TrueTomHarley

"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.

23 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

 

"STUFF HAPPENS!"

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?'

On 4/26/2017 at 10:47 PM, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

THEY HAVE LEARNED what tyranny is and the only refuge is Family, and neighbors.  

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

On 4/26/2017 at 10:47 PM, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

 

When will WE ever learn /

When will WE ever, Ever, EVER learn?

The reason Jehovah's were banned in the Russian Federation was because we DESERVE TO BE BANNED.

 

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.

On 4/27/2017 at 8:03 AM, bruceq said:

So if the Witnesses follow your suggestion and get rid of disfellowshipping

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.

5 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

You LOSE,     [edited]

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.

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.

One government only will bring an end to war, to injustice, to hunger and suffering. ‘Do not speak of that government here!’ says Russia

‘Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ says Jesus. ‘Not if we can help it!’ says Russia….

To find the modern day Christian successors of Acts 28:22 - 'spoken everywhere against - look for the people who are individually praised but collectively maligned.

To follow Christ is now illegal in Russia. The government has given their verdict. Surely it has been played out as at Acts 26:26: ‘this thing has not been done in a corner.’ It has been played out so that all know and can take a stand.

It is Jesus at John 15:20: ‘Keep in mind the word I said to you: A slave is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you.”

It is the Acts 28:22 words applied to first century Christians: ‘truly as regards this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere.’

Who else, other than Jehovah’s Witnesses, could these words conceivably apply to today?

It is hard to know what to make of JTR. Sometimes I regret having been so blunt. Other times I regret having been such a wus.

One peculiar characteristic of those who oppose Jehovah's Witnesses is a relentless, even pathological, effort to tarnish anything Bethel does. This is not easy, because much of what Bethel does is truly remarkable.

From Jeremiah 26:7-16:

"And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Jehovah.

"So when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that Jehovah had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him and said: “You will surely die…

"The priests and the prophets said to the princes and to all the people: “This man deserves the death penalty, because he has prophesied against this city just as you have heard with your own ears.”…

"Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets: “This man does not deserve the death penalty, for he spoke to us in the name of Jehovah our God.”   
……….
It is always this way. The princes have no problem with it. It is the priests and the prophets that oppose religious freedom.
Perhaps it will be that way with Putin, if he can withdraw his head from the lock of the Church.
 

If the driver was disciplined, it is for causing the company embarrassment. It is a testimony to his decency that he did as much as he did. He dare not risk his job to do more.

The drivers are expected to work long days, which can easily stretch to ten hours or more. Watch them sometime. They run. They enter data with their thumbs on their tablets as they run. 

They are very well paid, but they often retire damaged. Recently, UPS (like many companies) tampered with their pensions so that they get substantially less than they had anticipated.

'I'll bet you think the Org composed the music for Jehovah Will Treat His Loyal One in a Special Way, didn't you?' my nemesis taunted, hoping the new knowledge would sour me on God's organization.

Of course, it did not, because my wife and I had just had dinner at the Pearlsnswines's

Pearls cooking is to die for. Several have died after eating there. But her desserts are positively out of this world. We were savoring her one of a kind lemon meringue pie. Everyone at the table, for it was not only us invited, praised her baking skills. We marveled at her painstaking preparation of the ingredients and the mixing of it in just the right proportions, baking at just the right temperature for just the right time - all testifying to her innate sense of how to please the palate. She blushed, as she always does. She mentioned how she had purchased the lemons just that morning at Shutterstock Farm Market.

My fork froze in mid-air.

"You lying, despicable wench!" I glared at her. "You just sat there with your smug smile and let all of us think you had grown those lemons on your lemon tree out back!" With that I upended the table, spilling the apostate pie to the floor. "I'll be in the car, dear!" I said to my wife, long suffering woman that she is.

3 hours ago, Anna said:

I can't stop laughing at your dialogues with each other That should be a book in its own right! (no doubt @TrueTomHarley that's precisely what's going through your mind)

If you sign on in advance, I'll have a waiting list of one. 

When I was slapped with a Scarlet A for the downed thread, which does not ever disappear from my record, even if I were to repent, even though a far more serious sin, were I to commit one, would disappear eventually in you-know-who's organization, I was miffed at the suggestion that writing here is a privilege I must qualify for. I thought about leaving on that account - in all threads. perhaps creating  the thought among some: "Wow! I can see what happens when someone goes after apostates here"

At the Kingdom Hall I can say: “Privilege opening up here in connection with toilet cleaning!," and publishers will rush me like peasants storming the Bastille. That is not the case on any internet forum. It is equal exchange at best. If I do not write here,  I will write there.

However, I must bury my pride. I do need this forum, to be sure, or some worthy substitute.Just as a writer needs a muse, he also needs a villain if he is to write his or her best. Fortunately for the writer, villains are not only easy to find, but they are hard to avoid. Just go on any thread anywhere and say something loyal to Jehovah. Instantly a villain or three will challenge you: "Oh YEAH?!!" and you are off and running.

On the apostate site, I even made clear early on that I might not stay, for I had a circuit of real flesh and blood people back home who liked me. Someone shot back that there are no real friends in the circuit - they are nothing but backstabbers, and then he even appended a graphic of a guy stabbed in the back, much like someone else would do. I acknowledged that he had a point - I couldn't turn around without encountering a dozen backstabbers, but I usually managed to take them out like Chuck Norris.

A chapter of No Fake News is entitled: the Surly Bear. I have an open edit that states the entire chapter will be rewritten once our situation is Russia becomes clear, be it favorable or unfavorable, and therefore anyone who has the Ebook should download it afresh until they no longer see the edit message. In some manner, the chapter will also include the doings of opposers, since they used the Russian situation to try to push their pedophilia meme. They tie in in other ways as well.

My participation here is genuine. No one should think otherwise. But I probably would not have done it were there not another use for the results. 

3 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

YOU ARE LIVING IN A FANTASY WORLD TTH, FILLED WITH FANTASY SCENARIOS.

There is some truth in this, JTR. At the Kingdom Hall, as you know, we are frequently advised to try to think in terms of illustrations, as Jesus did. If you do this long enough, you may find that the illustrations are more interesting than the realities they spotlight.

6 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

 

Who after three days sitting in the dirt with him and talking ... had nothing to say worth recording in Scripture.  He was not upbuilt .. he was, as you say, mugged.

NOBODY ever sat with someone for three days and actually said nothing .. [quoted only in part]

You may be on to something when you say 'nothing worth recording in Scripture,' for new manuscripts have been discovered and are on display at the Podunkian:

"Now Bill, who was a RETIRED ENGINEER, cut Bildad off mid-sentence and proceeded to say: YOU NEED TO LISTEN CAREFULLY TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY!! I have heard DISGUSTING AND IGNORANT examples of logic here, and I will not put up with it!!! At that Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar got up and went home. Elihu rolled his eyes. Job died."

Several more lines follow and a few in-your-face graphics are included.

Scholars are unsure why these verses did not make the Bible cannon. The prevailing thought is that scribes simply couldn't take it any longer.

To change topic, Mike Pence, it is recently revealed, does not dine with a woman without his wife also being present. He also does not drink alcoholic beverages with another woman unless his wife is also present. He thus takes practical steps to ensure that that which is most important to him, his marriage, stays protected. Can anyone have a problem with this?

Feminists are furious with him for dragging his Judeo-Christian archaic values into the work place. It does hurt women, they point out, by potentially depriving female careerists of the old-boy network their males colleagues can enjoy. Thus feminists make clear that they are like most people today, putting career ahead of family.

However, men and women are attracted to each other. It is a fact. And since the reason for the untimely deaths of so many musicians has never been discussed before, I will post it here: As they are contentedly composing, their significant other peers over their shoulder and asks: 'Are you writing about me, dear?'

2 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

TTH:

 you is amazing! 

........ sue

Thank you, Sue. 

The apostate website that you promptly spotted me on, leading me to think it was yours, AVOID JWS.com, I discontinued after three comments. My move there was ill-thought out. After all, the URL says it all. What could be possibly accomplished other than fightiing, anathema to someone peaceful as myself. 

But the idea of going onto an apostate website that, like most of them do, hide what they were so as to draw in guileless ones, appealed to me as a one-time experiment - not a course I would recommend to others.

They welcomed me there, even as they were unsure of my motives. The very fact you are here indicates you have some doubts, and that is a good thing. Welcome aboard, they said. "How do you know that?" I responded. "Perhaps I am here to kick ass."

Thereafter, I did not kick ass, as I did in the thread that was removed. I was nothing but love and joy. However, i discovered that the site is surely 100% or very close visited only by people who loathe Jehovah's Witnesses. 

They do not phrase it this way. Why, they love Jehovah's Witnesses over there. It is just the Seven Crime Bosses they can't stand, for with them, they risk having someone who will tell them what to do - an even bigger anathema for them than fighting is for me.

Almost to the person I was slammed. Leaving a remark of a few paragraphs, departing (for this was not my sole gig), upon coming back, there would be several persons demanding I address this beef they had or that. Of course, you do not do this, because a) it will never end, and b) for any personal complaint, you realize you are seeing but a tip of an iceberg. Were the iceberg to rotate, the tip presented might be entirely different.

There was one person there who was so exasperatingly unpleasant - he would not write WBTS or Jehovah's Witnesses, without inserting dollar signs for all the S's. In time, whenever I would refer to him, I would substitute dollar signs for every S in sight. Alright, I get it! He thinks we should exist on honey and locusts, like John.

I am a bad boy to do this, engaging with opposers, and I don't pretend otherwise. You do it for just three reasons that I can think of. a) to see if you can keep yourself restrained under evil, b)  for the benefit of any neutral or undecided persons lurking about, and c) to hone writing ability if you are a writer - the challenge of writing things before a hostile audience is far different than writing those same things to friends or even neutral persons. Most here are not writers. They have a life, and so the 3rd reason does not exist for them, and there are probably better ways of fulfilling the first.

You DO NOT think you are going to change the minds of any participants, for that is impossible. For those who have truly 'been there, done that,' it is the scripture, not me,  that uses the word 'impossible.' (Hebrews 6:6) You also must concede that you will never get in the last word, for these people WILL NOT give up. it is not just they. It is anyone arguing anything on the internet. So don't ever engage with such ones if you cannot walk away. Even as I squabble more than most, I realize that I will lose each thread in the end.

Toward the end, they howled that I had not answered their questions. I truthfully answered that I had answered them. I had just not let myself be cross-examined, as though in a jury trial. As I left, I said I hoped my leave would not be misunderstood, for I stated at the outset I might not stay, and I referred to the Monty Python Black Knight. 

I've not done this before and it is not likely I will do it again, at least not for some time. It is greatly time-consuming. In fact, I knew it was time to leave when someone correctly discerned that I was mostly writing for the sake of writing. Not that my participation was not genuine. It was. But to think you would blow all that time merely so as to address persons who instantly dismiss what you say and repackage their questions, which all are really just one question: "why are you still hanging out with the people we cannot stand?" is to admit that your time truly is not worth anything.

From now on, I will remain in my former role (except on this thread). I will engage with opposers only if I see three of them mugging my friend Job in the back alley.

Perhaps a little of both

One tactic that caused my downfall on the removed thread was to call someone else a liar. As it turned out, she was not technically a liar. She only actually was. But even that is harsh, and I am afraid of being rebuked. Hopefully I can get away with saying that in my opinion only, her conduct fell short of the ideal. 

She had latched onto the video that no Witness can watch with a dry eye, using a frame taken from thereof as her portrait photo,  in order to deceive Witnesses into thinking that she, too, was moved. She was moved, to be sure. She was moved to feed material at ones so deceived that undermined everything their heartfelt video stood for, hoping to turn them away from the faith she hates. Is that nice? Is that honest? Can she not use her own photo, as I have done with mine?

It turns out that she legally can mislead because her video photo is part of the Shutterstock footage our video gives credit for, properly assigning credit, not just appropriating it. It made me think of our recent meal at the home of Tom and Pearl Pearlsnswine, which perhaps I will relate someday.

For several months I have subscribed to The Week Magazine. I like the short synopsis of news stories from around the world. It is as sneeringly liberal as anything I have seen, routinely calling the President an ignoramus, an egomaniac, and a liar, but I figure that's just politics and let it go.

But some things are just too much. Like the Trump/Putin romance meme. See, we've been conditioned, rightly or wrongly, to not like Putin. Therefore, if Putin and Trump can be portrayed as bosom buddies, we will not like Trump either, which has been the object of portraying him that way ever since the election. Usually if you run a thread which consists solely of allegations, with conclusions heralded though no evidence is provided, admin will take down the thread. However, it doesn't work that way in journalism, where the mission, from Day 1, has been to take out Trump.

At any rate, when he carries on as he did in Syria, it clearly shows he is a lover from hell, and more likely, he was never a lover at all. The story line of the past few months that he and Putin were in cahoots was pure fiction, written for the purpose of Trump's elimination. The Week has been foremost in spinning this line.

In light of Syria, do they repent of the rubbish they're written? Not a bit of it. "Blowing up a Bromance" says the cover of the most recent issue, with Trump and Putin portrayed with backs to each other, each holding wilted roses.They are indeed lovers who have just suffered a little lover's spat, that's all.

Therefore, I tend to not like The Week simply for their lack of humility, and their bending the facts to fit their story, rather than the reverse. The reason they do this is that they despise the 'populist' candidate. I'm not sure what is so perjorative about 'populist,' Doesn't following the populist course mean you are doing what is popular with the majority? Isn't this the very purpose of democracy? But there is another view.

Career politicians like to think of themselves as plumbers. (my example, not theirs, theirs will be more pretentious, but the idea is captured with plumbers) When you hire a plumber, you don't tell him how to fix the problem. You hired him because you do not know how to fix the problem. You trust his expertise to figure it out and do what he thinks best. He is not expected to report his every step to you. Career politicians love to see things this way. They are the experts, elected by the dumbbells, to do whatever they want. 

These days, what they want is to push toward a world government. That aspect, in itself is also what we want, but theirs is run by humans, not God, so it is not necessarily an improvement over the 'carved up earth' model. Six to one, half dozen to the other.

This is not the only scenario under which you might hire a plumber - because you have no idea what to do. Some homeowners know exactly what to do, and simply want or need someone else to do the labor. These are the populist homeowners.