James Thomas Rook Jr.

I think a JW artist at Bethel pulled a fast one.
In this month's WT, in the article "Why Worship God", the opening picture shows  a Jew, or "somebody"  looking at the Pleiades Star  Constellation ... if my memory of the sky, and of the WT are correct.  
My suit coat is out in the car, and it's too much trouble to check.
 

The Mormons (what is it that I've got with the Mormon's - I seem to bring them up all the time) believe God resides on a planet and that when we die we will have our very own too! Maybe you can put your name in for Pleiades

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JWI:
I STRONGLY suspect that in the great majority of cases where a person professes loyalty to those that deliberately pervert Justice and Truth in order not to be embarrassed, or sued, and to maintain their positions of authority, and keep the money rolling in  .... it is because they themselves are afraid of punishment for "disloyalty" ... having their reputations ruined, and their families destroyed.
No one LIKES being "burned at the stake for a witch".
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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.

Anything with significant upside is likely to have a downside.
 
Some of these things are like State's laws still on the books to regulate some arcane practice that has long been discontinued, like "no ice cream cones on Sundays" it is not necessary to repeal each one. Not reiterating it is enough.
That said, i was somewhat bummed when they doubled down on toasting after I had hoped it would go the way of all the earth. At a non-Witness wedding reception, our table of Witnesses was caught flat-footed when a crew came around to record everyone toasting to the bride. Had I had my wits about me, I would have rose and said: "We don't toast but we want to to wish the bride the greatest joy in life & we thank her for the honor of inviting us & etc etc." That's all they wanted. No need to explain toasting. Instead, I just sat there and looked a bit dumb.

I know that the counsel about not exposing dirty laundry is sincere, and for this I thank you. As far as I can tell, such counsel should not apply to this particular situation. Obviously, then, we see our duty in this regard quite differently, and so, in the spirit of 1 Peter 3:15,  I feel I should explain. 
The dirty laundry is already hung up for everyone to see. This is the Internet. Anyone can simply Google the information claimed in the original post of this topic, and they will discover that there is plenty more information out there. As usual, some of it is true and some of it is false.
So we are back to discussing the old dilemma about whether we should reveal truth in response to falsehood, or just ignore it. For the most part, we just ignore it. But there are times when it is obvious that the person posting does not necessarily know that the claims contain false charges. Or perhaps they know for sure that the information is skewed toward the false but that there is still some truth in it, and yet, other people who read the skewed information may not know what to believe. Perhaps they think it's all true, or all false. Perhaps their first instinct is to call the whole thing "rubbish." But what if calling something "rubbish" is not really honest either, because perhaps it contains more truth than falsehood? Is there any value to pointing out the error? What if an interested person who has Googled the information now sees us as a people who are just too anxious to cover up facts?
Through private messaging on this forum someone just asked me why I think JWs have so much turnover. I know that we are always anxious to say that our moral standards and expectations are very high and we are expected to judge those people who leave on their own as persons who just didn't want to live up to those expectations. But in speaking to many of these persons, we often come away with a different picture. I think it's more of a matter of realizing that nothing is quite as perfect as it appears at first. When people first study and are baptized, it is with the understanding that we have the only true religion in the entire earth. Therefore, it is expected to be the most perfect. Even though they are warned that it isn't perfect, it still sets up the highest expectations. Then they learn that not all the brothers and sisters live up to the moral standards as well as they expected. They learn about or perhaps see examples of lack of love, or even racism, shunning, child abuse, or gossip. When they are disappointed, they often start to believe that there is no religion that is really what it claims to be, and they often leave all religion altogether. In spite of the focus of ex-JWs online, I think it's rarely about past JW or IBSA history, or related issues with doctrine.
If this were merely about the error of a brother or sister who made a false step in the past, then we would do best to just ignore it. Love covers a multitude of sins. But what if the errors are being denied specifically because it would reflect on the trustworthiness of current doctrine?
That last question reminds me of your own statement here:
Does telling the truth about the past undermine respect for information we now get from the same channel? What you said appears to be an inadvertent admission that it does. If it does, then it is probably all the more important that we offer a true and honest perspective. I should mention that personally, I don't even see much real importance in wallowing in the problems of yesterday or last week, much less the problems of 100 years ago. This applies to the Governing Body, too. I know that one person here often comments that no one should try to use the past examples of Bible Students to shed light on our current beliefs as JWs, even if we consider the same "Governing Body" to have begun in 1919. But I don't even consider the Governing Body of last year to be the exact same "channel" as the Governing Body of this year, even if they be the same persons. That's partly because none of us are expected to be the same from day to day:
(2 Corinthians 4:16-18) 16 . . .  certainly the man we are inside is being renewed from day to day. . . . 18 while we keep our eyes, not on the things seen, but on the things unseen. For the things seen are temporary, but the things unseen are everlasting. On the other hand, it must necessarily be the case that if an honest approach to the Governing Body's past can undermine the respect for the present Governing Body, then this is almost a direct admission that both the present and the past is being misrepresented. And, of course, it's easy to show that we regularly misrepresent our past almost every time we print a book about it or make a claim about it. We do it as individual humans and we do it as an organization. It's a common human failing to want to be seen as better than we really are. It's what's behind the instinct to call something "obviously rubbish" and "nonsensical gobbledygook" even if it's more true than false. (That's the reason that I included that paragraph about Rutherford that you reviewed as you did. In fact, there was a lot more truth to it than falsehood. Not just as a Bible Student, but as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, Rutherford really did believe that the holy spirit was no longer available to us after 1918, and that new truths could now be revealed with the direct help of angels. And the idea that Jehovah's throne was in Alcyone, the brightest star of Pleiades, was still being promoted and taught from the 1880's into the 1930's, and not dropped officially until well into Knorr's presidency in November 1953. Details available upon request.)
One of the most dangerous problems among many Witnesses that we can see today is the equivalence that is made between the Governing Body and Jehovah. Surely this is what serves the same interests of the one behind spiritism. Idolatry is also something Jehovah hates.
On this forum, several persons who have presented themselves as sincere Witnesses have recently said that the way we "follow the Lamb wherever he goes," is to follow the Governing Body wherever they go. They have said that they would rather follow the Governing Body into KNOWN ERROR than to accept the Bible where it is known to differ from the current teachings of the Governing Body. The slave has become greater than his master. Witnesses here have defended having this kind of faith in men even where they KNOW personally that something is amiss.
This is a good reason to be completely honest, and not try to whitewash either the present or the past. I think it's important to show that we are not trying to please men, and to make it clear why we should NOT put our faith in princes, nobles, or any humans, where we feel that faith is related to salvation:
(Psalm 146:3) “Do not put your trust in nobles, nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs." (Luke 16:15) “. . .For what is considered exalted by men is a disgusting thing in God’s sight."

..the only thing that confuses me is why the airplane has so many CLOCKS!

Well, after viewing that GIF, you've convinced ME!
( pours handful of pills back into bottle, and gives the glass of milk to the cat ....)

The Governing Body in Warwick lets outsiders use their Lobby telephones
so they can call up and talk to dead relatives.
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From Tel Aviv, a three minute phone call is $4250.00
From Salt Lake City, a three minute phone call is $11,200.00.
From the Vatican, a three minute phone call is an even $25,000.00.
From Warwick, a three minute phone call is free.
... it's a local call.

I often cite myself for convenience to bring ideas into the pool the eyes are swimming in at the time, and not having to have someone scroll up , say, 15 posts to try and FIND the basis for my current reply, or idea. 
As has been demonstrated many many, many times over the past months when you attack something I have said, it is based on the fact that you did not even understand what I had said to begin with, and were ranting against your projected mis-interpretation of what you THINK I said.
I expect to be challenged on EVERY WORD I say, as  I disagree with almost everyone on almost everything ... so no problem with THAT ...
... but mashup false premises attributed to me can sometimes be avoided if I "use hand puppets and crayons" for that great majority of people who cannot visualize sentences, and therefore have low reading comprehension skills.
In grammer, as in real life, often  .. "Quod est necessarium, est licitum"
"That which is necessary, is legal".

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.

Whew!
I enlarged the picture of the JW Warwick cuff links .....
It's a construction crane, not what I thought!

Well, after viewing that GIF, you've convinced ME!
( pours handful of pills back into bottle, and gives the glass of milk to the cat ....)

Sort of like a "temporary tattoo", eh?

I think this was mentioned somewhere in Revelation .....

How do you think it made the friends in Russia feel when they knew every one of their 8 MILLION or so friends outside of Russia sent an average of five letters each, and sent perhaps 100 million heartfelt prayers to Jehovah for the Russian courts to allow religious freedom for them in Russia, and NONE of it was effective?
How do you think it made the friends in Russia feel if they knew every one of their 8 MILLION or so friends outside of Russia sent 56 MILLION DOLLARS  to the Russian Government, and that their mail was NOT delivered, or even read, but sits somewhere on a railroad siding in Russia to be burned as fuel for Russian furnaces this winter, or taken to a landfill somewhere and thrown away?
How do you think it made the friends in Russia feel when they realized that their earnest and heartfelt prayers and the prayers of 8 million or so Jehovah's Witnesses for their religious freedom in Russia was NOT ANSWERED?
Spin THAT one!

Maybe there is a place for a frequent passing of a rattling plate in your neck of the woods. 

I noticed in the "New System Weekly" , under "Pets", Item 2, that someone wants to swap his  tiger for a kangaroo.
Probably has a LOT of straw piling up that the carnivores are not eating and many of his other pets have ........ "vanished mysteriously".

Mostly during the mid-week meetings, my head also nods up and down continuously, as does my wife's.  Sometimes I will pat her on the opposite shoulder, or she will discreetly stick me with a ball point pen

I agree with that 100% ... but it is based on the assumption that down here in the dirt streets, we are on the RIGHT street ... and the dirt has not evolved into ruts and quagmires of mud.
However, at the current time it appears that Jehovah's Witnesses are the "only game in town", but like Bethlehem, even Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had to flee to Egypt for awhile when things got to dangerous for them when the wrong people were ruling Israel.
They returned later, after the cruelty had subsided.

I think this agrees with this part of JWI's statement quoted by Anna: "It's OK for others to change their religion, because that is obviously the point of the Greek Scriptures about conversion and baptism. But it's not OK for any of us to change our religion, because it's akin to: Hebrews 6:4-6 and 2 Peter 2:20-22  So, scripturally, there appears to be no problem with the belief itself that this is only a one-way street".

Of course ... evidence of THAT will be unmistakable .... no need at all for any interpretation or explanation.
It will be instantly self-evident.
Until then ... they are having a grand old time spending the 56 MILLION DOLLARS they were forwarded by the Universal Postal Union as their share of the  80 MILLION DOLLARS in international postage spent to send them letters to help with prayers to achieve religious liberty for the Brotherhood in Russia, recently.
  ( The terminal duty for Russian International postage ... the amount they get for delivering mail from other countries to addresses in Russia is 70% of the face value of the postage affixed...).
And the 11 boxcars filled with mail ... sitting on a railroad siding somewhere in Russia, will keep a LOT of Russians in "fuel at the proper time" in their cast-iron pot bellied stoves this winter.
If they DO send a thank-you letter to the governing Body in Warwick, they can send it by diplomatic mail franking, and not spend a single kopeck (1/100 of a Ruble ... their equivalent of a penny) for postage.
They may have to spend SOME of the money the Brotherhood gave them for meds to stop the uncontrollable laughter.

Some people go to college six years to make some reaaaaaly cool candles, man.
Some people go to college because it was expected of them, by parents who paid for it.
Some people go to college because they KNOW through pain, disappointment and many tears they are not sharp, intelligent, or coordinated and strong enough to survive any other way.
Through the genetic lottery, and no fault of their own ...  they are naturally incompetent at everything, and need to be TRAINED to do something that will pay the bills, or to become educated enough to be able to survive in a normal conversation without being pitied or being made fun of.
Through grit and hard work, incredible years of hard work, they LEARN to survive in a hostile world without being a burden on others, and have productive lives of true worth, REAL self respect,  and REAL earned dignity. 
Those are the people that NEED college ... and have my REAL admiration.
... also the REAL admiration of employers.
Not everyone can be a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs .... and that is a fact.
They changed the world .... most of us just do not want to be buried early.
 
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