Ann O'Maly

I can only get as far as this source - a self-published work: J. R. Terrier - History of Easter - Hidden, Secret Origins and Mystery Religion. I don't know exactly what s/he says from the preview or where the author gets the idea that coloring eggs originated from the practice of sacrificing infants and using their blood, but I strongly suspect that its completely made up. 
If anyone else can track down this claim further to 'ground zero,' then please post it. I'm curious.
Nothing. Easter eggs and bunnies are now the secularized part of the spring celebration. 
"Should we celebrate Easter or allow our children to go on Easter egg hunts? This is a question both parents and church leaders struggle with. Ultimately, it comes down to a matter of conscience (Romans 14:5). There is nothing essentially evil about painting and hiding eggs and having children search for them. What is important is our focus. If our focus is on Christ, our children can be taught to understand that the eggs are just a fun game. Children should know the true meaning of the day, and parents and the church have a responsibility to teach the true meaning. In the end, participation in Easter egg hunts and other secular traditions must be left up to the discretion of parents." - Source
And remember this general principle:
"A main concern is, not what the practice meant hundreds of years ago, but how it is viewed today in your area. Understandably, opinions may vary from one place to another. Hence, it is wise to avoid turning such matters into big issues." - g03 9/22 p. 24.

You know, this claim does not seem to come from Hislop and I'm having trouble tracking down where it originated from (beyond just repetition on the interwebs).

You know, this claim does not seem to come from Hislop and I'm having trouble tracking down where it originated from (beyond just repetition on the interwebs).

"TWO BABYLONS" ALARM TRIGGERED!

Carefully back away, people, and make your way to the factual part of the internet.
https://www.gotquestions.org/easter-origins.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2009/april/was-easter-borrowed-from-pagan-holiday.html

I see. Downvotes. Hey, I've done the serious, 'let's explain why this is fake history' approach many times. I've done the short, sharp, 'THIS IS TOTAL BUNKUM!' approach. Both approaches have not prevented further dissemination of this arrant nonsense on this forum. 
So I'm trying humor for a change 

I have no interest in celebrating Easter, and it's obvious that the rabbit and egg fertility symbols are completely out of place. I'm glad that the Watchtower points these things out. But there does come a point when, just because we don't like something, we tend to believe anything bad about it. In fact, one of the source sites for this information is here: https://warriorsoftheruwach.com/easter/
That site has all the info that Bible Speaks includes, and then some:
Here is my favorite:
 
 

Constantine was not an emperor in the 3rd century.

"TWO BABYLONS" ALARM TRIGGERED!

Carefully back away, people, and make your way to the factual part of the internet.
https://www.gotquestions.org/easter-origins.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2009/april/was-easter-borrowed-from-pagan-holiday.html

"TWO BABYLONS" ALARM TRIGGERED!

Carefully back away, people, and make your way to the factual part of the internet.
https://www.gotquestions.org/easter-origins.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2009/april/was-easter-borrowed-from-pagan-holiday.html

This rumour of GB morning worship instruction is passing round everywhere.
This is just like the emails pretending to be from banks, phishing for personal details. 
Our Governing Body does not communicate worldwide on serious matters by third party source via email, social media, or any other random channel.
We have our instruction on how to conduct this campaign here: 
https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/russia/jw-mobilize-global-response-to-threat-of-ban/
This is also the source for information on progress with this vital campaign.
ANYTHING else, including the postings on this site, is unauthorised at best. I will leave you to decide what it is at worst. 
Compare the Apostle Paul's words at 2 Thess 2:1-2 where he says
"we ask you  not to be quickly shaken from your reason nor to be alarmed either by an inspired statement or by a spoken message or by a letter appearing to be from us"
 
 
 
 
 

One problem might be the continuing support of Rutherford's remarks. Note how we understand expressions like "a third of the sea became as blood" in Revelation 8:8,9:
*** re chap. 21 pp. 134-135 pars. 21-22 Jehovah’s Plagues on Christendom ***
21 “And the second angel blew his trumpet. And something like a great mountain burning with fire was hurled into the sea. And a third of the sea became blood; and a third of the creatures that are in the sea which have souls died, and a third of the boats were wrecked.” (Revelation 8:8, 9) What does this frightful scene picture?
22 We may best understand it against the background of the convention of Jehovah’s people held in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., on August 18-26, 1923. The featured Saturday afternoon talk by J. F. Rutherford was on the topic “Sheep and Goats.” The “sheep” were clearly identified as those righteously disposed persons who would inherit the earthly realm of God’s Kingdom. A resolution that followed drew attention to the hypocrisy of “apostate clergymen and ‘the principal of their flocks,’ who are worldly men of strong financial and political influence.” It called on the “multitude of the peace and order loving ones in the denominational churches . . . to withdraw themselves from the unrighteous ecclesiastical systems designated by the Lord as ‘Babylon’” and to ready themselves “to receive the blessings of God’s kingdom.” . . . Meantime, with the blast of the second trumpet, Jehovah pronounces judgment against a third of it—the unruly part that is in the realm of Christendom herself.
In the context of our current beliefs about Revelation, we are quick to include what amounts to death threats especially to all of Christendom's denominations, and continue to believe that when Revelation speaks of "trumpets" and "plagues" and "woes" that these often came through the very words of Rutherford. That's current belief, not past belief.
 

So how come Trinitarian groups are being targeted as well?
RUSSIA: Alleged "missionary activity" prosecutions continue
July 2016 – March 2017 prosecutions ...
... Prosecutions have involved individuals or communities belonging to the following religious communities: independent Protestants – 18; Jehovah's Witnesses – 13; the Society of Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna devotees) – 7; Baptists – 5; Seventh-Day Adventists – 4; Buddhists – 2; New Apostolic Church – 1; Ukrainian Reformed Orthodox Church – 1; and Salvation Army – 1. One village elder who permitted an independent Protestant church to display a banner at a village festival in the Mari-El Republic was also charged.

Maybe you should start writing more clearly. I don't even know what any of that jumble means in relation to my comment.

Maybe you should start writing more clearly. I don't even know what any of that jumble means in relation to my comment.

As a Witness, I have realized that we JWs are just about the only group who are vexed about the seventy years, because there are very few others who have any kind of a doctrinal stake or tradition that requires a specific interpretation of the 70 years. Naturally, there are a variety of interpretations of any Biblical passage. Not all scholars and commentaries believe it was a full 70 years. Neither do we as Jehovah's Witnesses since we like to end it a year or two after 2 Chronicles ends it.
(2 Chronicles 36:20-22) . . .He carried off captive to Babylon those who escaped the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia began to reign, 21 to fulfill Jehovah’s word spoken by Jeremiah, until the land had paid off its sabbaths. All the days it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill 70 years. 22 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order that Jehovah’s word spoken by Jeremiah would be fulfilled. . .
We believe that the kingdom of Persia began in 539, but believe the 70 years ended in 537. We needed two extra years because we have a doctrinal stake in keeping 607 instead of claiming, for example, that the Fall of Jerusalem actually happened in 608 or 609. 70 years prior to the first year of the King Cyrus.
This is like the much bigger problem that scholars and commentaries and our own Watch Tower publications have with Isaiah's words about Tyre, already mentioned above, when Isaiah says that "Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years." But we, as JWs, don't believe it was a full 70 years that Tyre was forgotten. In fact, our publications indicate that it was a much shorter period.
*** it-2 p. 179 Kittim ***
Similarly, many from Tyre evidently sought haven in Cyprus during Nebuchadnezzar’s 13-year siege of Tyre, in fulfillment of Isaiah’s proclamation.
*** it-2 p. 1136 Tyre ***
Since the nations mentioned in the prophecy of Jeremiah were to “serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jer 25:8-11), this suggests that both the prophecy of Isaiah and that of Jeremiah related to Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign against Tyre. Also through Ezekiel, a contemporary of Jeremiah, Jehovah pointed to calamity for Tyre at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. (Eze 26:1–28:19) . . .(Eze 29:17-20) According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the siege lasted 13 years (Against Apion, I, 156 [21]), and it cost the Babylonians a great deal. Secular history does not record exactly how thorough or effective Nebuchadnezzar’s efforts were. But the loss in lives and property to the Tyrians must have been great.—Eze 26:7-12.
When the Israelites returned from Babylonian exile, however, the Tyrians were able to assist in supplying cedar timbers from Lebanon for a second temple, and they resumed their trade with the rebuilt city of Jerusalem.—Ezr 3:7; Ne 13:16.
*** w77 7/1 p. 389 How History Was Written Centuries in Advance ***
Secular history reports that Nebuchadnezzar began a siege of Tyre sometime after destroying Jerusalem and the temple of Jehovah’s worship in 607 B.C.E. The Jewish historian Josephus, drawing upon Phoenician annals and other previously written history, states that Nebuchadnezzar’s siege against Tyre lasted thirteen years.
So if you have read this closely, and noticed the scriptures from Ezekiel you will see that the following secular dates would fit this 13-year period, when Tyre was forgotten. These particular dates can be found in many places. I pulled them from Livius.org based on an understanding of various chronicles and texts. http://www.livius.org/articles/person/nebuchadnezzar-ii/
598: Beginning of the siege of Tyre?
597: First capture of Jerusalem; king Jehoiachin is replaced by king Zedekiah
596: Campaign against Elam
595: Renewed campaigning in the west
587 (or 586): Second capture of Jerusalem; deportation of the Judaean elite
585: Peace with Tyre, after a siege that had lasted thirteen years
  Of course, you can just add 20 years to each of those dates to get the Watch Tower version of most secular dates in this period. Therefore 618 to 605 would be the Watch Tower dates of the same 13 year siege. Notice how this is completely contradictory to the claim made in the Insight book which claims it was started after the fall of Jerusalem when even our own date for it would have mapped to 618. .
*** w77 7/1 p. 389 How History Was Written Centuries in Advance ***
Secular history reports that Nebuchadnezzar began a siege of Tyre sometime after destroying Jerusalem and the temple of Jehovah’s worship. . .
And while we are on the subject, notice that Ezekiel can also help to date the fall of Jerusalem. Ezekiel dates his prophecies to the year of king Jehoiachin's exile, which started in 597 [617 Watch Tower]. This is why for example, our publications say the following:
*** it-1 p. 795 Ezekiel, Book of ***
In the 25th year of his exile (593 B.C.E.) Ezekiel had a remarkable vision . . . (Eze 40:1–48:35)
(Ezekiel 40:1) . . .In the 25th year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the 14th year after the city had fallen,. . .
and we know the end of the siege had to be completed in or before the 27th year because Ezekiel puts it in the past tense:
(Ezekiel 29:17, 18) 17 Now in the 27th year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying: 18 “Son of man, King Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar of Babylon made his army labor greatly against Tyre. Every head became bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare. But he and his army received no wages for the labor he expended on Tyre.
Note that this, when combined with other Biblical and archaeological sources, also provides a bit of additional evidence for the 587/6 date for the fall of Jerusalem. The city had fallen in the 14th year, but it was now two years later when the Tyre siege had been put in the past tense in year 27, in the 16th year after the city had fallen. That siege ended in 585, putting a likely time for Jerusalem's fall in 587, no more than 2 years earlier.
The Watch Tower solved this particular "vexation" by saying that these 13 years of siege fulfilled the '70 years of being forgotten' referring to the 70 years for Babylon, even though it wasn't a full 70 years for Tyre itself. Isn't it amazing that this is the solution for Tyre? Yet we still hold out on Judah, even if it requires pseudo-archaeology to accomplish it.
(Jeremiah 25:11, 12) 11 And all this land will be reduced to ruins and will become an object of horror, and these nations will have to serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.”’ 12 “‘But when 70 years have been fulfilled, I will call to account the king of Babylon and that nation for their error. . .
In order to support our tradition about 607, we have gone so far as to mis-translate Jeremiah 29:10.
(Jeremiah 29:10) 10 “For this is what Jehovah says, ‘When 70 years at Babylon are fulfilled, I will turn my attention to you,and I will make good my promise by bringing you back to this place.’
The Hebrew in all our manuscripts says for Babylon, not at. Even the NWT translates the same Hebrew preposition as for elsewhere in such a situation, not at. Only here is it so important to mistranslate the Hebrew. And yet, oddly, we give it the meaning of "for" when similar language is used about Tyre. Also, only for would fit the previous mention of the 70 years quoted above from chapter 25.
This should give us an idea about just how vexed the Watch Tower has become over the 70 years. What's worse, is that Watch Tower publications don't even teach that exiles were in Babylon for 70 years. If we start from the first exiles, including Daniel, it could be upwards of nearly 90 years according to Watch Tower chronology, but this would make the 70 years with respect to Tyre a full 90 years long, not 70. If we start from the time the Watch Tower says that Jerusalem was destroyed, then those exiles from a destroyed Jerusalem could only have been "at" Babylon for 67 to 68 years. 607/6 to 539. Very vexing indeed in the Watch Tower's chronology attempts.
But it's not vexing at all if we look at the Bible and realize that, on this topic, the Bible has also been vindicated again by secular archaeology.

It seems like everyone who studies this subject in any depth, realizes the same thing.
 
 
 
And the Watch Tower publications have said pretty much the same thing on many occasions. For example:
 
So, seriously, does this mean the Watch Tower publications were being dishonest, or just sloppy when they said the following in 1995?
*** w95 5/15 p. 20 par. 20 Part 1—Flashes of Light—Great and Small ***
20 The book Riches, published by the Society in 1936, made clear that Jesus Christ was executed, not on a cross, but on an upright pole, or stake.
Or this in 2008:
 
Or this in 1975:
*** yb75 pp. 148-149 Part 2—United States of America ***
A few years later Jehovah’s people first learned that Jesus Christ did not die on a T-shaped cross. On January 31, 1936, Brother Rutherford released to the Brooklyn Bethel family the new book Riches. Scripturally, it said, in part, on page 27: “Jesus was crucified, not on a cross of wood, such as is exhibited in many images and pictures, and which images are made and exhibited by men; Jesus was crucified by nailing his body to a tree.”
1992
*** w92 11/15 p. 7 The Cross—Symbol of Christianity? ***
The Bible shows that Jesus was not executed on a conventional cross at all but, rather, on a simple stake, or stau·rosʹ.
Or this is 1972:
*** w72 9/15 p. 572 Christendom—Fighter Against God ***
Tammuz was represented by the first letter of his name, which is an ancient tau, a cross. The “sign of the cross” was the religious symbol of Tammuz. . . . The cross, on which Christendom’s religions claim Christ was put to death (though it was actually a stake), is considered the foremost symbol of Christianity.
On the issue of whether "Tammuz was represented by the first letter of his name, which is an ancient tau" [Greek letter] we have this interesting piece of evidence for why the same could not be true of Jesus:
*** g76 11/22 pp. 27-28 Does Christianity Have a Visible Symbol? ***
The writer of this apocryphal work claims that IH represents the first two letters of “Jesus” in Greek. The T is viewed as the shape of Jesus’ death stake.
Concerning this passage, M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia states: “The writer evidently was unacquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures, and has [also] committed the blunder of supposing that Abraham was familiar with the Greek alphabet some centuries before it existed.”
I find it amazing that a researcher could notice this in 1976, yet not think to correct the Watchtower from just a couple years earlier in 1972.
The same article says:
*** g76 11/22 p. 27 Does Christianity Have a Visible Symbol? ***
But do not writers early in the Common Era claim that Jesus died on a cross? For example, Justin Martyr (114-167 C.E.) described in this way what he believed to be the type of stake upon which Jesus died: “For the one beam is placed upright, from which the highest extremity is raised up into a horn, when the other beam is fitted on to it, and the ends appear on both sides as horns joined on to the one horn.” This indicates that Justin himself believed that Jesus died on a cross.
This means that Watch Tower researchers already knew in 1976 that some Christians might have thought that Jesus had died on a two-beamed cross, long before the 4th century.
 

Actually there is nothing vexing about the seventy years from the perspective of the Bible and from the perspective of scholars. As you said:
Judah was just one of the nations that was to serve Babylon for 70 years. Tyre was another. Note what the Watchtower publications already figured out about the period:
*** ip-1 chap. 19 p. 253 par. 21 Jehovah Profanes the Pride of Tyre ***
Isaiah goes on to prophesy: “It must occur in that day that Tyre must be forgotten seventy years, the same as the days of one king.” (Isaiah 23:15a) Following the destruction of the mainland city by the Babylonians, the island-city of Tyre will “be forgotten.” True to the prophecy, for the duration of “one king”—the Babylonian Empire—the island-city of Tyre will not be an important financial power. Jehovah, through Jeremiah, includes Tyre among the nations that will be singled out to drink the wine of His rage. He says: “These nations will have to serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” (Jeremiah 25:8-17, 22, 27) True, the island-city of Tyre is not subject to Babylon for a full 70 years, since the Babylonian Empire falls in 539 B.C.E. Evidently, the 70 years represents the period of Babylonia’s greatest domination—when the Babylonian royal dynasty boasts of having lifted its throne even above “the stars of God.” (Isaiah 14:13) Different nations come under that domination at different times. But at the end of 70 years, that domination will crumble.
This is exactly the same explanation of the 70 years that fits not just Tyre, but also the other "nations that will be singled out ... to serve the king of Babylon seventy years." And one of those other nations that Jeremiah mentioned was Judah. So do we really need two sets of measurements, or can we just accept that the Bible is correct?
*** w01 6/1 pp. 4-5 Whose Standards Can You Trust? ***
Just as Jehovah’s promises are reliable and unchangeable, so are his standards of right and wrong. Would you trust a merchant who uses two sets of weights, only one of which is accurate? Certainly not. Likewise, “a cheating pair of scales is something detestable to Jehovah, but a complete stone-weight is a pleasure to him.” (Proverbs 11:1; 20:10) In the Law that he gave the Israelites, Jehovah included this command: “You must not commit injustice in judging, in measuring, in weighing or in measuring liquids. You should prove to have accurate scales, accurate weights, an accurate ephah and an accurate hin. Jehovah your God I am, who have brought you out of the land of Egypt.”—Leviticus 19:35, 36.
Most of us learned that the march of world powers included:
Egypt Assyria Babylon between [612 - 539] or [608 - 539] or  [605 - 539] Medo-Persia Greece Rome The above quote from the Isaiah book says that the Babylonian empire lasted 70 years, the period of Babylon's greatest domination. We know that Assyria was losing it's grip between the fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE, and the fall of Harran in 605 BCE.The last powerful king of that monarchy was Ashur-uballit II from 612 to 608 BCE. Therefore the secular period of Babylonian hegemony, or period of their empire is exactly in line with the Bible period of 70 years.

Actually, the ARC found that wasn't so - not one alleged abuser was reported to the authorities, even though some states required it. E.g. I remember the consternation on Br. Spinks' face (Service Department) when it was put to him that they hadn't complied with NSW law about reporting if one has knowledge or a belief that a crime had been committed.
The Fessler case brought it to light that the Org did not comply with PA law by reporting the abuse. Not only that, but even when Watchtower has been court-ordered to produce documentation, it has done everything it can to wiggle out of or obstruct the production of documents, like with the Campos cases.
So it's fair to say that the general practice in the Org has been NOT to report suspected abuse to the secular authorities.
Where did you get the 'two-thirds' statistic from, by the way?
This is exactly why trained professionals should handle all allegations, rather than untrained elders. Besides, when laypersons bumble in, trying to ascertain the truth of an allegation, they can (unintentionally) corrupt any evidence-gathering which, in turn, compromises the case, making it harder to successfully resolve.

Agreed. 
Portraying abusers as sinister cartoonish boogeymen plants a preconceived idea of what predators are supposed to look like. I mentioned why this was unhelpful and misleading before.
The cartoon is aimed at children. 
What if Mommy and/or Daddy are the abusers? What does the cartoon advise the child to do then?
Well now, I see the scaffolding of a straw man forming in your imagining what kind of cartoon I would make. 
However, you have highlighted another unhelpful part in the cartoon that primes the child to think of the outside world as a scary place, when for abused children it's usually the home that's the scary place.
Better qualified people than I have already done so.
Compare the well-thought-out Fight Child Abuse YouTube channel, for example. Here's one of their videos:
Notice that they specify what 'safe' and 'unsafe' touches are, and who might give the child 'unsafe touches' ("someone you know or someone in your family") and that, rather than limit the disclosure to 'mommy or daddy' as with the Caleb and Sophia cartoon, they widen the child's options ("tell your teacher, or another family member"). There are no monster figures to confuse (or amuse) the child in this video. More could be said about how this cartoon differs in approach to the Caleb and Sophia one, but I'll leave it there.
Of course, I'm posting for the benefit of any interested readers. Naturally, I do not expect a calmly reasoned-out response from you @TrueTomHarley, although I live in hope. 
 
 

... especially when it's the 7 year old's mother(s) being talked about. Whatever one's personal beliefs are about same-sex relationships, you don't dump your misgivings or condemnation on the child! Smh.

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@TrueTomHarley let's not impute bad motives on the part of others. 
honey rather than vinegar.....

Another world famous Catholic who suffered doubts ...
... in a letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, that is only now being made public, she wrote with weary familiarity of a different Christ, an absent one. "Jesus has a very special love for you," she assured Van der Peet. "[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see,--Listen and do not hear--the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me--that I let Him have [a] free hand."
[...]
The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever--or, as the book's compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, "neither in her heart or in the eucharist."
That absence seems to have started at almost precisely the time she began tending the poor and dying in Calcutta, and--except for a five-week break in 1959--never abated. Although perpetually cheery in public, the Teresa of the letters lived in a state of deep and abiding spiritual pain. In more than 40 communications, many of which have never before been published, she bemoans the "dryness," "darkness," "loneliness" and "torture" she is undergoing. She compares the experience to hell and at one point says it has driven her to doubt the existence of heaven and even of God.  ...
http://time.com/4126238/mother-teresas-crisis-of-faith/
 

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