TrueTomHarley

Says who? Paul himself, mostly, plus a handful that could testify he had experienced some sort of religious experience, though they were not able to catch any of the words. Skeptics on this forum would not have been impressed.
 What if those first century Christians had refused to listen to him or read his letters, saying 
 
Why could they not have reasoned similarly? Let Jesus speak himself, if he has something to say! Why could they not have refused to listen to Paul the Middleman? When the verse says "Listen to him" it is not speaking of Paul.
Perhaps there were some who did argue that way. I don't see why there wouldn't have been. Where are they now?
The good news enjoyed tremendous growth under Paul? Big deal. It has done the same under the direction of the GB, yet that makes no difference to critics here.
Practically speaking, what do you propose we should do if we allow no one to represent Christ, but insist on communication from Jesus himself?
 
 

This system of things has failed its young people in countless ways, with the predictable result that they are committing suicide in record numbers. Suicide rate of that age group has tripled since the 1950's. One Millennial site puts it: "Every generation uses the ceiling of the generation before them to become their floor to build off of. Instead, it feels like our generation is dodging the crumbling remains of the ceiling exploding above us." (allgroanup.com) Exactly.
That being the case, it is misguided to try to impede the one organization proclaiming the solution from the Bible. If they ceased doing it, there is no one else to take over.  So plain does this seem to me that I have sometimes crossed a line and asserted it is done for exactly that reason: to prevent the proclaiming of God's kingdom - remarks that have not gone down well in all quarters. But it seems either that or a cutting off of one's nose to spite one's face. it seems either that or the 'unreasoning animals' of Peter's description who act contrary to their own interests. 
I used to love giving the talk: 'Acquiring a Heart of Wisdom.' I led off with the by-now-trite illustration I've heard of how treasure-seekers dig through the dirt to find the tiniest bit of diamond, and how foolish it would be to reverse it - dig through the diamonds to find the tiniest bit of dirt. I then stated that, nonetheless, we would be doing exactly that for the next 45 minutes, since, with any time in the faith, you are going to come across some dirt,, and if you are not prepared, you will be floored, for it is the one place you do not expect to find any.
Then I reveled in tearing things apart for 45 minutes, both in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures. I hit my stride with Revelation 2 and 3, considering absolute basket cases of congregations, guilty of every horrible thing, and yet they were still congregations. The idea was to encourage the audience to have a realistic outlook on what they will always eventually encounter anywhere there are people.
Arguably, mature ones here who sometimes veer into discussing organizational flaws are not impeding anything, but by 'shining the bright light of journalistic truth' are encouraging everyone to shape up. Though that sometimes works, as often it is as when you shine a bright light upon cockroaches. They don't stop being cockroaches when you do that. They just go somewhere else.
Arguably, everyone is doing just fine here, and it may even benefit some opposers to hear frank admissions of faults by persons of good motive. However, it is another thing entirely to 'smuggle' confidential stuff, whatever that may be, so that Jay can put it on his website. He has pretty well demonstrated where his interests lie.
JTR, the strangest of all birds to me, regales us tirelessly with war scenarios about the boldness and courage and glory of men who SACRIFICED THEIR ALL in the greatest theater of existence. He would be shot in a heartbeat as a traitor if he carried on there as he does here. Does he think the military generals that sent thousands into battle were above the petty miscues that he lambastes others for here?
All this is not to be unkind to the young woman in question, who I did not know. She is caught up in the spirit of the age, most likely, that holds that revealing faults is somehow a sacred quest - that only good can come of it. Even Jay's breathless banner conveys his enthusiasm for tearing down: it is a SPECIAL REPORT! Just like the banning of the entire religion merited a SPECIAL REPORT on the broadcast site. It is not hard to see whose interests he serves.
It's regrettable, of course, but hardly a special report, as though  she was a freedom fighter lost in the most noble of causes. Otherwise, every downed soldier would also merit a special report, every millennial suicide would also merit a special report, and whoever they last engaged with would merit special attention as the villain of our age.
Can they get insular at Bethel? Can there be intrigues? Of course. It is the common bane of people. But I am loath to offer counsel because A.) I'm not qualified, B.) I don't have 5% of the information they do, C.) it's not my place, D.) Even when I identify a problem, that does not mean I have any idea how to fix it. The world's obsession with firing people for miscues results only in inexperienced clods running show - Jesus fired only Judas, E.) I don't think such matters are fixed though the democratic means of public journalism. It hasn't worked that way in the general world; drawbacks are as numerous as successes, and on balance, it is no better than hoping you get a nice king and not a mean one. F.) I tend to think these matters are self-correcting. If it truly is something from God, as I conclude it is based upon the proclamation of truth that they alone spearhead, then entities other than me will take care of troubles. 
 

Sigh....I've come to regret that. In hindsight, I did completely misread @James Thomas Rook Jr.' remarks (though not necessarily his sentiment) and thus based my tirade on something he didn't say. I owe him an apology, fair and square, without any snide asides for once.

I need a drink. Maybe I can snatch one from @The Librarian while she's not looking.

Oh, stop it with the ad homenum attacks, will you? If you MUST revel in ad homenum attacks, then revel in the ones I make against you, for they are accurate.
If you even walked back your idiot statement or attempted to clarify it, I would cut you slack, but you unfurl it as though you would replace Rutherford for the keynote talk with your huge banner: 'Behold! Advertise, Advertise, Advertise that Witness Ministers of the Kingdom are Nuts!' (and yet you intend to raise your kids Witnesses!!  Why should not THAT be considered parental abuse? Raise those kids to embrace the religion you hate.)
Of course! One quarter of a percent of the population is responsible for one third of the suicides!! Count yourself l**ky that I did not call you a liar. I did not do so, because I allowed for the possibility that you belonged in an asylum.
Now THAT is another statement entirely.  Had you said that, you would not have come off as an unhinged lunatic. 
Is it true? It is in one particular place and time. Furuli later made a YouTube perhaps in response to it, as though this fellow had butchered his findings. And JWI, who will spill JW shortcomings at the drop of a pin, says Furuli's numbers should hardly be relied upon. So who can know?
But there is another way to look at it. 
Even if it were true, it is no more than what one would expect when Jesus says he came to seek, not those who do not need a physician, but those that do. The groups to worry about, to my mind, are those who have low rates of mental illness among them - for there are a lot of mentally ill people around. It must be that they feel excluded - driven away by condescension, lack of love, or inhospitality. 
Those who can operate smoothly among this world’s calamities – who can absorb all the atrocities routinely distributed and accommodate themselves to it without fuss - those are the people to worry about, IMO. Besides, when our people go off the rails, they nonetheless wouldn’t hurt a fly. If persons of the greater world go off the rails - better call the SWAT team and secure a new identity from the authorities!
Yes. Why do you think he brings it up?

Brilliant, James.
They are a quarter of a percent of the U.S. population, yet they account for one third of all suicides! There may be something to your observation, though. Just Saturday as I was entering the assembly hall, I had to step over ten dead bodies.
I mean, some viewpoints are too stupid to countenance.

Help me out on a call.
A sister placed magazines with a college kid, conversed a while, and he said she could call back. His father, however, would not likely be welcoming, he said.
She gave the call to me. I made it. He was not home. His father was, and the son had been right. The father was not welcoming. Neither did he tell me to get lost. Well – he did, but it was not in the ordering sort of tone, and I said I had not been looking for him anyway, but his son. He was the family head, and I told him I would not try to sneak around him, but did he mind if I called again on his son? The kid was smart, I told the old man, and that must mean his parents are smart. He said his son was his own person, and if he wanted to speak with me again, that was up to him.
I called again. The son, of course, was not home. The unwelcoming dad was. He was in a wheelchair, as he had been the first time. One bumper sticker on the family car read “Born right the first time.” The other said: “There are death squads in America; they’re called insurance companies.” I think we overdo our advice to take cues from bumper stickers, but this time the Ten Commandments could not have told me more. All that remains is to fill in a few blanks.
Sometimes I open with Job 34:10 – “it is unthinkable for the true God to act wickedly.” I like the verse, I told him, because some people think he does act wickedly. And some see all the nasty things going down and say: “I don’t think there is a true God.” It plays into the theme of why there is suffering, I told the fellow.
He wasn’t nice. I made clear that the instant he told me to go away, I would. We were conversing through the storm door, which added a measure of challenge. I almost reached to open it, for it was awkward for him to do so, but I decided it would be a bit much. He laughed derisively at my Bible verse. “You’re here because you want to tell me about suffering?” he shot back from his wheelchair. I answered: “No. I want you to tell me. I don’t have to talk at all. I want you to invite me in and tell me.”
I said: “Look – everyone has a story, but no one wants to hear it. So I will,. I've got the time.” He’ll never see me again anyway – what does he have to lose? I told him. He answered sarcastically that he could never get over the Christians’ “need” to “save” people. Look, he said, he was one of the 5% who are atheist. “Yeah – I’m here to change that,” I answered. This is far more blunt than I would ever be ordinarily, but I decided I would answer him in kind. It was not even true, really, or at least it was not a goal I realistically held. I also told him that he was right – we are Christian, and it is a bit much that we should appear out of thin air, but that Jehovah’s Witnesses are in a league of their own.
He responded by saying his number one man from his working days had been a Witness, and that he had been the nicest, most reliable fellow in the world. “Yeah, we’re all nice,” I said. “You think I’m nice? Wait to you get a load of Clyde,” I motioned to the brother behind me, who could barely make out through the door what the man was saying. His praise for the brother he once supervised at work didn’t yield me as much ground as might be expected. After two or three more minutes maneuvering, I told him that while I would like to know more, one can only go far, and we would take our leave. He didn’t cry over the prospect, but had never taken the bait of saying I should go.
I am not sure what to do. I will let it go, probably. One more call in a few months to see if anything has moved, and then I am done. Maybe before, but I have no plans at the present. Any advice?

It's okay, he keyed their cars in the parking lot afterwards.

What do you plan to do with this information you are just curious about?

@JW Insider can top your experience any day with one he knows about. I half fear that he will.
Suicides happen. They are tragic. These days in the greater world they have become all the rage among the young, who do not buy the rosy reports enthusiasts of this system are trying to sell them. Surely there can be no greater condemnation of this world than the stampede among the young to leave it.
It is better than an idiot sharing the dismal news of this system of things with a happy face.

Help me out on a call.
A sister placed magazines with a college kid, conversed a while, and he said she could call back. His father, however, would not likely be welcoming, he said.
She gave the call to me. I made it. He was not home. His father was, and the son had been right. The father was not welcoming. Neither did he tell me to get lost. Well – he did, but it was not in the ordering sort of tone, and I said I had not been looking for him anyway, but his son. He was the family head, and I told him I would not try to sneak around him, but did he mind if I called again on his son? The kid was smart, I told the old man, and that must mean his parents are smart. He said his son was his own person, and if he wanted to speak with me again, that was up to him.
I called again. The son, of course, was not home. The unwelcoming dad was. He was in a wheelchair, as he had been the first time. One bumper sticker on the family car read “Born right the first time.” The other said: “There are death squads in America; they’re called insurance companies.” I think we overdo our advice to take cues from bumper stickers, but this time the Ten Commandments could not have told me more. All that remains is to fill in a few blanks.
Sometimes I open with Job 34:10 – “it is unthinkable for the true God to act wickedly.” I like the verse, I told him, because some people think he does act wickedly. And some see all the nasty things going down and say: “I don’t think there is a true God.” It plays into the theme of why there is suffering, I told the fellow.
He wasn’t nice. I made clear that the instant he told me to go away, I would. We were conversing through the storm door, which added a measure of challenge. I almost reached to open it, for it was awkward for him to do so, but I decided it would be a bit much. He laughed derisively at my Bible verse. “You’re here because you want to tell me about suffering?” he shot back from his wheelchair. I answered: “No. I want you to tell me. I don’t have to talk at all. I want you to invite me in and tell me.”
I said: “Look – everyone has a story, but no one wants to hear it. So I will,. I've got the time.” He’ll never see me again anyway – what does he have to lose? I told him. He answered sarcastically that he could never get over the Christians’ “need” to “save” people. Look, he said, he was one of the 5% who are atheist. “Yeah – I’m here to change that,” I answered. This is far more blunt than I would ever be ordinarily, but I decided I would answer him in kind. It was not even true, really, or at least it was not a goal I realistically held. I also told him that he was right – we are Christian, and it is a bit much that we should appear out of thin air, but that Jehovah’s Witnesses are in a league of their own.
He responded by saying his number one man from his working days had been a Witness, and that he had been the nicest, most reliable fellow in the world. “Yeah, we’re all nice,” I said. “You think I’m nice? Wait to you get a load of Clyde,” I motioned to the brother behind me, who could barely make out through the door what the man was saying. His praise for the brother he once supervised at work didn’t yield me as much ground as might be expected. After two or three more minutes maneuvering, I told him that while I would like to know more, one can only go far, and we would take our leave. He didn’t cry over the prospect, but had never taken the bait of saying I should go.
I am not sure what to do. I will let it go, probably. One more call in a few months to see if anything has moved, and then I am done. Maybe before, but I have no plans at the present. Any advice?

LAST MINUTE
Our brother Dennis Christensen, imprisoned in a Russian jail since May 2017 awaiting trial, has been sentenced to another 3 months, so he must be locked up in difficult conditions until 23 February 2018. He can then be sentenced to several more years.
Judge Andrei Tretyakov during the 3-hour hearing did not satisfy the defense's request to replace the preventive measure in a softer one, such as house arrest. In addition, the court did not take into account the formal guarantees of the Royal Danish Embassy (the brother is a Danish citizen) who, for humanitarian reasons, has given assurances that he does not provide a new passport for Christensen captured by the investigators and is not going to Promote your trip outside the Russian Federation.
Dennis Christensen is completely innocent.
I will persist in denouncing the shameful repression on this and all the other Russian witnesses, with an attitude towards defenseless and innocent people. - https://jw-russia.org/news/17112020-262.html

Relative to some others, you are a saint, I admit. Sorry.

It is in the thread. You have been silent for some time. Read up on what you have missed.

It is in the thread. You have been silent for some time. Read up on what you have missed.

Relative to some others, you are a saint, I admit. Sorry.

He will pummel you nonetheless. That fellow knows law. Don't try to peddle emotion disguised as law before him,  because @Allen Smith will catch you at it every time.
Protest "pummelling," - my foot. It is not exactly badmitten anyone else is playing here. Even you have stepped over the line of sheer pleasantry.

That is NOT the case. Or if it is, it is meaningless because of the word 'standard,' which can mean anything.
What makes this statement anything more than emotion on your part is to say: In the States it's the legally-mandated standard that individuals who work with children are mandated reporters. Don't mess with me on this, or I will send @Allen Smith your way, who knows every law on the planet. He will pummel you to a finish.
G. Jackson indicated to the ARC that he would welcome the modified statement: legally mandated across the board, and not just applied retroactively when you want to apply it to someone you don't like. It would make Witnesses job of keeping the congregation clean so much easier. That point has already been made in this thread.

It is typical of this world. When it at last wakes up to a moral problem, it wildly overreacts.
The most blatant and current example is not in pedophile accusations at all, but in college campus accusations of rape. 
http://www.weeklystandard.com/why-campus-rape-tribunals-hand-down-so-many-guilty-verdicts/article/2010401
the article describes how it is almost impossible for an accused male student to win. It describes how, when the accuser's story is inconsistent or doesn't add up, that is dismissed as an expected result due to trauma.
The prevailing cockeyed thinking is very much like the one advanced by @Noble Berean
"why would you even want to take the chance of a sexual predator persisting in the congregation?" Simply substitute "college campus" for "congregation" and the thought is his.

Excellent! A church with which you 85% agree. When are you transferring?

Can you use this?

Can you use this?

"Turn me on, dead man"  -  The Beatles
National pep talks are fine. Thanksgiving to God we can all live with and don't have to rain on anyone else's parade. But if Jehovah is this kind of a God, he sure took his eye off the ball as regards many parts of the earth, didn't he?
That said, whenever I am bold (or dumb) enough to go out in service on a holiday, I find some verse of harmonious theme and say something like:  'this is what we are doing out of respect for the holiday.' It seems an insult to the householder to not connect your remarks to his interest of the day - we otherwise unfailingly try to do that - reading bumper stickers and so forth. (which as often as not were affixed by the previous owner)
Even as I write, I warm further to this idea, though it is Witnessing 401 - an advanced course. Many brothers get their heads handed to them on a platter for holiday witnessing. Is it possible, for those so inclined, to connect their remarks with the day's theme and become almost a holiday tradition?
I like him already. (within limits)
 
I like him already.
 
Wasn't he the brother who enjoyed the sauna? It seems he was little concerned about tongues wagging. 

Whenever we enjoy a roasted turkey this time of year, we cook it with a bookbag under its wing so that there should be no misunderstanding.
WHOA! @Admin has been busy with software innovations! Related topics now appear in the sidebar. (isn't this new?) It is "Similar Content' My own favorite holiday is one of them, and posts I started about Ground Hog Day.
Don't nobody say nothin bad about Ground Hog day here, or I'll send the filthy rat down your chimney like Santa and he will leave lice everywhere.

Wrong again Tommy.....