James Thomas Rook Jr.

That quote came at the end of paragraph 4 of this weeks Watchtower study and the subject of having a pleasant smile and kind demeanour was mentioned at least 3 or 4 more times during the watchtower, particularly about when engaging in cart witnessing.
Remember, we’re a happy people, because they tell us we are.
via GIPHY

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.

...
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.

‘She could sing about a good for nothing man and still make it sound as though church’ is the best tribute to I have heard.

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.
 

I grew up with all my relatives in Littleton, North Carolina ... a town so small, the town square .... was a person.

Dateline: Saturday,  September 1, 2018

WARWICK NY — Special Assembly Representatives of Jehovah’s Witnesses at their new World Headquarters, known as “Bethel”,  reported being surprised at Saturday afternoon’s session when they were directed to the  newly constructed balcony entrance for seating.
“We normally get there early so we can sit as close to the Governing Body as possible,” Assembly Delegate  Stephen Lett, Jr.  told reporters. “We were all like, ‘What’s going on?'”
They did not have to wonder for long.
Governing Body’s Helper Alan Cage, dressed in costume as a  regular person  took the stage under a single spotlight, and after some coy banter, he reportedly announced that it was “Baptism Saturday,” but that this was “not your Mama’s Saturday afternoon  Assembly baptism!”
 At this cue, a giant  four story high spiral water slide, stretching from the balcony down to the on-stage baptismal pool, was unveiled from behind a large curtain, to thunderous applause from assembled delegates.
Children as young as four years old, who had been ushered single file to the new entrance were directed one-by-one into the orange spiral sliding board and, with a push, sent hurtling toward baptismal pool, answering the two baptismal questions as they increased spiral velocity “Yes!” and “Yes!” . Jehovah’s Witnesses Elders  in wet swimsuits and white t-shirts asked the questions as they whizzed by to the pool below.
Anthony Morris III, one of eight Jehovah’s Witness Governing Body members wearing a leopard skin spandex leotard emblazoned with large white  initials TPT,  architect of what has been dubbed by Bethel insiders as “Splashdown  Saturday.”  told reporters “The water slide is fun for the little kiddies, but the whole reason we did this is to get the most number of people baptized in the least amount of time possible.” 
“ … we can’t count some of these baptisms because someone didn’t  say “yes” to the baptismal questions, or because someone’s head wasn’t completely submerged, then what’s the point?”
In the dry-off area next to the baptismal pool, a group of dripping four to seven year old children were being dried off behind a screened area with sacramental pillow cases  from the Bethel Laundry
At publishing time, the  JW.ORG  website reports that the church has broken its own record for the most baptisms in a single Saturday afternoon.
 
 
 
… my apologies to  “The Onion”
 

Dateline: Saturday,  September 1, 2018

WARWICK NY — Special Assembly Representatives of Jehovah’s Witnesses at their new World Headquarters, known as “Bethel”,  reported being surprised at Saturday afternoon’s session when they were directed to the  newly constructed balcony entrance for seating.
“We normally get there early so we can sit as close to the Governing Body as possible,” Assembly Delegate  Stephen Lett, Jr.  told reporters. “We were all like, ‘What’s going on?'”
They did not have to wonder for long.
Governing Body’s Helper Alan Cage, dressed in costume as a  regular person  took the stage under a single spotlight, and after some coy banter, he reportedly announced that it was “Baptism Saturday,” but that this was “not your Mama’s Saturday afternoon  Assembly baptism!”
 At this cue, a giant  four story high spiral water slide, stretching from the balcony down to the on-stage baptismal pool, was unveiled from behind a large curtain, to thunderous applause from assembled delegates.
Children as young as four years old, who had been ushered single file to the new entrance were directed one-by-one into the orange spiral sliding board and, with a push, sent hurtling toward baptismal pool, answering the two baptismal questions as they increased spiral velocity “Yes!” and “Yes!” . Jehovah’s Witnesses Elders  in wet swimsuits and white t-shirts asked the questions as they whizzed by to the pool below.
Anthony Morris III, one of eight Jehovah’s Witness Governing Body members wearing a leopard skin spandex leotard emblazoned with large white  initials TPT,  architect of what has been dubbed by Bethel insiders as “Splashdown  Saturday.”  told reporters “The water slide is fun for the little kiddies, but the whole reason we did this is to get the most number of people baptized in the least amount of time possible.” 
“ … we can’t count some of these baptisms because someone didn’t  say “yes” to the baptismal questions, or because someone’s head wasn’t completely submerged, then what’s the point?”
In the dry-off area next to the baptismal pool, a group of dripping four to seven year old children were being dried off behind a screened area with sacramental pillow cases  from the Bethel Laundry
At publishing time, the  JW.ORG  website reports that the church has broken its own record for the most baptisms in a single Saturday afternoon.
 
 
 
… my apologies to  “The Onion”
 

s
subtle ... subtle ... on SO MANY levels ....
Let me give you a one sentence synopsis of everything TTH said, above ...
"If you sing to pigs, you just ruin your voice .... and irritate the pigs !"
 

"STUFF HAPPENS!" (paraphrased)

Jesus was a perfect example of a man who was tortured to death ... for doing the "right thing" ... and he KNEW IN ADVANCE that was the price he would have to pay .
He went on a known "suicide mission", to rescue people ... KNOWING he was going to be brutally tortured,  and that  there was no way to get out of it alive .... and did it ANYWAY!

@TrueTomHarley, It's the end of the service year. If you rush, you might be able to get this experience into the next Yearbook. ?

I am beginning to believe that ALL the Scriptures in the Bible, talking about how the "love of the greater number will cool off", and in the end times, a wide range of cruelties will be abundant, that it is talking about what is going on INSIDE the "Truth" ... not the world.
We have been thoroughly trained, year after year after year ... to be able to turn family love and affection on and off ....on and off ..... on and off, with the "light switch" of disfellowshipping.
We deeply love our families ... unless they get disfellowshipped ... then they are invisible, and in effect cease to exist.
If they are reinstated, we are taught to flip the switch and turn those affections back on ... at least in theory.
It is insane in theory .... and insane in actual practice.
This is cruel, mean, extreme, despicable,  hateful, and hypocritical .... and does not lend itself to sane thinking.
These policies over time can erode and  destroy a civilization, theocratic or secular.
Even the Russkies understand that!

The only reason she's 'accepted' by any circling-like-vultures JWs is because she has money.

Not a problem. I notice the same issue with a lot of threads that just seem to include the assumption that we must be totally wrong about an issue that isn't implemented well (or consistently), when the actual fix does not require throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Of course, if someone found an old Watchtower that recommended that we start literally disfellowshipping babies by throwing them out with the bathwater, then I would think it's time to scrap the whole doctrine and start over from scratch.

You must be American.

I'm ready!

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.  

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.
 

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"?

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.