TrueTomHarley

On 3/14/2017 at 10:04 AM, Ann O'Maly said:

What if Mommy and/or Daddy are the abusers? What does the cartoon advise the child to do then?

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?

1 hour ago, John Lindsay Barltrop said:

.......“We ask for God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world,” he continued. ...

Just a snippet from what Donald "Duck" said on the US missile strike on the Syrian air base........I guess that in those few words that I have chosen, he is definitely right on one thing...........we certainly do live in a troubled world...........however I am afraid that the "wisdom of God" will elude him......I liked one dictionary definition of elude: to escape the understanding, perception, or appreciation of: ........I thought that it fitted quite well. 

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.

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

make a much more emphatic  point than giving an empty speech  speech about drawing a "red line in the sand", and doing nothing, 

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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!"

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

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 kidney laughing ...

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 ...  too soon?

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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.

12 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

Do you really think we should be comparing world leaders to animals?

(Luke 13:31, 32) 31 In that very hour some of the Pharisees came up and told him: “Get out and go away from here, because Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And he said to them: “Go and tell that fox, . . .

Sounds right to me.

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.

18 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

(Luke 13:31, 32) 31 In that very hour some of the Pharisees came up and told him: “Get out and go away from here, because Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And he said to them: “Go and tell that fox, . . .

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?

35 minutes ago, Melinda Mills said:

One or two friends called to ask how to approach it. I told them which scriptures I used but stressed it was to come from the heart and was not to be a form letter bearing the same information.

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!

4 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

 

Perhaps you could work on those critical thinking skills, as well as reading comprehension skills. 

 

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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.

15 minutes ago, Melinda Mills said:

Someone should be adequately and thoroughly trained so they could be a kind of consultant for other groups. 

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.'

1 hour ago, David Normand said:

We share out hall with three other congregations. Several weeks ago one of the other congregations adjusted the sound, and not knowing exactly what they were doing literally blew up one of the overhead speakers. At that point the kingdom hall operating committee decided to have a meeting with all the sound folks from all four congregations to go over protocol with respects to the sound system. Sadly, some brothers learn via hands on training and that is not always the most efficient or best way to learn. 

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?"

12 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Sigh ...

TTH has once again ignored the context of my reply .. and commented about things not in evidence in my post.

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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?

2 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

The institutional credibility gap of such things is ALWAYS more than offset by the institutional gullibility fill.

When education is openly and continuously disparaged, as it has been in the Truth for over 50 years, the Brothers and Sisters lose their critical thinking skills, and every year get more and more ignorant ... and this is the result.

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While some of our brothers are not the sharpest tools in the drawer, I doubt this is because of their Witness training. More likely, their Witness training sharpens their skills.

You have only to look at the news media or political world, where highly educated persons routinely reveal  themselves to be dumber than plants. If our people conduct themselves unwisely on the internet, so does everyone else. 

Enemies will always find something to pounce on. if two letters go to the judge, whether they actually stem from our people or not, haters can seize upon those two letters and ignore the 50 million others. It happens all the time in the political world and most other venues.

It reminds me of an ancient Catholic woman I spoke with years ago, furious with me because I had said Jesus was not born on Christmas day. "He was to! At MIDNIGHT!"

57 minutes ago, David Normand said:

I see your point; however Hebrews chapter 11 discusses pre Christian witnesses of Jehovah. 

True

Should the decision go against us, there will be much hand-wringing. We should keep in mind:

(Yikes! On another thread, I am flagged as an abuser and the entire thread is taken down! "Behave, TrueTom!" they said)

Being the Supreme Court, there may be no appeals left. If the decision goes bad on us, our Russian brothers become like the Hebrews 11 Christians, who walked about under duress, 'and the world was not worthy of them.' It happens with good precedent in a world not friendly to Christians. Jesus was not summoned before Pilate to receive a good citizenship plaque, was he?

On 4/1/2017 at 11:19 PM, John Lindsay Barltrop said:

True Tom, your mention of Kim Jong Un reminded me of this cartoon:

 ......and of course we have rasPutin, "he mad monk" and Donald "Duck" in the US

oops..........the mad monk........sorry, forgot the "t"

McCain calls Kim Jong-un "that crazy fat kid running North Korea." Says he must be stopped. The crazy fat kid threatens to nuke America over the insult. (In covering the story, the Guardian included photos of Kim touring two pastry plants each wearing a wide grin on his face!

High U.S. officials signal the time for patience is over, previous policies have failed.

A few days ago, in response to some remark or other, Kim said that if a single bullet was fired, NK would nuke America. 

He can't yet reach America, though he is working hard on it and will be able to soon. But Japan and South Korea are understandably scared out of their pants..

In the face of such potentially catastrophic news, what is the top story in Russia these days? @bruceq tells us: 

It is the Russian extremism story

On April 1, 2017 at 10:12 PM, Anna said:

 Ummmm......if you don't mind me asking, why do you always like your own comments?

Go easy on this person, Anna. I've been known to agree with my own remarks so frequently that the authorities will send for guys with straight jackets.

It's hard to imagine that traffic to jw.org will not increase, perhaps even explode. In view of the publicity, people will want to see if it is truly extremist. This may be especially true with those we find difficult to reach: the newsworthy and well-connected. What will be the result when they discover that it is not?

Perhaps that is the greatest contribution our Russian brothers make to Jehovah.

True, some are preaching the Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter are proclaiming the Christ out of love, for they know that I have been appointed to defend the good news; but the former do it out of contentiousness, not with a pure motive, for they are intending to create trouble for me in my prison bonds. With what result? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and I rejoice over this. ...  Phillipians 1:15-18

When Putin opens my letter, he will be disheartened. He will see several paragraphs. He will want with all his heart to read it, but he has several million other letters to get through. He will toss the letter.

He will then open the next letter and discover, as he suspected from the envelope, that it is from a child. It includes drawings, one of a sad little girl because Putin is being mean to her nice friends, and one from a happy little girl, because he has had a change of heart. Putin will smile faintly, for everyone loves children. He will put this letter aside. Possibly he will show it to his grandchildren someday.

He will open the next letter. It will also be from me – not the same letter, but worded and reasoned upon completely anew. He will roll his eyes. “Another letter from that windbag Harley,” he will mutter, and toss it in the trash.

How many letters will Putin get? Eight million, at a minimum, as every Witness in the world will write him. They only had to be invited once, and they instantly responded. Putin has never seen anything like it and he will not forget it. It will not necessarily melt his heart. It may make him mad. He has a country to run. He has a world infested with verbal assassins he must stay abreast of. He even has would-be physical assassins, and one of them succeeded in taking out his favorite limosine driver, a no-doubt decent man. So he may not like it that Jehovah’s Witnesses try to flood his Kremlin and paralyze him, like the Dr. Suess king mired in oobleck.

I apologize to him. I really do. Unfortunately, the well-being of my brothers is at stake, and we feel we must get his attention somehow. He is being given bad advice by religionists. If he takes it, he will look like an utter fool on the world stage because nobody can read JW materials, online or in print, and think them extremist. Perhaps he should get mad at those who would maneuver him into such a ridiculous position.

Most likely, the eight million is just for starters. Six addresses are listed. Many Witnesses will send their same letter to all six, bringing the total to – say, 30 million. Yuri will not be jealous that Dmitry received the same letter as he. Some comfortable in writing will compose several letters and send each to all six. Make that 50 million. Then there will be non-Witness, human rights people. These will write in numbers of far less percentage, but there are far more of them. There will be some who don’t like Jehovah’s Witnesses and support the ban. Not to mention outright opposers who will be cheerleaders for him to take harsher measures. Will that bring the total to 60 million? More? Your guess is as good as mine.

Will letters from opposers fool him? I doubt it. He will say: “Look, I can see why Harley would write me, and all his 8 million chums. But what about this loser? Is he pretending he is somehow my friend who would warn me of a great danger? Is he not part of the general world who was last week (in the U.S.) called me a thug and a murderer?”

Putin may have them all sunk at sea and never read one. But he cannot fail to know of their existence and will perhaps wonder: ‘what would the world be like if everyone behaved as do these JWs, transcending national, racial, and social divisions to show loving concern for their spiritual brothers?

3 hours ago, Anna said:

Sometimes we have to be careful that we don't single ourselves out as being the only religion that is persecuted, because that simply is not true

It's not necessary to bash other religions here, it's not a subject I'm trying to focus attention on or wish to continue.

BUT

As is usual, especially with the evangelicals, they are letting Jehovah's Witnesses do their heavy lifting for them, because they fear perhaps they will be the next group to be accosted. Read around and you will see that this is (once again) true.

They hold back. Whatever support they offer is very tepid, because Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult that does not believe in the Trinity. If we win, they will latch on for the ride. Will they be grateful? Not for a second. We will continue to be maligned as a cult that fully deserves whatever bad comes upon it.

The trick will be to generate such worldwide publicity, to make every person aware, that for Putin to snuff out Jehovah’s Witnesses will be comparable to his strangling a cat on live TV. He may decide not to do it. He wants to be regarded as wise, as firm where necessary, but certainly not as an unhinged Kim Jong-un. 

To be sure, he plays hardball when he has to, but he may come to realize that here he does not have to. What with Post Offices around the world being crushed with the volume of JW letters, likely from every Witness in the world, (to him or to one of his associates) everyone except the most disconnected may become aware of the situation soon to be decided by him. Will he want to be an international pariah? All our letters will be respectful, [except some seeded in by those religious enemies who want the ban to proceed] in sharp contrast to how he is usually portrayed in the West. 

He may get fed up, not with us, but with the house church that is trying to feed him the line that jw.org is extremist, doing so for the purpose of taking out the competition. He may, on a night he cannot sleep, peruse jw.org, see that it plainly is not extremist, as every other nation in the world sees, and come to resent the house church that would have him look like a total ass on the world stage. In short, he may come to realize that, what with all the very real concerns facing his country, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not one of them.

The college people write PSAs and try to educate the dummies, but they are not able to effectively communicate with them. They patronize them. They talk down to them. They assign them roles and memes, always denoting intellectual inferiority, and the little people get fed up.

The college people of this world are also ill-equipped to give counsel because the world is so fragmented. Everyone cares about only their pet topic. Everyone competes with others trying to advance their cause.

“Hey, what are you here for? Getting poked, pinched, or probed?” says one ridiculous patient to another in the New York State TV doctors’ waiting room. The other fellow sheepishly admits he is in for colon screening. “Hey, it’s no big deal!” his accoster says, not unlike how apostates accost loyal ones. In another ad on the same topic, the TV wife says: “We got screened for colon cancer,” and her TV husband interjects: “so glad we did.”

This happens to me all the time, too, as I am waiting in the doctors’ office: “Hey, why are you here?” a stranger says to me, “are they going to run a scope up your rear end?” “Yeah!” I answer, “how cool is that?”

All this is a rather lengthy introduction to the way Awake educates on health, and other practical topics. The articles are written by real people, not college-educated buffoons. They afford their readers dignity. They grant them intelligence and common sense.  The most recent example that comes to mind is the #6 Awake of 2016. ‘Disease – How to Reduce the Risk’ It’s a thorough, concise, and non-condescending discussion of a crucial topic. It does not focus on colon screening, for those guys do not come around with their scopes unless you or your insurance has oodles of money. The emphasis is on basic health education for the masses. Most persons of this world are quite limited in their health-care choices.

If you have a magazine with world-wide circulation, you have a moral imperative to use it not to sell Pharma drugs, lawyer services, and automobiles, but to address concerns for the public good. Awake, the second most widely circulated magazine in the world, (the Watchtower is the first) does that. Countries with meager resources frequently express gratitude for such services. They don’t scream to high heaven, as they would in the United States, that Awake is a religious source, and thus no good. In some African nations, Witnesses were giving public education courses on how to control Ebola, cooperating (not co-opting) with the government’s efforts, but cooperating to such a degree that some governments simply handed them the ball. Articles in the Awake that deal with such public issues do not even mention religion.

It all makes one very proud to be associated with an organization that accomplishes so much good.

Our people are loyal. They are beautiful. They are thrilled to be bringing their gift to the altar. But sometimes they are too flippant about what is really a very serious topic 

28 minutes ago, John Lindsay Barltrop said:

English is not Queen Esther's first, or primary language and sometimes she may not quite get the point of something we find easy to understand....

Okay. Well, she knows one or two languages more than me, and that is a good thing. She may not realize that there are certain - how can they not be apostates? - who jump upon some of her posts and undercut / ridicule them. She would not like that if she knew, for she works so hard to provide upbuilding content.

The USPS is ever in financial crisis because fewer and fewer use actual paper mail. It seems Jehovah's Witnesses have bought them some breathing space.