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'Aye, the Bastards Will Come Alright.' A Primer in Getting Along


TrueTomHarley

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Talk (5 minutes or less) Week of Feb 4-10, 2018: 'Maintain a Realistic View of Your Limitations and Those of Others.'

‘When Jehovah’s Witnesses go nuts, they become quirky eccentrics, who nevertheless wouldn’t harm a fly.

When people of the overall world go nuts, you’d better call in the SWAT team.

(It is an introduction that plays to the audience. Certainly, nuts of the general world do not all require the SWAT team, but there are enough instances of such that the introduction works.)

Of course, ‘nuts’ might be viewed as a pejorative. Instead one might say ‘damaged goods’ or ‘pieces of work.’

(Here the speaker is on shaky ground. Is he calling members of the congregation, or even the entire congregation, ‘nuts,’ while excluding himself? Best defuse that one.)

It is like when many were away for a foreign-language assembly, and many more in seldom-worked territory. Just moments before the meeting was to begin, turnout was notably thin. I leaned over to Brother Oxgoad and said: “Do the friends think that you are giving the talk today?” He took a moment to process it, and shot back: “You’re a piece of work!” What was I going to say—that I wasn’t? In one way or another, we are all pieces of work.

(At that point it was time to go to the suggested verse.)

Romans 3:23 discusses the reality: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The word translated sin comes from a root that means “to miss the mark.”

(I played with a bow & arrow for a bit.) At first, we didn’t even hit the target, and once in a while, we still miss it altogether. Usually, though, we do hit the target and even come closer and closer to the bullseye, but outright hitting it doesn’t happen often.

Another way of saying that we ‘miss the mark’ is to concede that we all have rough edges. Rough edges aren’t a huge deal when each one keeps his distance, but in a close setting, like a family--or a congregation, they become more of an issue.

(It was time to refer to a video that most remembered as to how to deal with rough edges. Since I have written of it already in ‘Dear Mr. Putin – Jehovah’s Witnesses Write Russia,’ I will here do a copy and paste:)

“The video shown was entitled Remove the Rafter. It featured a disgruntled member who thought most of his congregation a bunch of sheltered oddities. Even if they were, he came to realize in the end that the only one he could change was himself. As the Bible verse he was considering, in order to give his assigned student talk, faded onscreen, two words remained a split second longer than the others: ‘rafter' and ‘straw.’ This happened three times, and on the third, the word ‘hypocrite’ also remained. It is Jesus’ words he considered: “Why do you notice the straw in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the rafter in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that straw from your eye,’ while the rafter is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the rafter from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the straw from your brother’s eye.’ As though to drive the point home, in the background, a workman carrying a rafter in the video briefly stood in front of a stopping bus advertising eye exams, so that a rafter actually did protrude from a eye for but a moment.

“At first glance, it is a slick move from the Watchtower video directors. But it is meant to illustrate a slick move upon the heart. The reason those two words remained, and then three, is that his heart was yet soft enough for them to register—having benefited from previous divine education. A hardened person would not have responded that way. The brother allowed the scripture to mold him. This is how God trains in the congregation, but it would all have been lost upon one who’s heart was molded primarily by this world’s education. Imagine how differently history might read if this verse was a staple of education, and not just a dreamy footnote. With Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is a staple.”

The talk concluded with words not too unlike the above two lines. Days later someone referred to ‘Brother Sandpaper.’ It was from one of those old syrupy memes that some just love, (I don’t) probably the one about how all the congregation members are like tools in God’s drawer that he uses to accomplish his purpose. (Even as I write this, it annoys me.) What is Brother Sandpaper’s function? To sand down our rough edges, which he accomplishes by being abrasive.

The thing irritates because it seems to suggest that Brother Sandpaper will always be Brother Sandpaper. And it seems to imply that he is yet lovable. He is not lovable, though he has some redeeming features, but that is not the same. His brusque and curt manner has stumbled many, and if that verse about tying a millstone around the neck of someone who behaves that way means anything, the sooner he gets his act together, the better.

When you give an illustration, it has to reasonably fit in all aspects. Like the book I am reading right now, The Fort, by Bernard Cornwall. The British force has encamped on the shores of late-1700s Massachusetts so as to curb the revolutionaries. The captain muses whether they will soon come to mount a challenge. “Aye, the bastards will come, all right,” the first officer assures him. “Mark my words, they’ll come, like flies to dung!” and the captain wonders at the appropriateness of likening His Majesty’s Naval Forces to dung.

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In the very next line, I stated that it is a great exaggeration. Yeah. I said that.    Look, John, this is not hard. If it is my eye, it is a straw. If it is anyone else’s it is a r

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TTH says " He is not lovable " Oh but wait. Rafter / straw.  Tom you can't say he is not lovable before you 'remove' all your own faults.

If everyone did the 'rafter /straw' thing then maybe no one would get disfellowshipped. After all the GB would have to 'remove' all of their faults first, and all other men in positions of responsibility would have to remove all their faults. Right down to the Elders. And we know for sure that many Elders have many faults ( i will refrain from mentioning my favorite subject here :)  ). 

Or is it only meant for the 'boots on the ground' JW's ? 

 Is it only the congregants with no position of power, to keep them quiet ?

As for the propaganda :-

" ‘When Jehovah’s Witnesses go nuts, they become quirky eccentrics, who nevertheless wouldn’t harm a fly.

When people of the overall world go nuts, you’d better call in the SWAT team "

What utter rubbish. A MASSIVE GENERALISATION. Which is totally untrue. 

But it's good for JW Business I suppose. 

Please remember readers, many JW's DO NOT KNOW ANY PEOPLE IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD.

Some JW children are home schooled / taught. Their families are JW's. Their friends are JW's. Their whole world is JW.

Imagine telling those children  "When people of the overall world go nuts, you’d better call in the SWAT team "

You know, those children would actually believe you. It's so sad. 

In the real world there are millions of people doing humanely good deeds. 

I suppose it's not so much when JW's go nuts, it's more when JW's are sly and selfish. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, JOHN BUTLER said:

Imagine telling those children  "When people of the overall world go nuts, you’d better call in the SWAT team "

In the very next line, I stated that it is a great exaggeration.

1 hour ago, JOHN BUTLER said:

What utter rubbish. A MASSIVE GENERALISATION. Which is totally untrue.

Yeah. I said that. 

 

1 hour ago, JOHN BUTLER said:

TTH says " He is not lovable " Oh but wait. Rafter / straw.  Tom you can't say he is not lovable before you 'remove' all your own faults.

Look, John, this is not hard. If it is my eye, it is a straw. If it is anyone else’s it is a rafter.

What part of that statement do you have trouble with?

 I got a ‘G’ on the talk. What more do you want?

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2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

In the very next line, I stated that it is a great exaggeration.

Yeah. I said that. 

 

Look, John, this is not hard. If it is my eye, it is a straw. If it is anyone else’s it is a rafter.

What part of that statement do you have trouble with?

 I got a ‘G’ on the talk. What more do you want?

Oh Tom, I suppose I shouldn't even waste my time trying to understand you. 

It's good that I've spent the day doing useful things, worldly of course, and now it's gone 10pm here and i can waste time, my time. But the time would be better 'wasted' looking for my next toy (real vehicle) on ebay. I get bored of vehicles so quickly. 

I'm learning nothing on this forum. I'm finding out that more people are dissatisfied with the JW Org of course, but that does not give me any good direction. 

 

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