James Thomas Rook Jr.

Fortunately for us, this was addressed many years ago in a Watchtower QUESTIONS FROM READERS.
Many have considered this fake, but a close reading in it's entirety shows it does follow every norm of reason and logic that we are used to, so you should carefully decide, for yourself.
This is a photo that you can download.
 

Someone wrote that for entertainment it seems. I know you had posted it some time ago.

I don't remember anything being said about animals as was insinuated by some. I do have a recording of the convention though so when I get around to it I will see if I can find it. There is a lot of information to sift through though, so I am wondering if anywhere, it could be in the symposium: "Creation reveals God's love"; Animals.

I realize there are many reasons to go to an Assembly, or Convention, and when my children were living at home they would go to others' conventions  for a variety of reasons, as well as their own.
I would always ask them when they returned home "What did you learn that was new?" .  This was important to me as I had to work long hours to afford to finance their explorations and socialization, which I thought was important ... but I still expected them to learn something new ... and since I was paying for their travels, to tell me what was going on.
Generally, attendance to an out of town Convention nearby would cost about $200 a day, times three days, so that would be $600.
Now that I am retired, and my income has been cut by about 80%, it's even MORE important to me to want to get good value for the time and money I would be spending for my wife and I to spend three days, traveling out of town, to learn something of lasting value .... something worth at least three days of our time, which is painfully obviously shorter, and the what is now considerable effort and considerable expense.
In Engineering it's important that the "Law of diminishing returns" be observed so that you do not go physically, mentally or emotionally bankrupt.
Perhaps I am just asking for some encouragement that the effort is worth the cost and effort, and that the benefit is worth it, so if I may ask ......
WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT WAS NEW AT THE 2019 "LOVE NEVER FAILS" REGIONAL CONVENTION ?

I think it has already backfired.
In my considered opinion EVERYTHING they say ... that I cannot independently prove .. is completely and always suspect, with the baseline assumption that it is just another silly delusion to cover up past delusions that have become so painfully obvious, that it is affecting donations.
.... merely a contemporary way of saying that we should be like Bereans and CHECK everything ..... which as an organization,  and as publishers and students,  we have NOT been doing .... for a VERY long time.
ANY organization sitting in a pool of "free money", under a waterfall of "free money" will do ANYTHING to keep the free money coming.
... even make up bald faced lies from thin air, and believe it themselves.
That's why Watchtower Lawyers do NOT "fight" for justice .... they fight for their client to WIN.
In that respect we are not even unusual ... just being what all human beings naturally are.
Their credibility as to be worthy of intrinsic trust .... is ZERO.
They need no help from "apostates" to self-mutilate their own credibility.  They are their very own worst enemy. Others' efforts are  only supportive ... NOT the cause.
... and I think the "Overlapping Generations" weaseling  is the straw that broke the camel's back.
 

One day while out in Service with probably the smartest, most well educated Brother and Elder I have ever met .... he was driving, I was shotgun, and there were two in the back seat ... I mentioned to him that even though I had tried to understand it, I just could not understand the "Overlapping Generations" explanation ... and I asked him if he understood it, and could explain it to me..
He got real quiet, thought for about 15 seconds and said "I think they are trying to do the best they can ...."
I have talked to several Elders, asking about that, and NONE could give me an explanation, and did not even want to talk about it ... and I did not push it any further.
It makes no sense whatsoever .... it's almost like a test, to see if they can say the sky is bright red, filled with flying elephants, and see if everybody will believe it.
AND BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE IT, THEY ALSO WILL SEE IT!
I realize they are grasping at straws, trying to defend the totally indefensible .... that they were 100% wrong for over a hundred years ... but do they so transparently have to publicly play all of us for complete delusional fools?
 
 

Words are the tools with which we think.
If you use the proper tools, with skill, you will have thoughts and ideas worth something.
If you use crappy words without skill, your thinking will just be poorly made crap.
It seems to me that children of almost  ANY age can commit fornication ... which is what the original question asked.
In like manner, children of almost any age can commit murder.
Whether or not  they should be held responsible for it ... or ARE responsible for it, is a completely different matter.

Remember the song in the old pink shirt cardboard songbook,  that I used to call the "Let's drag the stones to the Pyramid" song?  I forget the name ...
 Bum dee dee BUM de de,  BUM BUM BUM dum bum.
BUM de de BUM de de bum dum dum dum DUM.
Bum de de, Bum de de DUM,  DUM ....
... etc.
I miss that song ....
 

One day while out in Service with probably the smartest, most well educated Brother and Elder I have ever met .... he was driving, I was shotgun, and there were two in the back seat ... I mentioned to him that even though I had tried to understand it, I just could not understand the "Overlapping Generations" explanation ... and I asked him if he understood it, and could explain it to me..
He got real quiet, thought for about 15 seconds and said "I think they are trying to do the best they can ...."
I have talked to several Elders, asking about that, and NONE could give me an explanation, and did not even want to talk about it ... and I did not push it any further.
It makes no sense whatsoever .... it's almost like a test, to see if they can say the sky is bright red, filled with flying elephants, and see if everybody will believe it.
AND BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE IT, THEY ALSO WILL SEE IT!
I realize they are grasping at straws, trying to defend the totally indefensible .... that they were 100% wrong for over a hundred years ... but do they so transparently have to publicly play all of us for complete delusional fools?
 
 

... whatever Foreigner and BillyTheKid46 downvotes is probably worth reading.
In the 60's there was no movie rating system, and certain movies were banned by the "Catholic Legion of Decency", whatever that was .... and the movie producers would LOVE to be banned, because then all the Catholics would go and see what the hub-bub was about.

Power, authority, respect, rooms full of free money to spend any way they desire, living a very pleasant lifestyle in beautiful surroundings, being able to think of themselves as latter day Apostles, and the mortification of being caught.
Fortunately, there is nobody on Earth that can fire them ... AND THEY KNOW IT!

I agree with you, Anna, but what is REALLY being discussed now is CREDIBILITY.    
Those that put themselves in the position as God's spokesmen ... delivering "food at the proper time" have a responsibility to deliver good wholesome food at the proper time.
Uncontaminated wholesome food.
Not rocks painted to look like real food.
I have told the story before about years ago when I lived near Lake Jackson Texas, and I saw a Mexican family, obviously starving ... eating grass on the side of the road. I stopped and entreated them to come to my home, and they piled into the back of the pickup truck and drove about 20 miles. When we got to my home, I opened the chain link fence gate, and showed them my luxuriant green lawn, that needed mowing.
That story is not credible ... but I hope it makes the point about good, wholesome food at the proper time.
Had it been a true story, the people I supposedly rescued would have been exploited, and betrayed .... not saved ..... and the "food at the proper time" would have served MY agenda ... only!
 

Very, very true ... but the first step to becoming invincible ( which is only a goal you might get CLOSE to ..) is to grit your teeth, and form an unbreakable resolve that that is who you WANT to be.
The following poem helped me a great deal ... written by a man who was dying of disease. I was taught it in the 8th grade in public school, and it took me 40 years of repetition to learn it by heart, without missing lines.
Invictus
By William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,       Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be       For my unconquerable soul.   In the fell clutch of circumstance       I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance       My head is bloody, but unbowed.   Beyond this place of wrath and tears       Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years       Finds and shall find me unafraid.   It matters not how strait the gate,       How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate,       I am the captain of my soul.   Also, it may help to watch about 5 or 10 times, John Wayne's last movie, "The Shootist",  made as he was dying of cancer in real life. At that time, one lung had been removed, and the other was failing.   He had to rest between "takes".    
 

Yeah ... I don't expect much from people, and less from people getting free money.
What they do or do not do does not affect the TRUTH, that I could not have learned anywhere else, and has been a blessing to me my whole life .... keeping me out of the hospital, prison, and the graveyard. Knowing the TRUTH has set me free, and KEPT me free.
..but I can completely do without Caleb and Sophia, and nutso stuff like the "overlapping generations", which is so transparently completely fake, and completely contrary to ANYTHING Jesus taught.
..... ad 85 percentum.

.... and have the Governing Body solemnly charge the Watchtower Lawyers to pursue JUSTICE, wherever it may be found ... NOT to forsake and pervert justice, to preserve the WTB&TS Treasury, and Warwick lifestyle.

I see no evidence that the Governing Body is trying to "extricate" themselves from the 100 and more years of failed false prophesy, and all the arrogant presumptuousness that accompanies their brazen self-aggrandizement,
I think, JWI that your considered assessment is a hopeful fantasy ... until they openly and completely and unambiguously make a full and public written apology for all the harm they have caused over the last at least 60 years with their arrogant and transparent manipulations for the sake of power and money, and real estate.
.... and put into effect policies and procedures for it not to happen .... again, and again, and again, and again, as we have watched for half a century.
.... and fer crying out loud .... throw those atrocious "Telly Awards" in the trash.
Nothing is more embarrassing than watching a con-man that is not good at it....
... and get those Caleb and Sophia dolls out of Tight Pants Tony's Office!

We have met the ENEMY ..... and he is us!   -   Pogo
(my emphasis)

Yeah, the Bereans were colossal "pains in the butt", also
How about you personally post here what you thought was "New", and worthy of fresh examination?
That is what I am asking for.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT WAS NEW AT THE 2019 "LOVE NEVER FAILS" REGIONAL CONVENTION ?

Re-written by Bro. Winston Smith, I suppose ....

I realize there are many reasons to go to an Assembly, or Convention, and when my children were living at home they would go to others' conventions  for a variety of reasons, as well as their own.
I would always ask them when they returned home "What did you learn that was new?" .  This was important to me as I had to work long hours to afford to finance their explorations and socialization, which I thought was important ... but I still expected them to learn something new ... and since I was paying for their travels, to tell me what was going on.
Generally, attendance to an out of town Convention nearby would cost about $200 a day, times three days, so that would be $600.
Now that I am retired, and my income has been cut by about 80%, it's even MORE important to me to want to get good value for the time and money I would be spending for my wife and I to spend three days, traveling out of town, to learn something of lasting value .... something worth at least three days of our time, which is painfully obviously shorter, and the what is now considerable effort and considerable expense.
In Engineering it's important that the "Law of diminishing returns" be observed so that you do not go physically, mentally or emotionally bankrupt.
Perhaps I am just asking for some encouragement that the effort is worth the cost and effort, and that the benefit is worth it, so if I may ask ......
WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT WAS NEW AT THE 2019 "LOVE NEVER FAILS" REGIONAL CONVENTION ?

What was the ghost wearing?
 
 

... and we all know historically how the Germans love to pay back, when you give them an opportunity ...
Sounds like they are selling the debt so when it defaults, 1.) plausible deniability, and 2.) the phone can be disconnected, so to speak.
...same thing with the publications you mentioned..
Blame it on the Germans!
 

Yeah, the Bereans were colossal "pains in the butt", also
How about you personally post here what you thought was "New", and worthy of fresh examination?
That is what I am asking for.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT WAS NEW AT THE 2019 "LOVE NEVER FAILS" REGIONAL CONVENTION ?

I would certainly be interested in seeing a copy of THAT Assembly Program Brochure !
The point I am TRYING to make ... is that all the things I mentioned were PART of the official agenda! They were PLANNED that way !

My best guess is that they went for religious instruction, establishing new trade contacts, keeping a deep-ended gene pool by people from widely disparate gene pools intermarrying, discussion of crops, national and local security issues,  showing and trading and selling livestock, preparing military strategy,  gossip and news, feasting, dancing, drinking, singing, playing music and feasting and giving and recieving open hospitality, demonstrating and learning shop craft and other trade and domestic skills, and making new friends, ... to give a partial list.
It was an Assembly TO FESTIVAL ... probably with a LOT of mutton and fried chicken, and wine.
They had to WALK where they went, with few exceptions, and were not inclined to go anywhere for frivolous reasons, or to waste ANY opportunity for ANY kind of advancement... or to have a wholesome party.
Life was too short ... and too hard!