Anna

Law enforcement will not take any action either if they cannot prove someone guilty. And if they do convict someone of child sexual molestation, then guess what, after serving a prison sentence, sometimes of only 6 moths to a year, they are released back into the community, and unless you have a sex offender tracker, you will have no idea there is one living in your neighborhood.

I thought you might understand what I was saying in this way. But that is not what I meant. As we say, "just one molested child is one too many". However, my point was that there will be a certain amount of crimes committed even among JWs, it is the law of averages. But to call it an "incredibly huge" amount gives the impression there is at least one pedophile in every congregation. When Raymond Franz (former G.B) was asked by a certain campaigner against the Witnesses about child sexual molestation in the organization, it was Raymond's opportunity to really expose this "huge problem". However, and much to the campaigners disappointment, Raymond told him that he did not think that child sexual abuse was a major problem in the organization and that it had been sensationalized. I believe had it been a huge problem, Raymond would have most definitely addressed it in one of his anti Witness books.
I am afraid it is a drop if we spent $80 million dollars on stamps to send letters to Russia. Ask @James Thomas Rook Jr.. The most that was ever asked in a lawsuit was $21 million and that ended up being settled out of court for an undisclosed amount which would have been very much less than that (probably a few thousand). But if we are going to use your argument, then why are former members imposing this on their brothers and sisters? They don't seem to care much that "most of JW members are not rich with money, have modest income" do they?
Are you serious? The organization is about preaching the good news. That is its mission. Problems arising from man's imperfection and the world in general are side issues that have to be dealt with by those who are  involved, and not by every single member of the organization. I mean would you expect every problem to be reported to the whole worldwide brotherhood? If not, then which problem would you chose to report and which would not be reported? The goal is to stop child sexual abuse and other problems. Not to report on the statistics of them. Have you been to this years convention? There was a whole talk based on protecting our children. All those who attended would have heard it, and all those who know that the organization never arbitrarily just puts information out there, will have understood that this talk was given because there is still a problem.

Thank you. That answers my question about where does the money come from to cover litigation costs.

Law enforcement will not take any action either if they cannot prove someone guilty. And if they do convict someone of child sexual molestation, then guess what, after serving a prison sentence, sometimes of only 6 moths to a year, they are released back into the community, and unless you have a sex offender tracker, you will have no idea there is one living in your neighborhood.

Tacking on a 30 minute commute both ways, twice a week, is not nothing. I don't want to blow it off as though it were. There are no examples of great inconvenience in our circuit, but that is not to say it is not so elsewhere. 
Nor will I pretend that even loyal ones may not grouse a bit, even as they understand the overall benefit. Of course, disloyal ones will bellow till the cows come home, but even loyal ones may not turn on a dime. 
One of the reasons Jehovah's organization works and others do not - and least not on such a scale - is that Witnesses have come to love the entire brotherhood, regardless of where in the world they may live, and do not obsess about their own immediate interests. They don't all figure they have to all go over to Benin and see for themselves and each ponder over the balance statement and have special sessions to discuss it and take a vote on it because no one other than themselves can be trusted - they just don't. They've decided the ones having oversight are trustworthy - they've given no cause to think otherwise, as they adhere to the same healthful scriptural teachings - so they grin and bear it if some policy does not work to their immediate benefit. 

Of course. This is a no-brainer. You ought not carry on as though it were evil.
Nor should you carry on about it being a 'corporation.' It is only a corporation because the laws of this world will not let you operate otherwise. Even the old individual halls were usually  'corporations' - as are church bodies - because that is the only way legally permitted for a group to own property. Even the 'apostles and old men' of the first century would have organized themselves as a corporation if that were a necessity to legally operate.
This is a big 'Duh' and for you and yours carry on as though you've discovered the secrets of the dark side is a bit much.

I'm sure there is.
Whenever I am stuck, I also reach for some highbrow perch from where I can sneer at ones who have not yielded. I wonder too, at how they cope with their 'cognitive dissonance,' - as in:  "Surely your cognitive dissonance must be crippling you if you can withstand the brute force of my brilliant reasoning!"
No, @Shiwiii, your point, which you have repackaged endlessly for re-submission each time you see it shot down, is not valid. It is juvenile. 
Nobody is less intrusive than Jehovah's Witnesses when it comes to money matters.

I know you sent me out to bite him, TTH, and I tried. I really did.
Such tainted meat I have never tasted in my life!
BLEACCTHHCCKKK!!!

Oh, for crying out loud, you do not!
1984 is about a world of 3 totalitarian states, each marionettes pulled by sinister people at the top, who permit no deviation from dictated 'realities', and who physically torture anyone who strays, (in some graphic detail) and then kills them even after they readjust.
Only the most paranoid nutcase would apply it to anything having to do with the Christian congregation.

OK, but I was'nt being serious.

...then they must must have spent the last ten years in a coma... [or something to that effect]
Of course, this could have slightly more effect if we hadn't been saying almost exactly the same thing for the last 138 years and counting.

If you don't want the corrections, when the updates come in to the computer, you can tell it No.  And keep your bound volumes.

If @JW Insider didn't have to keep messing with 607 BCE, they probably wouldn't have to rewrite anything!

Thankful for the correction of error actually. Must be holy spirit at work.

secrecy.....I mean, secretary.......where has that secretary gone!!

The answer to your question here is "Yes, of course they can, and they have." This is why the whole debate has been generated.
So really it is quite a simple matter. It is not about understanding the concept. You have ably demonstrated that by your diagram. Others have explained clearly too in the many postings here. It is not about the fact that the term generation has a number of meanings attached. This has been demonstrated here scripturally, and any quick internet search will reveal many ways in which meaning has been attached to the word in a variety of secular contexts.
So what is the problem? It is that the GB has defined the word "generation" by attaching to it a concept which I have not found elsewhere yet.
The concept as I understand it is as follows:
A time span is delineated by events, and, by that delineation, exceeds the life expectation of any single  human alive at the time. It is then held that there are two groups of humans, one experiencing the initiating event, the other experiencing the terminating event. Further qualifiers are that:
BOTH groups consist of baptised, anointed Christians. Additionally, their lives must overlap whilst in that state. Finally, they must be in that state when experiencing either of the initiating or terminating events.  So. What is the crux of this matter? It is not a matter of understanding. It is quite simply that the GB's definition of the word "generation" and the concept they have attached to it is not accepted by all people.
There appear to be 2 basics reasons stated here and they are and/or reasons:
1. To define the word generation in this manner is unacceptable and does not concur with any accepted definition in general usage.
2. This definition is not found in a Scriptural context, and was not what Jesus had in mind when using this term.
However, it is clear that there are others to whom the definition and concept is both understandable and acceptable, and, more importantly, Scripturally harmonious.
It seems that the final arbiter will be the passage of time and events as is often the case with matters of Bible prophecy.

Then, assuming she accepted the proposal, the brothers asked them to become disengaged (Form S-78) and to become re-engaged anywhere outside of Warwick, since the Governing Body also meets in Warwick and does not want anything related to the Branch location area to become idolized, either. Then they decided on a 50-mile radius, which would also include the old Brooklyn Bethel, because, well, you just can't be too careful. For engagement services, they are now providing a special bus that runs from Warwick to the old Burnt-Over Disctrict of New York, where it all began. An announcement comes over the loudspeaker of the bus when the 50-mile radius has been reached, and engagements are allowed again.
 
[edited to add: I just received a note from someone who couldn't tell if I was joking, so I thought I'd better add this explanation to the post. Yes, I'm joking.]

Yes. We have long held onto the tradition that the Parousia is invisible and covers a period of time. We have said it is not the same as the final set of judgment events referred to as the coming/advent/revelation/manifestation. It is interesting then, that all these scriptures can be just as easily explained (perhaps even more easily explained) by proposing that the original speakers of "New Testament Greek" knew what the word Parousia meant. The Greek "New Testament" Bible was translated into Latin, Syriac, Aramaic and Coptic from the original Greek while koine Greek was still being spoken as a living language. Also, some of the early "Church Fathers" whom we often quote in our publications, spoke some of these languages in addition to Greek.
So while it would be a bit off topic to turn this into another full-fledged discussion of Parousia, I find it interesting to notice that a sensible explanation of this verse about Peace and Security can be seen to fit Jesus words, rather than contradict them. I had even noticed a tendency to make them say quite the opposite of what they actually say, and this is a direct result, I think, of our conflicted traditional doctrine about the Parousia. Here's an example:
Notice how this is almost an opposite interpretation of the one that fits the context. (Where Paul parallels the idea of people taking note of "Peace and Security" with the idea that the end will come as a surprise the them, without warning, just a thief in the night.) But it is opposite because we are also taught that it was Satan's anger in 1914 at having "a short period of time" that caused WW I to rage out of control. WW II was even worse than WW I. And we half-expect a WW III to begin escalating as a way to explain the fact that the wars since WW II seem almost mild by comparison (to some). We think, how can this be if Satan must surely have an even shorter period of time now than he had in 1914. If we were right about WW I then Satan should be starting 10 times as many wars just as big as WW I and WW II.

Although completely off topic on this thread I just thought I would mention this: This has already changed. Victims are no longer  required to “testify” in front of JC elders, and sisters may be able to assist the elders in establishing facts etc. (however sisters will never be able to take part in a JC committee because of its “official” nature).
View the 2017 Child Safeguarding policy HERE
This particular one is for the UK and Ireland, it will be the same all over the world.

How many generations?
 

Ford had just pardoned Nixon. After a bruising several months of the Nixon Presidency under assault, people ate up Ford's promise of better times ahead and the words he used to describe them.
At a convention I attended, the speaker worked his way through end-time themes, before holding aloft that morning's paper with the huge headline:  "Peace and Security." 
"Have you seen today's headlines?" he cried.
It was irresistible. I would have done it, too.
It will absolutely happen. But there have been false positives along the way.

True, and we may also subconsciously perhaps view it as some kind of central temple, like the one the Israelites had in Jerusalem, and we may even stretch it further by reasoning that Jehovah’s spirit resides there more than it resides in any other building we use for worship.  Brings to mind the verse in Acts 17:24, where Paul is addressing the people of Athens, with the many temples dedicated to various Gods.  So I am hoping that the spirit behind those words will be understood to be more of it being  a small taste of what paradise will be like as regards living together and the  cooperation etc. and that everything done there "is for Jehovah” “ ...."and  because what we do (at Bethel) helps people draw close to Jehovah” as was brought out in last week’s WT study.
P.S. Notice the brother in the front row, (second one of the brothers from the right) is Nicolas King, the guy who sings Jazz professionally.

Although completely off topic on this thread I just thought I would mention this: This has already changed. Victims are no longer  required to “testify” in front of JC elders, and sisters may be able to assist the elders in establishing facts etc. (however sisters will never be able to take part in a JC committee because of its “official” nature).
View the 2017 Child Safeguarding policy HERE
This particular one is for the UK and Ireland, it will be the same all over the world.

Don't know whether it's right, but there is a completely different way to understand this verse. You get an idea of it by looking at 1 Thess 5:3 in some other translations:
NLT: When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape. ESV: While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. NET: Now when they are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape. I think we sometimes get this impression that the final generation of the last days will see almost constant wars and rumors of wars in various places in the world, with very few days of real peace. But then, we seem to figure, that the UN or some political institution or coalition of governments will, for some reason, cry out something to the effect of "Peace and Security!" as if they would like some attention for have finally been instrumental at creating a few weeks of peace amidst the near daily wars around the world. 
But it seems just as likely that the actual meaning, or even the actual translation of the verse should be closer to:
While some people are talking about how everything seems to be peaceful and secure, they will find themselves undergoing sudden disaster, just as unexpectedly as the beginning of a pregnant woman's labor pains. And they won't be able to escape. This is not necessarily a quotation of what they will be saying out loud anywhere. The expression is just one symbolic way of telling us what some people will no doubt be saying and thinking just before the time when Jehovah's judgment day comes upon them just as surprisingly as a thief in the night could come upon them. In context, this is what it seems to be saying. It's about the "PAROUSIA," which is sometimes called the "Day of the Lord" or the "Day of Jehovah." In context, it's about WHAT to expect about the PAROUSIA (presence) and WHEN to expect the PAROUSIA (presence):
(1 Thessalonians 4:15-5:5) . . .For this is what we tell you by Jehovah’s word, that we the living who survive to the presence [PAROUSIA] of the Lord will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep in death [before the PAROUSIA]; 16 because [AT THE PAROUSIA] the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. 17 Afterward [or, THEN] we the living who are surviving will, together with them [or Greek, AT THE SAME TIME], be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord. 18 So keep comforting one another with these words. 5:1 Now as for the times and the seasons [of the PAROUSIA], brothers, you need nothing to be written to you. 2 For you yourselves know very well that Jehovah’s day [the PAROUSIA] is coming exactly as a thief in the night. 3 Whenever it is that they are saying, “Peace and security!” then sudden destruction is to be instantly on them, just like birth pains on a pregnant woman, and they will by no means escape. 4 But you, brothers, you are not in darkness, so that the day should overtake you as it would thieves, 5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We belong neither to night nor to darkness. Granted, this isn't the way we currently understand it officially, but it fits all the other scriptures just as well. The expression about saying there is peace and security is a parallel to the idea that the Parousia will come as a thief in the night. It will be surprising, and even painful and disastrous. There will be no way to predict it (by pointing out increasing wars and earthquakes and disasters, for example). Therefore Paul had nothing to say to them about the timing of the Parousia (the times and seasons) -- 1 Thess 5:1. 
This matches the idea that Jesus gave when he said that people would be going on about their daily routines, two men in a field, two women at a grinding mill, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage just as they were in Noah's day. Until suddenly the judgment event (parousia) came upon them as if without any warning.
Peter was saying the same thing when he said that people would ridicule the belief that the Parousia was coming, because things seemed to be going on as they always had been. Peter didn't say that the answer would be that the Parousia was really there all along but just invisible. Instead Peter said:
(2 Peter 3:5-7) 5 For they deliberately ignore this fact, that long ago there were heavens and an earth standing firmly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God; 6 and that by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was flooded with water. 7 But by the same word the heavens and the earth that now exist are reserved for fire and are being kept until the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly people. In other words, they are ignoring the fact that just like in Noah's generation, people also likely ridiculed the fact that there was no evidence of an imminent judgment day, yet that judgment event (parousia) came upon them as quickly as Jehovah released the waters upon them. In the same way the current heavens and earth will exist as they are being kept just as they now exist UNTIL THE DAY OF JUDGMENT (until the Parousia).
 

True, and we may also subconsciously perhaps view it as some kind of central temple, like the one the Israelites had in Jerusalem, and we may even stretch it further by reasoning that Jehovah’s spirit resides there more than it resides in any other building we use for worship.  Brings to mind the verse in Acts 17:24, where Paul is addressing the people of Athens, with the many temples dedicated to various Gods.  So I am hoping that the spirit behind those words will be understood to be more of it being  a small taste of what paradise will be like as regards living together and the  cooperation etc. and that everything done there "is for Jehovah” “ ...."and  because what we do (at Bethel) helps people draw close to Jehovah” as was brought out in last week’s WT study.
P.S. Notice the brother in the front row, (second one of the brothers from the right) is Nicolas King, the guy who sings Jazz professionally.