TrueTomHarley
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Posts posted by TrueTomHarley
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16 minutes ago, Srecko Sostar said:
Dear Tom, you over reacted, i expected more balanced understanding of my quote,
I didn’t overreact even a little bit. The person making accusations always pleads for more “balance” when his accusations are rejected.
There is nothing wrong with writing Russia with regard to the primary cause and not writing Russia with regard to every other cause.
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On 3/2/2019 at 4:38 PM, JOHN BUTLER said:
But it has been a serious problem for over twenty years, and the GB / Org kept it hidden.
There are two ways of looking at this.
1.) It has not been.
2.) it has been, but it is far worse everywhere else.
One must look no farther than who is being outed as perpetrators. If you want to find deviants in most places, you look no further than the leaders. If you want the same ‘catch’ among Jehovah’s Witnesses, you must broaden your search to include, not just leaders, but everyone.
An JW leader committing CSA is rare. Not unheard of, but rare. Elsewhere it is the pattern.
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20 hours ago, Shiwiii said:
Yuck, I don't sell used cars. Lol, just my preference. I'm a casual guy. Jeans/pants, no tie...no, unless warranted. Vans or boots. I'd be talked to so quick. "Christian attire" bahaaaaaaa. Who do these guys think they are? ARE uniforms on the way? Red and black?
Well, I will concede that I can’t quite get my head around those Old Testament prophets being as concerned about their dress and grooming as we have sometimes made them out to be.
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On 3/3/2019 at 9:55 AM, Srecko Sostar said:
JW members are less concerned about suffer of people who are not JW.
Well...probably...who isn’t? What! Are you going to tell me that you are as concerned about MY suffering as you would be that of a family member?
And just because I acknowledge you will be MOST concerned with the suffering of family, that does not mean that you are UNCONCERNED with the suffering of everyone else. Why would you try to spin it that way with Jehovah’s Witnesses?
It is no more than Galatians 6:10
“Really, then, as long as we have time favorable for it, let us work what is good toward all, but especially toward those related to [us] in the faith.”
What’s wrong with that?
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1 hour ago, Srecko Sostar said:
Mine stupidity is great :))))) because, as i know, JW members, congregations or WT-HQ, Betel's, NOT sending Letters pro, in behalf of non -JW people who suffer under some system.
Sigh...how can people be so ridiculous? NOBODY floods the field with letters for every cause under the sun. EVERYONE does it for the cause they hold most dear.
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Here is an opinion that doesn’t agree with yours, @Srecko Sostar:
There is the obligatory jab at POTUS & VP, disliked politically. But the opinion is spot on. And yes, it WOULD be fine if they weighed in, even with many many wrongs to choose from.
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16 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:
Question is, what inspired, motivated Russian government to put JW on list.
There are three factors at work that come together to make ‘the perfect storm.’
1) Misperceptions due to 100years East-West hostility and the fact that Witness HQ is in the West
2) A dominant house church guarding its turf, where 90+ % identify, though few are devout (or even believers)
3) A fanatical group of irreligious ‘anti-cultists’ who exaggerate or manufacture negatives of the faith while (being atheistic) negating the positives.
#3 is at work everywhere, ever ready to strike the match. In Russia it finds perfect kindling, but it holds out the match everywhere.
I wrote of it here:
https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2019/01/the-anti-cultists-are-directly-responsible.html
6 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:Would WTJWorg take stand for rights of these [LGBT] community too?
They do take a stand. They have categorically renounced violence for any reason throughout their existence.
What is wrong with you? How can you not know this?
In my opinion, someone who has been a Witness should not ask a question as stupid as the day is long. It is a perfectly fine question for a non-Witness to ask. But not someone who knows better.
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13 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:
Maybe police playing this game with "theocratic warfare" rules.
I think they are finding it a challenge operating in a land where the constitution says they can be Jehovah’s Witnesses but the law says they can be Jehovah’s Witnesses as long as they are not Jehovah’s Witnesses. This may make perfect sense to you, but I think they are finding it a challenge.
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It’s pretty well documented that they may removed literature from their Kingdom Halls and public ministry long ago. Whether some have it squirreled away in other places, I wouldn’t know. I would think it unlikely because nobody is crowing about finding it. When police did find some at Kingdom Halls, security cameras clearly showed they had planted it there themselves.
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8 minutes ago, Indiana said:
A man was arrested after allegedly harassing a Jehovah’s Witness on a Florida beach and allowing his dog, named Butterbean, to gnaw on some of the religious literature the victim was peddling.
According to Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, an officer was called to Sombrero Beach on Feb. 9, after a man and his dog approached a Jehovah’s Witness, who was standing at a pavilion with a cart full of religious literature.
The Jehovah’s Witness claimed Edgar Wallis Jones approached him and said he was not allowed on city or state property with his religious literature. The victim told Jones he was not soliciting anyone as his literature is free and that he has a permit, police said. The Jehovah’s Witness told police Jones said since the literature was free, he would take all of it and grabbed the man’s cart while Butterbean began to chomp on some of the religious material before leaving the area
“The victim did not report being injured in the incident,” police spokesperson Adam Linhardt said in a statement. “He gave Deputy Ian Douthirt a description of the suspect as well as the dog. The victim added that he had seen the suspect before around town and it was his belief that the suspect is a local.”
The police spokesperson said witnesses corroborated the victim’s version of events.
The police officer canvassed the beach and spoke to several people who described seeing the man with his dog.
“They didn’t know the man’s name, but the dog was described as an older, chubby, tan and white French bulldog,” Linhardt said. “One witness stated the man said the dog’s name is Butterbean, but he did not choose it, that children chose the dog’s name instead. And so Deputy Douthirt began his search for Butterbean.”
In an effort to identify Butterbean’s owner, the police officer made contact with several animal clinics and shelters, asking if they had a file for a French bulldog dubbed Butterbean. No dice on locating the owner.
Deputy Douthirt returned to the beach a few days after the alleged incident when he spotted a man with a tan and white French bulldog on a leash.
“Deputy Douthirt asked the man what his dog’s name was and the man replied, ‘Butterbean,’” the police spokesperson said. “The man then stated he did not name the dog. The man stated children chose the name.”
According to police, the man went on to admit he confronted the Jehovah’s Witness about the peddling of literature and Butterbean chewed on some of the pamphlets, but denied taking the victim’s cart.
Jones was charged with disorderly conduct.
https://globalnews.ca/news/5012480/jehovahs-witness-harassing-dog-chew-religious-literature/
Those are some pretty thorough policemen over there
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Oh, and here from the article is another example of 1984:
“The law bans the faith, so punishing them for exercising their faith is merely punishing a violation of the law. This argument is perfectly Orwellian. Translating Lebedev: We declared your religious faith to be extremist, and you are not allowed to be extremists. So we are arresting you for being extremists. But feel free to practice your faith and have a good day.”
Does it square with other applications of 1984 that you have seen, @James Thomas Rook Jr.?
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53 minutes ago, Indiana said:
Although Christensen knew that his faith had been outlawed, explained the prosecutor, the JW unsurprisingly continued to proselytize, hold meetings, and distribute literature
They actually don’t distribute literature there. Their proselytizing consists of only speaking from the Bible itself. They have conformed to all laws, draconian though they may be, and the recent incidences of torture are considered by believers to be efforts to manufacture evidence that they are not.
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2 hours ago, Indiana said:
Butterbean the French bulldog was the focus of a case of disorderly conduct in Marathon.
MARATHON, Fla. - Man's best friend also proved to be his best accomplice in the case of a Marathon man and his French bulldog Butterbean.
Edgar Wallis Jones, 59, was walking his dog on Sombrero Beach Feb. 6 at 11:30 a.m. Jones approached a Jehovah's Witness who had a cart filled with religious literature set up near a pavilion.
He told the man that he was not allowed on city or state property with religious books. The victim responded that he had a permit and that they were free.
I opened a service meeting part once with that experience of a hostile householder telling our brother to talk to his dog if he wanted to speak with anybody. Whereupon the brother knelt and did just that, after which he straightened up and told the householder: “You’re dog wants a double-sub.”
Young Stevie, who nobody thought was paying the slightest bit attention, seemingly asleep, said to his parents: “What’s Brother Harley talking about? Dogs can’t talk!”
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9 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:
Violence is in the mind of the beholder ..... If I should shoot someone to death for trying to kill me or mine, I have STOPPED violence.
First theirs.
Then my own.
If I had a dollar for every comment that has invoked a 1984 scenario with regard to Jehovah’s Witnesses, I could retire wealthy. Can you think of anyone who has made those comparisons?
As it turns out, the only ones actually fulfilling 1984 are Witness enemies in Russia.
If memory serves, wasn’t Mr. O’Brien, on the surface, a pleasant and refined man, posing as Winston’s friend, before revealing his true character?
Does that remind you of any current Witness opposers here?
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10 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:
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This Winnie the Pooh business is not playing well in China:
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On 6/26/2018 at 9:53 PM, Jack Ryan said:
NBA Draft in 2003 versus 2017:
Which looks better to you?
It would depend upon whether I wanted to threaten someone or have them rolling in the aisles laughing.
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7 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:
To defend the TRUTH, you do not even need any lawyers at all. NONE To defend property and treasure, and your position ... you need a LOT!
Still, I’ll put off the verse for as long as I can.
”they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, while they were in need, in tribulation, mistreated; and the world was not worthy of them. They wandered about in deserts and mountains and caves and dens of the earth.”
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1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:
If you are not already a Watchtower Lawyer ... you should apply.
I wrote about this video:
At a supposedly confidential 2017 meeting of elders, leaked for Internet perusal by a self-styled freedom fighter—a meeting dealing with the ramifications of child sexual abuse litigation, a Witness representative stated: “Well, we know that the scene of this world is changing, and we know Satan’s coming after us, and he’s going to go for us legally. We can see by the way things are shaping up.” It is not hard to imagine what certain ones are doing with the explanation that “Satan’s coming after us.”
How could he say it? With religion in general, it is the misconduct of leaders that has come home to haunt them. With Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is misconduct of members whose cases allegedly were mishandled. God help us if the members of other faiths are put under the magnifying glass, as with Jehovah’s Witnesses. On the other side of the world, Jehovah’s Witness are banned in Russia for reasons having nothing to do with child sexual abuse—the topic was entirely absent, as government and media partnered to whip the public into a froth, hurling many virulent accusations against the faith—but never that one.
There, it is “professing the superiority of one’s religion.” There it is being Western spies disguised as a religion. There it is blood transfusions, and should a Witness refuse one and thereafter die, the death is invariably attributed to the refusal, with leaders of the faith likened to murderers. Surely, somewhere along the line it should be acknowledged that Jehovah’s Witnesses have absolutely no deaths at all attributed to illicit drug abuse, overdrinking, and tobacco use, save only for when someone is slipping into old habits. All things considered, they are, far and away, the ‘safest’ religion out there. Yet they are said to be the murderers.
Keep in mind that we are speaking of the faith whose members are universally recognized as ‘pacifist,’ who will on no account resort to violence or support war efforts. It is highly unusual for a large group of people to have absolutely no blood on their hands in this regard, but they do not. Is it so crazy for the Witness spokesman to say: “Satan is coming after us?” Given the foregoing, it would be crazy for him not to. One thing that we know about opposers: they will always overplay their hand.
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15 hours ago, Anna said:
He used to be in the same circuit as me when I lived in England. ..He did publish a book "the reluctant apostate" but it has bad reviews from his fellow apostate buddies....
In my chapter ‘On Women. Part 1’ I described him thus:
“I think it will turn out as when the ever-capable female British intelligence officer commented to Foyle, of the television show Foyle’s War, about the full-of-himself male officer that she, for the time-being, had to play second fiddle to: that he was overconfident and not really too smart. He would overreach and fall of his own weight. She had seen it before.”
And I was NOT the one who, on first laying eyes upon him, called him a “bearded slob.”
For he life of me, though. I could not bring myself to rebuke this brother. As much as I think we overdo it sometimes, and I just cannot get my head around Old Testament prophets being as obsessed over their dress and grooming as we have sometimes made them out to be, there IS something to be said for changing out of your sweatshirt before filming your ‘podcast.’
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56 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:
You missed what I was trying to say completely, John, so it was a good thing you were joking.
Comedy is sometimes best left to professionals .
And “deservings got nothing to do with it.”
KA-BLAM!!!
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3 hours ago, JOHN BUTLER said:
As for the victims getting less than the lawyer, very doubtful as surely the lawyer can only take a smaller percentage. Any sensible person would want in writing exactly how much they would receive before settling out of court.
I believe it works that the lawyers charge a certain percentage, no less than a third. However, costs of the trial come out of the client’s share, not the lawyer.
Legal costs can be astronomical. “Expert witnesses” of various sorts do not testify for free, nor do any sort of private investigators, nor fact-finders, but often make a very lucrative living out of so testifying.
Everyone has their hand out, and I have heard of cases (anecdotal evidence only, and unrelated to CSA) in which the client’s net share is very small indeed.
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55 minutes ago, JOHN BUTLER said:
“As for anything besides these, my son, be warned: To the making of many books there is no end, and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh.”
This is true for every book, with the exception of my own, where each new word is a refreshing delight.
- Anna and JOHN BUTLER
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On 2/24/2019 at 3:37 PM, JOHN BUTLER said:
But, just a question Tom. How many people do you think have been sexually abused within the JW Org Earthwide in the last 50 years?
I would think quite a few. That is not contested. Anthony Morris has stated that at one time, we were all a little naive over the magnitude of the problem. By “we,” he may mean society in general or Witness society in general. Either one fits.
On 2/24/2019 at 3:37 PM, JOHN BUTLER said:Because most of them will now have a 'warped judgement' about life.
You know, I want to be careful on this. I certainly don’t want to minimize it. But neither do I want to pronounce it the certain kiss of death to ever again being a complete person.
Maybe it is like certain things that frequently result in cancer. Many succumb to the cancer. Yet many overcome it. And many don’t get it in the first place.
I mean, there appears to be nothing more common than CSA. And it is not particularly new. Ancient Greece is embraced as a pillar of Western civilization. Nothing then was more common there than pedastery. It was an entrenched value of that society, a universal practice never condemned. Some considered it the highest form of love. So, bad as it may be, it cannot be THAT much the unrecoverable kiss of death.
To be sure, Richard Dawkins was speaking of non-penetrative abuse, but he has written in his book The God Delusion that he thinks the whole impact of CSA is vastly overstated. It happened to him and he got over it. Is he right? Who knows? At the very least, his remarks shed light on the prevalent thinking of a time not too long ago, that we now try to adjudicate based upon today’s standards.
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And just LOOK what happened to my Datsun pickup when I parked in their lot!
I thought I was going incognito, but apparently not.
(Photo credit: Silver Elephant)
The Reproach of Child Sexual Abuse Falls on the Abuser
in Topics
Posted
I happen to know that every single person in the township where you live is a child abuser.
But it is kept hidden, kept quiet, kept secret.
Sheesh.