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TrueTomHarley

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  1. TrueTomHarley
    And me, who gives him credit and properly frames his deed: http://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2010/11/did-jesus-die-on-a-cross.html
  2. TrueTomHarley
    One thing I like about @AllenSmithis that he does not yield the moral high ground. Why should he? I will concede that for one brief instant of time it may be that this or that advocate seems more a protector of a child than its congregation organization. But not too long after his or her back is turned, that child is tossed right back into an unprotected cesspool. The world has compiled a list of abusers that is so long it is absolutely worthless to enforcement. Consequently, being put on 'the list' is largely a matter of revenge or public shamimg - not undeserved, but it does nothing to solve the problem of protecting children. To some extent, it has devolved into a job machine and a platform for grandstanding politicians to declare how they are tough on pedophiles. England's top cop recently recommended all men found with pedophilia on their computers not be prosecuted. It pained him to say it, he said, but the simple fact is that there is so many that police cannot possibly keep up and are distracted from monitoring the real nasty ones - the ones who they say are like Medusa - look at it once, and your heart turns to stone. All the time, we hear of children abused by persons who were already on the list - why - they were right down the street! The world chokes on its abusers. For that matter - the world is so nuts - it ought to put every victim on the list as well, or at least on a watch list, for it is common knowledge that an abused one readily becomes an abuser. Completely unfair - but it makes perfect sense for a world that thinks it can snuff out abuse through pedophile registries. Rapists are the ones who should be aggressively punished. No punishment is too great. As to the rest - look, even someone who recently confessed to being a victim of an extended family member - it probably would not have happened in these days of Caleb and Sophia, who are told: "If anybody tries to touch you - even if it is someone you know and trust ... and then tell mommy or daddy." An extended family member doing abuse is common. A parent doing it is very uncommon, except in the case of a step-parent. The training of every Witness in the world via the Regional convention would also have gone a long way to prevent her calamity. Allen is right to never yield the high ground. It is a huge court mess the brothers dealing with and I don't know how it will resolve, but Allen will not allow others to pull the 'righteous' card. Even with this mess, we are more righteous than they. The court cases are a classic example of getting slammed for doing the right thing: monitoring any abuser so that they can be punished and any other congregations protected by their slipping in and feigning innocence. Nobody else even tries it. Do they have 1 abuser per hundred, or 50 per 100? Nobody knows or wants to know. Only Jehovah's Witnesses have the courage to stand up to a moral outrage and they should not be maligned for it.
  3. TrueTomHarley
    It explains (to me) many things, or at least puts them in a different light. You are rather bold to share it, even anonymously.
  4. TrueTomHarley
    I didn't view the videos. Perhaps I will in time. For now, I'll take @Gone Fishing's word that they are a bit "out there." The Kingdom Hall is a building dedicated to pure worship. Many things that are not disapproved in themselves nonetheless are not sponsored there because that is not the purpose of the building. To some extent, they would water down the purpose. Understood. Thank you. We spend decades coming to grips with our past. Almost always it consists of separating the wheat from the chaff - after figuring out which is which. Sometimes we even walk back on that initial figuring. That does happen sometimes here. This is a rough and tumble site, that features black, white, and many shades of gray. I have made similar mistakes. I appreciate that this remark was not directed to me, but at another place, time, and person, it could have been. This shows restraint. It is a quality not everyone has. If you like, you can send it to me. Do not feel you have to.
  5. TrueTomHarley
    Going big, are you? Here is a fine scene from 'Network.' photo: beforeitsnews.com
  6. TrueTomHarley
    Some of the silliest people on the planet are celebrities. All of them, really, except our handful. They lead very atypical lives. They are not subject to the same pressures of everyone else. Their opinions don't matter.
  7. TrueTomHarley
    Go ahead, lady. Make my day.
  8. TrueTomHarley
    11. Eat plenty of beans
  9. TrueTomHarley
    God said to Rookie: "Go down to Nineveh and kick some butt." So Rookie proceeded to board a nuclear-armed ship headed for Tarshish and slipped a few nukes into his holster. In time, God sent a big fish to make trouble. "Die, sucker!" Rookie screamed, as he blew the beast to smithereens. Rookie approached Nineveh and the gates were closed. So he cut them it two with blasts from his guns. King Ninny wet himself as Rookie put a gun to his temple. "You feel lucky today, punk?' he sneered. "Well, do ya?" King Ninny ran to the intercom. "Attention all Ninevites. Mayday! Mayday! Rookie is in town! Get that sackcloth on! Rookie slammed his gun back into its holster and popped open a nice cool beer to enjoy under the gourd tree. God said: "That King Ninny got those people to straighten out and fly right. I'm not going to smush anyone." "Oh, for crying out loud!" Rookie cried in disgust. "Are you wimping out on me?"
  10. TrueTomHarley
    Don't ever disappear like that again! We were worried sick! I was concerned that you had taken Amos 7:12, which we just covered at the meeting, to heart: O visionary, go, run away to the land of wherever , earn your bread there, and there you may prophesy. But you must no longer prophesy [about] Bethel.”
  11. TrueTomHarley
    It has long been common knowledge that Hollywood was a cesspool but no insider would rat on anyone else. At last the dam has broken and these guys are falling all over themselves to swear, like Sergeant Shultz, that they knew nothiiiinnnnggggg! (some are wetting themselves thinking that they are up next) When the world at last wakes up to a problem, it swings wildly the other way. In this case rapists are lumped together with harassers, who are lumped together with those whose misdeeds were once called "getting fresh." Few women ever appreciated men getting fresh, I think, but they did not mistake that for rape. It is similar with widespread condemnation of the founding fathers. Revered for centuries, they are now reviled because they kept slaves, notwithstanding that every agricultural person of means kept slaves at that time - and with no regard for whether they were kindly or vicious administrators. It is the same with the world's outrage over child sexual abuse, now at full boil. Whenever zealots catch the wave, they invariably apply today's enlightenment to criminalize those of the past, as Alan points out. Sodomizers are the same as those too free with their hands who are the same as those who learned of it but practiced nothing themselves. Notwithstanding that back in my day child protective agencies sent abused children right back into the homes of the parents who abused them, in the naive belief that the abuser could be rehabilitated. It is naive by today's standards, but it was enlightened at the time. The world's record of protecting children is absolutely dismal. News reports indicate a breathtaking percentage of adults have abused children. That is why the education of children on how to protect themselves is essential, as is the education of parents on how to protect their children. Nobody does that better than Jehovah's Witnesses, who trained every member in the world via last summer's convention. That addresses 95% of the problem. All that remains is to take out the sodomizers. If the world was serious about justice, it would apply capital punishment to such ones, for the common wisdom is that these persons cannot be rehabilitated.
  12. TrueTomHarley
    For your information, James, I have never engaged in despicable trolling. I do admit, however, to the occasional dignified perusal of internet resources in search of fatheads to set straight.
  13. TrueTomHarley
    Minimal. Someone will be the successor of the Acts 15 older men setting policy in the first century and even issuing "decrees." I see no one with a better claim to that role than they.
  14. TrueTomHarley
    If there is a silver lining in this mess it is that soon every fifth person in the world will be on the pedophile list. If there is another, it is that allegations of sexual impropriety involving prominent persons are a staple of life today. If you hate the person, you agree with the allegation. If you love the person, you disagree with it. James Carville, Bill Clinton's campaign manager, said: "Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find." Does one believe him? For the most part, it depends upon whether one likes Bill Clinton or not. The same can be said for almost any high-profile figure. JW things thereby become a tiny drop in the bucket, for it is exceedingly rare for an elder to be the accused perpetrator - when an abuse settlement was reached in 2007, the number given was nine in the span of 100 years. Usually they are accused of simply coming across the knowledge of abuse.It is not good, perhaps, but it is a far cry from being perpetrators themselves - and it would not happen if they had kept their noses out of the conduct of congregation members - as do other religions. God would be cheated that way, for he says keep the congregation clean. But it would be safer from a liability point of view.
  15. TrueTomHarley
    Pride has nothing to do with it.
  16. TrueTomHarley
    These are not bad sentiments, James. Why can't you simply learn yourself - I suspect your kids have mastered it - to acquiesce to headship? Nobody is saying you have to kiss up to it. Just don't torpedo it every chance you get. Anyone adopting orphan children is a hero, regardless of the shots I may take at him otherwise. But will you really portray the most important lesson you will teach them as 85% crap? I fear you will not hold on to them that way. Better to comb through the abundant evidence of first-century misdeeds and blunders and say "our guys are no worse than them, and somehow God made it work."
  17. TrueTomHarley
    I don't want that to happen. Issue them nukes.
  18. TrueTomHarley
    There! Fair and square. Honestly earned. (as are your other posts here) A like!
  19. TrueTomHarley
    You say that it is fallout from doing what no one else has attempted to do: monitor wrongdoing (of all sorts, but here specifically child abuse) so as to accomplish two things, which actually collapse into one. 1.) discover abusers so as to administer discipline, up to and including disfellowshipping, so as so follow God's command to keep congregation as clean as possible, and 2.) keep track of any abusers, so that they cannot slip out of one congregation and into another - as they can anywhere else. You acknowledge missteps have probably occurred. Nonetheless, instances of abuse would never be associated with the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses were that organization like the general world of religion - which takes no interest in the conduct of its members and considers their conduct none of its business. Having said that, the brother who first proposed keeping track of such accused abusers has been assigned to permanent potato-peeling duty in the Bethel basement for upwards of 40 years now, and may be the inspiration for the book: "Forty Years a Watchtower Slave." This is a common response to guard against crazies, not directed towards anyone in particular, to my knowledge. The disciples even locked their doors for a time. Jesus found a way to get around that, but anyone else would have had a hard time. Who knows - maybe even the Texas shooter in the Baptist church would have been dissuaded if he had had to first blast into the building from the outside.
  20. TrueTomHarley
    I have thought the matter over carefully and have decided you are right. At the next Bethel bigwig meeting, assuming that I am invited, I am going to insist upon a Weapons Servant for each congregation. The Weapons Servant will distribute arms to each publisher entering the meeting. Any sissies declining will be subject to counseling. Two elders will do - it is not, in its early stage - a judicial matter. Publishers will be issued tommyguns, Ministerial Servants AK-47s, and elders Missile Launchers. Sisters will get Glock handguns. Children will be issue squirt guns. There is absolutely no question who should be the Weapons Servant in your congregation, but I am not sure of the others. Please forward a list of names. Forward also both scriptures to inspire ones so armed, and scriptures they do well to forget.
  21. TrueTomHarley
    Are there any "JW Gun Free Zones?" How did the Baptist Church of this report become a Kingdom Hall? For that matter, was even the Baptist church a "Gun Free Zone?" Who would originate juvenile stuff like this? The article you cite makes perfect sense and speaks for itself. Then you let every bit of air out of it with a silly cartoon that reveals an agenda.
  22. TrueTomHarley
    I think your definition of 'idolatrous' is off. Right on. Study it. Okay. Everyone else go home.
  23. TrueTomHarley
    If you concede they are humble, have admitted some mistakes, and are tireless workers - and yet you would still be critical of them, you run the risk of being more exacting than God - or less merciful than God. Why would you want to run that risk? For every verse there is about the virtue of arguing, there are ten about acquiescing. For every verse there is about debating, there are ten about obeying. I don't want to hash them all out. You know them as well as I. You don't have to parrot stuff you can't get your head around it. Simply say "I can't get my head around this." Get behind whatever you can. Sit out what you can't. No, but it has that effect. Why go there? As long as you are not obnoxious about it, you are fine. But you sound as though you might be obnoxious about it, buttonholing brothers and trying to convince them how your way is right and theirs is wrong. Yes, you could make trouble for yourself that way. Why do it? These days, perhaps chastened by 1975, they say such things as 'prophesy is best understood after the fact.' They don't do anti-types. That certainly cannot be said to be reckless. Why should you be reckless in their stead - making assertions that may or may not pan out? Say, if you must, 'maybe it will turn out some day that.....' and leave it at that. Unlimited free speech is a Western concept, not a biblical one. The Bible, as you know, speaks of ones whose mouths it it necessary to shut - others who should be muzzled, others rejected after a warning or two for insisting upon their own way. Sure. Nobody has a problem with this. it is setting yourself up as the public avenger of right that will make you trouble. It all boils down to how we are taught. Are we truly 'taught by Jehovah?' Or are we taught by means of clever humans out-arguing each other?
  24. TrueTomHarley
    Understood. I think use of the expressions "tacking" and "the light gets brighter" are tacit admissions that we have been wrong with some things. Prominent ones in Bible times were wrong about many things, too. But I cannot recall one of them apologizing, other than Paul to the high priest, and few here would have demanded such an apology from him. It is enough to occasionally admit to blunders, such as was done with overemphasis on 1975, and cover the rest with tacking and lights getting brighter. Everyone knows that humans are imperfect and make mistakes. What is important is to conduct oneself with humility and to 'pour oneself out' in God's service. This the GB has done, IMO. "Leadership by apology" is the model in vogue today in the Western world. I don't think it is required, nor that it does any good. Honest-hearted persons do not demand it. Persons not honest-hearted are not satisfied with it.
  25. TrueTomHarley
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