TrueTomHarley

Maybe what rankles is the title, Crisis of Conscience. Isn’t that a bit self-aggrandizing? Why not name it “Memo From One Whose Eyes Are Too Pure to Look Upon Trouble, Though it Apparently Doesn’t Bother My Colleages Any”? Now, had he named it TrueRay vs the Stalwarts, it would be a different thing entirely

You can get around that problem by being internally consistent.

Do you know of any other kind?

When they distributed food items at the Assembly Hall, I was placed in charge of the crew. A popular item was “a pasta salad.” I must have rechristened it a hundred times as “an apostasy salad” - long before I ever heard of The Librarian, and perhaps even the Internet.

There are at least six chapters on the topic. Failing to acquiesce to your point of view is not a crime, particularly when you repeatedly point out that you are but a simple man with limited education, and that many things are over your head, and that (the obvious upshot) you really don’t understand anything about anything at all, but you do know what you like and don’t like and you want your rants to carry the day.

A former Witness who departed for atheism expressed amazement that her former faith, oddball and backwater in her revisionist eyes, would become front & center on the world stage. Yet it has happened with Jehovah’s Witnesses, in both Russia and the West, for completely separate reasons. “Therefore settle it in your hearts not to rehearse beforehand how to make your defense...”. Luke 21:14 Actually I did rehearse a little. For the book ‘Dear Mr. Putin - Jehovah’s Witnesses Write Russia,’ I rehearsed it here, and I am grateful to both @admin and @The Librarian (the old hen) for providing the forum that made it possible...a forum in which ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ freely intermingle. A writer needs more than a muse. He also needs a ‘villain,’ and here there are many. I never dreamed that a second book would come out of the forum, but come out it did (aided by Twitter). The title is even inspired by The Librarian (a fine woman), even though I was initially aggravated that she should assign me to head up that so-named thread, ‘TrueTom vs the Apostates’...I mean, it’s not as though I went out of my way to pick fights with these characters. All is forgiven now, and I have the sense...a big deal for someone who pretends to be a writer...of ‘bringing my gift to the altar’....defending the faith against attacks in Russia, and now in the West: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/917311 No cheap shots. No one disrespected. No patronizing. No ‘You’ll be sorrys.’ No one called a liar. As good a behavior as can be expected from a PIMI amidst many POMOs. Both ebooks are free.

“Now when they heard these things, they acquiesced, and they glorified God, saying: “Well, then, God has granted repentance for the purpose of life to people of the nations also.” (Acts 11:18) “When he would not be dissuaded, we acquiesced with the words: “Let the will of Jehovah take place.” (Acts 21:14) Sometimes a guy just has to acquiesce. There’s not enough acquiescing goin on here. When I wrote ‘TrueTom vs the Apostates’ I could have gone one of two ways: ‘apostates’ who remained believers and those who went atheistic. I went the latter - the only group I could get my head around. The former produces nothing more than ineffectual islands, so far as I can tell. It’s fine not to acquiesce if you want to give up on God. But you must if you don’t want to give up on him.

GENERATION (GENE-RATION) from. ‘gene,’ a foreshortened version of generous, i.e. abundance and ’ration’ which suggests a limited supply, the very opposite of abundance. From this we may conclude that the word itself is an oxymoron. Think anything you want. ”I think he’s got it. I think he’s got it. BY GEORGE, HE’S GOT IT!!”

I am very very close to liking one of Jack’s contributions. However I note that the ‘tight pants sinful brother’ looks somewhat like his profile pic. I need some time to process that.

“I get words all day through first from him, now from you is that all you blighters can do?”

Oh very well. Wait for him to tap you on the shoulder, make that request, and then say “Okay.”

Uh oh. I sure hope one does not get tossed in the crapper for THAT indiscretion. I appeal to Scripture for support!! “For the [true] God is in the heavens but you are on the earth. That is why your words should prove to be few.” (Eccles 5:2) Oh, wait. Not THAT scripture.

The trick is to make so many that they will choke on them all. The first time the entire world goes to war (peace taken away from the earth) AND the end of the Gentile Times coincide, and it is 'just one of those things?' Like you, I think not. I posted once how a great hobby would be collecting 1914 quotations. Many more were offered in my comment section: https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2010/01/the-1914-collection.html You could even make a case that all the wavering over 1914 is succumbing to a giant head fake, like the Israelites with their fronts up to the Red Sea and Pharaoh bearing down on them. It's sarcasm, I know. All that you said was concise and spot-on. Why should I say it again. Yes!! This even harkens back to something @JOHN BUTLER said about believing without knowing all the details. Nobody would ever do anything with that requirement thrown in. There would be no businesses started, inventions begun, or explorations embarked upon. One never knows it all. It is enough to see that the basic framework holds and trust that elucidation will be found along the way. Yes. A giant head fake at the end. Backs to the wall. It has happened many times in Bible history, and a few times since. I like the quote from this week's Watchtower study about Habakkuk: "[Jehovah] kindly asks us to trust in him and await patiently for his appointed time..." That doesn't sound too demanding, does it? That doesn't sound too unaccepting of human frailty, does it?

All you have to do is abstain from fomenting a coup. This gets so old. You don't have to endorse every expressed view. (unless, as @JW Insider mentioned, you have taken a position of representative that says you do...but that is the same with any organization) Of course they would prefer that you get your head around every expressed view. Who wouldn't? But all you really need do is refrain from grabbing the wheel of the bus. When you start singing the Buffalo Springfield song, "Step out of line, the men come and take you away," it is evidence that you have drunk too much of the Kool-Aid yourself. It is the crux of the matter. Jehovah's people have signed on for being "taught by Jehovah." That is almost certainly going to be "from the top down." Your preferred alternative, "from the bottom up" would be Jehovah being "taught by us." This is not hard to understand. If the answer is "from the bottom up" then there is frankly no need for God at all.

It's a brilliant notion. It is pretty much what everyone's mother used to say: "If you can't say anything nice, [constructive] don't say anything." We are too much of the '60 Minutes investigative reports' generation, ever imagining we have blown the cover off some scheme or other.

Sometimes they say "we do not know." I believe they have said it with regard to the interior rooms, for example. Tell @JOHN BUTLER Someone find the quote, please.

No. He was a lout from the beginning. A rabble rouser. Nobody thought he was Father Christmas. But he capitalized on some very real injustices. The victors of WWI were intent on punishing Germany & did so to such as harsh degree that their economy was crushed & national pride maligned. Hitler vowed to remedy those woes & restore Germany to greatness. He appealed to poverty and wounded nationalism, which works anywhere. When the axis powers were beaten a second time (WWII) the victors did not repeat that mistake, but endeavored to rebuild the countrys they had demolished.

Polarized thinking impedes progress. Unfortunately, it is now the order of the day. I even think it is exacerbated by the self-deceptive phrase ‘critical thinking’ and its corollary of avoiding ‘cognitive dissonance.’ It’s a concept worthy of a pamphlet, perhaps, but no more. Not only is it possible to hold two contradictory ideas in one’s head at the same time, but it is surely the mark of a dogmatist to refuse to do it. Often you put something promising but incomplete on the shelf until you can reconcile it with other ideas.

Curses! Foiled again! (Honestly, John, you’re suggesting these ideas to me. I’m not thinking any of them out up front.) In an odd sort of way, I am proud of our “apostates.” Ours are the best. Nobody else’s comes close.  I would be worried if we didn’t have them. It would suggest not too much difference between the Christian congregation and the overall world.

This is not directed at me, I know. Take note that, apart from stringing out the ‘i’ of your moniker to an unusual degree once or twice, I have been the perfect gentleman, causing no problems whatsoever

Anna! What are you DOING?! Don’t give away the store! The game is up! I hope you’re satisfied, @Anna ! JWI, care to drown our troubles in a keg of beer? (incidentally, the best way I know to debunk the theory that @admin and TTH are the same is to read the introduction of TrueTom vs the Apostates, entitled: ‘Confrontation Atop Gotham Tower’)

Good work on JTR, boys. Rest up a bit. I may have another job for you soon.

My advice to you is to stop your scurrilous attacks on what the critics with any sense are calling the literary masterpieces of our time. If you do not, I may send my “office assistants” for another visit & this time they may feel obliged to do a little more than just rearrange your furniture.

I’m not sure what you mean by this. Many who want “debate” only want easy softballs thay they can swat out of the park. They change their tune upon discovering those are not forthcoming...like the time I got thrown off the apostate website for not “playing ball.” https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2018/09/banned-at-the-apostate-website.html

Frightened at the guy who has one of those pissy little loud yappy dogs that nip at your ankles 24/7, and who says “Don’t worry. He justs wants to fight for truth!”?