Srecko Sostar

....with elders' and WT'  helping hand.

YES! If elders have interest to Imitate Jesus they will do exactly this, to search for the lost sheep - Mat.18:12-14:   “What do you think? If a man has 100 sheep and one of them strays,+ will he not leave the 99 on the mountains and set out on a search for the one that is straying?+ 13  And if he finds it, I certainly tell you, he rejoices more over it than over the 99 that have not strayed. 14  Likewise, it is not a desirable thing to my* Father who is in heaven for even one of these little ones to perish.

I often wonder, if one family of the 5 million Jews that left Egypt, and got stuck in the sands of the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years, had decided to head North, instead of wandering around in circles for 40 years ... if they would have been better off ... or worse off.
From the Biblical accounts, the Jews were generally a bunch of nasty, cruel, hard-headed people.

Posted by Michael David Smith on September 1, 2018, 7:31 AM EDT AP Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid were cheered by the crowd at the U.S. Open on Friday night, and afterwards they were applauded by the winner of the nightÂ’s match, Serena Williams.
Williams, who defeated her older sister Venus Williams, said after the match that she admires the stance Kaepernick and Reid have taken on racial justice.
“I think every athlete, every human, and definitely every African American should be completely grateful and honored how Colin and Eric are doing so much more for the greater good, so to say,” Williams said. “They really use their platform in ways that is really unfathomable. I feel like they obviously have great respect from a lot of their peers, especially other athletes, people that really are looking for social change.”
Kaepernick was the first NFL player to kneel during the national anthem, and Reid was the first teammate to join him. Neither player has been able to find another NFL team since leaving the 49ers, and both are bringing a collusion case against the NFL.
Williams has faced her own criticism over the national anthem, from a different direction: She does stand for the anthem despite her JehovahÂ’s Witness faith. SheÂ’s been criticized by other JehovahÂ’s Witnesses, who say she is violating their religionÂ’s teachings by standing for the anthem. JehovahÂ’s Witnesses believe that standing for patriotic rituals is a form of idolatry, and they have sued for the right not to stand for the anthem.
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/09/01/serena-williams-everyone-should-be-grateful-to-colin-kaepernick-eric-reid/

...
No surprise there .... but their fame also has ramifications.  How would it look in the media if she was publicly disfellowshipped?
Michael Jackson and Prince, both drug addicts that killed themselves, contributed a GREAT deal of money .... every month ... and it bought them complete immunity from Congregational sanctions.
EVERYTHING that is going on today in Big Org ONLY makes sense when you realize that the Society's Lawyers, and Accountants, and the GB "Helpers"are setting the rules, and running the show.
No other explanation makes any sense at all.
 
 
 
 

If you were a  real sheep, that's a VERY good idea.
When you get invited to dinner ... YOU are on the menu.
With THE WAY that we are doing disfellowshipping today ... we ARE ... eating our own.
(Baaaaaa!)

We don't actually kill them.
We just make those treated with cruelty, in some cases, commit suicide.
..... plausible deniability.

YES! If elders have interest to Imitate Jesus they will do exactly this, to search for the lost sheep - Mat.18:12-14:   “What do you think? If a man has 100 sheep and one of them strays,+ will he not leave the 99 on the mountains and set out on a search for the one that is straying?+ 13  And if he finds it, I certainly tell you, he rejoices more over it than over the 99 that have not strayed. 14  Likewise, it is not a desirable thing to my* Father who is in heaven for even one of these little ones to perish.

Grey Reformer:
Apparently you think that things that are WRONG, can be reformed with happy thoughts, and magic pixie dust.
For those that believe in Justice, fairness, and equity,  they come to realize that reform ALWAYS carries personal risk.
SERIOUS personal risk.
If you want to effect reform, you MUST call what is good, good ... and what is bad, bad.
Often the two are mixed together.
That's why we do not cut off a baby's head when they poop in their diaper.
Perhaps I should rephrase that .... reasonable people do not cut off baby's heads when they poop in their diapers.
Ultimately, we will all live or die at the will of Jehovah God and his Christ.
NOT where arbitrary and cruel Big Org protectionist policy hits the fan.
They can ONLY make your life a joy when they are right ... and completely miserable when they are wrong.
 

Of course. It is not automatic, though. Such ones have gone on to other things. What are you going to do, search the globe for them?
If they have not gotten too carried away with their own brilliance, they can apply for reinstatement, and providing that that is the sole hangup, yes, they will be reinstated.
This is not rocket science. It happens all the time. The Witness organization is very open about it. Many times they have adjusted a viewpoint to coinside with what somebody else years ago said. Alas, often that 'somebody else' is long gone. I think it was on a recent monthly broadcast. John says they went out from among us 'because they were not of our sort.' Part of being 'of our sort' is acquiescing to the theocratic direction that they signed on for. 
Look, if you want to belong to some outfit where everyone can have an epiphany and then become livid at everyone else for not falling into line, be my guest. I'll stay where there is a measure of sanity.

Disfellowshipped individuals are far from just ignored at the meetings. What do you mean family ties still remain? Disfellowshipped children are to be shunned in every sense of the word. They are treated like they are dead already. What difference does it make whether they are young or old or living at home vs. living somewhere else? You shouldn't shut off your love for your child just because they're not living the same life as you. "Despite our pain of heart, we must avoid normal contact with a disfellowshipped family member by telephone, text messages, letters, e-mails, or social media." Watchtower 2017 Oct p.16

Of course I agree with you there. But really, if we are going to be honest, there are various interpretations on what is "good for God", and I think that's where the problem lies. Terrorists believe what they are doing is "good for God".

Put the 'haterade' down, folks.  Children need all the love they can get, Especially in these times.  One should NEVER do wrong for wrong, so to speak...Especially when it comes to loving children in these "Historical" Times that we live in .  Especially now.  

How many is too many?
There is a thread of thought evolving here that probably would lose continuity if dissociated from what went before.
...kind of like a free-association chain of logic that wanders afield .... but no harm done.
Either way ... it's not "my" thread, if that counts.
Move it to "questions"?

@James Thomas Rook Jr., I'll be happy to start a whole new topic on the subject if you promise not to fill it with too many cartoons.

Could it be that the phrase "Abstain from Blood", in the minds of Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Christians, actually meant " don't murder anyone"?
The fact that it is in the same thought as "... things strangled", causes me to believe not.
But then again ... James said we should not murder our Brothers.
How often does THAT come up in Congregational activities?
Comments?

... reflecting back on what I just wrote .... it is an embarrassment, and a crying shame that concerning wisdom and common sense .... and justice and mercy .... that the average people living in Las Vegas, Nevada, the self proclaimed "Sin Capitol of the World" ... have the moral high ground.

Idiots and idiotic rules exist in every society. Here in Zagreb, one baker freely shared to poor people the excess of bread and rolls that he did not sell on that day in front of his workshop. Inspectors punished him for $ 5,000 for that. Namely, the law says that unsold bakery products must be thrown into the garbage????!!! Common sense tell me where are you living?!
https://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/pekar-qenaj-koji-dijeli-besplatno-kruh-nakon-kazne-ponos-hrvatske-46041

As you said, "semantic trap" is a great tool for such things :))

..sometimes I think we are living in a cartoon world, controlled by imitation comedians, and  Caleb and Sophia.

Idiots and idiotic rules exist in every society. Here in Zagreb, one baker freely shared to poor people the excess of bread and rolls that he did not sell on that day in front of his workshop. Inspectors punished him for $ 5,000 for that. Namely, the law says that unsold bakery products must be thrown into the garbage????!!! Common sense tell me where are you living?!
https://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/pekar-qenaj-koji-dijeli-besplatno-kruh-nakon-kazne-ponos-hrvatske-46041

This is known as a "Semantics Trap", where you are chained by a false premise and the chain of logic is too short to allow you to reach the proper conclusion.
If "the law" states that you will be hung by the neck until dead, if you park your car in a handicapped parking place ... and you DO park your car in a handicapped parking place without that little handicapped sign on your car, or whatever is required, you are "rightfully" executed for doing what you are doing.
Anyone with a true sense of justice knows the punishment does not fit the crime, but in some societies, there is no such thing as common sense or mercy, or even "extenuating circumstances" such as perhaps your car engine failed, and that was the only spot you could roll your car to, to get it out of the main traffic or travel-way.
Last year, October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, while a mass murderer was shooting  from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, at people at a concert in the street below.........
(In approximately ten minutes he killed 58 people, and left 851 people injured)
....... One man below decided to steal a truck inside a Company parking lot (he knew they kept their keys in the trucks), and with that stolen truck he  went into the line of gunfire, and amid the dead and dying,  loaded it up with wounded, and took them to the hospitals.
He confessed to deliberately stealing the truck (grand theft/auto ... a felony), and it became world wide news.  A self confessed and globally notorious car thief.
Yes he was a thief.
A self confessed and globally notorious car thief.
No ... he was NOT repentant ... and would do it again, in similar circumstances.
The law stated that he could be sentenced to two or more years in a Nevada prison.
He was not charged as a felony thief, although he was absolutely guilty.
It was NOT the right thing to do, and NO REASONABLE PERSON, not the Utility Company that owned the truck, not the police, not the stupidest man wandering the streets of Las Vegas even imagined charging him with vehicle theft.
If he would have been one of Jehovah's Witnesses, under current rules as commonly practiced EVERYWHERE by the current system, only three things would have been considered.
1.) Did he steal someone's vehicle?  -  (yes, he did).
2.) Did the public find out about it, and know he was one of Jehovah's Witnesses?  -  (yes, and yes).
3.) Was he truly repentant of his crime, and firmly resolved never to do it again? - (no, he was not and could NEVER be).
Therefore, as night follows day, BIG ORG would have had him disfellowshipped, and without repentance ( perhaps even some begging and tears, and rending of clothes ...) he would be forever disfellowshipped. No mercy would be shown ... just the blind application of ORG policy. 
In righteous indignation he may even pleaded for real  for JUSTICE ... but his pleas would be laughed at. (I have actually heard this, of first hand knowledge, as a couple sat in the darkened Kingdom Hall awaiting judgement ... ).
This is what happens when simple common sense is foreign to the minds of those who seek to consolidate their authority, and not be removed from their positions of authority. ...........
According to Big Org law, the thief would have been rightfully convicted of being an unrepentant thief.
And NO ONE would have "spoken up" for him, for fear they also would be disfellowshipped for disturbing the unity of the Congregation, for they, themselves also would for a certainty also be disfellowshipped, for questioning the decisions of the Elders, for Apostasy, or "brazen conduct" (which covers nothing and everything at the same time) .... or in any way indicating Big Org's  judgement was anything else but, as George Orwell in his book "1984"  put it ... "Doubleplusgood".
..........
Such devotion to "law" would have made the Pharisees of Jesus' day very proud.
 

Looks like you're gonna work a lot of popcorn....because the replies will not come for a long time ...
if it ever will!? :))

Most of what I'm sharing here is taken from one of the books by R.Franz. I can only corroborate a small part of it. At any rate, it looks like R.Franz admits that he was asked to write both the first defense of the bad policy and the later correction.

A Good Man will TRY ... and if necessary, put his LIFE, his health, and his means of life on the line ... even with the certainty of death, destruction, and destitution.
That is what makes a Good Man a Good Man.
All else are merely MEDIOCRE  males, who eventually die .... without ever having been a "Good Man", or even a real man.