 at 17:46:21:
"...I suggest you offer more than your personal read on things...."
What do you think?? That there's a database somewhere that keeps statistics on how many Witnesses pay their bills?
"...My money says you cannot even come close to any sort of data substantiating such a ludicrous idea...."
Now, now....is that a 'bet' you're waging? You know you're not suppose to be gambling you bad boy...
"....Assuming you live in the USA like several other participants on this board..."
Nope! I live in Canada, where, due to our worthless dollar, 9 out of every 10 households declare bankruptcy every month (hee-hee)
"...How many do you know that have filed for bankruptcy in the past 19 years?..."
Unfortunately---quite a few. There have been various reasons for why they went bankrupt, but in almost all of the ones that I've known, they seemed to have a common thread---they never planned for the future, because they assumed Armageddon would be here, so they never planned their finances AT ALL. I've known brothers that have purposely run up bills for thousands of dollars thinking that they'd never have to pay it back, and they lose the shirts on their backs when the bank comes knocking.
I know of a 'christian brother' who ripped 8 other brothers off for more than $150,000. Three of these brothers lost their houses because of this pr1ck, and the other ones came damn close to losing theirs. And what happened to the creep who ruined these other people's lives? He got 'privately reproved'---even though everyone knew about it and he showed no remorse.
I know of another brother who sold his house many years ago, he
made a good profit, and so bought another home. Instead of putting a large downpayment on this house, he put a very small downpayment on it, sold it, and bought a huge home, where he put even less money down on it. He then started
spending what money he had left, got into serious debt because of his foolishness and ended up declaring bankruptcy.
"....I hope you see the utter futility of claiming that more than 50% of Jehovah�s Witnesses most likely don�t pay
their bills...."
From what I've observed in my congregation and others, 50% is certainly an inflated percentage---I don't think it's that high at all. But I do know that there are plenty of brothers and sisters that will, and do, take full advantage of the scripture that says "...should you not let yourself be defrauded?" I've seen it with my own eyes, this is not second hand news. This is why we occasionally have WT articles on business dealings with our brothers, because it IS a problem.
"...How many Witnesses in business have had fellow believers file bankruptcy while in debt to them?..."
My sister-in-law and her husband own a business, and right now, there are 8 Witnesses who have not paid their bills for over 4 months, (I do their book keeping, so I know) supposedly because they're broke; but apparently not so broke that they can't take expensive vacations and buy expensive furniture for their nice new homes.
So unfortunately, it DOES happen. It happens all too often.