TrueTomHarley

8 hours ago, Jay Witness said:

If WatchTower was in charge of governing countries.

How much Freedom of Religion would there be?......ZERO...

What if Jehovah was?

1 hour ago, tromboneck said:

who are the "clueless men" that you refer to? Are they the Soviet leaders or someone else?

Better back off, Trom. Just wait till you hear his answer.

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I hope the Court will, in it's ruling(s) explain the reasons WHY they ruled the way they did.

Since they haven't explained anything else, I wouldn't hold my breath.

You know, there are actually things to like about JTR. He is not ambitious. He is not proud, at least no more so than anyone. He is a straight shooter. He uses (perhaps) his real name and photo, which is bold. (though I do wonder if he can possibly be so blunt in the KH as he is online - how much of a double life is he leading, if any?) He probably is much like Mickey Spillane in many ways. If you could just get him to lay off on the 3 John 10 thingie, you could almost plant a kiss on his leathery mug.

17 hours ago, Queen Esther said:

And that there might be a lost sheep sitting there in  YOUR  Kingdom Hall

Well - it's very touching but it's hardly rocket science. There are not 500 people in a Kingdom Hall. There are usually under 100. I look around, and when I see someone I don't know, I walk up and talk to them.

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

JUSTICE is ONLY a seven letter word, and EVIL stalks the land.

Is your beef this time with God or with the organization that does its best to apply what he has inspired to be written?

17 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

WHY would Jehovah God require such a thing ?

Who can say what God is thinking? 

Perhaps it is a way a demonstrating he considers marriage a covenant sacrosanct. I can think of two who complied with it for many years before finally becoming free.

Much of it, I would think, depends upon how you regard this life. If this life is all there is, then such a policy is tremendously burdensome. If one regards this life as a forerunner to the real life of 1 Timothy 6:19, then it is less so.

After the convention, Babylonian police officers waited to herd the docile emerging sheep across the busy highway, as if to slaughter. It was DISGUSTING  to see how meekly they complied!!!

Except for Brother Howard 'Dirty Howard' Callahan. "It's MORALLY WRONG to ask a BABYLONIAN POLICEMAN to do what you are not MAN ENOUGH to do yourself!!!" and with that, he strode into the street a few dozen yards up. A gaggle of admiring brothers followed him. He turned to them.

"You need to listen CLOSELY and EXACTLY and SPECIFICALLY to what I have to say, and you need to do it NOW! This is not a game we're playing! Now, whoever is MAN ENOUGH, follow me!"

Traffic parted like the Red Sea as Dirty Howard led his followers into the highway. But about the fourth lane, one of them looked at the windstorm and became afraid. Before he could say "Save Me!" a runaway Peterbuilt truck body-slammed him. Instantly he burst open noisily and his spewing BLOOD AND INTESTINES even stained pink the overhead Goodyear blimp! In a flash, Dirty Howard drew his six-shooter and blew out all eighteen wheels of the truck! "I am TRAINED and HIGHLY SKILLED at handling WEAPONS the girliemen are not fit even to untie!!!" he said to some who thought the deed impossible.

Up the road, Officer O'Maly looked up from the BLEATING SHEEP that so cowardly followed his cues. "It's that idiot Callahan, again! We lose a few publishers to him each year."

8 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

You knew the reference well enough ... IT'S YOUR REFERENCE! .... and you THOUGHT you knew the line ... that's why you (incorrectly) quoted it.

Of course I knew the reference. How else could I have used it? But I didn't know it verbatim and I didn't consider it an essential component of Christian life that I should research it. It is Dirty Harry, after all, not the Apostle John.

Okay, so at any time my wife might be grabbed from behind by a thug with a knife to her throat and I will regret forever that I did not draw my Glock and clock him between the eyes, SPATTERING HIS VILE BRAINS ON THE WALLS BEHIND!!!, whizzing the bullet past and grazing her ear to nail the SOB and then blowing the smoke from the barrel? Maybe.

I will consider that course once I read the revised updated Bible version: 'At that, Peter, drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest's slave. Jesus said to him "Do you call yourself a MAN, with that POPGUN weapon of yours?! This is your LORD AND SAVIOR we're talking about! Why did you not bring a REAL weapon with you and take off his filthy head?"

In the meantime, I will consider that if she or I do not die at the hands of - how did you put it? - five or six armed men spraying the Kingdom Hall with bullets so that blood is flowing down the aisles, or somesuch, she or I will die 10 or 20 years down the road from a villain I cannot plug between the eyes, like cancer. Where is the six-shooter to take that one out? Rather than overindulging in fleshy thinking about this life, I'll do my best to focus on securing and attracting others to the real life of 1 Timothy 6:19.

If you would turn down the bombast and present your views simply as your views, rather than thundering them so loudly that Moses would be hard pressed to hear God giving him the ten commandments, my split personalities you speak of would likely leave you in peace. Oh, and if you would quit doing the 3 John 10 thing with the Governing Body. That would help, too.

6 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

AS USUAL ... you have misconstrued everything I was stating, and projected your own fantasies and insecurities upon  others.

For purposes of quality control, at times I respond to your remarks in a manner different than you would like, but I do not misconstrue what you have said, let alone misconstrue everything you have said.

Possibly in a Donald Duck - like tirade, you actually do not know what you say, inasmuch as you are blindsided when your words are taken at face value. Possibly you think persons will wilt in the face of them, as they might wilt if you pulled your rod on them.

Moreover, you did not answer my question - 'do the 'Babylonian police officers' agree with your assessment that one has no MORAL RIGHT to call upon them for help if one is not willing to defend oneself with firearms.'?

'You feeling lucky today, Punk? Do ya think they'll agree with ya on that one?'

I might have known I would not be able to misquote that line on your watch. That you would know it by heart AND deride a Christian for not knowing it speaks volumes. It practically says it all.

Got it. 'Took no note' alone carries the connotation that they should have. Interesting.

Jesus gives illustrations and stories and saying routinely, and he rarely explains any of them. He relies upon 'the heart' to discern them. Perhaps it is something like that at Matt 24:39. @JW Insidershowed many Bibles that render it differently than 'took no note.' I wonder if there are / what Bibles that render it similarly and what is the rationale each side has for doing what they do.

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

THE PEOPLE THAT DO UNDERSTAND .....  UNDERSTAND  THE PEOPLE THAT DO NOT UNDERSTAND ... 

... and to NOT be a cause for "stumbling", do not advertise, and of course carry concealed so as not to be detected, anywhere.

Inside and outside of the Truth, we have become a nation of Snowflakes, and there is no need to give them unnecessary anxiety and upset them.

Not stumbling others is among the most basic principles of the New Testament. Don't tell me you have a problem with that.

You change your conduct on relatively petty matters so as not to stumble new ones or weak ones, or, as a strictly practical matter, not to get some people going. In the case of the C.O, it does not even involve a change of course; it simply is that he doesn't do something openly. If you don't create needless friction over what is small,  then you can hope to work smoothly together on what is big. You have a problem with that?

Look, if you want to carry a gun, carry a gun. I don't think many would have a problem with it, especially if they don't know about it. Just don't carry on as though your very manhood is proved thereby, and that anyone not packing a gun is a girlieman. I submit it is the elders you spoke of disparagingly who are the real men, and you are merely someone who carries a gun, which could conceivably do more harm than good someday. I mean, I can see the headline: "Man Messes With JW's in the Minstry - 'Do Ya Feel Lucky Today, Punk?'"

That's how it generally works. Rural people hunt - some of them. City people don't. A C.O. we had for a time hunted, and he would bring carcasses back to his apartment behind the Kingdom Hall. He was low-key about it in case any city-slickers might be stumbled. It was in his DNA. He hailed from the plains of the Midwest.

So, having a gun handy already, some say (not the C.O.) "If need be, I'll plug a villain if the family is threatened. " I've never heard of anyone packing a weapon at the Kingdom Hall.

After we bought the house we now live in, I was poking around and found an old rifle tucked away in the attic. It had a Nazi insignia on it. A previous owner had apparently brought it back from Europe as a war trophy.

I don't know anything about guns and don't want to know. So I called 911. I made very clear that it was an old weapon. The cop who came didn't hear this part. All he was told was "there's a guy with a gun!!!" It's a good thing I did not behave erratically or emerge from the door gun in hand.

He looked at it, said it was deader than a door-nail and suggested it might be worth something. So I checked around but it was not. It was a Berlin model and they were a dime a dozen. Had it been Stuttgart or somewhere, we would have been talking some dough.

2 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

NEVER joke about weapons and killing in today's Snowflake environment ... they are expelling kids from school because they drew a PICTURE of a gun. ... while in Chicago there have been over 2,000 MURDERS this year so far, and the Mayor seems not to have noticed.

Approximately 30% of all humans have no sense of humor whatsoever ... and cannot even RECOGNIZE humor ... and I would suspect that in the Truth that is at least double.

Perhaps that is good counsel and I should be chastened by it. I will be.

I would hope that the image of someone lying such a thing routinely, casually and openly by their seat in this most non-violent of all places would be instantly recognized as a joke. But you're right. Humor does not universally translate. And there are many humorless people around. And humor is a spice at best; it is by no means a requirement for life. And it is a hair-trigger topic today.

Point taken.

On 5/29/2017 at 7:09 PM, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I agree with the Society's position that Elders, Ministerial Servants, and those in authority should NOT be armed ... I have yet to meet an Elder, etc., that could handle the responsibility necessary, or have the mindset.

So. Call the elders girliemen, will you?

Those split personalities you fussed about? You ain't seen nothing yet.

On 5/29/2017 at 0:14 AM, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Besides, it is MORALLY WRONG to even ASK a Babylonian police officer to put his life on the line to defend yours ...if YOU WILL NOT DEFEND YOUR OWN LIFE

Do the 'Babylonian police officers' themselves agree with this?

Is it also true with plumbers? Is it true with fire fighters? Is it true with heart surgeons? It is morally wrong to ask a professional to do his job?

On 5/29/2017 at 0:14 AM, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

In this scenario, it would not even matter, as by the time the police arrived, the Kingdom Hall would be filled with bodies, and a lake of blood

I'm sorry, I know I should butt out because nothing is impossible. But there is too much of a 'Boy's Life' component to all this and it draws me in against my will. "Eagle Scout Saves the Sissies! Shows meaning of the motto 'Be Prepared!'"

On 6/30/2017 at 10:53 PM, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Ok... lets say that in the middle of the Amazon Jungle, I meat ... er .. meet a tribe of cannibals, and in order not to be the guest of honor at dinner, I agree to marry the pigmy chief's daughter, he chants, dances, and makes a marriage certificate on the side of a coconut, and according to that tribe, I AM MARRIED.  Guards stand outside the grass hut to make sure the marriage is consummated,

Michener writes somewhere about a delegation of Western bigwigs hosted by natives. Chiefs were insistent upon providing hospitality, and beautiful women was the first line of offence. Our hero of the book, whoever he was, did indeed succumb, married though he was. 

However,  the drummer for the Rolling Stones,  Charlie someone-or-other, lives a life as conventional as the other Stones' lives are promiscuous. When Hugh Hefner had them all over for an orgy,  Mick went hogwild, but Charlie stayed downstairs playing pool.

8 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

This is your THIRD split personality, assuming TTH is the real one.

The reason you do not joke about THESE things

Sorry. It was cognitive dissonance or something making Ed trouble. It's just hard for him to get his head around the image of packing a gun at the Kingdom Hall. It may be that he's had too much of this Bible stuff about Jesus telling Peter to put his sword down. Ed is a bit of a nutcase and I'll try to keep him in check.

You are a regular here, this is your thread, and I usually avoid intruding upon that. Sorry again.

In the final part of the days, the powers that be got their heads together.

"There's a lot of villains, scoundrels, pinheads and liars on the internet! Who can we send to combat them?" someone observed.

"Hmm. Well, the pool of talent is pretty shallow. I mean, there's plenty of talent but they're all busy doing the kingdom things they ought to be doing," another answered.

"You know, we could always send that idiot @TrueTomHarley. He'll reliably kick them in the teeth, all right. The only trouble is, he's as likely to annoy us as he is them."

11 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

However, If I was to take someones' advice on these specific matters, It would be, not from someone who was ALWAYS WRONG about EVERYTHING not specifically stated in the Bible, but someone who was ALWAYS RIGHT about things they published.

You may find it interesting that Sir Isaac Newton was such a man

The time has come to blow this Newton idiot out of the water. The fact is that Brother Newton was ALWAYS WRONG! ALL of the hogwash he handed down to the unwashed has been PROVEN faulty. He has NEVER been RIGHT. He only gave THE APPEARANCE of being right to those who were content to be LED BY THE NOSE!!!!

Brother Einstein has completely exposed what a pathetic simpleton he was. Not only that, he has EXPOSED the DUPES who followed him. MEN of HONOR, who are not afraid to DIE IN THE TRENCHES OF TRUTH have never blindly followed this MAN!!! Thomas Jefferson would have LAUGHED AT HIM!

The GBoS (Governing Body of Science) tries to foist upon HONORABLE MEN the absurdity that Brother Newton and Brother Einstein belong to the overlapping generation of scientists. It is ABSOLUTE HOGWASH designed to keep the ignorant ones IN THEIR CONTROL!!

Brother Einstein, too, will be shown up as the pathetic creature of dust he is, perhaps five, perhaps ten, perhaps more years from now - but he WILL BE SHOWN UP!!!  What? When I am cruising down the highway in my AMC Pacer, I am really standing still, and the whole world is racing past me at 60MPH? Is he nuts?

2 hours ago, Maid in UK said:

I consider the action to be disrespectful. 

There is a lot of disrespect on these pages, good sister, and some outright apostacy. It is not the Assembly Hall. Technically speaking, I should not be here, nor anyone seriously attempting to follow counsel on cultivating fine association even on social media. I have tried to escape but each time find myself trapped in the vortex and drawn back into doing battle with a handful of persons whom I consider ignoramuses. (allowing for the premise, which some feel is doubtful, that I myself am one of the 'good guys') It is too late for me, but not too late for others to flee to the mountains.

Seriously, Maid in UK, I mean no disrespect to the theocratic interests. (I mean plenty of disrespect to some others) Not everyone appreciates 'zany' and some who do appreciate it think it inappropriate to apply to kingdom interests. I beg forgiveness in that case. If you can put up with an idiosyncrasy, I assure you that in my circuit I don't think there is a soul who does not like me, for I am, first of all, a peacemaker and I am not wound up too tight.

Unfortunately, I am also a communicator and I gots to communicate.

33 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

So .... should we believe someone who is ALWAYS wrong .. or someone who is ALWAYS right?

Einstein cleaned his clock.

39 minutes ago, Queen Esther said:

I  only  have  an  English  Bible   in  grey,  but  NO  grey  in  German ! 

Paint it.

I like it that the 80 year old elder tells his smart phone to remind him next year of John's wife's death anniversary. Even I, a regular right here on the WorldNewsMediaForum, am not savvy enough to do that.

I also like it that when the Bible is put down, the pages unfurl into a freeze-frame that is our badge. How cool is that?