JW Insider

Just in case anyone wasn't aware, a few of JTR's recent posts had moved in this same direction, and I thought I'd share the entire song from which JTR referenced a couple of the lyrics. It struck me as too sad to respond immediately. Although I would not think it enough to draw any conclusions:
  "Seasons In The Sun"
(originally by Jacques Brel)
Terry Jacks (performer)
Goodbye to you my trusted friend
We've known each other since we were nine or ten
Together we've climbed hills and trees
Learned of love and ABCs
Skinned our hearts and skinned our knees

Goodbye my friend, it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
Pretty girls are everywhere
Think of me and I'll be there

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed
Were just seasons out of time

Goodbye papa, please pray for me
I was the black sheep of the family
You tried to teach me right from wrong
Too much wine and too much song
Wonder how I got along

Goodbye papa, it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
Little children everywhere
When you see them, I'll be there

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song
Like the seasons, have all gone

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song
Like the seasons, have all gone

Goodbye Michelle, my little one
You gave me love and helped me find the sun
And every time that I was down
You would always come around
And get my feet back on the ground

Goodbye Michelle, it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
With the flowers everywhere
I wish that we could both be there

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the stars we could reach
Were just starfish on the beach

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the stars we could reach
Were just starfish on the beach

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song
Like the seasons, have all gone

All our lives we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed
Were just seasons out of time

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun  

When I first came to this site I chose the name "The Bible's Advocate" to discuss some doctrinal issues. But I never used it. I "temporarily" chose the name "JW Insider" because I also wanted to share a couple dozen trivia items that I figured no one else would be sharing. But I never got around to sharing the trivia items. By now, I'm stuck with "JW Insider" although I don't really like the name. And I also decided that the trivia items were . . . well . . .  too trivial to worry about.
But I figured I might start sharing a few more things and see how it goes. (My family has a long history with the Watchtower Society, some going back to Russell's time. Since my great-grandfather was on the convention speaking tours with Russell and Rutherford, you can still buy his picture on eBay along with several of the other associates of Russell. In fact, some original items were even given over to the Society for exhibits.)
I thought about this again because I'm reading a very thorough historical book on Russell titled "A Separate Identity, Volume 2" by B.W.Schulz and R.M.de Vienne. In fact, I've got nothing to share that can compare with the page after page of information about Russell from that book. So much of it is completely new to me and even a bit surprising. I wish I had been following the blog run by the author, too, because I notice that when I went back for something I had bookmarked to read, it wasn't there any more. I'll try to promote the book again here. I think people here will enjoy it.
https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/topic/87187-just-read-a-good-portion-of-b-w-schulz-new-book-separate-identity-volume-2/?tab=comments#comment-144581
So if you came here for some of the trivia that I was going to share, sorry. I don't have anything to compare.
Well, I can share one thing that few people know. But I have never looked into it that closely myself. Much (most?) of the land that the Watchtower Farm owns in Wallkill used to belong to my relatives. I shared a fact before that Brother Booth (GB) once owned the farmland where they built the original Gilead School in Lansing. But the Wallkill story is of interest to me because there's a plaque up there in Wallkill associated with an old Huguenot related church with one of my relative's names on it. (Crispell)
I think it's now part of the Reformed Church of Shawangunk which borders on the North side of the Watchtower property there, within eyesight of the Kingdom Hall at Bruynswick Rd and Red Mill Rd. (They are across from each other, on separate sides of the Wallkill River.) I don't know if they still do it, but it was once the Watchtower's responsibility to care for a part of the historical church's property, including the plaque.
Of course all this is meaningless as it relates to the Watchtower itself, but it's part of a story about the movement of religion in the earlier part of the 1800's in the United States. These earlier relatives of mine were the first people to bring the French Huguenot religion up to New York (from around Charleston, South Carolina). There are still a couple of Crispell cousins in Wallkill, and even a Crispell School there, however, many of the Crispell family settled on the Wallkill River where the settlement was called New Paltz. I might have mentioned once before that an elderly woman at the Historical Society in New Paltz once dug an old family Bible out of a vault for me that had Dutch relatives listed, going back to the 1600s. (The French and the German and the Dutch began intermarrying in the 1800's here in this area.)
 

Why do you think that i was "attack" your thought about:  Elders resist this because they are not trying to make their very own disciples. 
I didn't. It is just fine if they have this positive attitude. Nevertheless, if they have to be role-models of faith, to be imitated from non-elders members, than it can be said how there is a "little danger" of following the men. Even in general positive matters.
Because, i guess how every individual need to build own relation to god, and by that specific, individualized, original, unique way to god's hearth and friendship. I used word "friendship" purposely, because WT publication "pushing" this sort of relationship between members and god as something that have to be established. Of course, it is interesting to understand how god is in position to chose his friend, not we. Even in Abraham situation, he become His friend not because Abraham chose god, but opposite, god chose him. Also, between so many faithful people in the past, who loved god till death, only for one human is reported as been god's friend. (Do not confuse with idea: JHVH was Abraham's friend) ??!! Something to think about, isn't it? :)))  
Well, if somebody have ambition to not "follow" other individuals and/or organization, and/or elders in that organization, he/she have to establish specific "relationship" or if you like "friendship" with ONLY one person, or at least two; Jesus and JHVH. Because Jesus is the name given to people to get close to JHVH. Here we see another WTJWorg omission. They speaking about "friendship"  with JHVH, but "forget" to put Jesus in the center of searching. Because Jesus is The Way to Father.
You said well, elders are not worth to be followed, neither GB and WTJWorg. Because that is what is all about.  :))

Especially if you have the self-appointed 'super righteous' to police their every move.  Remember how the pharisees policed jesus's every move to find fault....... and they did....... despite his perfection. How much easier with more imperfect mortals. 

No conspiracy here. It's about how we often we tend to throw carefulness out the window when things look like they are going "according to plan." If someone is really serious about a teaching or premise, however, they are definitely going to look for points that undermine the premise. The best essays, non-fiction books, lectures and presentations will present a premise, deal with the points that undermine the premise, deal with the points in favor, and then discuss how or why the various arguments should be weighted in favor of the presented premise.
Volume 2 from B.W.Schulz deals with some WT issues just like this and discusses ways in which such mistakes are not conspiratorial, but have been driven from a belief system that didn't double-check itself. As the writers said, it's often just a matter of carefulness with the "facts." They didn't usually concern themselves with the reasons.

These examples, like most mistakes involving chronology, just show how easy it is to be mistaken. Our desire to believe something affects how careful we are about the evidence. I'm sure the person who found Bengel quote this was very excited about how it proves we were right all along about the old generation theory.
But that theory was finally dropped, although the danger is still there to let it happen again. I'm certainly not saying I have not been fooled, more often than I'd like to admit. But I'm trying to be much more careful about things now. The WTS has not been wrong very often on most other topics, but chronology is one of those things that we still carry on from traditions that go back nearly 150 years now. I doubt they will get fixed all at once.

These examples, like most mistakes involving chronology, just show how easy it is to be mistaken. Our desire to believe something affects how careful we are about the evidence. I'm sure the person who found Bengel quote this was very excited about how it proves we were right all along about the old generation theory.
But that theory was finally dropped, although the danger is still there to let it happen again. I'm certainly not saying I have not been fooled, more often than I'd like to admit. But I'm trying to be much more careful about things now. The WTS has not been wrong very often on most other topics, but chronology is one of those things that we still carry on from traditions that go back nearly 150 years now. I doubt they will get fixed all at once.

True. And that Revelation book was written at the same time as the 1989 article when a lot of these "hints" of world disaster from outsiders were highly prized. I think that change you mentioned was made around 2006. But it reminds me that the Society put out a new edition of the "Truth" book in 1981 even though we never did much with it. The time for the original "Truth" book (1968) had already passed, and this update was well nigh ignored compared to the original. And the edits were all focused on getting rid of the quotes from scientists or authors who had directly or indirectly pointed to 1975. (But replacing them with just enough space to replace only those parts so that most of the pages could be reprinted without redoing the pagination of whole book.)
So it's a matter of just how many selective quotes were selected from those "some scientists."  After a while the purpose of those quotes tells more about the selector than the scientists, especially because we could have found just as many or more who believed that science would resolve life-threatening problems.
Back when we believed it was important to remind people that man had been on the earth for 6,000 years, the publications even looked for quotes that dropped that hint, and then italics might even be added to make sure readers noticed the reference to "6,000 years." Here's one from 1975:
*** g75 8/22 p. 20 Is the Industrial Way of Life a Failure? ***
Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm declares that the current sicknesses of industrial society can be dealt with “only if the whole system as it has existed during the last 6000 years of history can be replaced by a fundamentally different one.” [Italics ours]
Fromm saw no particular significance in the number 6,000. But we certainly did.
It's a little bit like the way the Watch Tower publications used J.A.Bengel, above, completely out of context on his point about the Hebrews believing a generation was 75 years. First of all the statement was completely false. And his context was only that it fit the time from Jesus' birth to the year 70. If you read the entire reference, you can see that it's just as much about how Jesus' words would fit the period of 40 years from the year 30 to the year 70. And that it would fit the 75 year idea, too.

The idea of 75 years, supposedly found in the Seder Olam, was not there in the original Seder Olam (Rabbah) from the year 169 CE. It's not even in the most expanded version of the Seder Olam (Zutta) from 804 CE. (I took the picture from his 1862 version of his work on New Testament words. The 1877 version had changed Hebrews to Jews, but still contained false information about the supposed 75 years:

The footnote (2) in the above is not about the 75 years but about how in the 40 years leading up to Jerusalem's destruction in 70, that there were earthquakes and famines and pestilence and war, just as Jesus had predicted.
I point this out because it shows how easy it is to start selecting specialists and scholars (even if one needs to go back to 1862) to find a "fact" that isn't even a "fact" to support chronology. It seems important to me, because of the potential for doing this all over again with 2034 or the "devil in the details" behind Splane's chart.

True. And that Revelation book was written at the same time as the 1989 article when a lot of these "hints" of world disaster from outsiders were highly prized. I think that change you mentioned was made around 2006. But it reminds me that the Society put out a new edition of the "Truth" book in 1981 even though we never did much with it. The time for the original "Truth" book (1968) had already passed, and this update was well nigh ignored compared to the original. And the edits were all focused on getting rid of the quotes from scientists or authors who had directly or indirectly pointed to 1975. (But replacing them with just enough space to replace only those parts so that most of the pages could be reprinted without redoing the pagination of whole book.)
So it's a matter of just how many selective quotes were selected from those "some scientists."  After a while the purpose of those quotes tells more about the selector than the scientists, especially because we could have found just as many or more who believed that science would resolve life-threatening problems.
Back when we believed it was important to remind people that man had been on the earth for 6,000 years, the publications even looked for quotes that dropped that hint, and then italics might even be added to make sure readers noticed the reference to "6,000 years." Here's one from 1975:
*** g75 8/22 p. 20 Is the Industrial Way of Life a Failure? ***
Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm declares that the current sicknesses of industrial society can be dealt with “only if the whole system as it has existed during the last 6000 years of history can be replaced by a fundamentally different one.” [Italics ours]
Fromm saw no particular significance in the number 6,000. But we certainly did.
It's a little bit like the way the Watch Tower publications used J.A.Bengel, above, completely out of context on his point about the Hebrews believing a generation was 75 years. First of all the statement was completely false. And his context was only that it fit the time from Jesus' birth to the year 70. If you read the entire reference, you can see that it's just as much about how Jesus' words would fit the period of 40 years from the year 30 to the year 70. And that it would fit the 75 year idea, too.

The idea of 75 years, supposedly found in the Seder Olam, was not there in the original Seder Olam (Rabbah) from the year 169 CE. It's not even in the most expanded version of the Seder Olam (Zutta) from 804 CE. (I took the picture from his 1862 version of his work on New Testament words. The 1877 version had changed Hebrews to Jews, but still contained false information about the supposed 75 years:

The footnote (2) in the above is not about the 75 years but about how in the 40 years leading up to Jerusalem's destruction in 70, that there were earthquakes and famines and pestilence and war, just as Jesus had predicted.
I point this out because it shows how easy it is to start selecting specialists and scholars (even if one needs to go back to 1862) to find a "fact" that isn't even a "fact" to support chronology. It seems important to me, because of the potential for doing this all over again with 2034 or the "devil in the details" behind Splane's chart.

I wrote a post long ago about how they had modified a certain phrase in a Revelation book update: “Some scientists believe that nuclear war might destroy all life on earth within 25 years.”
The reason they had done that is because Vic Vomodog had marked off the time on his calendar and he was hoping, praying, pleading that there would be no worldwide nuclear war within 25 years so that he could crow over how they had been wrong again. (after 25 years was okay) 
I said then I thought taking the quote out was a mistake. Who would be left with egg on their faces if 25 years passed? “Some scientists.” What great debt to we owe to “some scientists” that we should cover for them? They urinate all over Genesis. Why should we bail them out?

True. And that Revelation book was written at the same time as the 1989 article when a lot of these "hints" of world disaster from outsiders were highly prized. I think that change you mentioned was made around 2006. But it reminds me that the Society put out a new edition of the "Truth" book in 1981 even though we never did much with it. The time for the original "Truth" book (1968) had already passed, and this update was well nigh ignored compared to the original. And the edits were all focused on getting rid of the quotes from scientists or authors who had directly or indirectly pointed to 1975. (But replacing them with just enough space to replace only those parts so that most of the pages could be reprinted without redoing the pagination of whole book.)
So it's a matter of just how many selective quotes were selected from those "some scientists."  After a while the purpose of those quotes tells more about the selector than the scientists, especially because we could have found just as many or more who believed that science would resolve life-threatening problems.
Back when we believed it was important to remind people that man had been on the earth for 6,000 years, the publications even looked for quotes that dropped that hint, and then italics might even be added to make sure readers noticed the reference to "6,000 years." Here's one from 1975:
*** g75 8/22 p. 20 Is the Industrial Way of Life a Failure? ***
Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm declares that the current sicknesses of industrial society can be dealt with “only if the whole system as it has existed during the last 6000 years of history can be replaced by a fundamentally different one.” [Italics ours]
Fromm saw no particular significance in the number 6,000. But we certainly did.
It's a little bit like the way the Watch Tower publications used J.A.Bengel, above, completely out of context on his point about the Hebrews believing a generation was 75 years. First of all the statement was completely false. And his context was only that it fit the time from Jesus' birth to the year 70. If you read the entire reference, you can see that it's just as much about how Jesus' words would fit the period of 40 years from the year 30 to the year 70. And that it would fit the 75 year idea, too.

The idea of 75 years, supposedly found in the Seder Olam, was not there in the original Seder Olam (Rabbah) from the year 169 CE. It's not even in the most expanded version of the Seder Olam (Zutta) from 804 CE. (I took the picture from his 1862 version of his work on New Testament words. The 1877 version had changed Hebrews to Jews, but still contained false information about the supposed 75 years:

The footnote (2) in the above is not about the 75 years but about how in the 40 years leading up to Jerusalem's destruction in 70, that there were earthquakes and famines and pestilence and war, just as Jesus had predicted.
I point this out because it shows how easy it is to start selecting specialists and scholars (even if one needs to go back to 1862) to find a "fact" that isn't even a "fact" to support chronology. It seems important to me, because of the potential for doing this all over again with 2034 or the "devil in the details" behind Splane's chart.

Maybe someone smarter than me could put together a power point presentation on how this topic evolved from a discussion about a ludicrus power point presentation on a attempt to disprove God, evolving to a discussion about the insane theory of the overlapping generations, to the validity of the governing bodies words, value and worth..

I am truly saddened by this....I hope you are okay brother and you have been a great encouragement...because even tho you were obviously hurt with in the truth....you never lost your genuine love for your God Jehovah...and you underestimate your faith...faith is easy when it has not been beaten,,,,but to still have faith when you have been beaten and lay wounded.....that’s real faith...and it would be a honour to have served shoulder to shoulder with you.
I don’t know what’s going on..but I sincerely hope you are reasonably well....and a huge thank you from me....for being REAL !!!!!!

The term generation  can also be used as a measure of time with reference to past or future ages. An age which is identified by certain features. 
That is why I demonstrated the above definition with the pre-flood generation / age and its impact; also the post-flood generation/ age which also consisted of a very long period..
Today they are still commemorating events of WW2 which is an event which is still part of the age starting with WW1 because it is identified by world-wars.
However,  those people who saw these 'massive signs' and lived in the aftermath of any of these wars may soon start dying. Many are in their sixties or older. I am a post-ww2 baby which understands the impact of the war due to listening to the many stories my grandfather and father told me (both were in the war).. 
Most of the young generations less than 30 years have no clue. I personally always understand history in the context of the age........ because people are ALWAYS impacted by what happens in their age.
Russel was influenced by pyramids because he was living an age that was obsessed with the orient.... because of all the discoveries in the news of artifacts in the middle east. Archeology was a fledgling science and the great mysteries were continuously revealed. It even gave rise to a new religion called Mormonism. So people do get distracted by what is happening in the world and its propaganda.
This is why I always caution on this forum that one cannot just Google information about an era and think you understand the mindset and full implications of the era. An era can have many features which define it. Even short periods have many features i.e. the roaring twenties was short-cut by the depression but some of its ideas still lived on in those who were part of it.
The generation that was impacted by the first and second world wars are now getting on in life...... we know the stories and the oral traditions...... The millenials, frankly do not care. They are impacted by what happened in the sixties - the loss of morals and experimentation with drugs, and the new philosophies that were brewing in the Frankfort school etc.
 

I don't recall that particular context. But I didn't include all the quotes from Wohl either. Also, if it were Wohl, he didn't say it until 1980.
I noticed that there were several interesting quotes about the "industrial age" and "industrial revolution" that could be implied to fit what you (and Wohl) are saying, but I didn't see the one in the place where you saw it.
This reminds me of another thing the Society said about the "generation." It's definitely not the quote you are looking for, but it reminded me about the kind of generation that Arauna mentioned:
*** g88 4/8 pp. 13-14 The Last Days—What’s Next? ***
How Long Can a Generation Last?
The American Legion Magazine pointed out that 4,743,826 U.S. men and women had participated in World War I. But in 1984 only 272,000 remained alive, and they were dying off at an average of nine every hour. Does that mean, then, that the generation of 1914 has already disappeared?
The Greek word for generation is geneá, used by Matthew, Mark, and Luke in their accounts of Jesus’ words. It can have different applications according to the context. However, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology defines it as: “Those born at the same time . . . Associated with this is the meaning: the body of one’s contemporaries, an age.” A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament states: “The sum total of those born at the same time, expanded to include all those living at a given time generation, contemporaries.” These definitions allow for all those who were born around the time of a historic event and all those who were alive at that time.
J. A. Bengel states in his New Testament Word Studies: “The Hebrews . . . reckon seventy-five years as one generation, and the words, shall not pass away, intimate that the greater part of that generation [of Jesus’ day] indeed, but not the whole of it, should have passed away before all should be fulfilled.” This became true by the year 70 C.E. when Jerusalem was destroyed.
Likewise today, most of the generation of 1914 has passed away. However, there are still millions on earth who were born in that year or prior to it. And although their numbers are dwindling, Jesus’ words will come true, “this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” This is yet another reason for believing that Jehovah’s thieflike day is imminent. So, what events should alert Christians watch for?. . . “Peace and Security” . . .
For anyone who wants to do the math puzzle, there must have already been just about no one left from this number of persons still surviving who had participated in WWI. (Assuming there were 272,000 dying at 9 per hour since 1984.) That was near the end of 1984, because although it doesn't say, the American Legion article is from their December 1984 issue. So since there are 24 hours a day for 365.25 days every year, multiplying by 9, and carrying the 1, there would be 78,894 dying every year and, therefore, they would all be gone by April 15, 1988. And this article came out in the April 8, 1988 issue!  And it was in March 1988 that the Awake! magazine had just begun adding the following to the inside masthead about "the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure new world before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passes away." (That statement was in every issue for the next 7 and one-half years.)
And, of course, it was just a few months later when the January 1, 1989 Watchtower indicated that Armageddon would be here by the year 2000. Someone caught that mistake in just enough time to remove it from the bound volume and the Watchtower Library CD.
Of course, people don't really die off at constant rates like that (9 per hour), but I get the impression that someone was watching those numbers from that American Legion article a little too closely, perhaps from the time it came out. It's like you joked about before, about waiting for the last person to die off. (At least, I hope you were joking!)
In fact, in the article above, it was the first time that the number 75 had been used for the "Hebrew" length of a generation, based on something this scholar named Bengel had said. And the scholar was actually referring to the highly discredited Seder Olam. And, of course, the Seder Olam doesn't say anything about a generation being 75 years. In the Seder Olam, except for the longer generations before the Flood, it would have been a closer match to the 490 years as being only 14 generations, per Matthew. That's 490 divided by 14 which is 35 years for each generation. The reason that Bengel wanted it to be 75 was because of his theory that the generation could therefore include not just the 40 years from Jesus' prophecy in 30 CE to 70 CE, but it was a generation that could have started when Jesus was born (which he assumed was about 5 BCE).
Also, Bengel was only interested in 70 CE, but the real reason for the 75 years in the Awake! was the point about persons born in 1914 or the year prior, as it says. 1914 + 75, is 1989, and for the year prior 1913 + 75 is 1988. So this was cutting it pretty close. And according to the American Legion magazine, the last surviving soldier from WWI would be dead in just a couple weeks.
  

I will truly miss you, James.  
Psalm 26

I sincerely hope he doesn't change.
I've enjoyed his brutal truth throughout the years. 
Courage is not something that needs changing.
I hope you are ok @James Thomas Rook Jr.
 
 

Had my former prophesy been heeded that the end would come prior to January because we had reached the end of our current Bible reading schedule and it was too inconvenient to make everyone start again at Genesis, we wouldn’t be in this pickle.

Tu nous manqueras, mon ami.
We have a saying, "Pa bliye yon bon moun" meaning an individual whom you know and speak to, in this case, comment to, to and fro won't be forgotten.

That was so sweet James!   Will send you this video a brother from New Zealand just sent.  But remember this scripture:
(Ephesians 4:23, 24) And you should continue to be made new in your dominant mental attitude, 24 and should put on the new personality that was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.
You make changes daily and gradually.  It is not hard. You probably had to change your thinking in some way in order to write a nice post like that.  I endorse the two other posts above also.
I think you said things like that before.  But you are still here.  I am not saying 'Bye.  Listen to this lovely video.  Hope it plays!
 
 
IMG_25941.MOV

In good times, and bad times, in times easy and times hard, I have relied on the JW-Archive as a sounding board for many things, and appreciate the forbearance when I have ranted and raved about all sorts of things, even from the Librarian, who often deleted my posts, with cause.
I have come to the conclusion that logic and reason is not the end-all that I had aspired to, and that all things being considered, it would have been better for me to be "Brother Watchtower", than the man I have become.
I am 73 years old, and I probably do not have time to change .... realistically, but for 14 billion years I did not exist, and I don't remember it bothering me any.
My Wife Susan, and my sons and daughter will fulfill whatever unfulfilled dreams I had, as the stars I could reach ... were just starfish on the beach.
With whatever time I have left, it is going to be my life's challenge, so I bid each of you so long, and hope you stay closer to Jehovah than I did. 
....and like Forest Gump said "... and that's all I am going to say about that."
Goodby.
 

This I don’t know about. I was referenced ‘anonymously?’ Well.....it’s a start. 
I followed RM on Twitter. After she died, BW became active on it. He expressly states that he steers clear of FB and IG for all the “idiots” on it, but he allows that Twitter is a nice distraction—it is like the background chatter in a coffee house. 
There was a time when I thought neither of them liked me very much, but I have since come to think it was just due to their being no-nonsense researchers who think that humor in research is an abomination, and note that I have no such aversion. He is steadily warming. In answer to my post about Woodstock and how it was held during a pandemic, he tweeted that he and his “antique wife” were pulling the leg of his nephew, giving the young man to believe that they had been there, apparently toking up with rest of them. He then threw in the unnecessary detail that he later fessed up and told the truth.

Let me put your mind at ease, I, like you, know when to keep my mouth shut. There are doctrinal interpretations that I have considered incorrect, and some which are pointed out to me and I now consider incorrect, but who am I to start making waves about it? 607, 1914, peace and security, the generation....and so on, do not nullify, or undermine, the fundamental core of what it means to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses and do not, actually should not,  undermine ones relationship with God. At least not for me. Heck, if I can read Ray's books and still be o.k, that says it all I think. 
If I discern something really WRONG then I will speak, but so far, this has not happened....

If there is a question about something, then it is not my place to say that I am necessarily representing what is TRUE. I am representing my particular take on the question. I may think it's true and might think I KNOW it's true. That doesn't make it true. At best, it's something that ought to be considered and questioned. It's our Christian duty to keep questioning to make sure of all things and hold fast to what is fine. It is not our duty to represent our views as absolute truth that others must follow.
Also there is a difference in not being honest and being dishonest. One may not be honest without realizing it, through sloppy research, biased thinking, misunderstanding, steeped in tradition etc. When something comes across as dishonest, I have stated the case to persons in responsible positions who will understand the problem. I don't treat anything as if there was purposeful dishonesty.
I think there is some kind of balance we should all reach. There is always a danger of causing unnecessary divisions.

I did notice that you were quoted and referenced, albeit, anonymously in B.W.Schulz and R.M.de Vienne. Perhaps there is a future in collaborations.