James Thomas Rook Jr.

The best way to not have any SPIES ...
... is not do anything that needs to be SECRET !

The best way to not have any SPIES ...
... is not do anything that needs to be SECRET !

If you can make it ... it will be something you will remember with awe the REST OF YOUR LIFE ... in great DETAIL ... WITH AWE AND REVERENCE.
Susan and I and my Sister's family are planning to go to Cross Hill, South Carolina, arriving in the early morning of Monday, August 21st, 2017.  This is the exact center of the path of the total eclipse that is impossible not to be able to find. 
We have already bought solar viewing glasses,  ( about $3.00 each), and I am going to buy a solar filter for my camera. We are taking a lunch and supper, as everywhere in a 70 mile wide path of the eclipse will be PACKED with people from all over America to see it.
 
 

The best way to not have any SPIES ...
... is not do anything that needs to be SECRET !

That is SO CRUEL ... and not even a Giant Hamster Exercise Wheel ....

In at least 40 years of my experiences, my experience and conclusions are and have been the same as yours, Noble Berean.
Several times, as an experiment, I wrote about matters as serious as life and death matters .. and enclosed a contribution.  The check was cashed, and I got a form letter back having NOTHING to do with the subject of my inquiry, with a disclaimer at the bottom of the letter that my contribution did not obligate them to do ANYTHING ...
Without the enclosed check, I only received one letter back, circa 1986, after a year, and it said basically I should read the Bible more, completely ignoring the appeal to help other brothers who needed food, and dental care.

@Jay Witness
Didn't notice this until now. What a terrible tragedy. I didn't listen to the report, because I started a couple of others first and realized that they are a little too negative for my taste. I still have a few long-time friends at Bethel, and a couple of them will talk to me about anything. Some of what I get from them is a bit too gossipy but they are firm believers in the idea that 'what you hear in the darkness you should shout from the rooftops.'
I don't know if they knew this sister but there was a definite lack of communication and lack of openness since the middle of last year with one of my friends. I wondered if there was something going on similar to what happened in  late 1979 and early 1980. If they are back to talking openly about anything, maybe they will tell me more about what this sister was doing.
From a Biblical perspective, I don't think an organization like ours has any right to secrecy. I think everything we do, we should be proud to preach about, and humble enough to let others evaluate it, too. And if we do things we are not proud of, these should be shouted from the rooftops so that all of us, even the world, can evaluate it. I'm angry that such a thing could happen. Reminds me of how Scaramucci went flailing and embarrassing himself yesterday because he thought his loyalty to the US president gave him a mandate to just wildly accuse people and it obviously clouded his judgment. I saw the same kind of flailing back in 1979-1982 and I saw good friends lied to back in 1980 as a way to get them to try to turn in their friends, and I saw political scheming behind the scenes that would have even scared off a lot of good Bethelites if they had been able to see what was going on in closed doors right around them.
The open court system of Jewish towns and cities mentioned in the Mosaic Law is a much better precedent for Society and congregation decisions than the secrecy we encounter (and are expected to adhere to)  today. The only problem I see is privacy concerns for certain types of cases, yet justice would always have a better chance of prevailing if everyone could be aware of the decision making processes. They say that sausage and apple-cider taste great, but you just don't want to go behind the scenes to see how they are made. I would add religion to the list, until we can learn to be humble enough to expose our processes to scrutiny and proud enough to allow the world to see why we are proud to be Jehovah's Witnesses.

If you can make it ... it will be something you will remember with awe the REST OF YOUR LIFE ... in great DETAIL ... WITH AWE AND REVERENCE.
Susan and I and my Sister's family are planning to go to Cross Hill, South Carolina, arriving in the early morning of Monday, August 21st, 2017.  This is the exact center of the path of the total eclipse that is impossible not to be able to find. 
We have already bought solar viewing glasses,  ( about $3.00 each), and I am going to buy a solar filter for my camera. We are taking a lunch and supper, as everywhere in a 70 mile wide path of the eclipse will be PACKED with people from all over America to see it.
 
 

Nobody, but nobody, assembles their entire membership as JWs did at their most recent Regional Conventions, and reviews detailed scenarios under which child sexual abuse might happen, so that parents can train their children - obviously the first line of defense.
Especially emphasized was the fact the the perpetrator is likely to be someone a child knows and trusts.
If a relative, or friend, or anyone, seems overly attentive to your child. If there are tickling sessions. If there are sleepovers. If there are trips alone to the public restroom. If ....there were several others. These are all potential red flags,  maybe harmless, but maybe not, for the parent to be aware of. 'The wise one sees the [potential] calamity approaching, and takes action' is the verse repeatedly applied.
JTR saw it too. But he likes his cartoon and wants to spin it around the world a few more times. 

The following cartoon has been around the world
MANY times, and SAYS IT ALL ... a TRAGIC comedy of errors.

I am crazy. I know I am.

Glad to see you are posting again (or maybe I havent been around much). I always enjoy your pictures, comments and offbeat humour. I don't even know where you come up with this stuff (ie X-ray head with fish floating around in it...high-healed flippers...) Always good for a smile - and some insightful comments and observations too. Was worried you were being "leaned on" by "the man"  when it seemed you had stopped posting. 

b4ucuhear:
I find your logic and reasoning irrefutable .
The "stoplight" analogy applies to many things.
Thank you for another arrow in my quiver!

TTH:
Well, I am big .. 290 pounds, and tall, also .. 6'-6" tall ... and I have over the past five years or so posted about 7,000 comments on the archive ... but I do not care if anyone likes my posts or not, but I do smile when they do.
That is to say, I do not write for anyones' approval.
As far as a reward goes .. even when tied to a stake, and they stack brush and firewood around your legs, the reward for telling it like I see it ... is self respect. 
We are all, to the best of available information, going to die anyway .. so why fret about it.
Years ago (1969) while driving from Virginia to California, I stopped in Georgia at a random Piggly Wiggly convenience store to buy some milk and Hostess pies for breakfast, and some guy said to me "Hi Tom!, Howareya doing! Still taking photographs?" ( I used to be a professional photographer at that time.). It so startled me I mumbled something I do not remember. I remember the store  but I do not remember anything about the person except he was male, and about my age.
In 1977 Warren Publications put out a fictionalized version of my life's adventures, ( The Rook ) but other than getting the working  clothing correct, not much else had any relationship to this spacetime continuum. I still have the black vest and pants and hat, but nothing fits anymore except the hat.
I lament that if someone does visit parallel universes, that aging does not stop, and is cumulative.  Bummer!
Back when I had a beard, and looked quite a bit like former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, during the Reagan Presidency, I  was in a Home Depot in North Carolina, and I saw a black couple staring at me and talking to each other, and I grinned, knowing they were going to come up and ask if I was C. Everett Koop.
Sure enough, they came up to and asked "Are you Tom Rook?" . 
That disoriented me.
I replied I was, but had NO IDEA who they were. They told me, but I forgot ... but they said they had met me ten years before at a Kingdom Hall at "somebodys" wedding .. who I also forgot.
I guess I am just not a "people person".
JTR
.
.
 Oh .... and thanks for letting me live rent free in your head.
.
 

Yeah .... if he is drooling, stabbing the seat cushions with a knife, and brings a lunch to the 2017 Convention with fingers sticking out, they may need to reconsider the microphone thingy.
There are PLENTY of examples of men in the Bible who slaughtered each other in wars, conflicts and assassinations ... AND THEY ALL HAD BEARDS!
 

Well put and very true. Individuals who are proud, ambitious, want to be adored...do not have the humility to do that work and even when they do, everyone knows about it (whether by title or otherwise. That's where you find members of the "Secret Service.")               Thankfully we have many others - both pioneers and publishers - who are a joy to spend the days with and love being out in the ministry. . 

I can guess who you mean, but I don't remember reading anything like that from his first book, which I must have read at least 80% of. I never read his second book, but I have skimmed portions. Was this from one of those books, or a later interview?
The reason I ask is that when you first mentioned the "free riders" I was about to respond to the following quote (see quote below) with just "Interesting theory."
The reason I was so tempted to answer this flippantly is because (even if you were right) I was also pretty sure that these were the ones who rose to the very top of the food chain at Bethel, and I don't mean the "spiritual" food chain, even if that's how most of us want to see it. Those who turned their ministry skills into public speaking skills became almost totally inactive or unenthusiastic about any part in the ministry outside of "full-time bureaucratic service." In a very unofficial capacity, I visited just about every branch in Europe in 1978 and 1980. Between those same years, all the branch overseers from around the world visited Brooklyn in several sets, and we not only heard most of them speak, we also sat with them and talked to them at meals, and hosted some in our NYC congregations and even helped host meals for some in local NYC congregations.
Naturally, many were just amazingly full of love and encouraging experiences. You just wanted to go back to their country with them and share the joy. But I have also never met so many cold bureaucrats who never wanted to go from door-to-door again in their life. Also, the current brothers who are named "Helpers" of the Governing Body, well, most of these were working their way up the bureaucratic and political ladders at Bethel in 1980 and the personality similarities among many of them. I shouldn't say, so I won't.
Brothers that I admired at Bethel were the ones who were obviously still active in the "field" even if this seemed incongruent with their assignments at Bethel. My wife and I both loved Brother Rusk dearly, because he was a loving, fatherly type who would do anything for you, and he continued to conduct Bible studies with interested persons from the start right up to the point of baptism, without reminding them that he was also the Watchtower editor or the blood-transfusion expert. Other brothers, including several of my friends who had been on the Aid Book project, and who were the most productive at writing Watchtower articles and "Book-Study" publications, worked closely with brothers in their foreign language congregations, and juggled their work in Writing with a lot of responsibility and work at all levels in their local congregation. For years, I had respect for R.Franz for the same reason. It was well known that he had this unassuming humility that allowed him to work actively in his current Spanish congregation in much the same way he had done while in missionary work in the Dominican Republic. I'd be surprised if he didn't put in "auxiliary pioneer" hours while handling his assignments on the Governing Body and in Writing. And yet, a brother I worked for who was also on the Governing Body would NEVER go out in service until, several years after I left, he became nearly invalid and confined to a wheelchair, and then his wife started to wheel him around Brooklyn Heights with a couple of magazines pinned to him. 

Why?
.... because "Guardians of the Doctrine" ALWAYS forget that the acronym G.O.D.  does not make them  .....  GOD.

There is a very simple test to see if the allegations that the Society confiscates private property of its followers is true ... or is NOT true.
The Brothers (and Sisters) who saved up or borrowed money to build their Kingdom Halls locally, and used their sweat and time to build it .. often with the help of Friends ... do they specifically have the right to sell it as they see fit, and use the money as they see fit?
Yes, or no?
You only "own" something, when you can control its use, and disposition. And when you pay off any mortgage, to reap the fruits of your labor. It works the same way when buying and selling cars.
I, as an example, am a home owner ... I own my house, although I borrowed money from my bank to buy the house. If I decide to sell my house ... the bank DOES NOT get the value of property, beyond the amount of my loan obligation. I look foward to the day my mortgage is paid off, even if I am not here to see it.
For those in Rio Linda, that means "died".
Today, how do mortgages work with respect to Kingdom Halls?
If my bank one day unilaterally should cancel the loan, I would naturally ( confusedly) have no objection, because I would STILL OWN THE HOUSE.
But I would wonder what nefarious scheme they have in mind for getting THEIR money.
Today, how do mortgages work with respect to Kingdom Halls?
If, however, my bank could unilaterally cancel the loan, or usurp my right to sell it .... but until the end of time, I had to make equivalent payments each month, as "contributions", that would show that in reality THEY owned the house.
.... ursurp my right is euphemistic for confiscate ...  which means STEAL!
I would have become merely a sheep to be sheared all the days of my life, and my wife's life, and my children's lives etc., thankful that they did not also unilaterally decide to EAT ME.
Today, how does this all work with respect to Kingdom Halls?
The reality is that my house would have been confiscated, (stolen from me...) as I, my wife, and children no longer had control over it.. and I no longer owned it.
Years ago, I was in the Congo, where the government of Mobutu Sese Seko "nationalized"  the sheep.
If in driving down a dirt road near Kananga, I  accidentally killed some of the Government's sheep (which the Zairian citizens were allowed to shepherd and tend...), it was a federal crime.
If a Zairian citizen  accidentally hit and killed a sheep, it was tantamount to treason.
I was told by my employer that if I hit a sheep while driving, to get to a British Embassy as quick as possible, as the U.S. Embassy was never any help at all.
Does any or all of this sound familiar?
Yes, or no?
 
 
 
 

If you can make it ... it will be something you will remember with awe the REST OF YOUR LIFE ... in great DETAIL ... WITH AWE AND REVERENCE.
Susan and I and my Sister's family are planning to go to Cross Hill, South Carolina, arriving in the early morning of Monday, August 21st, 2017.  This is the exact center of the path of the total eclipse that is impossible not to be able to find. 
We have already bought solar viewing glasses,  ( about $3.00 each), and I am going to buy a solar filter for my camera. We are taking a lunch and supper, as everywhere in a 70 mile wide path of the eclipse will be PACKED with people from all over America to see it.
 
 

..... LISTENS TO THE CRICKETS CHIRPING IN THE BACKGROUND .......

Wrong Question:
Was this INSTITUTIONAL disfellowshipping against as it is practiced today ... destroying whole family relationships, up and down generational lines, and across extended families?
NO!   .... That would be as the Russians view it ... an EXTREME view ... on a slippery slope to  societal ruin.
There may be mitigating circumstances that Elders cannot even comprehend ... or wrap their minds around.
If I unrepentedly shot my mother to death , I should be disfellowshipped forever .. but by WHO?
If I unrepentedly  shot her because she was burning to death in a car fire, and there was no way to get her out ... all sane people would exonerate me ... except Pharisee types divorced from reality.
The world is full of INFINITE VARIETY, and NO ONE can evaluate it all correctly.
Justice we get from Jehovah God ... all else is due process .... ONLY!
Institutionally, we should get out of the judge, jury, and "execution" business, leaving punishment to Jehovah, and the properly trained consciences of those professing True Christianity, as individuals.
OR WHY HAVE A TRAINED CONSCIENCE AT ALL! ?
Institutional disfellowishipping only has one REAL purpose ... the way it is handled today ... to inspire fear of rebellion against the authority that has self-appointed themselves into as much ultimate power as the State will allow ... for NOW.

My husband says the cranberry dolphin thing is fake?  Please check if it is fact..... then let me know.... if it is true I will paste on FB

TTH:
Well, you certainly topped anything I had to say, with my measly 5 years experience ...
My last posts about ONLY Sanitary Engineerin, and was NOT about me ... it was about the fact that those who "walk through sewers"  perform a necessary and even VITAL function for all Civilization, and that I knew what I was talking about, having designed them.
Physical sewer systems, or philosophical sewer systems .... it works the same.
Otherwise.... neither your pipes nor your theology will "hold water".
As usual, in your last two posts, you picked up on the buzz words, misquoted me with vulgarity, and made a tirade based solely on your continued and sustained predilection for irrelevancy,
By the way ... designing and building and maintaining potable water systems is NOT Sanitary Engineering.
I used to design BOTH.
BOTH come under the label of "Civil Engineering"
One is a pressure system for drinking water .. the other is a gravity sewer system for crap and wastewater.
It's best to know what you are talking about so you do NOT get them mixed up.

Few things in this world really frighten me ... but THAT philosophy is one of them.