JOHN BUTLER

There are a LOT of things not specifically mentioned in the Bible, Billy.
It was my understanding that Spiritual Integrity is dependent on not going beyond the things that are actually written in the Bible.
...and not trying to lay heavy burdens on others that Jehovah God, and Christ Jesus DID NOT.
Having Spiritual Integrity is like being pregnant ... there is no being "half-pregnant".

Billy, were you referring to the Society's "Pillowgate" video as "garbage", or something else, specifically?

ANSWER:
My theory is that, with the obvious painful discrepancy you just pointed out, that cannot be ignored by any sane, rational person, is that those holding such perspectives are just rock-dumb clueless, dangerously ignorant, or bat-crap crazy ... or all three.
What makes it WORSE is that they are also very nice people, with the very best of intentions.
Such people would be easier to identify if, as they pontificated, one eye would twitch, and they would drool all over themselves.
... or obsess publicly about Brothers wearing tight pants, and make "Pillowgate" videos.
 

When you say Jesus was breaking the laws, which laws are you referring to. God’s laws or the provisional laws set forth by the Pharisees and High Priest. An example of a provisional law was the law Moses applied to divorce. How about the mandate of stoning for adultery.

@BillyTheKid46  You do puzzle me sometimes. 
I really do not think you are a JW at all.  The scripture you have used regarding Adultery is a scripture that is not contained in the NWT, because said scripture is thought to have been a later addition added by a translator and it is quite possible that Jesus never said or did those things. 

I would have thought with sex education in schools as it is, JW's would not need the deep precise details that the GB loves going into. The scriptures you quoted do the job just fine on their own. 
It seems the GB even go OTT by saying if a man and a woman are alone in a house together, they must be having sex. No 'two witnesses' needed. 
But they don't seem to say if two brothers or two sisters are in a house together that they are having sex, i wonder why ?
Well it was you that mentioned Sodom and Gommora. 

It will not readily yield to change, if history is any guide. About the best I can hope for is some circuit overseer acting similarly as he did with another “crisis.” During a transitional lull from one main point to another, he will say that the expression “Now let us turn the platform over to the next speaker” is ridiculous because it evokes an image of turning the platform over. With that, I eventually heard the expression less, though it still pops up from time to time.
It is not easy to correct anyone on anything, especially on a triviality, though occasionally people jump instantly on the trivialities but ignore substantial things. Finding the right degree of emphasis is tough. One recipient will say “Thanks for the new RULE!” and his companion will say “Huh? Did you say something.”
There was a certain sister ages ago who enjoyed explaining things to others and eventually left the truth because not enough people listened to her. She had even begun to partake of the emblems. “What the Society is trying to tell us is....” she would often employ as a preamble. She is the inspiration (in this one regard only) for John Wheatandweeds, from Tom Irregardless and Me, who will not let the brothers go in field service in the morning because he insists as the conductor of rattling on and on about the day’s text, and he resists counsel  to shorten that part eventually to as short as 7 minutes, and he talks at such length, drawing out comments, that eventually nobody is in the mood to go out anymore. “What the Society is trying to tell us...” he responds to every bit of counsel on the subject. Finally, the Society interrupts him mid-sentence to say “We’re not trying to tell you anything—we’re telling you.” So he finally responds by getting everyone out the door in reasonably short order—not seven minutes, but neither seven years—however he makes up for it by chatting away in the parking lot.

If you are going to go figure .... figure out why neither Jehovah God, nor Christ, never even mentioned such things ... EVER ... not even once .... and the Governing Body positively OBSESSES over such things.
There IS a reason.
.... for BOTH.

According to that theory, the Nazis were merely trying to bring the glories of German Civilization to the underprivileged of the world.
Attitude, after all, is everything ...  NOT.

The test of spontaneous clapping being a hypnotically induced Pavlovian response, or not .... is to show the two "Pillowgate" videos that were shown the Brothers and Sisters at Bethel .... the creepiest, most insane and cringeworthy videos ever created ... at the local Kingdom Hall, on a Sunday morning or afternoon  .... and see if everybody claps.

I could be in serious trouble. They just finished remodeling the Kingdom Hall, and there are two quarter walls, one left of stage and one right. Gulp. Will the brother start entering and exiting the platform via those quarter walls, just like I saw them do in the other congregation?
https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/forums/topic/79559-you-don’t-enter-stage-from-behind-the-quarter-walls/
The circuit overseer was visiting, so I started pumping him on it. “‘Don’t let the brothers walk behind the quarter wall to go on-stage,” I told him. I was not too insistent, one mustn’t overdo it on these things. I mean, I don’t want to be the brother who meets him in the parking lot to tell him that all the brothers are no good, and they aren’t loving at all, and they are deadwood in the ministry, and come to think of it, they don’t even like God, and so he, the circuit overseer, has a lot of work to do here, and he says “Yeah, I think I’ve found the problem already.”
I did about as much as I could. He seemed to be sympathetic. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “You see them, then you don’t as they walk behind the wall, and then you do as they emerge from the other side—it IS a little funny.” So I gave it a good try. But he was just biding his time to get away from me. He is not going to do anything at all, I don’t think, other than tell the brothers to go on the platform when it is their turn to speak. What does he care how they do it? It doesn’t bother HIM any one way of the other. It’s ME it’s driving nuts, and then he will say “Well, you were mostly there already.”
I have always tried to stack the deck. Those elders way back in the day would have a meeting coming up and I would pump various ones separately over  multitude of picayune things, so that one of them said at their meeting (as I was told later) “Wait a minute. Who’s running this congregation? You, me, or Tom Harley?”
But lo! A miracle has occurred. Never never never NEVER did I think I would EVER agree with @Jack Ryan. But I do on something. Jack Ryan! who if a Bethel brother so much as farts, he starts a derogatory thread on it. Jack Ryan! who has been known to start as many as a dozen critical threads in a single day. Jack Ryan! who I think regards himself as some sort of a secret agent/freedom fighter. What is it with this character?
Yet, I saw, yes—I witnessed it while visiting another congregation, brothers clapping after each and every exchange that took place up front, whether li8ve or on video, just the way Jack was complaining about. Suddenly he becomes as a prophet from on high. That too, drove me nuts!—all that clapping. You don’t clap over every single skit of one sister offering a tract to another, who, of course accepts it a just little too eagerly, it seems to me, from what I recall in the actual ministry. You clap spontaneously when something really knocks your socks off. You clap when a child or even anyone gives his or her first talk on the school. You clap when the spirit genuinely moves you, for anything. You clap after the public talk, even giving the speaker the benefit of the doubt if it wasn’t that—um—good. But you don’t clap for every minor exchange of trivial words! It only cheapens the times that there really is something to clap for.
I know where this comes from, just like I know where walking behind the quarter walls came from. Some pious brother doubtless wanted to “show appreciation” for everything under the sun and so started up the habit, thinking he was setting a ‘good example’ and that others would follow, and those others, not wanting to seem unappreciative, did follow, even some half-heartedly. 
However, it is possible that it is not the pious brother at all who is responsible, but rather the one who is too swayed by the new-agey mantra that you have to lavish praise on children non-stop just for showing up, for the sake of building self-esteem, and so they clap if a brother so much as clears his throat. I mean, don’t go pinning this one on “theocracy,” Jack—it could just as well be that trendy “world” that you are so enamored with.
This will not the easiest habit to break. I mean, you can hardly sit there and scowl, so as to provide the counter-example. The best strategy is just to contain it, as you might strive to do with a measles outbreak. Don’t send speakers to that congregation for awhile, until the illness passes. I doubt I can even enlist the circuit overseer in any serious capacity on this one. He will probably just roll his eyes when I meet him about it in the parking lot. C’mon, DO IT RIGHT, BROTHERS!

@BillyTheKid46 You see your list of types of people means nothing because it is all subject to personal interpretation. 
Unbelievers, unbelievers in what ? What YOU mean is people that don't believe that your GB are the F&DS.  
But, those people may still believe in God and in Jesus Christ. So they are only unbelievers in the eyes of JW's.
Unrepentant, but unrepentant to whom ? Once again you base it on the JW Org's viewpoint. You expect people that know how bad the GB and it's Org are, to crawl back and ask forgiveness from MEN. 
Bas association that Christ warned us to  stay away from.  Well I am staying away from bad association, the JW Org is the bad association, full of lies, deceit and pedophiles.
Lack of bible understanding, now that is definitely JW congregants, because they rely on the GB and writing department to supply all their 'Bible knowledge'. Unfortunately the congregants do not have the intelligence or inclination to question anything for themselves and so are totally misled. But the congregants only have themselves to blame really because if they asked God, through Jesus Christ,  for the guidance of His Holy Spirit, then God would show those congregants that the teachings of the GB and JW Org are false.   
As for your point about " should a captain and crew be needed on a symbolic ship, or can we navigate on our own spiritually since God will hold us personally responsible for our own actions. "
I will come back to one of my favorite scriptures about 'Ten men clinging to the robe of a Jew'. The Bible tells us that the Anointed will be recognisable and that spiritually minded people would follow those Anointed. 
I completely agree with your point that God will have us judged as individuals, by Christ or the angels. So yes it up to us which way we go. But then I think God will make it clear, when He is ready to do so, who the Anointed really are, so that a person can follow those of the true Anointed. 

At least three or four times a month, someone will post something like:
I am proud to be a JW
Seriously, what is up with that? I am not trying to be disrespectful. But I never see anyone here post "I am proud to be a Christian".
If you are "proud" to be a JW, it almost sounds like you are boasting about having accomplished a goal, that you were able to do something that others can't do.
It almost sounds like you are saying that your salvation is because of something you accomplished on your own.

Very good comment @Srecko Sostar Exactly true. 
 

my quote: HE was breaking The Law (Old Testament ... and Your's) 
He was breaking The Law, because Anointed Legal Priesthood (similar to WTJWORG GB today) of those time said so ! :)))))   
Elders and Priests, almost all Spiritual Elders and Shepherds of Israel in Jerusalem and in other places where they came in conversation and discussion with Jesus, showed by Their Interpretations of Holy Scriptures, that Jesus was breaking God's Rules and Commands.    
So, to who should/would you believe that speaking the true? To Man from Nazareth? Or to established Priesthood? :)))
To who JWs should/would believe? To some individuals? Or to established GB and Their Interpretations?
  

@BillyTheKid46 You see your list of types of people means nothing because it is all subject to personal interpretation. 
Unbelievers, unbelievers in what ? What YOU mean is people that don't believe that your GB are the F&DS.  
But, those people may still believe in God and in Jesus Christ. So they are only unbelievers in the eyes of JW's.
Unrepentant, but unrepentant to whom ? Once again you base it on the JW Org's viewpoint. You expect people that know how bad the GB and it's Org are, to crawl back and ask forgiveness from MEN. 
Bas association that Christ warned us to  stay away from.  Well I am staying away from bad association, the JW Org is the bad association, full of lies, deceit and pedophiles.
Lack of bible understanding, now that is definitely JW congregants, because they rely on the GB and writing department to supply all their 'Bible knowledge'. Unfortunately the congregants do not have the intelligence or inclination to question anything for themselves and so are totally misled. But the congregants only have themselves to blame really because if they asked God, through Jesus Christ,  for the guidance of His Holy Spirit, then God would show those congregants that the teachings of the GB and JW Org are false.   
As for your point about " should a captain and crew be needed on a symbolic ship, or can we navigate on our own spiritually since God will hold us personally responsible for our own actions. "
I will come back to one of my favorite scriptures about 'Ten men clinging to the robe of a Jew'. The Bible tells us that the Anointed will be recognisable and that spiritually minded people would follow those Anointed. 
I completely agree with your point that God will have us judged as individuals, by Christ or the angels. So yes it up to us which way we go. But then I think God will make it clear, when He is ready to do so, who the Anointed really are, so that a person can follow those of the true Anointed. 

Such as the hypocritical “Pharisees” of today - the GB.
“Then he gave them strict orders: “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”  Mark 8:15
Matt 15:7-9:  You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 “‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Exactly; which is why we are to recognize and reject rotten fruit when we hear it.  Matt 7:15-20 
Jer 23:16 - Thus says the Lord of hosts:  "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes.  They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord."  
Ps 26:4 – “I do not sit with men of falsehood,
    nor do I consort with hypocrites.”
 

Fantastic mixture you offer in this description. 
It is and it can be true how some of this people would made bad influence on some of us. Well, if we consider how spiritual weak we are/we can be, your advice and reasoning in which you involve Jesus have some reasonable argument to stay away from this sort of bad influence.
BUT than, how to follow Jesus example? HE was braking The Law (Old Testament ... and Your's) and eat and drink and associated with "garbage", .... for entire time of his short life.   ..... ??

@Srecko Sostar  Now that is a bit of progress. Thank you for this information, I've been waiting to hear it for a longtime.
@BillyTheKid46  Here you are Kid, some news for you. But of course you won't believe it.  
Let's hope they find some good evidence with proof of same concerning JW Org. After all, the JW's think that their Org is better and safer than any other and that it has God's approval. I think not.

Is this really the best you can come up with child ? Oh it's kid isn't it, well same thing. 
The GB wouldn't know Christ's standards if he punched them on the nose.  Once again you worship your GB. 
What have i taught myself ? Well I've taught myself that honesty is important to God even though your GB don't think it is. 
I've taught myself that just as Christ values people's lives and cares about them, then so should I, even if your GB doesn't care about people but only cares about themselves and the business / JW Org. 
I've taught myself not to fear men, even though the Elders of JW  congregations try to 'lord it over them' and to bully the congregants.
I've taught myself to think for myself instead of just being a puppet to the GB and it's Org like you are. 
But you are a blind worshipper of the GB, so there is no point talking sense to you as you cannot understand it. 

At least I'm facing the truth of what happened, whilst you are still hiding behind the GB lies. 
Maybe that just means i am mentally / emotionally stronger that you are.  I don't need that crutch any more. 
As for having 'new found peers', do I ? I don't think so. However you seem to think you know better. 

What about if they were mistreating CHILDREN ?  

Unfortunately, even with your offered incentive, I cannot write like you do, Billy.
My world view is not skewed by agenda driven WDS.
If you do laugh your head off, you will need a neck funnel to eat.

I am scribbling away like mad, taking notes. It is hard to keep up.

What about if they were mistreating CHILDREN ?  

Having read lots of comments on this forum it is very easy to see that all that Jehovah's Witnesses have is their belief in their Governing Body and it's Writing Department. 
If they believe, as a certain cowboy would have it, that a person can gain no true knowledge from the bible itself, then how else does a person gain true knowledge ? 
It would seem that Jehovah's Witnesses rely totally on their GB 'boses' and on the Writing Department of same, to tell all JW's what to believe and when to believe it. 
Why do i say 'and when to believe it' ?  Well you have to keep up you know . What is said to be 'truth' by the GB and co one day,  will be said to be totally untrue the next day or week.
JW's have nothing, no proof of any 'enlightenment' from above. They talk proudly about having 8.5 million members earthwide, but how many Muslims are there earthwide ? How many Catholics earthwide ?  Numbers prove nothing as it can be clearly seen. 
Yes I was once fooled by all the 'niceness' of a few brothers and sisters. But once I got to know those people properly I soon found out that they are no better than people in the world. 
The JW Org is no better than any other organisation that pretends to serve God, but the JW Org is in some ways more dangerous.  It wraps itself around people's lives and restricts people's freedom of thinking. It pretends to have 'special knowledge' from God that no other organisation has.
But then if one looks closely one can see it is all just a smoke screen. The JW Org only has 8 men in America dominating it, and 8.5 million people worshiping those 8 men. 
I do feel a bit foolish having wasted years of my life believing all of it's lies and deceit, but I congratulate myself for not being frightened to ask questions and do research for myself. 
No matter what any Jehovah's Witness tells you, the truth is, all they have is a belief in their GB, and they follow their GB's orders via all the others in charge including the puppet men Elders. 
At meetings, conventions, assemblies, on the ministry et al, all they do is use the literature provided for them by the GB and the Writing dept. Without question they pump this 'information' into other people. When conducting a supposed 'bible study' it is actually a book study, studying the words of the GB / writing dept, not studying God's written word properly. They spend more time reading the paragraphs and answering those questions than they do reading scriptures and focusing on God's words.
It is a horrid way of brainwashing people, washing out the common sense and replacing it with lies from the GB / writing dept. Dictating, giving orders and pretending it is God's will. 
Removing the love that people have for one another and replacing it with discrimination. Shunning family members, turning their back on anyone that is not a JW by saying all other people are just 'part of the world' and therefore wicked. 
Frightening people with threats of 'armageddon' killing them. 
And now it seems that they are almost begging for contributions as they seem to be getting short of money. Well paying off millions in compensation for the Child Abuse / Pedophilea of course. Selling off Kingdom Halls too as funds run low. 
Oh how low that religion has sunken. Are they really stupid enough to believe that God is with them ?