James Thomas Rook Jr.

I know the person very well who made the claim, but I was not a part of that particular conversation. I only repeat it because I already knew this to be pretty much the way the brother felt at the time -- on shunning the elderly and on shunning disfellowshipped family members.  I admit that I don't know about his viewpoint on blood, although this was stated at a time when the WTS was clearly relaxing our stance on blood therapy. And I mentioned his position of authority within the organization at the time because it should be obvious that anyone who is given the responsibility to speak for the organization to the public on such issues is trusted to have considered our Bible-based based position on those issues, and be able to defend what we believe is Jehovah's viewpoint.
So, I guess I was hoping that anyone could easily read between the lines and know that I was trying to say the following:
I have anecdotal evidence on this topic about a person who was trusted with the responsibility to consider and defend how vital it is for worshipers of Jehovah to stay separate from the world -- and even such a person realized that we are bringing a lot of this shame on ourselves, on our own organization, by overplaying the hand that Jehovah gave us to follow. In the past, I heard a person in a similar position at Bethel make the same case about no longer forbidding family birthdays, weddings, funerals, bar-mitzvahs, etc., when these are held under another religious "roof." His idea, right or wrong, was that these situations made us more accessible to our extended family members and provided unparalleled opportunities for witnessing. (He held that a very high percentage --he would say "most"--of the persons who become Witnesses after a study with us, even those initially met in door to door, already had a positive connection to a friend or relative who was a Witness.) This brother might have been wrong, of course, on both ideas. Just as the brother I first spoke about above might have been wrong.
When I first heard this, I thought he was right about shunning as I had already been involved in caring for Percy Harding, mentioned earlier. I did not think he was right about blood, and this surprised me at the time, but it made sense considering the changes we were then making to our blood policy. But even the primary Bethel blood-doctrine expert who once handled most of the public discussion on blood for the WTS has now evidently changed his mind about our stand on the blood issue. (I'm speaking of Brother G.Smalley, still alive, not Brother F.Rusk who died a couple years ago, and who handled public questions about blood policy before G.Smalley.)

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.
 

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!

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

Even as reached for my camera, before I had touched it, it shattered.

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.
 

The only thing necessary for Evil to prevail, is Good Men ... to do nothing.
When accountants, lawyers and PR Departments run the show ... that is what potential "Good Men"  do.
NOTHING.

Well ... the accountants and Lawyers are running the show now at Warwick World JW HQ, and so as to not have small mountains of money, and high value improved real estate confiscated by the various worldly court systems, we USED to adhere to the Bible's clear and unambiguous directive "ABSTAIN FROM BLOOD" .... but now, to placate the NATIONS' judges, we allow blood to be transfused .........  if it goes into our bodies in 13 different IV tubes, as fractions.
And that's the FACT, Jack.

Sometimes the people you are talking to do not have enough background information to make any sense at all about what you are talking, trying to explain a difficult or just a new concept to them ...  that they are not used to considering.
The most extreme case is perhaps when  a man with a knife demands that you give him your money, and you start a long explanation of why he should work for a living, the value of industriousness, the theocratic, moral and cultural reasons why he should change his ways... that violence is not the answer, and "how would his mother feel if she knew he was out late, robbing people?".
Sometimes the only thing they could possibly understand is the SHORT answer .....
BANG!  BANG! BANG!  BANG! BANG!
... always remember to reload, in case he has stupid friends.

( it is now Saturday afternoon ... and the sound of crickets chirping in the silence is all that is heard ...)

C'mon Big Boy! If you think it is such a little thing, why don't you try it? Right there, in your birthday suit, on Vanity Fair.
Or are you scared the elders will counsel you for celebrating your birthday, hmm, you big chicken?

I personally do not think there is ANYTHING erotic about that photograph ... and have seen more "stuff" at a commercial  swimming pool / water park near Mason Ohio. 
Let's assume FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT that she really is a JW ... it certainly is NOT modest ... but then again ... when a woman becomes pregnant she gives up ALL, repeat ALL claim to modesty, unless she has her babie(s) in a closet  .... sometimes there is a whole room full of people staring at her "girlie parts".
Think of it this way ..... let's say you worked your way through medical school, paying your own tuition by working in a slaughterhouse in Chicago, and  decided to become a urologist or gynecologist.  Your sensibilities about sex and violence would be COMPLETELY different than Bro. Casper Milquetoast, who still lives in his mother's basement, and washes windows for a living.
We each stand or fall .... according to the sensibilities of our Master, Jesus Christ about such things ... and although I would not want my daughter doing such a thing ... she is over 18, and does NOT ANSWER TO ME,
It's called FREEDOM, folks .... and always entails risk.
Does Jehovah God, or Jesus care if she does this ?
I think not ... we have a world full of REAL problems ....  without inventing irrelevant ones.
I would give her the Jabba-The-Hut swimsuit award, though ...
.
 

Cowards die a thousand deaths ... the Valiant die but once.

A man is on a tree covered island in the middle of the river ... and the water is getting higher and higher.
He prays to God for help.
Rescue Squad shoots a rope over to him, with a life jacket attached and he disconnects it and lets it go, proclaiming "I have faith that GOD will save me"
The water is higher, and he is in a tree.
Police power boat crew tries to save him but he waves them off proclaiming "I have faith that GOD will save me!"
Coast Guard helicopter drops a line with harness to him and he throws it away, proclaiming " I have faith that GOD will save me !!!!"
Just before he drowns he  screams "OH GOD, WHY DID YOU NOT SAVE ME?"
God replies: " I sent the Rescue Squad, the Police and the Coast Guard ..."
 

I will agree with JW Insider that Jack Ryan's question is a good question... and go further to state that in my not so humble opinion it is neither blasphemous, inappropriate, or other wise "bad".
I am going to propose something in this post that may be controversial, and you may not "like" it, but if so, please provide hard facts to counter my following supposition.
I have noticed that when some disaster or crime or other "bad thing" happens, the survivors thank God for saving their lives .... when perhaps, in a plane crash, 274 others died, etc. 
What were the OTHER people, chopped liver?
Bad analogy, because in that case, some were.
Nevertheless, it is my supposition that Jehovah God does NOT single out individuals for divine protection.  I may be completely wrong, as I have escaped death, and crippling injury more than many dozens of times, when much better people than I am in many or every way have died early deaths, and I am heavily inclined to believe that PERHAPS Jehovah God is keeping me alive for some unknown, inexplicable reason.
Based on what I know is ACTUALLY real ... it's probably only an emotional indulgence.
That is why when I pray, I thank Jehovah for my life ... the fact that "I" was ever born, and for the chance and circumstances that I have enjoyed at this time, and in this place. ... but I do not "give him credit" for it.
To do that would, IMNSHO would mean that he has it "in" for many others, and deliberately makes their lives miserable ....  short .....  or both.
So here is my supposition that I hope someone has hard evidence, to disprove, to wit:
In modern times, Jehovah God has not in any way interfered with the will of the Nations, or of any individual person, and has not changed in any way the normal outworking of any person, place or thing.
Chance and circumstance DO befall us all ... and completely, and without any interference from God whatsoever.
(YET?)
There are no actual real-life exceptions ... based on fact.
The ONLY possible exception, based on probability observed from actual factual information, in my mind, was Jehovah God protecting Sgt. Alvin C. York, an American soldier in World War I.  But that is only a guess, based on my understanding of impossible things that actually do happen, and the depth  of Alvin C. York's true righteous inclinations in his early years. 
You would have to read several biographies to understand that.
Based on what I know is ACTUALLY real ... it's probably only ANOTHER emotional indulgence.
I hope that someone here has a verifiable actual fact to disprove my theory ... but in the absence of actual hard, verifiable data, I will go with what I at this point in time, firmly believe to be true, based on everything I know, have read,  and 71 years of life experiences.
We are on our own ....
.... be CAREFUL out there !!
 
 

It's just like here in the South, when you want to lambast someone unmecifully ... just end the statement with "... bless his pea-pickin' heart!".
                        That makes it OK.
Merely preface everything with "(paraphrased)",  or "...if memory serves ...",  then screw the quote into the ground as deep as it will go!

... or USED to be ..... 15% of the time.
The lawyers and accountants now define our official theology.

We have to endure the machinations and failed reasoning  of bodies with 16 legs who fear of losing their positions of authority, real estate, and money, because they actually ARE right .... 15% of the time.

...... Believing that agenda driven  clueless cruelty is a "loving provision" takes a LOT of faith in the PEOPLE pushing that viewpoint for the enhancement  and consolidation of their authority.
Plus, having great fear that non-compliance to "The Agenda" will make you next to be caught in its grip.
..... believing that you are NOT looking at a duck does not require an Einstein to figure it out.
If it looks like a duck .... walks like a duck .... and quacks like a duck ..... IT'S A DUCK!
It only requires that you be honest with yourself at what you are looking at.
Cruelty, mis-labeled ... is STILL cruelty.
 
 

this is not the first Mark Twain quote that turns out to be phony.
I have also had to toss out the irresistable "When I was 16, my father was so ignorant I could barely stand to have him around. Five years later I was amazed at how much the old man had picked up in such a short time."
It is like David Splane regretfully tossing in the trash: "When you and I get together over the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, we will have solved not just our problems, but those of the entire world.
Actually, I don't toss out nothin. I just qualify them. If he didn't say it, he should have. It is not my fault if he gets tongue-tied.

And it would be easy to fix, and make us better Christians, imo. A son of a Governing Body member who was assigned to handle "Public Relations" for a time, once confided (to someone else) that almost all of our public relations problems would just go away if we changed our stance on shunning and blood.
Well we already changed our stance on the stictness over blood, accepting just about every available medical blood therapy up to and almost including whole blood transfusions, which are becoming rarer in Western countries anyway, due to the expenses related to some blood therapies.
And we have no Biblical reason to maintain our stand on shunning as strictly as we tend to promote it. 
The only major new item that has come up since this brother mentioned these two items is the child sexual abuse scandal. And we're doing almost everything we can do on that one.
True Christians will always be spoken against, but it is best not to give anyone a good reason.
(1 Peter 3:16, 17) 16 Maintain a good conscience, so that in whatever way you are spoken against, those who speak against you may be put to shame because of your good conduct as followers of Christ. 17 For it is better to suffer because you are doing good, if it is God’s will to allow it, than because you are doing evil.  

It not surprised me that people came to such conclusion about some JW practice and doctrines..