TrueTomHarley

FACTS!! EVIDENCE! THAT’S WHAT I WANT TO SEE!! FACTS! DOES ANYBODY IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD KNOW WHAT FACTS ARE EXCEPT ME? (WHERE HAVE I HEARD THIS RANT BEFORE?) EVIDENCE OF WRONGDOING – THAT’S WHAT I NEED TO SEE!!! WHEN ANTHONY MORRIS UPGRADES TO A BIGGER DORM ROOM, THEN I WILL KNOW THE LIARS ARE ASCONDING WITH THE DOUGH!!! Okay, that was tongue in cheek. The following is not. Not only is your demand brilliant and justified beyond belief – if the 12 dopes had followed it back in the day all history would be different and we’d be in paradise now! Judas was stealing from the box. Why didn’t Jesus demand an account? The twelve were taking in the funds of the lowly and there was never an account!!! ...NOT ONCE …EVER! YOU HEARD ME – EVER!!!! IT’S OUTRAGEOUS!!!

I've never thought of the verse that way. I like that take.

They may no longer do anti-types at Bethel, having had too many blow up in their face, but that doesn't mean I don't do them. Ralph Kramden, the hefty loud-mouthed bus driver of the 'Honeymooners' TV show, is the antitypical Nebuchadnezzar. Each show he began by blustering. Each show he was totally humiliated. Each show he was contrite at the end. And each new show he totally forgot the lessons learned from the one before. So it is with Nebuchadnezzar. And what is it with Nebuchadnezzar and the magic-practicing priests? He picks a fight with them right out the gate in chapter 2 of Daniel: "Then the king said to them: “I have had a dream, and I am agitated because I want to know what I dreamed.” The Chaldeans replied to the king in the Aramaic language: “O king, may you live on forever. Relate the dream to your servants, and we will tell the interpretation.” The king answered the Chaldeans: “This is my final word: If you do not make the dream known to me, along with its interpretation, you will be dismembered, and your houses will be turned into public latrines." Why? What did they do? They are yanked out of bed to learn they must tell the king what his dream IS in addition to what it means? Now they will have to sit each in his house, without any arms or legs, and watch people come in to pee on their couch and poop on their carpet. There's bad blood between the king and them, somehow. How it came about is not described, but it hardly seems fair he should pick on them. Or does it? If the king made such demands, it is likely because he is fed up with their claims that they can do things like that. They are always playing him for a sucker with their air of religious mystery, and he has had it up to here. That's my guess, anyway. We're used to quoting Daniel 1:20 to show how, after a short trial period in which the Hebrew captives did little more than eat vegetables, the king found them "ten times better than all his magic practicing priests." We're used to saying it is because of God's blessing that Daniel was elevated so high. Probably so, but I'll bet it is more a reflection of how worthless he found the priests. It was a pretty low bar they set, and Daniel leapt it without fuss.

Hey lady, what is it with you and those Mormons?

I'm sorry, @Witness, I just can't do it. Count it as my weakness if you must. I just can't suffer you clobbering me with scriptures that do nothing but continue your harangues. The Governing Body can hardly be accused of subtlety, but even they do not punctuate every sentence with myriad scriptures. They instead recommend daily Bible reading, then they assume the familiarity that comes therefrom and do not have to quote a Bible verse every time they tie their shoe. We have a verse heading your list that we won't get done before the end comes, which you appear to take to mean we should therefore do nothing. Then there are some verses to advance your constant complaint that the bad annointed ones have wrestled the teaching spotlight away from you and the other good annointed ones. I just can't suffer through it. Sorry.

The "accounting" is the Kingdom Halls and Assembly Halls sprouting up like mushrooms in areas that can ill-afford them. The "accounting" is the disaster relief that gets the job done while many outsiders are bumping into one another like Keystone Cops. The "accounting" is the annual convention held some 200 times around the globe, supplemented by every means of video technology, and other televised venues. The "accounting" is the Bible translation and distribution so that the poor family head in the Congo can have a Bible even for free, rather than be stuck with a 200 year old turkey of a translation that he cannot afford because nobody of the religious world dreams it possible to circumvent the commercial world's distribution system. The "accounting" is the lovable childlike cartoon characters Caleb and Sophia who nonetheless come off as more mature than you. What scares me is that you can see all this and still scream that someone is picking your pocket.

That's why Jesus told his disciples to sit on their rear ends. Anything they might do would be 'man's way,' they being men.

Do you mean the misapplied ones?

What is this? 'If it requires us to do any more than come out of our Quonset hut, it is God's problem.' Because you must not muzzle the ox while it is threshing. I don't use the expression "bitter apostate." It seems to me a stereotype which does not always hold true. But sometimes it is exactly the proper expression.

So. You are reduced to saying: "Just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait." They have knocked it out of the park thus far on disaster relief. 'Yeah, (mutter mutter) but surely this new tough pitcher will strike them out' My mistake. It appears that you do begrudge it.

Moreover, the confidential letter that you quote as though experiencing sexual climax does no more than expand on the consideration already announced publicly. Witnesses are well used to hearing about how that this or that circuit expense will be met if everyone contributes such and such an amount. This is always followed by the clarification that it is not suggested each member pony up that amount, but rather that the congregation in aggregate do so. What your 'secret letter' reveals is that even that fair policy is not held fast to. Elders know their flock. A poor congregation can lessen their share. A well-off congregation can increase it. Ours increases it regularly because @The Librariantells them I make a bundle off my books, the meddling hen. But others lessen theirs. Any Witness stumbling across your coup de grace will come away with increased respect for Bethel's consideration. They will also not be surprised. For decades they have heard about their surpluses benefiting other lands with deficits. They know it is hopelessly out of the reach of many third world congregations to afford their own Kingdom Hall, and they are thrilled to know their funds are spent thereby. Even @James Thomas Rook Jr., who rails about giving up local control of his money, probably does not begrudge that. You consistently try to advance the notion that Witnesses are being fleeced by their organization. You consistently have your ears pasted back. In the end you are reduced to saying 'well - you have your opinion. I have mine.' It gets old.

Yes. But it is like most classics - very slow and cumbersome in its developing, but all the more gripping when it gets to action and emotional pull on that account. I didn't actually 'read' it. I listened to it via Books on Tape while working a hum-drum job. An entire chapter, the 3rd I think, is dedicated to the architectural details of Paris during that time. Or maybe it is just the architectural details of that church - I forget which.

I liked "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" where Hugo explained that the number of floors beneath the surface of the church was roughly the same as those above.

And please do not quote this cognitive dissonance nonsense, for it is no more than: 'You do not agree with me. Therefore you must be suffering massive cognitive dissonance.'

What is it with your infantile obsession over this? Do you expect me to gasp at discovering they know what money is? In your 'secret letter' that you gleefully post, you somehow manage to ignore how the elders may choose to adjust any contribution total up or down depending upon the economic abilities of the congregation. Nobody running an organization puts less emphasis on specific money donations than does the Watchtower. More telling is the fact that, at that same meeting, finances were atypically discussed at length, yet you somehow do not even notice it: From the God's Kingdom Rules book, the subject has, at long last, got around to 'how the work is funded': ON ONE occasion, Brother Charles T. Russell was approached by a minister of the Reformed Church who wanted to know how the activities of the Bible Students were managed. “We never take up a collection,” explained Brother Russell. “How do you get the money?” asked the minister. “If I tell you what is the simplest truth you will hardly be able to believe it,” replied Russell. “When people get interested in this way, they find no basket placed under their nose. But they see there are expenses. They say to themselves, ‘This hall costs something . . . How can I get a little money into this thing?’” The minister looked at Brother Russell in disbelief. “I am telling you the plain truth,” continued Russell. “They do ask me this very question, ‘How can I get a little money into this cause?’ When one gets a blessing and has any means, he wants to use it for the Lord. If he has no means, why should we prod him for it?” * 2 Brother Russell was indeed telling “the plain truth.” God’s people have a long history of making voluntary contributions to support true worship. In this chapter, we will examine some Scriptural examples of this along with our modern-day history. As we consider how Kingdom activities are being financed today, each of us would do well to ask, ‘How can I show my support for the Kingdom?’ And there is much more. Whereas you do not hesitate to publish confidential letters, I am reluctant to publish excerpts from public books out of regard for copyright law. I don't think I have done it before. I do so now only to address your childish tantrum. Of course any organization uses money - any ten-year-old knows it . The real point is that no one seeks it less obtrusively or stewards it more wisely, even with techniques that your colleague in arms, @James Thomas Rook Jr., rails about, coming from the other side, where he tries to portray wise stewardship as stealing 'his' Kingdom Hall. He didn't really 'give' anything, did he? He just put his assets in another pot that he wants not to let go of. Your leaked letter makes us look good, not bad, as you have hoped. An ungodly organization would say "put the screws to them, no matter what!" Ours says "the elders may choose to raise or lower the amount based on the economic abilities of the congregation." And should their goal comes up short nonetheless, they simply readjust the goal, confident that those of greater means will make up for the deficiency of those of lesser means.

I have an entire Mormon category on my blog. And it isn't all negative. Though we are anything but "two peas in a pod," there are some similarities. Such as a child superstar of the 70's. Our Michael Jackson soared far higher than their Donny and Marie Osborn, but he singed his wings on the sun and plummeted to ruin, leaving us with only the two Mormon dullards.

Would you be content with that relationship with your employer? - hope that you may get a 'green handshake?' @Shiwiii

Yes. Does God pump his fist at the Ritchter Scale - that it is the best thing since sliced bread? They're covering all bases. Recent doozies made them rethink, as it did me.

This is just plain dumb. When you start railing about Donald Duck or Fred Flintstone I'll know you are sincere.

If you were going to put your throne somewhere, the Pleiades is the place to be. I'd put mine there.

In both the cases you mention, the GB seeks to mitigate, not propagate, fat-headed notions that the friends may have.

Oh. So now generosity is wrong, too? Would you be content with that relationship with your employer? - hope that you may get a 'green handshake?'

It's a good idea.

Anything with significant upside is likely to have a downside. Some of these things are like State's laws still on the books to regulate some arcane practice that has long been discontinued, like "no ice cream cones on Sundays" it is not necessary to repeal each one. Not reiterating it is enough. That said, i was somewhat bummed when they doubled down on toasting after I had hoped it would go the way of all the earth. At a non-Witness wedding reception, our table of Witnesses was caught flat-footed when a crew came around to record everyone toasting to the bride. Had I had my wits about me, I would have rose and said: "We don't toast but we want to to wish the bride the greatest joy in life & we thank her for the honor of inviting us & etc etc." That's all they wanted. No need to explain toasting. Instead, I just sat there and looked a bit dumb.

On what? Wait - no matter. My system is that good. The probability is 72.4962% give or take.