TrueTomHarley

A while back there was discussion of the NPR story: "Lack Of Education Leads To Lost Dreams And Low Income For Many Jehovah's Witnesses" I read the article, but I didn't have to. The title says it all. Just where do you look for fulfillment of your dreams? This system of things or the one to come?

As a practical matter, this appears to be a case of persons sitting in the terminal because the old pilot retired and the new one isn't the same as the old one. Nonetheless, they insist to everyone at the airport the they are yet the True Passengers, even though everyone else left for their destination long ago with the new pilot, whose updated airplane even includes video screens. As far as I can see, pretty much everyone watches the presentations.

If 'going beyond the law' is the new gold standard, why doesn't that become the law? Could any solution be more straightforward?

Who knows? Perhaps the God of Messing Up Your Mind will toss out the decision when everyone least expects it.

Maybe I can't spot fake news but I can spot Librarian mentality a mile away. A fetish for making order out of chaos. Sheesh. If it is fake news, then who are all these Russians that i've taken into my house? They're wearing ties. They must be Witnesses. I actually didn't fall for this one, though, like Anna, I gave some pause due to the Kushner connection: "5. Jehovah’s Witnesses (my people) moved their headquarters from Brooklyn Heights, where they had been for over 100 years, to way, way out in the sticks. 6. Jerod Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, bought their old building. Video of him saying nice things about Witnesses appeared on jw.org. I had no idea who he was at the time, but when I found out, I worried anew. See - I caught a heavy dose of news each day while I was writing, and it irritated me, but I stuck with it – how else would I learn about the snowfall outside my window? Now, no one is capable of total non-bias, but they are capable of trying. I’m not used to the referee leaning on the scales – it never used to happen. But when I would grouse about the media, which I did a lot, some took it as support for Trump! I could picture the Watchtower sign going down, a Trump sign going up, and fellow Witnesses, who weren’t paying overclose attention saying: ‘how did Tom manage that?’"

I like the frank statement in Paragraph 12 of Sunday's Watchtower stuydy: “The Governing Body is neither inspired nor infallible. Therefore, it can err in doctrinal matters or in organizational direction.” There is no finer way to get some grumblers going than to say: “oh, we changed that.” Hostile people scour past publications, discover where you’ve once said ‘A’, whereas now you say ‘B,’ and pounce all over the ‘flip-flop.’ They thereby reveal that they themselves reason like 10-year olds. It's not a piece of cake looking into the future - everyone knows that - so if you mess up, you back up and tackle the subject anew. We do it all the time. For decades, we have spoken of ‘tacking’ and the ‘light getting brighter.’ What is that if not an admission that we’ve often been wrong? We’re very open about it. So when the grousers come around with their grousing over teachings that have changed, they look pretty silly if they harp on it – we’ve never said that they don’t. There are many examples in the Bible of faithful ones doing or saying things that did not pan out. The logical extension of this is that with any new understanding, one can always accept it as tentative, the best understanding available at the moment. Nobody expects you to herald these new understandings from the rooftops. They are not the basic fabric of the truth that we teach to our Bible students – they are for our own edification. So long as you don’t go setting yourself up as a counter-authority with your ‘better understanding,’ everybody gets along just fine. It’s all a matter of respect for authority versus contempt for authority. That point the Governing Body just clarified? You may have noticed that point some time ago in your own private study of the Bible. And if this was the greater church world, you would have run out and started up your own sect over it. Instead, we wait on the human authority Jehovah has provided. One character hoo-haws over the fact that growth among Western nations is quite modest and sometimes has even reversed. He thus reveals his bias that these are the only people who matter. One explanation for what he observes is that nowhere is contempt for authority of any sort more prevalent than in the West – independence is the revered goal held before all here. Another is the effect of this world’s ‘higher education,’ which pushes with all its might an atheistic view.

There ought to be a 'dress and grooming' servant in each congregation so that everyone else could forget about such nonsense and focus on things more important. Sigh....if only the sleazy style hawkers in the commercial world would leave people alone.

Dave McClure was the son of Lucy McClure. She, along with two other families, were defendants in the case that overturned Gobitus on Flag Day, 1943. He was our circuit overseer for a time. A real favorite. "David McClure, our former circuit overseer, found his faith in God put on trial when he was but a boy. He was the son of Lucy McClure. Along with two other families, Lucy sued a West Virginia school district after Dave and other Witness children were expelled for refusal to salute the flag. Years later, the grown-up Dave spoke at a special assembly in Niagara Falls, NY. He related those harrowing experiences of ‘West Virginia State Board of Education v Barnette’ as seen through the eyes of a child. He spoke of regularly getting beaten up walking to and from school. As only Dave McClure could do, he made getting beaten up sound almost like fun."

Well? Don't just sit there. Tell me if I can do it or not. One brother said about such articles: "I read the question, then I skip to the end to see if I can do it or not." Alright, alright, he was not being serious. He was kidding. But there were likely some who did it just that way. After all, it's not a joke unless there's a kernel of truth in it. People are people, inside God's organization or out.

Really, really staunch Church members do not cease being Church members when they are not attending Church - say, when they are working at their government jobs.

They will be as those who can neither buy nor sell without wearing the number of the beast.

Is it okay to celebrate Groundhog's Day?

I like the description from Acts 15:26 of those with authority in the first-century congregation, discussed during Sunday’s Watchtower study. They were “men who have given up their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is a marked difference between leadership in the JW congregation versus leadership in the outside religious world. There, generally speaking, you go to specialized college. You pocket a degree. You get a church to hire you as pastor or priest, and, if you desire, you climb the promotional ladder. Thus you may eventually become a church leader never having truly followed. With those who have served on the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses it has been different. They have spent decades in full-time service performing a ministry more lowly than that of most persons they will one day lead. It is only after, not before, they have ‘given up their lives’ that they receive the specialized training to lead. The greater world today positively slobbers over ‘education’ and offers it as the cure-all to almost everything. The world such educated ones have collectively built strongly suggests that model is a sham. Frankly, unless people have proven themselves to be of good heart, you are frequently better off not educating them – they can do less damage that way. If janitors and car wash attendants had run the financial world back in 2007, they might have found a way to beat the taxpayers out of a day’s wage. As it was, highly educated MBAs ran it and found a way to sink all future generations in inescapable debt.

The Economist magazine, covering the ban, has coined a new term. I will use it. "The ruling is a testament to the growing influence of the Russian Orthodox church, especially of a radical wing who see the Jehovah’s Witnesses as a dangerous sect that deviates from the official version of Christianity." The 'official version.' I haven't said 'Christendom' in years. Instead, I've said 'traditional.' No more. Now the churches represent 'the official version.' Just who are the officials? In Russia, they are the Russian Orthodox Church. In America, they are the Evangelicals. Post something about the faith in their hearing and you will be flooded with outcries of "cult" due to rejection of their favorite doctrines. Yet, unless I am very much mistaken, the two official versions would not get along. In fact, I suspect they would hate each others' guts, though for the purpose of maligning Jehovah's Witnesses they might form a temporary 'best buddy' relationship.

"I would have enjoyed jamming with Prince. Not musically, of course - I can’t play guitar – but spiritually, in the ministry. We would have been seamless together; we’re on the same page – all Witnesses are. But it wasn’t to be in this system of things. Prince was always busy. And I was – well, no – I would have found the time. But in the new system it will happen. I’m looking forward to it. In fact, a few hundred years on, once I’ve learned to play guitar, we’ll even jam together musically. He’ll put up with me plucking along, even as he casts a revisionist’s eye toward the Kingdom Songs." From 'Tom Irregardless and Me." (30% free preview available, which includes the Prince chapter) Prince is the one whose unauthorized remixing of Kingdom songs caused a stir several years back, Bethel even sending out letters that they were not authorized.

The expression is: "Shit happens." What is it with JTR trashing authority, speaking abusively of the congregation and its headship, (didn't Korah and his bunch come to regret that?) then suddenly going all pious on us by refusing to say a bad word. He will be much more pleasing to God if he swears like a sailor, yet supports theocratic arrangements. And what is it with his citing Hacksaw Ridge and Monty Python and Gulag Archepelago and Hunchback of Notre Dame as though all were Divine releases? Not to mention quoting the forefathers to such an extent that even the forefathers must have to restrain themselves from arising in their graves and shouting: "Will you knock it off!" And what is it that when he finally does get around to citing a scripture, the one he chooses is the one that everyone knows is spurious - the one about 'let he who is without sin cast the first stone?' And why doesn't he lay off on the "Great Men" pronouncements and admit that his real gripe is with Jesus, who DID NOT put family above all other concerns, even at the expense of ticking off the Russian Orthodox Church? “Do not think I came to bring peace to the earth,” Jesus says. “I came to bring, not peace, but a sword. For I came to cause division, with a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Indeed, a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.”…Matthew 10:34-36 “Whoever has greater affection for father or mother than for me is not worthy of me, and whoever has greater affection for son or daughter than for me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not accept his torture stake and follow me is not worthy of me.” vs 37-38 No. in view of Matthew 10, modify JTR's statement to read: The reason Jesus was banned in the Russian Federation was because he DESERVES TO BE BANNED. Clearly, JTR's beef is not with the congregation at all. It is with Jesus' words above. Has JTR ever made a suggestion in his life? Is not everything a demand?

“For a fact, the king to whom I am speaking so freely well knows about these things; I am convinced that not one of these things escapes his notice, for none of this has been done in a corner,” says the apostle Paul at Acts 26:26. So it is with the Russian ban on true religion. It has not been done in a corner. The Governing Body did not permit it to be done that way. Nobody who knows anything cannot have failed to hear of this. The entire affair, which our Russian brothers always thought was a long shot, is publicized so that as few as possible can say they were unaware. Let them declare themselves on one side or the other of Christianity. Let the American Dream Church and the Independence Day Church, always intricately involved with the world, continue to pretend that they represent Jesus. All know who are truly following his command to ‘put down the sword.’ All know who are truly proclaiming ‘this good news of the Kingdom’ and living by its requirements even today. Someone worries that other nations, far from being outraged, may take this as a template for banning Witnesses in their country, too. If it should happen, let it happen with maximum publicity, as this is receiving. How literally is Psalm 2:2 to be fulfilled? Let all publicly take their stand. Let it become clear before all who are God’s loyal ones and who are those who would fight against him. At some point the experiment of human self-rule must end. Has it not proven itself an obscene failure? Our Russian brothers always thought it was a long shot. Rarely does the judicial branch in that country stand up to the executive branch, regardless of the evidence. It is the witness given that is most important. All have come to know that there is a nation in which every citizen cares personally about every other citizen. Our Russian brothers will forever know that their courageous stand, which they are prepared to continue, triggers massive traffic to jw.org – how could it be otherwise? as heretofore uninterested persons check to see if it is truly extremist. Of course, they will see that it is not. How will they respond to that?

Moreover, brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant*about those who are sleeping in death, so that you may not sorrow as the rest do who have no hope.....1 Thessalonians 4:13 "Let them stay ignorant!" says the Russian government. "Besides, maybe the house church will explain it someday."

v

Whereas English has been around a long time, is a language heavily used in writing, and promptly seeks to incorporate new ideas and distinguish nuances, that is not true of many other languages. In Vietnamese for instance, anything mechanical was preceded by the word "may" (pronounced my) meaning 'machine.' There would be (if memory serves) 'may bay' (machine that flies) for airplane, and 'may hut buoi' (machine that sucks dirt) for vacuum cleaner. I'm not surprised if languages don't all show a clear contrast between plan and purpose. (I better not hear JTR saying: Tom hut buoi)

Increasingly, the Russians, and many others, adopt the modern-day definition of a cult: "people we don't like." Many times in the repressive days in both Germany and the United States our brothers blitzed areas with preaching campaigns both thorough and quick. Suppose that our Russian brothers were suddenly to intensify their service to God? Either separately or on cue. There are 175,000 of them, after all, and for the time being, they have the sympathy of the world behind them. (how often does that happen?) It is not for us to say what they will do. It is their neck on the line, not ours. But they have been dealing with police harassment for some time, they did not expect to win this trial, and they know such harassment will intensify. 'Might as well supply a reason for it to intensify,' perhaps they will reason. Many of our people in Russia, perhaps all of them, will be reflecting on Peter's words to the religious leaders of his day: "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves. But as for us, we cannot stop speaking about the things we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19) It's not that they would not. It is that they could not.

Surely, you were not at the trial aiding the prosecution. Do you even have a passport?

Anton Chivchalov was present at the trial and generated a steady stream of reports. Among his observations were: "The active participation of apostates in the trial against Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Supreme Court is a vivid example of their unprincipled and indiscriminate cooperation with anyone, if only against us. And I'm not talking here about how incompetent and preposterous this participation was (none could testify anything about extremism). Only emotions, zero facts. ... "But this activity is also utterly immoral, since they want to send innocent people to jail. They are not sincerely misled, like many others. No, apostates are well aware that Jehovah's Witnesses neither killed nor rob anyone, yet they are happy to prosecute us on criminal charges. Of course, they still consider themselves good Christians. And it is completely beyond my understanding that with all this hatred towards us they are offended that we don't want to communicate with them!" This is why I was not nice to them on the thread that was taken down for that reason. This is why I did not patiently answer their arguments, as I seem to have been expected to do. This is why, should they intrude upon my posts, I do not address their arguments; I address their motives. They will howl about ad hominem attacks, but ad hominem attacks are clearly the way to go.

On day 2, the Russian Presiding Judge became surprisingly active, Mark Sanderson of the Governing Body said. He questioned closely the Ministry of Justice on just what might happen if Russian Witnesses were to continue reading their extremist publications. Virtually everything Jehovah's Witnesses publishes is on the government's list of extremism literature, even the children's book. The Ministry of Justice assured him there could be dire consequences. What of the rights of 175,000 Russian citizens? the judge wanted to know. Recorded audio confirmed the exchange. It was not the only time he was to do his job. On Day 5, he questioned the Ministry of Justice as to the legal basis for shutting down Jehovah's Witnesses and confiscating their property. The Ministry of Justice declined to identify one. Several said that the judge appeared sad as he granted the Ministry of Justice's petition to ban Jehovah's Witnesses, after reviewing 43 volumes of submitted evidence in a single hour. He knew what he had to do. But possibly he was a man with a conscience. Possibly he did not want to, even for a single hour, be chief spokesperson for the Devil.

The special broadcast from the world headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses, in the aftermath of the verdict, built everyone up. Mark Sanderson, of the GB, present throughout the trial, summarized the atmosphere even more so than the actual proceedings. Early indications that the trial would be little more than a sham to rubberstamp a decision already made were spotlighted - 18 of the defense teams's motions instantly denied, for example, letting all know that videotaped evidence exonerating us would not be seen by the court. Embassy officials of other nations were able to see it, of course, as is everyone else, since it has been displayed for some time at jw.org. Their turn was to come, as the court also denied to hear testimony from them on the JW record. The brothers were pleased, nonetheless, for the witness given, that six of our people provided clear, cogent testimony reflecting the true nature of our worship and work. Toward the end, our people were able to remind the court that it was not really them before the Russian authorities. Rather, it was everyone, defense and prosecution alike, arguing before the Supreme Court of the universe. Russian brothers gave assurance of their intentions to serve Jehovah steadfastly regardless of their new circumstances, and to do it with the Christian trademark of never returning evil for evil. Moved by this broadcast, ISIS world headquarters rehearsed their own special broadcast to be made in the event they, too, should ever get into hot water with the Russians. They, too, tried to line up interviewees to upbuild their crew. They were thwarted in this, however, because any person that stepped forward was instantly blown full of holes by ISIS members with AK-47s. This happened because ISIS is an extremist group.