James Thomas Rook Jr.

These excerpted quotes are from JW.ORG https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102000121 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ " A Terrible Efficiency These statistics, although shocking, are just cold numbers. They cannot convey the loneliness of life without a cherished mate, the frustration of lost independence, the despair of a lingering disease, the emptiness of chronic depression, the hopelessness of a fatal illness. The sad truth is that while young people may attempt suicide as a reckless reaction to temporary problems, older people are usually faced with problems that seem to be permanent and unsolvable. As a result, they often approach suicide more determinedly than the young and carry it out with a terrible efficiency. “Not only is suicide significantly more prevalent among older persons, but the suicidal act itself reflects important differences between old and young,” notes Dr. Hendin, in his book Suicide in America. “In particular, the ratio of attempted to actual suicides shifts quite markedly among older persons. Among the population as a whole, the ratio of attempted suicides to actual suicides has been estimated to be 10 to 1; among the young (15-24), it has been estimated to be 100 to 1; and among those over 55, it has been estimated to be 1 to 1.” What sobering statistics! How depressing to grow old, lose physical strength, and suffer pain and sickness! Little wonder so many commit suicide. Yet, there is powerful reason to treasure life—even under very difficult circumstances. Consider what happened to Mary, who was mentioned in the introduction." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The mental illness and suicide rate among older Jehovah's witnesses is 5 to 10 times that of the general population .. be a sport ... look it up. It is my considered opinion ... that the CHIEF REASON for this is FINANCIAL DESPERATION, which also in my opinion, CAUSES almost all of the symptoms and effects mentioned in the Society's incomplete analysis of this problem. Elderly people did not get to be elderly by being naturally suicidal. They are driven to it by problems that in most cases education and money would solve. Now the older people, and I mean Brothers and Sisters, are unemployable ... at ANYTHING ... and are poor and desperate ... and for many ignorant and destitute Brothers and Sisters, suicide appears to be their only reality based option. TWENTY EIGHT YEARS AGO ... the Society gave the following advice, as pervasive and chilling as a pouring rain ...

For the great majority of people on Earth .... YES, IT DOES! Consider Puerto Rico and the hurricane devastation there. There is nothing more portable than people with money. I was once asked if it bothered me to be in great peril during such things (long story...) and I replied "Not as long as I have my satellite phone, there is a helicopter withing 300 miles, and I have my American Express Credit Card ....". In a natural disaster of cataclysmic proportions, the simplest solution is ... to be not there. That necessitates at least two things ... education and money. People that "have money" do not have to worry about a thousand things that consume the lives of that great majority of mankind, other things being equal. Only if happiness, security and satisfaction depend on higher education and well-paying job? Being ignorant and financially desperate as a lifestyle ... does not guarantee happiness, security and satisfaction either .... and the probability drops like Wylie Coyote chasing the Road Runner off of a high cliff.

Good Detectives perhaps see differently than poorer Detectives. Occasionaly, the reverse is also true.

Thank You so VERY much Sereko Sostar: I have been looking for a rational explanation for this for many years, and was not able to discern it. The concept of NATURAL and ARTIFICIAL conscience, with the evidence, which I have also seen, was the key to understanding. I only knew from my observations that "something" was polluting the system, as REAL Justice, reasonableness and common sense does not exist, anymore, within our ranks ... and with the clear Bible trained conscience ... I did NOT see the painfully obvious with the clarity you just now provided. THIS ALONE has made the years I have been bashing my head against the JW-Archive wall worth while, and I appreciate it. Your experiences and insight answer that all important question ... ... WHY? JTR Hi Tom! I was born in Zagreb and living here. Prison is not hard, but prisoners :))))) Counsel from late brother Miloš Knežević was because not to bring problems to society in YU, so from other perspective we can talk now how WTorg was/is ready, determined to instruct rank and file members in that way to protect corporation, and to put all responsibility on "personal decision" which, whose are product, not primarily in members clear perception and understanding that came from his inside, from that person, and by that is his/her unique and only one possible choice made on foundation of conscience. Such or similar decisions in JW world, are made on "bible trained conscience" as product of doctrines and instructions of society. Not because I or you or anyone else come to such conclusion by inspired revelation inside our mind in one crucial and inimitable moment of life. I can agree on religious, pacifists, humanitarian or philosophic reasons to not to go to war. JW are not unique in refusing military service as they claim (preaching service too) Members of Adventist church and Nazarian church was with me in the same prison also. And they do that also from the same main reason as JW, because members doing that what they have to do as members. Religious people as JW, have two sort of conscience. One is Natural, God given sense, from birth. Second sort of conscience is "trained" by WT org, by bible, by society, by tribe, family, books .... So, as one person growing, he/she forming mix of rules what is acceptable and what is not. Sometimes first and main natural sense can not go on daylight because of learned, trained, instructed, artificial conscience. And that artificial conscience is on work when they do not want to say hello to ex members. How i know that? I looked into the face of such person and see amalgam of pride, hidden shame, stubbornness, guilty, fear of men, fanaticism.

Yet ... the civil governments do the same thing out of a basic common sense, and human decency. ... ...and recently seem to have the moral high ground. Who can say? ANYBODY THAT LOVES JUSTICE MORE THAN MONEY! ... that's who.

...

In a race... the win is not always to the swift. In a battle, the victory is not always to the strong. ... but THAT"S usually the best bet. "Thrice armed is he hath his quarrel just, and four times he who gets his fist in first" - Josh Billings.

. How many Carpenters, ditch diggers, house cleaners, window washers or Dentists and Doctors, and Civil Engineers committed suicide during that time, in relation to the percentages of their professions to the general population? Without a considered and careful analysis of things like THAT ... the empirical anecdotes of Bankers and Financial consultants, etc., committing suicide are interesting, and entertaining ... but MEANINGLESS! One thing about those folks with a a sufficient means of life... they PROBABLY died with a well repaired set of teeth, and did not live a life of misery because they could not afford such things, and the list is endless, LIKE heat in the winter, a balanced diet, decent respectable clothes to wear, eyeglasses and money to socialize, and pay a hundred different types of bills. OF COURSE ... we COULD live like John the Baptist, whom God and Christ loved, who we have no idea where he slept (under a rock, in a cave?) but who had to eat LOCUSTS, ... green slimy gooey ( but crunchy also!) LOCUSTS. I Imagine John the Baptist with teeth rotting out of his head, and green locust juice on his face ( where would YOU clean up if water was four miles away and you had to walk?), and cleaning his teeth with his finger or the end of a chewed stick, like my mother did when she grew up in extreme poverty ... and the infections in his gums destroying his heart valves. I imagine John the Baptist wearing dirty clothes that were rags, discarded by someone who threw then away, fit only for rags. ... like the Brothers I saw in the jungles of Zaire, in the mid 1970s ... who ate rats, and cried because the Americans had soap, and they could not afford soap ... or carry drinking water from the river in a wash basin at a 40 degree angle, because it was rusted out in the middle and had a hole big enough to put an open hand through. It is hard to keep your mind on spiritual things when you are starving, unwashed, full of bacteria and pain, and coughing your lungs out and praying ..please God! one more breath! ... or you have no money to replace your broken eyeglasses. But, for all those things ... there is a solution that is available to EVERYBODY for situations impossible to solve, no matter what their station in life ... both at the high income level, and at the bottom, where most of us are .... DIE. However, IF ( remember IF?) you are one of those few that can live like a sub-human, alongside people who don't have ANY problems with finances .... it is the way to go. Self induced poverty is NOTHING to brag about. Many have died from a hand scratch, because they could not afford a dollar bottle of alcohol.

TTH: I will TRY to hold my genuflection down to a reasonable level ...

*coff*

If I can find it, I will post the photos I have of the Watchtower Society Lawyers, after they failed to secure religious liberty for the Witnesses in Russia, despite $80 million dollars in international postage, and $3 million dollars in legal fees and expenses, at the Moscow Salt Water Aquarium having an "after case" party and dinner at a fine Russian restaurant, and swimming freely with the sharks ... both men and sharks having a GREAT time together! Although they made MANY excellent rational arguments before the Russian Supreme Court, their arguments were not as pointed as the Russian bayonets Sharks everywhere know about "points", but even in Russia, even THEY show the Society's Lawyers .... Professional Courtesy.

. Today, If the Apostles had ever seen the COSMOS series by Carl Sagan, of many years ago .... perhaps the Scripture would say we ".. are STAR ... STUFF" ... because everything on the Periodic Table of the Elements, except hydrogen, (... all the way to IRON...) was created in first generation stars that exploded, through the fusion of that explosion ... and everything on the Table, HEAVIER than IRON, was created in a Supernova Explosion.. God only created hydrogen, and the rest ... is history. The REST of the story is incredibly fascinating!

The Chinese are very adept traders .... all the war materials the USA sent them to fight Japan with, they repaid with hamsters and canaries. ...which naturally make more hamsters and canaries. The reason the Chinese are "inscrutable", is ... if their faces crack, they go into uncontrollable laughter.

The War Prayer by Mark Twain 1904 It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spreads of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way. Sunday morning came – next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their faces alight with material dreams-visions of a stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! – then home from the war, bronzed heros, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation – "God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest, Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!" Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was that an ever – merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory. An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there, waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal,"Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!" The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside – which the startled minister did – and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said "I come from the Throne – bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd and grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import – that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of – except he pause and think. "God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two – one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of His Who hearth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this – keep it in mind. If you beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it. "You have heard your servant's prayer – the uttered part of it. I am commissioned by God to put into words the other part of it – that part which the pastor, and also you in your hearts, fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory – must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God the Father fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen! "O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. (After a pause) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits." It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

Remember the WT with the red (orange?) cover IS SATAN REAL? EVERYBODY thought we were promoting Satanism. I *coff* could not GIVE them away.

I wish they would come out with, or even reprint the "Make Sure of All Things" book ... I really enjoyed placing that one, and still use mine. Nowadays to get a replacement, they are about $5 on Ebay.

Was 5 cents the Pioneer rate?

Playing with words and fixed bayonets have completely different points.

THIS is what the Scripture in Luke was talking about when Jesus said "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword" NOT legitimate self-defense. WAR is "living by the sword". Personal self defense, and the defense of family and friends is NOT " living by the sword". Soldiers and Mercenaries "live by the sword" .. and kill to force people who do not want a particular political agenda to HAVE to adopt it... or die. If you misuse that Scripture, you become a professional victim because SOMEONE ELSE taught you to be a coward. I know what I am talking about .. the first 18 years of my life I thought a Christian was also a pacifist ... guess what? Jesus Isn't!.

Back when they used to charge the Publishers for books, I remember it was 20 cents at the book counter.

One thing all trinitarians have in common ... when it comes time to war ... they all meet on the battlefield and slaughter each other. This was particularly true during WWI when most of the people assembled on the French/German border were trinitarian Catholics, and in a year long battle, killed A MILLION OF EACH OTHER. that alone DISPROVES THE TRINITY, ( If you have any common sense at all ) ... and shoots the "horse" it rode in on .... that God's Holy Spirit is supposedly PART of that triune "godhead", and also proves invalid, as ACTUAL Christianity, everything else that they dreamed up, circa 320 A.D. . And a million word analysis of a million more words will not change that.

Even though I don't "do Halloween", I put on my mask, and look out the side window of my car at the children playing in their front yards, and wave to them as I drive by. ..but it's O.K. , I live in the USA, so the "Australian "Working with Children Check Card" that all Witnesses working with children have to have in Australia is not needed. WHAT? ME WORRY?

Perhaps Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate Halloween is because they don't like people coming to their door unsolicited?

One thing I have learned in my 70 years of paying attention to details, and missing many ... to the extent that it drives normal people nuts, or away ... is that if you want to be happy ... don't sweat the small stuff. Ask yourself ... is THIS the "hill I want to die on"? Probably not. But the key to an integrated personality I have found to be this. Expect NOTHING ... and you will never be disappointed. ..all your surprises will all be pleasant! What is NOT the case becomes evident upon analysis. What IS the case about many, many things ... only Jehovah knows. "WHAT, ME WORRY?" - Alfred E. Neuman

When the "house slaves" get uppity ... the "field slaves" always suffer.