The Bible and Politics (and Israel and Russia and . . . )

[TrueTomHarley]

33 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

I met Dr Peter McCullough in Tampa when he was staying directly across from my wife and I in our hotel room. My son and I talked to him in the lobby briefly. I am not quite as impressed with him now that he has tried some questionable methods to turn his own work into a money-making machine. But Rogan and McCullough were both very good sources about Covid. 

I think these guys have some astronomical legal bills—even their licenses are under constant attack & some have lost theirs—and for that reason I cut them slack.

[TrueTomHarley]

17 minutes ago, George88 said:

You made me spill my juice on that one, lol!

Well, whose fault is that? Next thing, you will be calling me a cult leader for having manipulated you into spilling it.

It is not shocking to be informed, though neither is it a sin to opt out. One firebrand brother on X stated emphatically, straight out of the blue, “Jehovah’s Witness are NOT INTERESTED in politics!” Well, actually some of them are, I told him. ‘I think what you are looking to say is that they do not take sides. 

‘They are NOT INTERESTED IN POLITICS!’ he roared back and then blocked me.

[TrueTomHarley]

29 minutes ago, George88 said:

If you want to have a clean conversation that doesn't involve criticism as much as you people criticize the Watchtower and its policies, why not keep it in your pants. In this case, the closed club. What did you say about those jerks?

You don’t want to know. They’re holding a ice cream social for the candidates in that wicked place.

[JW Insider]

28 minutes ago, George88 said:

Does this mean they invited Elton John to play candle in the wind? 

I also have trouble extracting a sense of humor from AI tools. 

[TrueTomHarley]

I think we can take Geo Jackson’s words as a template. ‘You don’t want to take sides,’ he says, and to show the challenge of keeping neutral, he uses the example of contesting politicians in Australia, one of whom wanted to draft people of Jackson’s age into the military and one of whom did not. Now that would test your resolve to stay neutral, he said, nonetheless you must do it.

If he was as ignorant of politics as some seem to think is the gold standard, he would not have even known which politician’s views would be to his benefit and which one would not. Of course, I leaned into him on this point, informing him that:

2 hours ago, George88 said:

Witnesses who are in good standing do not engage in politics. They possess the discernment to distinguish between words and actions. Therefore, making statements inconsistent with one's behavior does not uphold credibility.

I’m sure he gave my words all the consideration they deserved before instantly turning his attention to other matters.

[Anna]

On 4/11/2024 at 11:56 PM, JW Insider said:

In fact, I've seen strong political views among Witnesses who only use the line "we don't take sides in politics" when they wish to shut down an argument they disagree with.

Lol, so true!

 

I always found it funny when we get articles about staying neutral, as if we must not get upset when governments do bad things.

We all know that ultimately all governments will be removed by Jesus,  but how should that stop us from voicing our opinion about certain current situations? It seems that the concern is that we don't get so involved, as to the point of taking sides, and forgetting Jesus's role in the future on the matter. But is that realistic? Would a Witness really do that? Forget? I know I wouldn't but perhaps some would? Then again with all the talk about Armageddon being just around the corner how could anyone forget?

Interestingly, the visiting branch Overseer that we just had at our assembly last weekend was going on about how bad all the governments are and that soon they will all be destroyed. My hubby whispered in my ear: "well that's going to endear us to them all" (he had in mind the situation in Norway in this instance). I thought maybe because this was just a small assembly there was no fear of a " little birdie" telling anyone how we can't wait for all the governments to be zapped. But then I started wondering how long will it be before some governments start getting irritated by that kind of talk? I mean isn't that what happened in Russia? We know Russia is no respecter of human rights and punish our people in a way Russians know best, but what about the more "civilized" nations that are becoming more and more "woke"?

I am thinking at this rate we may end up getting "attacked" first, before any other religions, lol. 

[Anna]

I am trying to figure out under which forum this topic is....

[BTK59]

🤣 It belongs in the closed club where the Don Henley song "Dirty laundry" is played 24/7.😁

[JW Insider]

17 hours ago, Anna said:

I am trying to figure out under which forum this topic is....

I always take a topic I'm reading, and if I want to share something about a related subject, I just click on "Create a New Topic" from there. If it was about music, I'll make the new topic about music; if it was about JWs, I'll make it about JWs. I don't usually care what Club it's in, if any. I must have been reading a topic about JWs and just clicked "Create a New Topic" without looking at the Club.

When I saw that the topic was not in the JW Closed or JW Open "Club" I tried to move it in the same way I can move a post to another topic. The pulldown menu I get for moving it allows me to move it to the "JW Topics" or JWs Only Topics." [farther down on the list]

I picked "JW Topics" but it didn't move it to the "Club."

Anyway, I wanted it in the Open Club because I wanted George/BTK/etc to feel free to complain openly about it. (I have to admit, this was my actual thought and reason before moving it, because I had referenced him obliquely in the opening paragraph. He has made so many specific condemnations of against Fox News and Trump, for example.)

 

 

 

[TrueTomHarley]

22 hours ago, Anna said:

I am trying to figure out under which forum this topic is....

It doesn’t matter. No matter what the topic is or where it is, it always boils down to a squabble with George.

[BTK59]

@TrueTomHarley Wait a minute, he has access to the closed club? 🤣

[Dr. Adhominem]

On 4/12/2024 at 2:18 PM, TrueTomHarley said:

I think we can take Geo Jackson’s words as a template. ‘You don’t want to take sides,’ he says, and to show the challenge of keeping neutral, he uses the example of contesting politicians in Australia, one of whom wanted to draft people of Jackson’s age into the military and one of whom did not. Now that would test your resolve to stay neutral, he said, nonetheless you must do it.

If he was as ignorant of politics as some seem to think is the gold standard, he would not have even known which politician’s views would be to his benefit and which one would not. Of course, I leaned into him on this point, informing him that:

A brilliant analysis, TrueTom. Absolutely spot-on! Of course, all of your posts are and I have come to expect no less of you.