TrueTomHarley

One kid I handed a Memorial invitation to but then I fudged. “The reason I am fudging,” I told him, “is that you are of the age where you are beginning to branch out and investigate different things but also of the age where your parents may think are still a child under their roof and they want to shield you from things. So I’m not sure if I should speak to you or not. What do you think?” Now it was his turn to fudge but he drew no line in the sand, so I said “tell you what. Here is a cool video, it runs a minute and a half, and I want you to give it back the instant if gets boring, and I will go away. Seriously. There is no pressure here.” I played the video and he paid rapt attention at first, but then he gave it back, somewhat to my surprise. “We cool?” I asked him, and he said we were. As I walked down the sidewalk, I saw his Mom had just pulled in from shopping, which perhaps explains why he had given it back. I told her everything that had gone down, how he had handled talking to a stranger, and I concluded “so he handled himself real well. You should be proud of him.” The worst you can ever do speaking to Jehovah’s Witnesses is to get stuck with a nut, and that does happen from time to time. But you will never get a liar. You will never get someone trying to do you harm financially or even stealing your identity or casing your house. Even for those who think we are ‘selling religion’ be assured that you cannot buy it on the spot even were we doing that. It is not a religion where you can ‘come down and be saved.’ You cannot become a Witness without completing a study of the Bible with them, seldom lasting less than a year in these parts, thus giving you endless opportunities to change your mind. Surely no one is so timid to run in terror at that. So conversing with Jehovah’s Witnesses is actually a ‘safe haven’ for learning to converse with strangers, and it is a free social service that we provide. If worse comes to worse and you get stuck with a nut, call me and I, who have been nicknamed the Antitypical Nut, will remove him for you.

No. Gilligan's Island. After the Minnow's crew have been rescued. Say, when does that trial start up again? We're starting to get punchy After the Russian trial & worldwide notice, separation of the sheep and goats will be less stressful than forming car groups!

Yes

"The event is coming up soon, so seats are half-price, which is not such a bargain as you may think, since they were free to begin with," and I hand them a Memorial invitation. You can't just say things willy-nilly. You must have a read on your householder and an concordant personality, but if you do, humor is a fine way to break tension. "Listen, people are busy and I know you'll have things to do, so cancel them." Inviting folks to the Memorial need not be complicated; in fact, you generally mess it up if you try to make it so. "At this point, you have a choice. I can leave this instant and I am happy to do so. Or I have a cool video that explains how all this works in about a minute and a half. Or I can explain it myself, which will take two hours." Most take the first option. Some take the second. incredibly, nobody has taken the third!

This is very clever. I like it. I like it when someone has looked beneath the surface, though it is at best a hobby, by no means necessary to the faith, and can be divisive when people push views. So I never do. And it seems you never do as well, or I would have known about it before now. Rarely do I mention this stuff among the friends and never to I press it. Other people disagree. No matter. The area king, the area media, and our own prior experiences all influence our current opinion, as does geography. What do brothers in the mid-East think? Some of our people barely know such a thing as politics exist, and to the extent they were aware of it, were inclined to say of Trump: 'He's bombastic and I try to be polite.' Though I can think of one PERSON who may not have reasoned that WAY, at least not while the FOUNDING FATHERS were using his facilities on a PIT STOP during their TIME TRAVELS!!!

If you retired as an engineer it is possibly because you cannot COUNT... At most, I POSTED three, and I think just two... Why in the WORLD would I LIE about such a thing? I actually begin to rethink that strategy. Not the strategy itself, but that particular site, which was just selected on a whim coming from somewhere ELSE!!! ...I mean, the title SAYS it all.... What I may SHOOT for is a SITE that purports to be a JW discussion forum but is ACTUALLY apostate dominated, this site being the exact opposite, with APOSTATES in the lesser role, UNLESS it is a sophisticated GOOD COP BAD COP apostate site, which in my deepest pits of despair I have sometimes WONDERED!! If I followed any Facebook trail to DISCOVER ANY budding novelists, I did not deliberately do so with YOURS.... I DO someTIMES follow trails and maybe one of them is YOURS, but it so, it is coincidental. Once again, WHY WOULD I LIE about something so inconsequential???

Is that your site? But you are incorrect. I have not made 15 postings - yet. The ones I have made are altogether different in tone. There, I am not impolite, for I in someone else's home. It is tentative that I remain there. I am not there to argue. If I am abused unreasonably there (for I am not one to take things personally, even when they are intended that way) I will leave. I have a whole circuit of actual people who like me. Less stressful to hang out with them, which I will do, in any event. I don't know the lay of the land there, though the title certainly gives a clue. but there will be many there who have been out of the loop for a long time and will hate Jehovah's Witnesses for the wrong reason. Let me fill you in on the right reason, so that you will not look like an ass, I may tell them. Not all people are jerks who love to spout on without facts. Some people like to stay abreast on things, even matters concerning which they write about. It can be a win-win. But if I find that there are nothing but jerks there, I am gone in a twinkling. While I am willing, for personal reasons, to disregard Theocratic direction on this subject, I am not willing to pretend it does not exist. I am being a bad boy. I am not trying to set an example for others to do the same. It may be unwise what I am doing. But every so often David says to Saul: "Look, I took out the bear. I kicked serious butt with that lion. I'm pretty sure I can take out that loudmouth jerk taunting the battle lines of the living God, if you will not flag me for abuse." When David says that, it is not presumptuous or immodest. This is particularly true if David is far older and the adversities of life have stuffed his head in the toilet a few times. Upon extracting it, he does not say: "I guess I showed that toilet a thing or two, didn't I?" I will discontinue if things turn nasty there, but if they do, i will not have been the cause of it. There, as everywhere except the downed thread - say, was it you who complained about it? I mean, it clearly wasn't someone who has it in for apostates - I am nothing but joy and love. I could get called on this new course by my own people. If that happens, I will acquiesce, for we are not independent loose cannons. We are working under the leadership of one commander. It so happens that we have been so well trained that we can read his mind and venture to undertake missions without his prior consent, though I admit that borders upon presumptuousness. But if we find we are wrong and the commander says to stand down, I will do so instantly. For the longest time in the States, a Witness could be excused from jury duty simply by asking. But eventually everyone was ducking out, Witness or non-Witness, and the legal people said 'enough.' No excuses for anyone! Some of our people panicked, for they did not want themselves to be set up as judges over others in secular matters. Perceiving that a situaltion was getting out of hand, Davey-the-Kid volunteered for jury duty. He sat through the pre-trial negotiations. He approached the bench and told the judge: "I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses. It is my life; I would not be able to separate things learned there for the sake of things here. So far I do not see any conflict, but I want to make you aware of it. I do not want to be the bar thrust into the spokes of justice down the road." That is not unparallel to my motive in this tentative role at ihatetheirguts.com. Perhaps I am a good one for it. I know our people inside and out, though I am not an insider, which almost makes it better. I have the advantage of being able to express myself better than many. This is not because I am smarter than they. It is because they have a life, and do not spend an absurd amount of time writing every day. And I will not preface whatever I write there with: You need to sit down, clear your minds, and CAREFULLY consider the next statement, which is ALWAYS true, whether one of Jehovah's Witnesses ... or in the world at large: I am a person. Not everything I say is always true. Not always should people carefully consider what I have to say. Sometimes they should blow it off.

Trump bombed Syria and made a lot of people mad. How can you not make them mad when you’ve killed 15 people? He broke a lot of things, too, but he can always say: “Look, Vlad, what’s the big deal? I’m a billionaire. You’re a billionaire. But them some new planes out of your own pocket if it takes that to placate them.” The people are a different matter. But even that is mitigated by pointing out they were all (or almost all?) military people who have signed on to the program. For some inexplicable reason, I feel I have a read on this guy. I long have. It surprises me to think so few do. Even that is hard to know for sure because in this scenario, as in all others, liars spin the facts this way and that for their own purposes. In the case of a President, the motivation to do so is high. At any rate, his actions clearly turn a lot of memes on their head. Clearly, he is not a pawn of Putin, as U.S. media has insisted for months. Clearly, he does not hate Muslims, as they have also insisted. It is now spun that he is impulsive and acts from the heart. “Trump said he would not do Syria! No way! No how! Then he saw a picture,” I have heard. Or perhaps it is all spin. The trouble with conspiracy theories is that, once a few of them prove to be true, you readily swallow the next one coming down the pipe. There are cabals hanging about and they do try to skew things. But these cabals have hated Trump from the beginning. I think it is because he is not one of them and they don’t feel able to control him. We all know that Trump is not a Republican. He took over the Republican party. It might just as well have been the Democratic party. He simply read the tea leaves and saw that, at the moment, the Republican party was easier to commandeer. When he says ‘drain the swamp,’ he is not referring to one party or the other. Anyone in small business, which I have been, can easily conceive of a businessman who loves his country but thinks the slippery boobs have ruined it, saying: “There! I built my business. Now let’s see if I can fix the country.” A BIG businessman can easily miss this because he is primarily worried about Trump’s effect on the stock market, but a small businessman doesn’t care, or at least it is not his chief concern. If you’re experience is something else entirely, you heard the ‘grab them by the you-know-what’ and concluded life around him was a 24/7 brothel. I always thought It was nonsense. I always agreed with him that it was ‘locker room’ talk. I did this because I have been in the locker room and they do not read Plato in there. He can spin this as I believe it really is. There are some things so barbarous that you cannot go there. Chemical weapons are among them. They are not good, especially when you have just had photos of the victims thrust under your nose. He did what he did impulsively, from the heart. Yet even that cannot be determined with certainty. Insiders said he leaned on and took options from the military people. He didn’t hastily tell them what to do. He let them tell him, and chose from the choices they presented. It is easy to conclude that they, however are swayed by the business model. When BigDefence gets too big, it must keep the profits rolling in. If it does not, the stockholders will bolt for some noble competitor – say, BigPharma. So if the world threatens to get too peaceful, they must stir up the pot. It is the United States, not Russia, that is bombing many countries. It will never be fixed because money drives everything here. You solve nothing by taking out a bad guy. Another bad guy simply sees a fine new career opening. It is the play that must be changed, not the actors in the play, who simply follow the script given them – sometimes begrudginly, sometimes with gusto. Human reformers can change the actors, but they cannot change the play. Only God’s Kingdom will do that. In a world where barbarities are commonplace, it is tough to know where to draw the line. “What’s one more slaughter in the greater scheme of things?” is easy to say. Is it preferred for Trump to say: “Ah, well – shit happens?” Obama drew a line in the sand and it was instantly crossed. Perhaps leaders should keep their mouths shut over such things, and not make grandiose remarks about slaughter being ‘unacceptable’ (duh) and how people will ‘be held accountable.’ They won’t be, usually. Why carry on as though they will, except so as not to look like a helpless fool. And don’t carry on about people being ‘cowardly.’ They may be despicable, but surely it is not cowardly to be willing to die for a cause – any cause, from Boy Scout to Barbarians-R-Us. Also, don’t whine on about how the terrorists are trying to change our way of life, but we won’t let that happen. If anything, they want us to maintain our way of life and thereby be easier targets to kill. And even the terrorists will say: “Look, they elect their leaders over there, and the leaders come over and kill all our loved ones. That makes them not so innocent after all.” Victims of massive suffering and evil, many turn into unreasoning animals that must be taken out, like putting down a vicious dog. But that doesn’t mean you must judge them for it; many in the West become unreasoning animals with far less provocation. A man that recoils at the use of chemical weapons and reacts immediately can be spun as not such a bad thing. He can say to Putin: “Sorry. I lost it. but nothing has changed in the big picture. Let’s work together when it is expedient to fix the world.” It’s not my cause. I am a neutral Jehovah’s Witness, interested in these things only as ‘current history.’ All human governments will drop the ball; the only question to be answered is upon which toe will if fall. The Kingdom arrangement, as detailed in the Bible, is the only permanent answer. So if you have read these words and said: “Harley is an idiot! I’ll write to tell him so,” please don’t. I will respond by saying: “you forgot to mention that I am also a moron.”

A brother commented on the pictures during a Watchtower study. He said they portrayed a brother getting strong counsel from two elders, after which he pondered it, after which he met with one of those elders at the cafe (no hard feelings), after which he was busy in the ministry with the same elder! But a sister saw it differently. A brother was asking for spiritual help from two elders (maybe he was a chicken in field service), then he thought over their advice, then one of those elders encouraged him further at the cafe, then he was happily working in the ministry with that elder! "These pictures are open to many interpretations," the study conductor observed. His observation emboldened me to offer my take: Brothers were meeting as a threesome as a gesture to the trinity, then one of them pondered that symbolism, then he met one of those elders at the cafe where they discussed this year's prospects for the eternally dismal Buffalo Bills, then he worked in service with that elder's twin brother, who had flown in the night prior from Boise, Idaho. After my comment there was a pause. For several minutes.

During the Vietnam War period, Cassius Clay (Mohammed Ali) famously declared he would not go. "No Vietcong never called me nigger," [his words, not mine] he said. Exactly! If the kings of the earth couldn't get along, how did that become his problem? People have fought and sometimes died for all manner of causes. it is not only Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse to let the good guys and the bad guys to be defined by the king. Nonetheless, I begin to worry that the anal librarian will note with alarm that we are playing havoc with the Dewey Decimal System, eating of the off-topic fruit tree. She may separate this into a thread of its own, title it something like TrueTom vs the Patriots, and then take it down in alarm if that one actually begins pasting them. Better to return to the Russian trial, but - why, it is in recess! Surely we can speak of other things waiting for it to reconvene.

Driving home, listening to the college station, all the songs and artists are unfamiliar to me. I was intrigued by one, singing lyrics she had written that didn’t quite work, yet she made them work through sheer intensity. Encountering a situation depressing,’ noting it makes a not good ‘impression’ doesn’t quite cut it, so when an artist successfully runs it through anyway, like a stauros through the eye of a needle, you respect her for it. I would have called the DJs, carrying on as though stoned-out, and asked about it, but I didn’t have their number. I like, as I get older, stepping out of my comfort zone, seeking out persons I might normally not have much in common with. I even have done it here on the WorldMediaForum. Unfortunately, I have also tried to smash their kneecaps, but I have been helped to see the error of my ways. I am a writer, and I sometimes enjoy navigating dangerous shoals just to see if I can get away with it. But if the brothers want me to ‘step out of my comfort zone,’ by – say, witnessing to swimmers on the beach, I tell them to take a hike. “I’m not even comfortable in my comfort zone,” I tell them.

As much as I admire JTR, I feel I must call him on this one. At times in the ministry I will come across a Marine family, as is obvious by flags, stickers, stars, and slogans. I ask them their story. Perhaps they may look at me suspiciously. "I'm serious," I tell them, "I'm not trying to pick a fight; I'm not in the mood. It's obvious if you've fought for your country that you have a story to tell. Let's hear it." Everyone has a story to tell but nobody wants to hear it. We are in the people business. If anyone deserves a listening ear, it is someone who has sacrificed for what they believe in. Essentially, that is among the reasons we ask them to give us a listening ear. We are not just on the internet trying to steal someone else's disciples; we are out there sacrificing, and that in and of itself suggests someone ought to give us a listening ear. Same with them. The circumstances have to be right. I can't do it, or at least must scale back, if the car group is waiting. But I will hear them out as much as I am able to. It is disarming, for even their friends will not do it. I say one word for every ten of theirs. Perhaps I will observe toward the end how - isn't it strange how if I were a Marine myself, I would feel the same way about my country as they. Yet if I were a Marine in any other country, I would feel the same way about that country. Isn't it strange for the world to be carved up that way? Sometimes they find nothing strange about that at all, but sometimes they do. Our happiness comes from our worship and service to God. It has little to do with the rule of the king we live under. Ask him what his ground rules are for maintaining public order, and then follow them. That is the pattern our brothers set around the world and they do not all wear long faces because they are not in the USA. I would even argue with: "the reason YOU live in peace..." Do we? It's not Syria here, to be sure, but neither is is Shagnri-La. I am here, and I like it here. But if I was there, I would like it there, especially if I was born there.

It's a valid point, David, I would not argue with it, even were I the type to argue over such things. (not implying that you are)

A point on the thread that was taken down fits nicely here. Unfortunately, I did not save it, as I had not a clue that it would disappear. Imagine, being assigned a role and title against your will: TrueTom vs the Apostates, and then having the thread pulled by the same forces that started it when I warmed to the idea and went after those ones like a pit bull! What - did anyone expect I would allow it to become a friendly and open exchange of ideas, ideas that have been stated countless times before? I'm on my best behavior, now, for I do not want to have to wear another Scarlet A - one is enough. I did, indeed, become abusive (by some standards). It won't happen again. Still, I was surprised to find, not just the offending comments, but the entire thread removed, muzzling even the fine points that my opponents had made. Here, however, let us restate a point that was made there. 'What if Mommy or Daddy are the abusers?' It's a valid point. Our video does not allow for that possibility. I will submit, however, that were a child unfortunate enough to be stuck with such sickos, he would have already noticed that his folks are far from the ideal folks of Caleb and Sophia's, which is a series, and so the child becomes familiar with them. That perception will affect who he runs to tell. It's not foolproof or ironclad. I understand that. The following point, however, IS ironclad: Our video told the children to run from ANYONE who would touch them improperly. Ann's preferred video not only does not protect children in the event that the doctor is the abuser, but it specifically says that it is okay for the doctor to touch private areas! Let's ask the 200 young women molested on the U.S. Olympic team. Which video do they think would have protected them more?

Every world figure enlists God. They always misquote. Nonetheless, this one is less objectionable than most since it is presented in the context of one who doesn't like use of chemical weapons. I think someone said the other guy drew a red line in the sand, and the current guy enforced it.

This RT.com article discusses the U.S. 1917 Espionage Act: Russia is mad about the U.S. striking Syria and likens the strike to when it entered World War I. The article includes the line: "The government cracked down on domestic dissent by introducing the Espionage Act (June 1917), Sedition Act (May 1918) and Alien Act (October 1918)." This Act was famously used against Jehovah's Witnesses, sending leaders to prison. Today, Russia's own Extremism Law threatens to do the same. Okay, I know it's naive, and the following is tongue-in-cheek, but could this play out? Putin: "Yesterday, it is St. Petersburg! Now it is Syria! What a screwy world! What do I care if the Jehovahs want to preach? Get this case out of my hair! I've got things to do! Tell the House Church to go to hell!"

I've never been on the cutting edge of technology. To this day I do not have a smart phone. When I did not even have a cell phone and smart phones were becoming entrenched, I would say: "**What would Jesus do? I'll tell you what Jesus would do! Jesus would use a phone with a WIRE ATTACHED TO THE WALL!! He would NEVER use a cell phone, and ESPECIALLY one with APPS!!!!" ###& It is the same with tablets. I was slow to try them. I had grown accustomed to the dog-eared look. My iPad was second hand because Brother Bugatti was trading up. Use of JW Library at the meetings was first. It's a good thing I adapted. Use of technology in meetings is now second nature; in fact, it is first nature, leaving the paper-only brothers in the position where they must be catered to by the kids, who are ready to help. Use of JW Library in the field service, however, was absolutely liberating. It has been about a year since I have carried any paper with me at all, except for the cards, which I like a lot. In the 1980's Mack came up with his own card with a little Watchtower outline on it, and, upon my request, made the same for me. It seemed a good idea. Everyone of any significance has a card, and it seemed like we should, too. So I like the card. Recently, someone showed me their own card they had designed themselves and asked me what I thought of it. Um - uh - well,- in one way it was better than Mack's because it didn't use the Watchtower insignia, which they don't really like us to do because it implies that we are them. We are not. We work in cooperation with them, we allow ourselves to be directed by them, but we are not them, and we should not carry around a card that implies we are. But Mack's card was not blatant, and besides, nobody cared back then. Even if they had, he was such an innovative and sturdy pioneer that anyone would have cut him slack. But as to this brother's card (which I didn't like simply on it's own merits; Mack's was little more than a logo, his name, and phone number - you know, like Palidin from 'Have Gun Will Travel; this one had all the Bible questions that you may want answered) I gently tried to break it to him: 'why bother? We have a card now, it links to a website - why make our own as though we are in competition? Anyway, I like our card. Many who attend our container use it.

No. I do not. I am serious about this (for once) He is in danger of being made to look like an ass due to the machinations of the house church. I would spare him. I do not share the common sentiment of maligning him. Nor is he my buddy. He is the leader of another form of government, that's all. Look, all human governments will drop the ball. Recognition of this fact explains why we are where we are. The other question unclear is upon which toe will it land. Jesus is Jesus and he can read hearts and slam villains. I can't and I won't. Even when I have carried on about apostates, it is not personal. They are fulfilling a role, and it is the role I don't like.

Will the Russian Orthodox Church succeed in making Putin look like an ass before the world, when everyone will read jw.og and see that it is not extremist?

Where were you when we needed you? I saw the COBE's letter: "Alright, big man, lets settle this right here, right now! You think you're a tough guy? Running a country? Well, I run a congregation back here in the States!" He wasn't even flagged for Abuse!

I must not be sharp here in reply, and I will not be. I have been told to play nice. Instead, let us focus on how Putin will shake in his boots as he reads a letter on the business stationary of Bob's Cleaning Service. Okay, there are elements of comedy in everything, but one must not be distracted from the big picture. Paul said to Agrippa: 'I know you know about this, for it has not been done in a corner." Same here with the Russian situation. It is clear that it is accomplished by God's organization. Not only does the organization brilliantly coordinate this campaign, prompting front page coverage from the NY Times, and Time Magazine on 'day of delivery,' but it is intensified because they have already succeeded in unifying a loyal people. All they had to do is ask individual JWs once to write - they did nothing else - and the response is more than anyone could ever have imagined. Clearly, organization is not a bad thing. It is a good thing. Our Russian brothers will know that they triggered a worldwide flock to jw.org - "is this website really extremist, as I've been told?" people will ask. Who knows what will happen when millions discover that it is not? It even thwarts opposers who were hoping to spin their pissy Austrailain story forever, but now it has been replaced in everyone's attention by a situation that makes Jehovah's Witnesses the good guys in the eyes of almost everyone. Mitigating this somewhat is that the fact that newbies screw up everywhere. It is part of the learning process. Unfortunately, it is a constant of life and is not unique to our people. People learn, and learn well, by making mistakes. As Mark Twain said: 'A cat that sits on a hot stove will never sit on a hot stove again. Nor will it sit on a cold one, for they all look hot.'

Whenever the elders come around to pester me about running the sound system, I ask them: "Just how much to you value the concpt of the congregation being able to hear because some idiot did not flip the wrong switch? Are you sure you want me to do this?"

No,no. Overlords have rebuked me. I am nice for now. You, too. Nothing nasty intended.

That disgusting hag of an anal-retentive old biddy of a Librarian was never my downfall. Without specifically clearing her, one might suppose that she eventually blew her top. In fact, he was always cool with it. He yelled at me when I was new and I hawked my book one time too many. My first two jibes in return, not necessarily on that same thread, were sharp, and I was somewhat surprised (favorably) that they were allowed to remain. But after that it was all play. I made peace with him privately and asked him what the ground rules were. “I plan to really insult the ugly old librarian,” I said. “Tell me if that gets old or if you don’t want me to do it in the first place.” But he said he rather enjoyed that part. I was flagged for abuse by someone. I am guilty of it, though perhaps not more so than the foes I battled are on other threads. But I clearly was the aggressor on the thread that was removed, and I was called on it. Nonetheless, it’s the ideas that interest me, not the people involved. Is it possible to address those same ideas in a venue that is 100% lacking in any rude conduct?