TrueTomHarley

You wouldn’t know a waste of time if one bit you in the rear end.
Now here’s a waste of time:
”Good morning, brothers. Our first talk today is on the subject of dress and grooming.”

You wouldn’t know a waste of time if one bit you in the rear end.
Now here’s a waste of time:
”Good morning, brothers. Our first talk today is on the subject of dress and grooming.”

You wouldn’t know a waste of time if one bit you in the rear end.
Now here’s a waste of time:
”Good morning, brothers. Our first talk today is on the subject of dress and grooming.”

To the similar-person who declines to speak with me, saying “No, thanks—I’m CHRISTIAN!” I reply, 
“Actually, only a Christian would do what I am doing. Frankly, I’m a little surprised that you are not doing it yourself.”* (Watch that smug smile fade.)
*to be used ONLY in cases of blatant smug superiority, (you can smell it) NOT in the case of sincere misunderstanding.

Wow…that was interesting and very humble of him to do that…one won’t find any reliable or professional facts on the vax on the net or utube….one has to go on the others and now there seems many….this thing has the capability of even causing fractions among the brothers and sisters.
In Australia Red Cross will not accept any blood donations from vaccinated people and certain insurance companies will not pay out on any illnesses or death by vaccinations as they signed the consent form to an experimental vax and accepted all consequences of such.

I am reminded of how someone was described as having suffered an injury causing “permanent deafness,” and one commentator said, ‘Well, it’s a little too soon to tell.”
So it is with those who would pronounce 1914 dead and buried. It’s a little too soon to tell.

Is there no word at all that you know how to use properly? The only reason anyone could possibly call my remarks sexist is that she is a woman.
She might just as well label me a man-hater for consistently calling you a dodo. 
(Now, if someone called me a bird-hater due to that last remark, I guess I’d have no choice but to repent in sackcloth.)

Is there no word at all that you know how to use properly? The only reason anyone could possibly call my remarks sexist is that she is a woman.
She might just as well label me a man-hater for consistently calling you a dodo. 
(Now, if someone called me a bird-hater due to that last remark, I guess I’d have no choice but to repent in sackcloth.)

Of course. You have to earn your readership. 
It’s amazing on how people will lay something long and tedious and dogmatic and repetitive and in-your-face on you and simply assume you are obligated to read it, as though you have nothing whatsoever else to do with your time. 
Long stuff is fine. I have no problem with that. But long stuff with the assumption that people will feel obligated to read it points to an author so self-important that you wonder at her mindset.
Not to mention the sanctimoniousness of those who stuff tractor-trailer loads of scripture into their diatribes, with little or no effort to establish applicability. After all, as every Bible reader knows, you-know-who is able to quote scripture, too.
What he is not able to do is teach and build up others with it. Accordingly, I note that Witness has still. not responded to Aruana’s request to specify just what does she believe, if anything, other than that her “rivals” have outmaneuvered her and she is steamed about it. I won’t even swear that she has never gone there. It is just that with nearly all of her writing devoted to her pet peeve, who has the time to search to see if there are any diamonds among the turds?

If you ever were actually a Witness, you would know the answer to that question.
(Excepting only if you are like PSomH, who doesn’t seem to know anything about anything.)

Whoa! I almost said something so dumb that PSomH could call ME a dodo and I would have little defense. 
My quick impression was that if was Jason who agreed, but was embarrassed, etc, leading me to almost ask: I never thought he was a Witness—is he? But after reading the remark 200 time, I see it is you who agree but is embarrassed. 
I dunno. Yeah, I see your point, it is a little odd there, but it is just an appeal to testimonial. After all, if they quoted Bro Splane, people would say, “Well, of course, he would say that.
There is a Russian professor they could have used to, Gordienko? I think, who says: When the authorities make accusations against the Witnesses, the do not realize they are making accusations against the Bible itself.’ He has the advantage of being dead, so the Russian authorities cannot arrest him.
 

Quite the contrary. I am now going to use them as you do, to “prove” anything at all.

He could not have chosen a better description. Per that list of key tenets (doctrines, core beliefs) listed on the FAQ of the website, and cited by Anna, they are all of them found in only one place. 
Why are they not found in many places? Because if there were ever any guardians of those places, they long ago fell fast asleep. Only in one place have the doctrines been guarded. Everywhere else they dissipated to the four winds or thieves made off with them.
Every time someone flushes a toilet in Bethel it is a doctrine for you. It is impossible to be so obtuse unless it is deliberate. Everyone but you knows that if your picnic gets rained out because you read the weather wrong, it does not take away from the overall success of your life goals and purposes.

I am reminded of how someone was described as having suffered an injury causing “permanent deafness,” and one commentator said, ‘Well, it’s a little too soon to tell.”
So it is with those who would pronounce 1914 dead and buried. It’s a little too soon to tell.

Very well, go back to kicking against the goads and embrace unhappiness. Did I not give you my all with kindness and respect? Sheesh.
It is impossible for you to be unclear on this point—it has been clarified by several people on several occasions, and it doesn’t even have be clarified. It is simply a matter of common sense. I go back to by original thesis that you are just being disingenuous 
It reminds me of a scene from Tom Irregardless and Me, in which my old pioneer partner gone bad, Vic Vomodog, summons me to his deathbed:
“My old friend Vic Vomodog! We used to pull together shoulder to shoulder in the work! How I regretted having cut him off when he’d changed sides. How judgmental I’d been! If only I could have another chance! His pained eyes met mine from his hospital bed. With trembling hand, he beckoned me close. I strained to catch his last words:
“‘There’s two, Tommy. That Watchtower you study? It’s not the same as what the public reads. You’re being indoctrinated, buddy. When are you going to wake up? They’re different.’
“Oh, for crying out loud! I rolled my eyes and he died. Of course they’re different! When Stephen Hawking has his science chums over, do you think they crack open their Physics 101 college textbooks?”
I swear there are some lunatics like this. Their last dying breath they will use to disparage Jehovah’s organization.

Are you sure this is not a matter of “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Kicking against the goads makes it hard for you?”
Seriously. I respect you for saying this, for many unhappy people will nonetheless maintain that they are happy, I think yielding to peer pressure that would equate being unhappy with being a loser. When you read relatively high percentages of those who say they are overall happy AND relatively high percentages of those who say they are consumed with anxiety, stress, and depression, to the point of medical treatment, you know something is amiss.
Nor would I ever suggest that all of Jehovah’s people are happy in their present life—all creation is sighing and groaning, is the way Paul puts it—but they get by with what humanists would regard as “cheating,” keeping their gaze on the things above instead of the things below, keeping their eye on the prize when tears and pain will pass away, with earth restored to paradise, looking to the resurrection hope, keeping their eye ‘simple’ in the present system, and so forth.
Of course, the GB encourages that view and builds upon it because the Bible encourages and builds upon it. It is integral to Paul saying he has learned the secret of how to be content regardless of his circumstances, in times of abundance and in times of want.
Seriously, what are you doing here, running down the GB, making that a significant project in your life? What is the point of it? Are you not kicking against the goads? 
The core doctrines of JWs all hold up in their eyes. If I recall, you have questioned what the core doctrines are, as though you would include matters of immediate timing among them. I’ve thought you must be disingenuous in the question, for every Witness knows what they are, and for that reason I don’t go there. But maybe you are sincere in the question, having been away so long, and surrounded by those on a crusade to undercut, significantly contributing to it yourself—maybe all that has served to muddy the waters on what any Witness has no problem with, confusing the ‘core doctrines’ with interpretations of just when the end will come.
Look, everyone knows that looking into the future is not a piece of cake—why keep harping on it? Witnesses are content that the bros taking the lead are doing the best they can, are overall conducting themselves honorably and in fear of God. Most importantly, on matters of advertising and safeguarding the core doctrines, they are doing splendidly. No one else is representing kingdom interests better. Never is it that ALL the core teachings are represented elsewhere, and with the majority of faiths, very few indeed are represented, even none at all. Why do you keep harping on the ones who have succeeded and are succeeding in this? Particularly if you suggest that such a course may lead ones to a place you occupy, a place where you are not very happy and have not been for a long time? What’s the point of it? 
It may be that you are dissatisfied, not the with 20% (as Arauna puts it) but with the 80% Maybe you think the Bible itself is but the word of men, and that to impute divine inspiration into it is nonsense. It is far easier to understand your critical course in this event. It is far more intellectually honest to acknowledge this as your basis for discontent. If so, these are the matters to grapple with, if that be possible, the 80%, rather than taking shots at the forecasting ability of those taking the lead in the JW organization. 
Come now, attend to these things if you can. The point is, should we die in this system of things, that we should die “old and satisfied with days.”

Yeah, what about that @Witness? Do you believe in any of the core teachings? Which ones & which ones not?
Imagine! A person should be one this platform ceaselessly for 5 years and it should be necessary to ask her that.

I haven’t seen them either. She probably blocked me, too.

I haven’t seen them either. She probably blocked me, too.

You may have suffered from reading too much of Witness, who carries on and on about material things being an “idol” for Jehovah’s People. In fact, they treat Kingdom Halls pretty much like people treat their homes. If they outgrow them due to more family members, they build something bigger. If it outgrows them due to the kids moving out, they downsize. Since (admittedly with some exaggeration) Jehovah’s people can put up and dispose of buildings pretty much live the overall world can put up and take down Coleman tents, as they have plenty of trades people and volunteers, it is less trying for them as it would be for most groups.
In general, where there are circumstances conducive to humility, kingdom interests increase. Where there are circumstances conducive to pride (income and advanced schooling) kingdom interests hold their own or even retreat. In my area, if called upon to account for a Hall being sold, I explain that it is on account of our great growth.
No.
Who can say? It probably varies with the individual. When the timing of events turn out fortuitous, some will think it coincidental and others will credit God for it. Since we are a godly people, I’m sure we will have more crediting God than, say, a group of humanists. 
As PSonH is fond of saying, With God all things are possible!
But there is no grapevine consensus that I am aware of.

One would think a Space Merchant would be the very first commenter on a thread dealing with aliens, rather than holding off to page 3.

Well, I can’t speak for the GB, but I can speak for the clandestine branch that I head as a very very very important JW leader. When I received my copy of the letter, my heart sank right down, not just into my toes, but beyond them, and started rolling down the aisle.
Immediately I called a meeting with my fellow clandestine leaders  When I read it to them, like Shaphan the Book of the Law to Josiah, they all proceeded to weep and rip their garments. 
They ripped them to such an extent that upon leaving the building, they were arrested for public indecency. 
I’m sorry, try as I might, I cannot take this ridiculous ultimatum to every living breathing thing in God’s organization more seriously. I am reminded of that Star Trek scene in which Mr. Spock promises Dr. McCoy to give his proposal all the attention it deserves. He pauses but a split second, then resumes his duties.

I am a JW leader, a very very very important one, let me tell you, so of course I received one.
But since it quotes every verse in the Bible for support, I will not be able to respond until I read the entire Book again, and since I have many other things to do (that is alway true of us leaders) it will be a few months before I can respond to it.
Seriously, what is wrong with the crazy woman (answered my own question), composing a tongue-lashing letter so astoundingly long and having it 
Self-important, anyone?

I never thought I would do it. I gave PSomH an upvote (for setting up a question to JWI.)
True, he thinks he is tearing the cover off the ball with his expose on the rough transition from Russell to Rutherford. He does not know that Witnesses are well aware of this, that it is plainly discussed in the Proclaimers book, for example.
Still, @JW Insiderhas a feel for this time period, and it will be interesting to see what he has to say and if he deviates from the party line in even the tiniest degree, necessitating that I report him to Bethel.

I never thought I would do it. I gave PSomH an upvote (for setting up a question to JWI.)
True, he thinks he is tearing the cover off the ball with his expose on the rough transition from Russell to Rutherford. He does not know that Witnesses are well aware of this, that it is plainly discussed in the Proclaimers book, for example.
Still, @JW Insiderhas a feel for this time period, and it will be interesting to see what he has to say and if he deviates from the party line in even the tiniest degree, necessitating that I report him to Bethel.