Thinking

Yes. I’m familiar with those merry-go-rounds. I don’t ride those rides.
Here I have no goal of settling or resolving any disagreement(s). Were that to happen? Fine. But I’m here to share and learn. 

Yes koalas are very cute but they have a big problem with STDs which I think they are trying to eradicate …..I wouldn’t hold one ..but one day ..it’s a sure thing….i don’t think pudgy looks as cute as that when he awakes…

I tend to break Juan’s and even JWI and their writing up in paragraphs at a time..just cannot do it in one hit …but it’s usually worth it even if I don’t understand everything…

Perhaps his hands are tied by his own righteousness …he said they would die….so he has to wait until all flesh may be wiped out…mankind will have died if he had not intervened….he cannot go back on such a command. Yes we feel enough is enough and all the points we make as a people have been reached..but perhaps we don’t understand HIS DEMAND for Justice….its not like any of us deserves any mercy from him..but it’s a heavy weary thing to see such pain by men.

I don’t know how to answer that but I do think of the chaos and deaths caused by the many kings of Israel….that sure is frustrating ..

I think that was pudgy that said that..that quirk in the system is at work again…but I’m sure in fact I know a few elders would speak or think of me as such….but thank you for your kind words…

I don’t know how to answer that but I do think of the chaos and deaths caused by the many kings of Israel….that sure is frustrating ..

Let's hope no congregation raids again (for Peter's sake, since he was verbally attacked), there is already a phenomenon of raiding and disrupting gatherings taking place. Not to mention all the crazy stuff happening around it.

A shy away from 100; within range, but in the eyes of those who watch and observe various protests, it is a miniscule number, essentially, a single white peddle that are hard to see in a large pond containing other rocks. The irony is they claim they had more than that, which is wrong because even their own attested otherwise. This is similar to a Pro-Israel group that was protesting sometime ago, who had around 88-100 people, but because of the few MSMs out there that supports Israel, they claim the number of protesters was in the thousands, when that is not true.
As I said, it is simply a repeat, as stated. Same case with the actions that took place (minus JW church raids), disgruntled EXJWs attacking not just JWs, but also former EXJWs that do not side with what JWs deem as apostasy. Not only that, they also attack onlookers who do not believe protesting against a religion is a sane idea, in fact, comments regarding that are very interesting. The protest also exposes that, which was speculated, but now known as true, that EXJWs, most have a political leaning, and there is only one side that is not too cool with Christian Values.



Meanwhile, Pro-Palestine Protesters have taken the United States of America by storm, mainly Washington DC, this is why disgruntled EXJWs were mistaken for Pro-Palestine Protesters.
As mentioned, some disgruntled ones felt that they did not make a big impact, hence why they are pressing the idea that Jehovah's Witnesses were somehow connected with Israel or affiliated with Zionism, some even take it a step further to say JWs are part of the NWO (despite them being in opposition with religions that seek to unify), they do this in hopes that anyone who supports Palestine, would target them. Elsewhere, some neighborhood watch commenter mentioned there was a car that kept passing around one of the JW Churches ion Jersey. For example, should something happen to any JW Church because of this, disgruntled ones will take the situation and blame it on JWs themselves (which is no surprised with what they brought up regarding the bombing in India). That alone should tell you something.
That being said, it is also discovered some disgruntled ones became apostates for some of the stupidest reasons. Apparently, someone who is subscribed to John Cedars was exposed for lying, he said he left the JW faith because of the teachings.... But in reality, he really left because some woman in the JW faith rejected his advances, therefore, he joins the rank of the disgruntled EXJWs. Another, who became disgruntled because all she wanted to do was partake in high levels of Spiritism induced media, and as you already know, such is backed by other disgruntled ones.

That's a pretty fatalistic perspective. Though the most we can do is try our best, I hold a positive view that we do not waste our time when we share our experience and training to help others, or some circumstance that needs improvement. I also find it helpful to pursue improvement for myself too.

More often than not, all we can do is share our experience and training for the benefit of others, and we can work to improve ourselves too. But in the end the most we can do is honestly try our best. Whether that helps improve someone's life or some circumstance is usually beyond our control.

It is a little like the signs we saw posted repeatedly at the Columbus Zoo reptile house.
”How do you know if an animal is venomous?” they say, and then answer: “If it bites you and you get sick, then the animal is venomous.”
Pretty much the same answer applies here, I think. “How do you know if God has the right to rule? If Armegeddon comes, and you’re not around afterward, then he has the right to rule.”

It is good and truthful, but not all of the book is satisfactory. I’ll put it in my next one, perhaps—which may be an exploration of ‘theodicy’ (why bad things happen). Does @Many Milesor anyone else know the origin of our ‘universal court case’ theodicy? I’d love to track that one down. @JW Insider once put me on the track of a Great Courses university professor exploring the subject and it was well-nigh insufferable. Not that I won’t have to plow through it again if I proceed, but I am reminded of a newly discovered and instantly favorite G K Chesterton quote: “The first effect of not believing in God is that you lose your common sense."
I have no idea what you are talking about. Why be so hard on yourself? 
It’s like when a car group of friends drove near a certain industrial complex. Surrounding blocks had been snatched up for parking, but here and there were some stalwarts who hadn’t sold their properties. Thus, there were a few rickety houses completely surrounded by blacktop. “These people are so stubborn!” Sam (who had worked there) grumbled. “The company needs that property. They pay good money for it.” He reflected a few seconds, then said, “I’m stubborn—but these people are more stubborn!”
Now, you know how brothers like to razz each other. Instantly, it started. “No! You, Sam—stubborn?! Don’t be so hard on yourself! How could you say that??!! Not you!”
Sam was probably the most stubborn person to have ever walked the planet.

We all have reasons for choices we make. You've experienced some troubled waters in your journey. I only applaud that you are still around and willing to speak your mind to help others with your experience. Hopefully that's what we're all doing.

You have a great quality of humbleness Tom….i try to learn from it .

Nowadays kids don’t know what stamps are…I made my grandkids write a thank you letter  to their great pop.
They didn’t know about stamps or writing a real letter and buying a stamp and walking to a post box and posting it….they thought it all tedious and a waste of time…and as we trudged back home they said……‘I dont see why we couldn’t have just rang him it doesn’t make sense…aaaah those bygone days…when getting a telegram was so exciting….we’ll sort of as it usually meant someone had died….

Yeah … first class mail was 4 CENTS !

Why do a re write….its good and truthful….it would help others who have been hurt…..

Wow fancy having stamps like that…how interesting…

When  I was about 13 years old I started collecting stamps, and having ADD I focused on this like the proverbial laser, and could even recognize stamps that had different numbers of perforations around the edges that were valuable, and those which were common because they had different numbers of perforations.  
This was about 1960, and it was the same time that I started getting an interest in Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The United States government came out with a series of stamps called “The American Credo Series“, about 1962 which has influenced my entire life, hopefully for the good, sometimes demonstrably for the good.

One stamp particularly resonated with me quoting Thomas Jefferson, and in 1964 when I was baptized it had become a part of my occasionally obnoxious and overbearing personality. 

I took the long version of this oath before my baptism oath, (… quite different from today’s baptism oath …), and in a massively imperfect way I consider both to still be in force.
Thomas Jefferson was also a massively imperfect man, as is the JW Governing Body.
Thomas Jefferson's second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1805 expressed his commitment to protecting individual liberties and declared, "I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past, and my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of all."

There could never have been a Mission Impossible without him.
 
No, but organizing does seem consistent with giving God a lot rather than giving him a little
It may be that as long as you don’t work to sabarolf organization, as though a freedom fighter, you’re okay—even as you stand apart from it yourself. Or it may not be okay. I’ll err on the side of sticking with what my experience tells me has worked to a reasonably fine degree, given that ‘we have this treasure in earthen vessels.’ I remember giving that talk on ‘Unified or Uniform,’ contrasting the unity of the earthly organization with the uniformity often demanding by nations, which goes so far as to stuff people into actual uniforms.
Yeah—I always figured it was something like that. You said it well:
It makes a difference, doesn’t it? It’s a little bit like coming back from the dead when you finally get back on your feet.
I put the following in ‘No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash,’ a book I took down pending rewrite that I haven’t gotten around to, so now it is nowhere:
“After studying one book seemingly written for no other purpose other than to harp on dress and grooming and harangue about field service, the conductor said to me: “Tom, why don’t you comment? You know all these answers.” It was a turning point. He was right. I did know them all. It was time to stop sulking. From the circuit overseer on down, they had stirred up major chaos in the family. They had been heavy-handed and clumsy - but never malicious. And it had never been Jehovah. I had read of ill-goings-on in the first-century record. Congregations described in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 were veritable basket cases, some of them, but that did not mean that they were not congregations. Eventually things smooth out. Eventually 1 Timothy 5:24 comes to pass: “The sins of some men are publicly known, leading directly to judgment, but those of other men will become evident later.” “Later” may take its sweet time in rolling around but it always does roll around. Should I stumble when it becomes my turn? I’d read whiner after whiner carrying on about some personal affront or other on the Internet. Was I going to be one of them? 
 . . . Recovery didn’t happen overnight, for I have a PhD in grumbling. Indeed, I was so good at it that few noticed I grumbled, for I had never left the library – I had only strayed from the same page. Now it was time to get on the same paragraph. Was that book truly a dog? They’re not all dazzling flashes of light, you know, for the treasure is contained in earthen vessels. Or was it the conductor? Or was it me? No matter. If life throws you for a loop, you thank God for the discipline and move on. “For those whom Jehovah loves he disciplines, in fact, he scourges everyone whom he receives as a son,” the Bible says Tell me about it. “Half of those at Bethel are here to test the other half,” the old-timers said. Yeah – tell me about that, too.”
Everyone has a mid-life crisis or two, during which they have to reassess. It doesn’t even matter if it is a servant of God we’re speaking of. Everyone has a mid-life crisis.

I’ve been there and experienced such pain that lead to a death….you are speaking with a sister that was engulfed with a huge amount of anger and resentment and righteous indignation which led to my two ears of inactivity…….its a long story but eventually I had to reason out that I came into the truth knowing all these things existed within the org….why do you think we have the Judas types….the haughty…the cruel even amongst us.
Unfortunately they tend to have a lot of power within congregations.
Jehovahs people are no different to his people of old times….once I got a grip on that..and working on my feelings .( which I might add they caused ) …I guess I was and still am being refined by fire….and I am NOT going to let those sorts of men push me out where I know Jehovah led me.
 
 
 

He was playing with words when he said this…because the question was addressed to the GB specifically….he could say such a statement because he knew within the org there were many others who claimed to be anointed and the great crowed who were speaking on behalf of jehovah/ bible ….at this time the witness followed the GBs understanding that you had to be baptised witness to survive.
That has now changed,,,,as it should be.
nearly everything he said was nullified later by the rest of the GB.
he was caught on the hop….he didn’t expect to be part of the commission.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say he was lying..more like acting like Abraham when he claimed Sarah’s as his sister….technically he wasn’t lying as they were actually closely related ( cannot remember how close ) .
I think when he got back to HQs he got into hot water over some of his statements.
But  I also think the GB acted cowardly and it was an embarrassment to us that one of them didn’t willingly take part in that to back their brothers up.
We have a great shortage of brothers to take the lead over here ..they literally begged them to step up to the mark…..I cannot but think….it was fear as to what the courts could do to them.
 

You have a great quality of humbleness Tom….i try to learn from it .

I can assure you, that's not the majority reason.
 
This is closer to the majority reason. Just how many brothers has the GB fail to 'back up' over the years for trying to do right, even going to far as to beg for their help to understand why the GB is teaching certain things it teaches and imposes under pain of being ostracized by close family and friends? You tell me.