James Thomas Rook Jr.

The first Kingdom Hall I went to I had a tile floor sloped downward like a movie theater to the stage and podium.
I had a large bag of marbles I hid from my mother.
We arrived late and sat on the back row.
I dropped the bag and the marbles spilled out and rolled to the front, each making noise and hitting chair legs and shoes on the way down.
That's when I learned to pray.
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.... In order to have organizational consistency, in the New System,  Sisters will not be allowed to shave their legs and other areas, but male lions will be trimmed to look like poodles.  Few things are more respectable than a lion with a shaved snout.
.... that means nose area, for those in Rio Linda....
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In Texas, there was the sometimes used defense "But yer Honor ... he NEEDED killin' !
Personal preference .....

Wow ... two things just happened here ... Billythekid46 gave an intelligent comment ... AND he refrained from calling someone an ignorant, uneducated apostate fool and condemning them to damnation .... both in the same post!
Mark your Calendars!
Of course, his perspective was COMPLETELY about the monetary advantage ... which is pretty normal for a Watchtower Lawyer.
However, when checking into a room at a Hotel, I have NEVER been questioned about "Are you REALLY one of Jehovah's Witnesses", to get any available discount ..... or anywhere else.

The Brothers in Mexico, specifically, the Sierra Madre Mountains had the same problem with badges we have ... people expected to see them all the time.

We don't need no stinking badges!.mp4

The Brothers in Mexico, specifically, the Sierra Madre Mountains had the same problem with badges we have ... people expected to see them all the time.

We don't need no stinking badges!.mp4

The Brothers in Mexico, specifically, the Sierra Madre Mountains had the same problem with badges we have ... people expected to see them all the time.

We don't need no stinking badges!.mp4

Sometimes when things seem at their darkest, and you see that New Light Approaching faster and faster ... it's a good idea to make sure that you are not in the middle of train tracks.

Poor old @TrueTomHarley has to try to group people together. Even though he adds 'as individuals', he still starts with a group of people all of one type. 
I don't know Srecko's personal information and I would not ask him, but as for me, I have a wife and a son that live 'at home' with me. They are enough company for me thanks. I do not need to surround myself at home or online with a group of people.
I've just bought myself a new MP3 player with the biggest 'cans' (headphones) I could get, and I go walking along the riverside and then along the seafront all on my own. I walk past people as if they are just obstructions, I dodge round them all. People here in the UK are also fat and they get in the way, but I squeeze my slim body past them all.  
As for the idea that "Witnesses as a people have a much greater diversity of friends as regards race, social-economic, nationality, & educational letters, then do non-Witnesses."   That is probably wishful thinking. 
Witnesses do not seem to actually have any friends, just brothers and sisters. A friend is someone that can be relied upon for support and help, no matter what the circumstances. Not so with the bro's and sis, who desert people at the slightest whim. 
The fact that the JW Org is earthwide does not make all those people your friends. That's a bit like having a million friends on Facebook, they are not real friends. 
Poor Tom is still living in that dream world of his, and he won't back down, which is funny as he condemned me for not backing down on things. 
If you treat things as typical patterns it is because you don't want to 'see' the individual.  You are frightened to think of individuals having a mind and thoughts of their own, because JW's are not allowed to have a mind and thoughts of their own. 
 

Sometimes Lawyers wear some pretty strange clothing, depending on the Venue.

If "Tight Pants" are so risque, and get certain Brothers all hot and bothered, and  distracting them from their Theocratic duties,  Tight Pants Tony would have an absolute stroke over THIS outfit!
Perhaps there should be a Watchtower Policy Statement that Kilts have to go down to the ANKLE!, and not have Mylar pillows or spherical orb designs bouncing around on the genital area as the brother walks along.
If you ask me, if you are going to wear that outfit outside of Scotland, you better damn well have a sword!
Forget the Badges at the Restaurants! 
We have a full scale "TPT" CRISIS here!
By the way... that pillow thingey in front, the Sister is pointing to with astonishment, is called a "TPT Conundrum".
 

Sometimes Lawyers wear some pretty strange clothing, depending on the Venue.

Luke 17 v 1&2. 

Yes and to think they let congregants smoke tobacco into the 1970's without a problem, even though they knew it was totally wrong in the late 1800's.  But no beards, just to prove they were the boss. It's called dictatorship, nothing else. 
 to quote TTH " Though nowhere forbidden by scripture or Bible principles, no "rule" was applied with more vigor than the "no beard" rule, "
Dictatorship Tom. Domineering at it's best. 

I remember seeing on the news years ago some minority protest group complaining "Washington never pays any attention to US!"
My immediate thought was "I wish Washington would not pay any attention to ME!"
If the GB all go to heaven, perhaps God will have them counting clouds, or something.

,,, My beard was neat, well groomed, and gad a well-behaved and respectful nest of hamsters ....

To make a very long story very short, almost to the point of abbreviation .... and trying to stay on topic ....
In the past 57 years, I have been in the "little back room, Room 101", about 17 times, being "counseled" by Elders that did not like "something" about me ... that I worked a lot of overtime, that I rode a Honda 350 motorcycle to the Kingdom Hall, that I "refused" to provide a telephone for my wife,  ad nauseum ... and I REALLY HATE BULLIES! ... but I digress ... and about 8 or so of those times it was to get me to cut off my beard.  One time it was because of my mustache. During the 60's it was because my hair came down just perceptively below the collar.
In one congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I had no problem with the beard ... and even got a recommendation letter to go work at the Bethel Branch Office construction in Peru ... and in all others, I was castigated, and even forbidden to go out in Service until I shaved off my beard.
After eight discussions, and no valid scriptural reasoning, all joy in doing what I was doing was destroyed ... but it bothered me A LOT that stuff like this was being inflicted on the global Brotherhood, in almost EVERY congregation I had ever attended. 
If they could do it to me... they WERE doing it to other Brothers ... and things similar to this.
Based on all available real evidence, it seemed to me that in order to be a watchtower approved Elder you had to be qualified as follows:
1.) clueless
2.) petty
3.) irrational
4.be a "Company Man", through and through.
5.) and have no pangs of conscience whatsoever for being a bully.
To be fair, I have also run across Engineers and Doctors that shared these traits, but they did not operate in an environment that ENCOURAGED this behavior.
The other day I mentioned in a comment that I envied Anna, and she replied that she knew that ... because she still seems to have the joy in the Truth that has been systematically beaten out of me.
I miss the man I used to be.
A lot!
I did have a choice, however ... either "get with the program", or keep my self respect.
It has gotten better over the years, but only marginally, but I have endured things far, far worse that these things I have mentioned ... and I will endure things like this also.
When my Dad died, about ten years ago, he asked me to shave off my beard ...  he also never liked it .... and  I have been clean shaven since then.
I loved my Dad.
I HATE BULLIES!
I am 72 now, and in marginal health .... and can see the end of the "conveyor belt" on which I stand, and it bothers me.
I am too old and fragile to carry on my back bags of heavy stones for someone else's entertainment.
 
 
 
 

To make a very long story very short, almost to the point of abbreviation .... and trying to stay on topic ....
In the past 57 years, I have been in the "little back room, Room 101", about 17 times, being "counseled" by Elders that did not like "something" about me ... that I worked a lot of overtime, that I rode a Honda 350 motorcycle to the Kingdom Hall, that I "refused" to provide a telephone for my wife,  ad nauseum ... and I REALLY HATE BULLIES! ... but I digress ... and about 8 or so of those times it was to get me to cut off my beard.  One time it was because of my mustache. During the 60's it was because my hair came down just perceptively below the collar.
In one congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I had no problem with the beard ... and even got a recommendation letter to go work at the Bethel Branch Office construction in Peru ... and in all others, I was castigated, and even forbidden to go out in Service until I shaved off my beard.
After eight discussions, and no valid scriptural reasoning, all joy in doing what I was doing was destroyed ... but it bothered me A LOT that stuff like this was being inflicted on the global Brotherhood, in almost EVERY congregation I had ever attended. 
If they could do it to me... they WERE doing it to other Brothers ... and things similar to this.
Based on all available real evidence, it seemed to me that in order to be a watchtower approved Elder you had to be qualified as follows:
1.) clueless
2.) petty
3.) irrational
4.be a "Company Man", through and through.
5.) and have no pangs of conscience whatsoever for being a bully.
To be fair, I have also run across Engineers and Doctors that shared these traits, but they did not operate in an environment that ENCOURAGED this behavior.
The other day I mentioned in a comment that I envied Anna, and she replied that she knew that ... because she still seems to have the joy in the Truth that has been systematically beaten out of me.
I miss the man I used to be.
A lot!
I did have a choice, however ... either "get with the program", or keep my self respect.
It has gotten better over the years, but only marginally, but I have endured things far, far worse that these things I have mentioned ... and I will endure things like this also.
When my Dad died, about ten years ago, he asked me to shave off my beard ...  he also never liked it .... and  I have been clean shaven since then.
I loved my Dad.
I HATE BULLIES!
I am 72 now, and in marginal health .... and can see the end of the "conveyor belt" on which I stand, and it bothers me.
I am too old and fragile to carry on my back bags of heavy stones for someone else's entertainment.
 
 
 
 

I liken making that “journey of discovery” to assembling the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and reproducing the mountain vista on the box cover. Having done this, you are pretty much immune to the critic who comes along later and says you did it wrong. You are especially immune if that critic’s own puzzle lies boxed and unassembled on his closet shelf.
And when you are cruising down the highway at 60 MPH, you are pretty much immune to the atheist on the radio telling you that your car doesn’t run.

If memory serves, Baptisms were held in the central Congo, Africa, beginning about 4,000 years ago, in a large cast iron cauldron with heated water over an open fire, and they added cut up carrots and potatoes, and peas.