Does anyone know how much you would be expected to give to the Jehovah Witnesses if you were to join them?

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses do not require or even suggest any specific donations. These facts about Jehovah's Witnesses are perhaps relevant to this question. The more one compares this Christian religion with others, the more remarkable it is shown to be.

1. Jehovah's Witnesses have no paid clergy. Yet they remain tightly organized with more than 6.5 million active Jehovah's Witness preachers (about 16 million associate themselves with the religion). Even fulltime preachers and workers at their branch offices are unpaid volunteers.

2. There is no elite class among Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the few 'anointed' among them enjoy no special privileges in their congregations on earth. An anointed person (one of those relative few with a heavenly hope) is not elevated above his fellow congregants in any way, and he may not even qualify for appointment as a simple 'deacon' or elder. There are no titles; EVERYONE is addressed as 'brother' or 'sister'.

3. No person benefits economically from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the 8 to 20 men who serve on their Governing Body receive simply room, board, medical care, and reimbursement for certain personal expenses according to the exact same provision as every other branch volunteer.

4. About a hundred men have served on Jehovah's Witnesses' Governing Body committee during the past 125 years or so. The vast majority of them have spent the vast majority of their adult lives volunteering for their organization's purposes, and the vast majority have died faithfully and near-pennilessly while still under their legal 'vow of poverty'.

5. Amazingly, Jehovah's Witnesses did not splinter as a sect from some other religion. Instead, a truly tiny but sincere group of bible students studied only the Scriptures to determine the will of God. Thus their religion remains absolutely independent of and not carrying the sins of Christendom's history, yet carries the authority of Christ's teachings.

6. Despite the distortions of anti-Witnesses, throughout their modern history Jehovah's Witnesses have refused to claim divine inspiration or infallibility for their teachings. They have pointed to the bible (and not any particular translation) as the only inspired infallible means of knowing God's thoughts. For over 125 years, their teachings have been presented as merely the results of sincere bible research by imperfect but godly humans.


Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/index.htm?article=article_07.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20040601/article_02.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/who.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/statistics.htm

Answer 2

No money requirement at all. All contributions are strictly voluntary and private. No collection plate or basket, or bucket are ever passed unlike the churches of Christendom. there are small contribution boxes usually located in the back of the Hall where one can put in money, but no one will ever know who did or how much.

Also, you can not just "join". To become a JW, you must study the Bible and learn what the Bible actually teaches well enough that you yourself know what you believe and can prove it from the Bible. That is something most clergy can't do. But there is no roll or membership book to join.

Even then, we have no paid clergy. In fact none of us ever get any money for our preaching and teaching. That is why "free home Bible studies" are free.

You have many ridiculous answers here. All our real beliefs are based on the Bible as the way God approves. This must be the only way a TRUE Christian should worship.

Answer 3

I agree with all the TRUE Witnesses on here.
Go to this question its about the same question you are asking.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ahc6uI9XKiSoqJEx5oE9GRLty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071108063111AAoi4Xt&show=7#profile-info-JQw2AbgGaa

The pple who are saying insulting things don't know what they are talking about unless they go to the Kingdom Hall and find out for theirselves that we don't Tithe. I was out in service on Saturday and my grandma went to this door and the person had the same concerns about Tithing-----the person couldn't afford our religion. She tried to tell the person that we don't Tithe. That person wouldn't listen. We don't force anybody to give any money ever. We don't Tithe at all! We don't pass the collection plate or beg for money! We have volunteer contribution boxes for if you have money you can put in the box without anybody knowing how much you put in or when you put money in. We don't push anybody in putting money in the box. So she can put money the contibution box if she wants to but she doesn't have to. There will be some that have the money but they don't make a showy display of their financial graditude. Go to the Kingdom Hall and find out for yourself that would be very helpful for you.

(Read this article)
Religion How Should It Be Financed?
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20021201/art...
Giving Until It Hurts

(Now read this article)
Religion How Should It Be Financed?
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20021201/art...
Giving That Brings Joy

Answer 4

Unless it's changed from when I was one, it's free.

All donations are voluntary, so there's no enforced % of wages deducted or anything like that.

*Edit* People seem so concerned with being "brainwashed" when there's actually no such thing. If you're an adult who wants to learn more about a philosophy that you agree with then why the hell not?

Case in point, I was brought up a JW and am now not one. If it was possible to "brainwash" anyone then me as a baby would have been prime fodder.

Answer 5

we do not pass around a plate like the churches do. we give as much or as little as we want. in churches they want all your money. we are not brainwashed or a cult. please learn what a cult is. they worship man. we worship Jehovah. as far as holidays. no big deal. you wait for a holiday to give gifts. we give gifts all during the year and have parties anytime we want. learn what Jehovah Witnesses are about at www.watchtower.org. also no one pushes you into becoming a Jehovah Witness, that is between you and Jehovah God and he wants you to worship him because you want to

Answer 6

How much- you mean in monetary terms? Then nothing. All contributions are voluntary, no one will know how much you give unless you tell them yourself (and even then they'd wonder why you're telling them!)

When one dedicates themselves to Jehovah, they do so willingly and after a lot of study. No one becomes a Witness blindly, they decide that they like our way of life. It is the most wonderful thing in life to place God's will at the centre of all our activities- life becomes so much more wholesome.

The answerer above who says that their relative joined the JWs and now they do not see her at Christmas etc.... are those the only times your family gets together?

Witnesses are not anti-family, in fact studying the Bible and applying its standards makes for better husbands, wives, parents, children, friends, neighbours, students etc

You stand to gain much, much more than you may lose when you join the JWs. In addition to your natural family, you get a spiritual family of almost 7,000,000 who love you even though they don't know you personally, from all over the world.

Mark 10:28-30 Peter started to say to him: “Look! We left all things and have been following you.” Jesus said: “Truly I say to you men, No one has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not get a hundredfold now in this period of time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecutions, and in the coming system of things everlasting life.

Answer 7

My mum is a JW and this was something I was worried about and she said she does not have to give any money but she gives them a little what she can spare but she said there is no pressure.
May I add the peace in my mother now is worth it , even if they did ask for money.

Answer 8

You will have to give up all holidays and all friends and family that are not JW. If your kids ever need a blood transfusion, you will have to let them die, rather than let them live.

And by joining, there is still not guarantee that you will go to heaven because they believe that there is only room for 144,000 people in heaven. And after all these years, I'd bet there is no more room.

You will also give up the right to free thinking. You are not allowed to read the Bible without the Watchtower in the other hand to translate the meaning for you. They take passages out of context and apply their own meaning.

It's a scary religion in my mind. But I do have a good friend who is a member and I respect her decision, but I would discourage anyone from joining, if they are not already a member.

I also must add that their door to door "witnessing" really angers me now. When my son was 5 months old, we were at my mom's and having a hard time getting him to take his nap. He had trouble sleeping in a new place. He FINALLY fell asleep and a JW rang the doorbell and woke him up! I was so mad. Now I had a tired screaming baby again for no good reason. I don't need their twisted interpretations of the Bible. I am a smart, educated woman and can understand it myself.

Answer 9

An annual fee of £50 and theres a £10 joing fee, but with that you get weekly newsletters and they send you a free t-shirt and a cap, it says 'Jehovahs My Witness so let me Jehovah you!' its a good club, join up

Answer 10

The Jehovah Witnesses are a demanding group that expects alot. My cousin joined them and I don't get to see her much because they can't celebrate anything from birthdays to christmas. They don't believe in that sort of thing. They pretty much rob you of your inner being and turn you into a family hater when someone in your family trys to talk to you about church socials and all that. They brain wash you and thats not what your family needs or wants. Bobbie, mother of 3.