James Thomas Rook Jr.

In two words ...
"STUFF HAPPENS"
get used to the idea.

The JW's in the auditorium wouldn't have applauded if they knew the entire world was watching. This is video taken inside a JW only world.
Of course the rest of humanity cannot be expected to understand.
The perception is that we are a cold, cruel and heartless people. Perception is a tricky thing.

WT JWorg try hard to explain how, what, in which circumstances, who, why, why yes, why not .... all at all making rules on rules. But as James correctly said, you dear Ucylmd have to update information on that subject. :)) because it is not simple for JW member to be in line with instructions that can be changed very fast. Just part of text from JWorg official site;
 "We cannot here cover every situation that may arise, but let us focus on two basic ones....In some instances, the disfellowshipped family member may still be living in the same home as part of the immediate household. Since his being disfellowshipped does not sever the family ties, normal day-to-day family activities and dealings may continue. Yet, by his course, the individual has chosen to break the spiritual bond between him and his believing family. So loyal family members can no longer have spiritual fellowship with him..... In other cases, the disfellowshipped relative may be living outside the immediate family circle and home. Although there might be a need for limited contact on some rare occasion to care for a necessary family matter, any such contact should be kept to a minimum."
I have JW family out of my home/house. Last year, i meet my mother accidently (for first time after my living JWorg) on street and said, Hello Mum , she turn serious face/head and passed. My three brothers in blood and their families  also cut contacts (silence). But in fact i have no need for their society, no sorrow, no sad because of this. If it is "normal" to applause in congregation, convention to Melody role model, then it is quite normal to me also to not feel any regret and to applause myself for my courage to stand firm for my perception of the truth.
 

It's a choice. I have never known friends who were that steadfast about not speaking with a disfellowshipped family member, but some who take the admonition to speak with disfellowshipped family about family business to the extreme. To the point of using the disfellowshipped person (who was out living on their own) as a babysitter for their younger children. Like all things one needs to be balanced. 
For my part we allowed our two daughters to stay at home for the simple reason we believed that kicking them out would have resulted in far more harm. My choice. Consequently I have not served in a congregation for about 10 years; but, my daughters are not living on the street subject to all the dangers and problems of that environment and know that they have a safe place to stay. They are family and that is exactly what I told the elders.  

Your comment reminded me of how Br. Geoffrey Jackson told a prosecutor at the ARC that it would be presumptuous for the GB to claim it is God's sole channel. They back down under public scrutiny, because they realize how messed up and cultish it sounds.

Old data ... you have not been keeping up.

Such things are corrosive to the soul.

My wife and I attended an Assembly in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and we sat close to the front ... during a demonstration a Brother in a group of four Witnesses sharing their experiences on stage,  proudly related that he had not spoken one word to his disfellowshipped father IN MORE THAN 20 YEARS.
This was met by a vigorous round of applause from the audience ... EXCEPT myself and my wife ... who were horrified at such cruelty.

The Baptismal Oath was changed in 1985 to eliminate that loophole.
If you were baptized before 1985, you have the contractual right to demand they destroy your records, however they do not recognize you have any rights at all in that regard.
If you have family and friends that are JWs ... it's a hostage situation, and they can get away with it.

Each country has its own set of cultural WEIGHTED values, as we learned in this weeks 2nd half of the mid-week meeting ( I cannot get "Service Meeting" out of my head, and every time someone says they are going on an RV, I think "MotorHome". ... sigh) discussing legal triumphs and setbacks, and the Jehovah's Witness Sister and mother  in Denmark (if memory serves) who had custody of her daughter, but the courts in Denmark took the daughter away from her and awarded custody to the Father ... BECAUSE... they considered it in the child's best interest to award her to the Dad, because he could handle problem resolution and disagreement better than the Mother could.
Same with the Russians ..... they give a LOT of weight ... hence a "WEIGHTED" value ... to how we treat disfellowshipped families.  We are quite used to the idea that to discipline one person by expulsion, we also have to destroy their family relationships with everyone they have ever known, including their families and extended families ... BUT THE RUSSIANS DO NOT LIKE THAT.
IT IS ABHORRENT TO THEM.
They remember being under Lenin and Stalin where families were turned against each other for the "Purity of the State", and the millions of men, women, and children who suffered and died because of such atrocities.
These stories have been handed down now for nearly a hundred years, and are a part of their infamous history and culture, THE SAME WAY  that how we currently treat disfellowshipped people AND THEIR FAMILIES has become in the last 50 years.
In jANUARY 1947, a year after a World War to abolish and destroy tyranny ....  there were articles in the Watchtower about how Catholics excommunication of people institutionally was an abomination, and that disfellowshipping was immoral, and unscriptural. I have a copy of that article I will attach of there is disbelief, or you can look it up yourself.  If I find it, I will add it at a later time as an edit.
Different Cultures view different things as having COMPLETELY different importances.
There is the old story ( possibly true?) about Americans on Safari somewhere in Africa  who saw a tribal lawbreaker executed with spears for something he did, and they were HORRIFIED at the ceremonial brutality of it. 
Later that night, the tribal Chief came to the Americans and expressed his horror ... as he had heard that in America, they put people in cages for the rest of their lives, for similar crimes .. and he wondered how an obviously advanced Society COULD BE SO CRUEL?
Horror depends on what you are USED to.
I understand a great deal about cultural differences ... and understand how Putin could HONOR an INDIVIDUAL FAMILY before the nation for raising up exemplary children ... yet disdain and condemn an INSTITUTION, that to punish ONE person, turns family members against each other ... FOREVER.
As the Presiding Head of the Australian Royal Commission on Child Abuse, No. 54  asked of Governing Body member Geoffrey Jackson under sworn testimony in court  ( paraphrased) " Don't you understand that that is CRUEL?"

Although it would be true to say that a modification in many cases has placed a very effective gas -blasting vent at the top of the body, a few inches below the eyes........
 
Anyway, stay on topic! This thread is about passing plates...not wind!

It's a crying SHAME when civil governments have the moral High Ground.

After carefully examining BOTH photos .. both are in color, as the carpet behind the black and white leaflet is in color ... one does not appear to me to be a counterfeit of the other.
If you went to the grocery store and got your change in Monopoly Money, you could not make the case that it was  a counterfeit of REAL national currency, either ... unless of course you thought Monopoly Money was REAL money, which would only mean you need to get out more.
There is a magazine in Germany called STERN, which in August 1991, had  a stunningly beautiful photo of a model named Petite Pascale, who had also posed for PLAYBOY MAGAZINE sometime before that, on the cover .
When the WTB&TS stole this picture from the cover of STERN magazine, and put it on page 93 of their book "You Can Live Forever On A Paradise Earth", that was not a counterfeit ... either.
It was plagerism.
It was theft.
It was incredibly clueless and STUPID ... but it was NOT "counterfeiting"
If you had a USA One Dollar Bill with a picture of ex-president's wife Barbara Bush ... instead of George Washington ...
THAT would be counterfeiting.
 
 

After carefully examining BOTH photos .. both are in color, as the carpet behind the black and white leaflet is in color ... one does not appear to me to be a counterfeit of the other.
If you went to the grocery store and got your change in Monopoly Money, you could not make the case that it was  a counterfeit of REAL national currency, either ... unless of course you thought Monopoly Money was REAL money, which would only mean you need to get out more.
There is a magazine in Germany called STERN, which in August 1991, had  a stunningly beautiful photo of a model named Petite Pascale, who had also posed for PLAYBOY MAGAZINE sometime before that, on the cover .
When the WTB&TS stole this picture from the cover of STERN magazine, and put it on page 93 of their book "You Can Live Forever On A Paradise Earth", that was not a counterfeit ... either.
It was plagerism.
It was theft.
It was incredibly clueless and STUPID ... but it was NOT "counterfeiting"
If you had a USA One Dollar Bill with a picture of ex-president's wife Barbara Bush ... instead of George Washington ...
THAT would be counterfeiting.
 
 

QUITE OFTEN .... I quote Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin, and other assorted monsters.
And I have not committed genocide in ..oh, say ... AT LEAST three weeks!

I rest my case ....

You seem to be unclear completely clueless on what constitutes proof, reason, and logic.
You have supplied NOTHING for consideration that even PRETENDS to be proof, or reason, or logic.
I suggest you get an outdoor hobby.

Every once in awhile ... even a blind pig finds an acorn.

In order NOT to be labeled a liar and a slanderer, Alessandro Corona ... and justifiably so ... you are going to have to PROVE EVERY ASPECT of those statements you just made. 
YOU PERSONALLY ... not just waving your hand at a PDF file link.
I assume you did not just pull them out of your imagination.
Please supply enough detailed overview and references that your seemingly OUTRAGEOUS claims may be INDEPENDENTLY checked by the average, reasonable person.
If you do not ... and it WILL take some work .... your credibility is ZERO.
...by the way, I did read about 55 pages of that PDF, and concluded that it is the rantings of a man quite mad.

The headline is similar to one I saw in "The National Inquirer" at a supermarket many years ago ...
" ELVIS' LOVE CHILD FOUND IN WATERMELON!"
A almost bought the "newspaper", but reasoned I would have to shower afterwards ....

Still going forward?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/01/10/watch-the-pentagons-new-hive-mind-controlled-drone-swarm-in-action/?utm_term=.0c802910c121
 

Hahaha, that is hilarious! There must be an  elder like that in every hall, we have one! (And don’t tell me you don’t @Gone Fishing)  The curious thing is, off the platform this brother can be quite crass and has made some rather dirty and inapropriate (as in sexually) remarks about some women to my husband. Maybe when he’s up there he feels the need to make atonement and that’s his way of doing it. A few weeks ago we had a speaker from another hall and in his talk he asked if we thank Jehovah regularly for the Bible and the publications he has authored. To be fair to him, maybe he was nervous and didn’t mean to say it quite this way. In any case, my husband and I looked at each other and he whispered in my ear “I thought Jehovah only authored the Bible”. Sometimes I think some of us say things, as you say, as if it was a “formula”. How many times do you hear friends saying, when there is a disaster, Jehovah protected them etc. when you know that if that was the case, then Jehovah is partial, because he helped brother Albert, but sister Mildred unfortunately got struck by flying debris and died.

Good point again. It's easy to create an over-the-top persona and whip up a pile-on of up-votes to go with it. There appears to be a lot less of this in real life. But it's still something to be careful about. One of the elders in our congregation has created a kind of "formula" at the end of all his prayers over the last few years, where he thanks Jehovah for the Governing Body, then "redundantly" offers thanks for the  wonderful food provided by the Slave, through Jesus Christ. Amen.  He prayed at a backyard bar-b-que this summer and accidentally thanked Jehovah for "this food provided by the Slave."  I thought he meant one of our wives.

Moreover, the confidential letter that you quote as though experiencing sexual climax does no more than expand on the consideration already announced publicly. Witnesses are well used to hearing about how that this or that circuit expense will be met if everyone contributes such and such an amount. This is always followed by the clarification that it is not suggested each member pony up that amount, but rather that the congregation in aggregate do so.
What your 'secret letter' reveals is that even that fair policy is not held fast to. Elders know their flock. A poor congregation can lessen their share. A well-off congregation can increase it. Ours increases it regularly because @The Librariantells them I make a bundle off my books, the meddling hen. But others lessen theirs.
Any Witness stumbling across your coup de grace will come away with increased respect for Bethel's consideration. They will also not be surprised. For decades they have heard about their surpluses benefiting other lands with deficits. They know it is hopelessly out of the reach of many third world congregations to afford their own Kingdom Hall, and they are thrilled to know their funds are spent thereby. Even @James Thomas Rook Jr., who rails about giving up local control of his money, probably does not begrudge that. 
You consistently try to advance the notion that Witnesses are being fleeced by their organization. You consistently have your ears pasted back. In the end you are reduced to saying 'well - you have your opinion. I have mine.' It gets old.

Might be a good time to get that RV out of Yellowstone National Park.  The entire park is the caldera of an ancient volcano.
If it blows at least 5 States will CEASE TO EXIST ... in about 15 minutes.