TrueTomHarley

This recalls an experience 35 years ago when I studied the Bible with a much older Czeckoslovakian woman, who - in hindsight - must have regarded me as a grandson. One week I could not make it and asked a similarly aged woman, who also professed to be of the annointed, to cover for me. It did not go over well. My student started the study session by offering refreshments - as she always did with me and I always accepted. "My food is to do the will of him who sent me," my sub said, turning down the offer. 'It is theater!' my student sputtered on during the next week's session - whatever the pious sentiments expressed were completely lost on her. 'People are human. They need to eat.'

Sometimes personal attacks, if they are accompanied by the reasons for it, are exactly the way to go. Even raising a strawman is at times appropriate, for 'God wants men of all sorts to be saved' - even strawmen. Shiwiii again: "Why are you sooo bitter?" 'Bitterness' is in the eye of the beholder. I would say that my goal here, and that of many others, is to defend certain dedicated ones from relentless and often infantile attacks.

Shiwiii delivers his coup de grace (this time for sure!) and Witness immediately high-fives him! They are both so excited! Both are either too stupid, too deceitful, or too blinded by hate to notice that the Watchtower's letter is exactly based on the scripture that is quoted in the same paragraph. In fact, the two are intertwined, so that they are seemingly impossible to separate save for someone with an 10-foot ax to grind with which to separate the bone from the marrow of those they cannot tolerate. Is it too harsh to say we are dealing with a couple of losers? In fact, the Watchtower shows more consideration than Paul. Paul simply says 'I'm coming for it - have it ready!' without any detail as to what he will use it for. Why isn't there an account to keep him honest - as has been demanded repeatedly elsewhere?! The Watchtower simply says we can be instructed by Paul's letter - it doesn't twist the arm as he does - and, unlike Paul, it gives the reason for monies needed: for rent and maintenance. Even @Witness, who knows the Bible better than anyone in the whole wide world, especially the Governing Body, and who cannot pour herself a bowl of Cheerios without citing five scriptures to justify it, misses this most obvious point in the world - collections in a congregation have full scriptural backing. Once again,we go back to the point already stated: nobody is less intrusive about money matters than are Jehovah's Witnesses.

I was outraged when I read this! My blood pressure shot to the moon! They had to call NASA! @Shiwiii is right to warn us about this disgusting book - the Bible. How dare Paul TELL the Corinthian congregation AND the Galatian one and probably every other one - what a racket he had going - to set some money aside every day of the week!!! What a greedy self-serving scoundrel! What? Is he trying to pretend God needs it? Why does God need our money. It's ours!! Tell him to keep his grubby hands off it!! Yeah! Sure! You expect me to believe that? He's going to take their kind 'gift' (extorted, if you ask me!) to the Riviera or Las Vegas for some high living - and fly business class to get there!!! Thank you, Shiwiii, for alerted me to this blatant greed and Bible money-loving. You make a fine investigative reporter.

The shrewd student of God's word is not easily tempted by signs of the 'last days.' When someone points to shooting gallery terrorist attacks or imminent World War III, he smiles and moves on. He does not seize upon such low-hanging fruit. It is eye candy, which the evil one dangles before him to get him to jump. It is an intended sucker punch, and he declines to insert his face in the path of the blow. Instead, he follows the subtle pulse of day-to-day reality, and here he finds the proof - 1000 times in doings so subtle that they miss entirely the attention of the average donkey. He recognizes, for example, that in the pond of urine he spies under every urirnal lies sure proof of the decline of humanity. In my entire life, I may have spilled two or three drops of urine. The principles of peeing have been understood from the days of righteous Lot. It is not rocket science - or it is the propulsion theories behind it have long been mastered. Another is seen while driving the very highways and byways of the country. One's eye casually drifts over to the guardrails, with the warm and fuzzy feeling that if you should veer off the road, these mother hens of engineering with ever so gently nudge you back on the road to life, just as @The Librarian gently guides her pupils. What a shock to discover a railing whose end might as well contain the words: 'Hit me and you die!"  Dozens of highly educated engineers have okayed this latest advance in human protection. Score of adminisrators after them. Experts in the field of public safety have said: "I certainly see no problem with that.' Hundreds of people installed them and if they gave feedback - they probably did - their higher-ups rejected it because it came from ignoramuses. The most telling sign of the last days being imminent is uncovered in the trade publications that monitor real estate and use of office space. In a tiny note on page 337 at the bottom right corner is a notation from the Office of the Devil that he has run out of special places in hell.

Well, whose fault is that? And surely that statement can be turned around 180 degrees - with you misunderstanding me. If you are going to say the most offensive things as casually as you breathe air, you cannot sniff and sob that 'nobody understands me' when you are called on it.

Having said what I have said about 1984, I do agree that it applies to you in one regard.

Okay, there is some revisionist writing on this, probably from guys like you so that they can apply it to anyone else they disagree with. Is it valid? Here is from https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/12109/what-happened-to-winston-smith-at-the-end-of-george-orwell-s-1984 "This is one of the scariest part of Nineteen Eighty Four, the fact that The Party is so powerful that it will not even let dissent to be felt in the mind of someone they are about to execute. They are not interested in merely obtaining a confession and punishing dissent, they are not simply interested in scaring others from rebellion, they need the dissenter to repent absolutely and to happily go to their death as fitting punishment for their earlier thoughtcrime. This is a world where The Party believes there is no objective truth outside of Party dogma - if you are told that a man can fly, you will make yourself see it and believe it. A rebellious thought even in a man about to be executed is intolerable. "The Party is even willing to let Winston Smith to live following his torture in Room 101 without needing to work, with more money and living in relative comfort compared to his earlier life until he reaches a state where he truly believes in the Party and loves Big Brother. "The party needs everyone to live their life and eventually die loving Big Brother, and will not execute Winston until this happens..." Has anyone executed you lately? Has anyone tortured you in Room 101? Has anyone said you could live on their dime without working? All you do is bellyache about that job-of-a-lifetime you quit long ago and forevermore regretted. And page after page here from long-time Witnesses indicate that, apart from 100-year-old doctrinal points, they disagree with impunity on everything under the sun & and as long as they do not make themselves obnoxious about it, seeking to gather converts, all is fine. If I join that other fellow who complained about you to @The Librarian, it will not be because you air apostate views (though that does not help). It will be because your remarks betray a mentality so infantile that it is hard to stomach. My comment stands:

Mr. Cos, If you ever want to know the truth of everything, I'd be more than happy to share some of my boundless knowledge with you as my precious time permits. I mean, c'mon! There is such a thing as modesty

If only this fellow could overcome his timidity, he might amount to something. It certainly would elevate Tesla's stature and would be a great PR move in the dual sense - Puerto Rico and Public Relations. He'd better work with Trump, though, and do it after whatever debt is wiped out, and not before.

This fellow knows a lot! I know because he says he does!

You're right. If they must go anywhere, they should go by donkey.

And the evil scheme was all fulfilled with an extra slot at the Kingdom Hall, about a foot from the other slot!!! I swear this is nothing but jealousy. I mean, what's it to Shiwiii? If Jehovah's Witnesses flood the coffers in response to very little prodding, what does he care? Can it be anything more than - alright, I am projecting now, as JTR would say, but you would have to be obtuse not to do it - an intense dislike for the message Jehovah's Witnesses preach, and so a trumped up charge that they are somehow doing it underhandedly, crying crocodile tears with a feigned concern for ones so 'deceived'? All the evidence indicates Witnesses are quite satisfied and don't feel deceived at all. I don't. It is every other interest eternally trying to get in my pocket that I must watch closely for chicanery. The more respected they are, the greater the concern. No Witness would ever make such a charge. They look around and see donated funds being put to good use. They know the GB and ranking Bethelites live in dormitories - nice dormitories, to be sure, but dormitories nonetheless. If they travel, they run up no hotel or restaurant bills. They amass no retirement plans, so should they leave Bethel, their means are very simple (and those who bitch about money collection also bitch about THAT!!!). Nobody makes a dime in salary. There has barely been any concern ever other than newbie @JW Insiderlosing his wallet to a BA deadbeat. And Brother Knorr tried to warn him that could happen, but he was too starry-eyed to pay attention.

Maybe. But Tom is resourceful.

If only she had asked me

Oh, for crying out loud, you do not! 1984 is about a world of 3 totalitarian states, each marionettes pulled by sinister people at the top, who permit no deviation from dictated 'realities', and who physically torture anyone who strays, (in some graphic detail) and then kills them even after they readjust. Only the most paranoid nutcase would apply it to anything having to do with the Christian congregation.

I also noted at the annual meeting that no one seems inclined to shake the foundations, as one of them said: 'if people can't see conditions today and realize how deep we are into the time of the end, well....' or something like that.

No, I think they would fit you in a strait jacket.

The days was going so fine until they had to spoil it with grubbing for money. Four hours! That's how long the annual meeting lasted. Four hours of streaming all the latest. Four hours of of experiences and details and history of building the new headquarters. Then, four talks spreading new light so brilliant it made Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like an overcast day. And then spoiling it all - I couldn't believe it - in the midst of it, 30 seconds of shameless groveling for money. They actually (brace yourselves) - they actually suggested that those present might donate if they wanted to!!!, and (GASP!) they even said where they could do it (at the contribution box)!!!! 30 seconds' mention of money in a four hour period! @Shiwiii is right. It's all about money with these guys. Oh, and that letter Shiwiii spirited out, that he was so excited about sharing - almost wetting himself in excitement? That letter that extra contribution stations should be established? I looked and looked for ours (our meeting was at our Kingdom Hall) and I discovered it! That slot in the counter that used to be designated as the Kingdom Hall fund but was taped over when that fund was combined with the WWW? ... It was UNCOVERED again!!!!! and also labeled Worldwide Work! I tell you, it made Joel Osteen look like Johnny Appleseed! What a shameless example of greed!!!

And yet she could still object to someone 'rude, crude, and a bore!" What an amazing woman.

If @JW Insider didn't have to keep messing with 607 BCE, they probably wouldn't have to rewrite anything!

There was a study - it was not specifically about Witnesses - that concluded the topic studied has much to do with whether students leave the religion of their youth or not. Students in business and engineering do it less. If you combine that with a scenario where you are living at home and not on campus.... If you combine that with a scenario where you do not take on massive debt, thus ensuring you will HAVE to work full time for many years to come, then you maximize your chances of coming out with a net gain. On the other hand, many courses of study amount to little more than unscrewing your head and inviting someone to pour in all the ideas that Paul dismissed as refuse.

This comment, as usual, has nothing to do with anything and is just you building a platform on which to bellow. I never said college was worthless. I said a day of divine education is worth 1000 years of it.

They routinely say in publications: 'At that time we thought this' or 'this view was held at that time' or something similar. They make no secret - in fact, they advertise - that things have changed. I think it is less of an enemy than you think. Back in the day, I worked at the food counter, when they used to serve the pre-packaged items at assemblies. One of the items was a 'pasta salad.' You would say that so and so ordered 'a pasta salad.' In time, I could not resist calling them 'apostacy salads.'