TrueTomHarley

This is stupid. I don't care if Franz's dog translated it. The fact is that it exists and it gets high scholarly marks. Witness the experts testifying with regard to Russia's attempt to ban it. Not their witnesses, of course, but everyone knows their witnesses couldn't translate their way out of a paper bag. Not Trinitarian witnesses, either, because their beliefs dictate their scholarship instead of the other way around. And there are some who genuinely have trouble with 'Jehovah' in the New Testament - it is cutting edge based upon Septuagint fragments and not all want to cut so deep. But except for that, the NWT is very well received. Who can say how much of the NWT translation was farmed out to experts who, being Witnesses, also wished to remain anonymous like Franz so as not to distract from the true author of the work? You want to find the 'qualifications' of the translators so you can gloat that they don't have any, in case they don't. How 'qualified' do you have to be with language? Put a baby in a bi-lingual home and he grows up knowing two, without any teaching at all. Put it in a tri-lingual home and it grows up knowing three. Okay, ancient language adds a degree of complication, but even so, it is just communication and that is humankind's oldest trick in the book. Since jw.org is translated into 900 languages, it seems clear that the prestigious universities that teach language ought to come crawling to us, and not the reverse. It's the technique of the lazy lout who must know the qualifications of the translators to determine if the work is any good or not. Before my wife and I bought the home we now live in, we looked it over carefully for quality. We even hired an inspector. Satisfied, we moved in. We have no idea who actually built the house and have never lost a moment of sleep on that account.

What? Do you think I am kidding? Do it. You have perfect cover. Of course, to maximize your cover you might want to take down 10,000 or so graphics.

It could not have been a better fit. The water flowed from the throne of Ezekiel's temple, which could not have had literal fulfillment because they would have had to build it on a spring and they didn't. Later during the same meeting, the Bible Study covered all the schools held throughout the organization. Comments thinned out as the study progressed because nobody had gone to the latter schools so they had nothing to say off the top of their heads. Okay? The water is the 'life-giving' spiritual food. And where is it more manifest in the schools, some available to all and some more specialized? Yet the schedule for the Bible Study is months old. The schedule for the Bible reading? Maybe a century, as it is 'wash, rinse, and repeat.'

Does it? It does. Cut out the FAQ question and answer, put it in your wallet by your driver's licence and be done with it. Sometimes I think you would not do so for fear that you would lose bitching privileges here.

This is indeed a scandal, methinks.

Jehovah's Witnesses do not ignore education but they do redefine it. Theirs is primarily moral training and the Bible is the textbook. Secular skills they pick those up a la carte as necessary. They look bad on the Pew chart that way and @Jay Witnesscan gloat. But that does not mean it doesn't work. Is it a good idea to focus primarily on moral training? if people are unloving, selfish and greedy, you are better off not educating them. They can do less damage that way. If plumbers and janitors had run the worldwide financial system in 2007 they might have found a way to beat the taxpayers out of a day's wage. Instead, it was MBA's who ran it, and they found a way to put us all in hoc forever.

Not to worry. I'll call and lay a little bit of presentation on him for you. Â Hmmm.

In fact, the circuit overseer did counsel me about my presentation.

Truetom strode into the room and slapped his Bible down on the bar. All heads turned at the sharp retort. All male heads, that is. All female heads had already swung around at his first appearance, smitten instantly by his pure animal virility. “What will it be, mister?” asked the bartender uneasily, fidgeting in the presence of an indefinable yet unquestionable authority. “Milk,” Truetom replied and he said no more, so that the bartender began to wonder. Presently it came to him: “Say, aren’t you Truetom, the world-famous door to door preacher?” Truetom looked up coolly. “What’s it to you?” he said. “Nothing, mister, really – I meant no offence. Here – let me pour myself a milk, too. In fact – HEY! EVERYBODY! TRUETOM IS HERE! MILK FOR EVERYBODY! A TOAST TO TRUETOM!” “Is there anything about me that says ‘milktoast’ to you?” Truetom scowled, and milk ran out from the terrified man’s mouth. “I’m with the true religion and I DON’T DO MILKTOAST.” “Sure, Mister, whatever you say,” stammered the bartender. Truetom impaled him with a gaze. “It’s about time you understood a few things. “I’m TrueTom. I have a corporate agenda. I’m not afraid to play by the rules and I do what I’m told. Don’t tell me what to do because I’ll do it right away and sometimes a man doesn’t want what he’s asked for. You got that?” and the bartender murmured something incoherent as he wet himself. An impossibly bosomed bimbo floozy, splitting the seams of her too-short skirt, saddled up to him. “They say in these parts that you’re pretty righteous, Truetom. Just how righteous are you?” “I’d advise you not to try to find out,” Truetom stared her down. Undeterred, the brazen hussy placed her hand on his inner thigh and slowly moved it – not in the direction of his rugged boots. In a flash, Truetom whirled about and decked her with a single punch. Then he calmly resumed sipping his milk as she lay face down on the filthy floor. When he was done he put down his glass and picked up his Bible. “I have a scripture for all you scum,” he said. "It's found at John 8:15. 'You judge according to the flesh. I do not judge any man at all.'" “Look, Truetom, we don’t want no trouble. I’ve got my own religion and I never talk about religion and politics anyhow – anything that matters I don’t come near – and I….” Truetom grabbed him by the neck and rammed his head into another verse he’d just looked up. “a slave of the Lord does not need to fight, but needs to be gentle toward all, qualified to teach, showing restraint when wronged.” – 2 Timothy 2:24 At length he put his Bible in its holster and turned. “Alright, I’m coming out!” Truetom hollered out the door to the townspeople amidst the pouring rain. “Don’t nobody raise no objections, or ‘viewpoints!’ If anybody raises an objection or viewpoint, I’ll preach to him AND I’ll preach to his wife AND I’ll preach to his kids. Don’t go cutting up no more wrong deeds or I’ll be back!” He rode slowly out of town – dead center through the middle of the street, and nobody raised a word of reply.

What is "biblical Greek?" Are you sure that is not just "Trinitarian Greek?"

I suggest the thread: 'Truetom Kidnaps @The Librarian' (the old biddy)

"Class, I know you are sad that Ashley hung herself yesterday. And last week little Jimmy in the 4th grade did the same. He was sad because Travis's older brother blew his brains out a month ago. You probably saw that on Facebook. Wasn't that terrible? "Your school loves you are wants to help, so we have asked @Ann O'Malyto address the class. Ms. O'Maly, you have our attention." Thank you, teacher. Good morning, class ....(Good morning, Missus O'Maly) I have ten charts with me today that shows the world is wonderful. Look at them closely. If you do that you will see that most of the bad things are almost gone. Scientists and educated people did this - not stupid Jehovah's Witnesses. @Jay Witness, who spoke to the class yesterday, showed how they drag up the bottom of the Pew List. What good are they? Look to science and education to solve our problems, not God. My charts show the problems are almost gone. Whatever is wrong with you - killing yourselves the way you do? Stop it right now! Can't you see? The end of problems is just around the corner. We are so very close. Don't Give Up. We even have suicide hotlines because we love you. We're pumping some of you full of antidepressants till it comes out of your ears. What more could you ask for? I know that you are sad because Taylor was molested by her uncle not long ago. And Amber and Nancy and Logan and Mason and Dixon and Prancer and Janie. These things happen. They are very bad and we are working hard to stop them. We have sex offender registry lists and half the planet is on them so we are almost there, The thing that I want you to focus on is that some Jehovah's Witness elders punished Prancer's uncle but they didn't do it the right way. It's not their job to punish him - it's our job. Ann should not have brought her charts to the WorldNewsForum. Not everything is on them. And too many there are cynical  because they know that 'facts' are elusive building blocks that can be shaped into anything you want them shaped into. She should have gone into the schools. Among young people she will find alarmingly increasing numbers who do not believe them, and they are manifesting their disbelief by means of a noose. Â

These are my words that I attributed to her. She countered them with something else. I don't exactly treat Witness fairly. Hers is a concern out there in the ether somewhere, that I cannot get my head around, and it does not seem relevant enough to me to try. I just slam her when she maligns an arrangement that satisfies me as God-directed - it's the role I have chosen here. And she responds with a barrage of 'who cares?' verses that she instructs me to review closely - she likes to instruct, too much for my taste. To say they are "who cares?" verses may seem disrespectful to God. They are not "who cares?" but they seem so to me in the context she uses them, as she wages her private war with others over whose anointing is more equal than others. It just bores me, and I move on. That said, I don't want to put my words in her mouth and have people believe they are hers. And it is NOT the same with you, JTR. Don't carry on about my "projecting" when you rail on about "Crisis News Network" being something you would protest. I have witnessed you decrying it is "Clinton News Network" - thus taking a definite stance on a debate in the world. Look, it offers not the most balanced coverage in the world - that's for sure - but I refrain from echoing the war-cries of either faction in this decaying system of things.

'The tribulation is momentary and light,' Paul says. They all are, though they sure don't seem that way at the time. Oh. And my blog tomsheepandgoats.com has a category of 'Gays and Lesbians' Some of the material I have dressed up and supplemented and weeded out the inelegancies to form that book chapter. By the way, don't think I am passing off porn or masturbation as matters of no concern. Many smokers report they were hooked from the first cigarette. It is the same with a drink for an alcoholic. All I hope to posit is that these things are not on the A-list of things that will sink you spiritually in a heartbeat on first relapse. They are not category 5 sins.

Unfortunately, he is stuck with you, the same way he is stuck with me. Many times he has tried to get out of his contract with me, which he perhaps feels he made too hastily. However, I always show him the forgiveness clause and he has no recourse but to back down - even though he may grumble about it. I have him over a barrel. I'm kidding, of course, but only partly. There is a forgiveness clause - though, to be sure, we are not to "accept the undeserved kindness of God and miss its purpose." But let God determine when that has happened, not you. Good. That means you also don't know that he doesn't approve of you. Assume that he does. Focus on the love. The forgiveness clause has him backed into a corner. You have him where you want him. Because you figure Jehovah would understand your feelings and forgive you? He probably would, but the fallacy is to think he will not regarding the current struggles you go through, even if you feel you are getting pasted. Your family will forgive you, too, but they will be crushed - perhaps for life. To the extent you can, lay off on this kind of thinking. We are all basket cases in one way or another - whether in the truth or not. Let God figure it out when and if you have disappointed him. All you really have to do for now is to avoid homosexual acts, which can't be super-hard because they always involve another party. In this respect you are no different from a straight person who is yet single. Viewing pornography is not good, but it is largely not good because it draws you into a funnel that doesn't end and the funnel skews your future ability to relate to a real person. Again, this is no less true of a straight person. No. Even if you are a complete scoundrel in your congregation - and your comments make it very clear that you are not - you are doing a tremendous service right now by bringing something taboo but potentially lethal out in the open and allowing others, many of whom are mature, to comment. It is a thread that may benefit not just you, but they, and also others who may have the same issue as they stumble across it later. Lay off on the guilt, to the extent you can. Or put it in perspective. Count yourself like Paul who pummeled himself and declared himself a 'miserable man' because what he wanted to do he did not do, and what he did not want to do he did do. What was his issue, anyway? Who's to say he was not gay, facing exactly the same troubles you face? I've no reason to think it is true, but I have no reason to think it is not true. It doesn't matter. It could be true, and that is good enough for you. His exact demon is probably left vague for exactly that reason - to help many persons in many struggles who will see that he is saying "been there, done that" and say "maybe he is talking about my problem." Maybe even self-abuse is what he is carrying on about. Who can say? Masturbation is not great, but it is in some respects like porn - its the end result of a long habit that will mess you up, not an instance of the habit itself. Recently I read in some city how the cops were busting men for masturbation in the park. These were businessmen in suits on their lunch hour who were married. There were not few of them. Yes, sexual appetite unrestrained leads to the most disturbing conduct, but that is not at all true of a lapse here and there, which can be shrugged off as an "oh, well - life goes on." Lay off on the guilt is what I'm saying. Big as that Bible is, and as many are the things that it condemns, it no where condemns self abuse specifically. You must read it in from other verses having to do with self-control and with wholesome outlook about proper sexual relations. You read it in properly, make no mistake, but you must read it in nonetheless. If it were really a big deal, it would be the 11th commandment. Sometimes I think it is as much a Victorian relic as a biblical one that we carry on about it as much we do. What are the things that really get God going - from that proverb about the six things that he hates - no, wait - make that seven? He hates anyone spreading contentions among brothers. You doing that? I don't think so. He hates "feet that are in a hurry to run to badness." It seems you are doing all you can to glue yours to the floor. "A false tongue" he hates. You been doing any lying lately? It doesn't look like it here. Oh, and he hates "hands that are shedding innocent blood" How are you doing on that score? Killed anyone lately? I didn't think so. Cut out Proverbs 6:16-19 and mount it next to the yeartext on your bedroom wall. Mount it over the yeartext, if need be. Of course you did. If you fail you fail. Find that scripture about the righteous man who falls seven times and yet gets up each time, and put it next to your other new yeartext. You know what 'seven' means in the Bible - it could be a thousand times he messed up. How come he doesn't lose his 'righteous' status at the 5th failing? Because that's how God is with us - none of us are 'clean.' He deals with it. He doesn't have to. We don't sit back and fleece him for it - that's why we carry on a struggle. But go easy on the guilt. "No temptation has taken you that is not common to men," Paul says, and you don't knock every ball out of the park. The mantra "born gay" is self-defeating. There is little evidence that it is that way. Gayness may be firmly entrenched for as long as one can remember, but that is not the same thing. Who knows what triggers it? In my youth it was accepted wisdom that it came as a result of parental dynamics, a domineering mother and a retreating father - which is far less depressing for someone determined to abide by God's standards because it implies change is possible. That accepted wisdom was never disproved, just as it was never proved in the first place. It was merely drowned out by another model which has also never been proved, but it is the favored model because it validates a lifestyle that some want validated. If there is one thing that has proven crystal clear in recent decades - to the astonishment of most - it is how amazingly fluid sexuality is. It does not respect 'one man-one woman.' It does not respect gender lines. It does not even respect age limits. It jumps the rails at every turn and is only nudged back on track with only great difficulty. How to nudge it? Have 'plenty to do in the work of the Lord,' Paul says. Accept that you have homosexual leanings for now and be done with it. You cannot act upon them, you certainly work against your own interests should you deliberately cultivate them, but the leanings themselves do not disqualify you. They will fade so subtly you will not notice it, probably over much time, in this system or the next, as you routinely rub shoulders with persons who in this regard have their act together. In other regards, you do and they don't, and when you see someone whose feet are "in a hurry to run to badness," you can stick out one of yours and trip them up. They'll thank you for it later. In this way also you can be like one of the genuine members of the Christian body, which works smoothly with the other members. I don't know that is what Paul had in mind but it works, No, ISB, you are not a washout. You are doing your brothers a tremendous service and the best is yet to come. "Strengthen your brothers when once you return," Jesus said to Peter. He could strengthen them only because he had gone somewhere. Had he never gone on a difficult journey, he could do no more than say "I know just how you feel." "Yeah, sure you do," his intended recipient would say, rolling his eyes.

I would add to the list of how things are improving. We have iPads. I use mine a lot. People have to clean up after their dogs. There is no experience quite like sliding through a pile of you-know-what trying to stretch to catch a fly ball in the outfield. Thanks to modern advances, that doesn't happen anymore. People are less inhibited speaking of dark things like suicide. Counterbalancing that somewhat is that there are many more suicides to talk about, as it becomes all the rage among the young who sense that the older ones they trusted have sold them down the river with their 'fake news' world. Teen births, as you pointed out, are at an all-time low! A price has been paid, however, for this 'advance,' by some very tiny individuals who probably feel pain. @James Thomas Rook Jr.would disagree that it is 'Crisis News Network" His heart seems planted on one side of the national squabble over which some have said another civil war might break out. It's all in what you value. I am reminded of the quote from the old blue Truth book: 'True, there has been progress in a material way. But is it really progress when humans can send men to the moon, but cannot live in peace on earth with one another?' Some people think it is.

NBC put a reporter in a wind tunnel to tell us what that is like. He said it blows. He said it was not fine to be in a hurricane – you ought to avoid them. ‘okay, now at 70 miles per hour – whoa! – my clothes are flapping and anything not nailed to the ground is coming loose! I can’t even hold on to this pole – my grip is slipping!! There goes the toupee and my glasses! Now – oh no! – the wind is catching my cheeks!... ‘....fluppafluppafluppafluppafluppafluppafluppafluppafluppafluppafluppafluppafluppa!!!!!.... ‘Whoa! That was close! I almost couldn’t speak!’ Sheesh! Put him in rising flood waters and let him tell us what that is like!

I write and a chapter of the 'Irregardless' book is devoted to this topic. Info on my profile page. I won't post it online because I want to sell books. But if you email me, you or anyone similar gets it free. Even if you buy it, it's just six bucks. But it's free to anyone who suffer $ hardship. Here is an excerpt: Fortunately, none of us are judged on feelings, but rather on deeds. Still, it’s good to get one feelings aligned with God’s standards, if at all possible, because feelings have a way of eventually showing up as deeds. I have only admiration for those Christians with gay leanings who are determined to live in accord with Bible standards. They are determined to stay celibate, if need be for the duration of this system, in their service to God, with faith that it will turn out well for them in the end, that their homosexual leanings will lessen and disappear over time, whether in this system or the next. This, in the face of a cacophony of propaganda that insists: ‘once gay, always gay.’ With any gays among us, it’s like swimming when swept out by the tide. They don’t try to swim against it, exerting all their might to will themselves straight; that’s a great recipe for failure – human sexuality doesn’t work that way. They don’t try to swim with the tide, abandoning themselves as slaves to their feelings. Instead, they swim parallel to it, likely for a long time, in hopes their feelings will eventually modify, allowing them to reach shore. Who else faces a comparable battle? It doesn’t seem quite fair, does it? One might argue that their faith in God is deeper than that of most, since they stay loyal to his arrangements despite the very real testimony of their own bodies. I have zero respect for frothing church types who rail against gays when they themselves have never been called upon to raise their little finger in comparable struggles. Singleness as a way of life was once a quite common and respectable lifestyle, with no connotations whatsoever of abnormality. Read the classics and that point is easily established. But today, largely through the media, everything is sex, and people have come to define themselves in terms of their sexuality. It’s a herculean time for a gay person to be “fighting the fine fight.” For once, I will not slam @Ann O'Malybecause she presents options and her utmost concern is for you. Perhaps I should even reexamine and walk back some other slams I have made. There is that verse somewhere that says 'I am convinced there is nothing to come between us and God's love (or is it Christ's?) neither this nor that nor a long list of hardships.' I like that verse.

Wow! There are a lot of educated people today. How's that world going that they have collectively built?

Just for the record: I did see "Unforgiven" and I liked it a lot. I have seen Clint Eastwood's spaghetti Westerns. I have seen the Clint Eastwood WWII film, and his movie "Bloodwork." Also "Million Dollar Baby." I have seen his "Gran Torino" which I would recommend highly were it not sullied with consistently filthy language which could easily be dispensed with and done no harm to the film. Eastwoood is a good director. But I have never seen a Dirty Harry movie. I have no general principle against them - they have just never caught my interest. I have never seen a horror movie. I learned long ago when walking through cavernous buildings alone at night that it was well not to do that. Some themes, however, are repeated so often in popular culture that it is impossible not to hear of them, whether seeing the source or not. I rarely see films anymore. I get impatient with them. I can cover the same story in far less time through reading.

It is ridiculous. Your other chart from Pew shows how there are far more educated people than Jehovah's Witnesses. How is that world doing that they have collectively built?

The friends in high places for Spillane are the friends in high places of Jesus illustration, on another thread. They are the heavenly high places. Mickey Spillane kissed up to nobody, most likely, I am conceiving a mission which may lead to my death, just like the priest of The Exoricist. I will see you retract like a volcano turned inside out, sucking back in all the scalding crap it spewed upon decent people. Yes! You will shape up like Mickey himself and if you do not, he will come back in the resurrection and blow you to smithereens and submit the descriptive account for inclusion in the next Watchtower magazine. I HAVE A DREAM! Yes! They will say, as they used to of Paul: "the man who peppered the internet ether with stupid and vicious cartoons has become one of us." Rather than being a basket case, they will lower you in a basket, just like they did Paul when he finally joined the A-Team. I HAVE A DREAM! that there will be a conference in heaven sometime and somewhere: "who will we send to fool the riff raff at the World News Forum?" "Well, we could send JTR." "What, are you out of your mind? He is their grand puba!" But it will be true!! You will no longer be a villain. I HAVE A DREAM! that I will see JTR praise the organizational advances that ensure the displaced brothers of Houston and Florida and Mexico and Barbuda and so forth are promptly cared for materially and spiritually after disaster - a godsend of an improvement over the old days when people wanted to help and did to an extent, but were simply not organized enough to cope with disasters so massive. I HAVE A DREAM! That one day JTR will realize it is not about him! He will praise God at the efficiencies realized when his congregation at the Kingdom Hall he once owned trades in their black leather jackets with congregation names emblazoned on the backs as all the other ones did long ago and realizes how SMART it is to not waste dedicated funds! I HAVE A DREAM! That you will not act on your threat and will put some clothes on - and will even clothe yourself with the tender and mild spirit and manner of Christ, who commanded that we treat even our enemies with respect and mildness, rather than being as taunting and offensive as we possibly can be.

My father, who threw the baby of God out with the bathwater of Catholicism, would frequently express dismay over that region. 'How can they not get along? Put a Jew next to an Arab and you can't tell them apart,' he would say.

Oh. So I can see pages on each one? I'll pass. I've found a source that spins scriptures pretty well and that I have not found cause to complain with.

Yikes! This thread - MY thread - is 'Why remain a Witness when bad things happen.' This is not why! This will send me running for cover! Take it out on the street, you and the unreadable @j.r.ewing. Before I tell @The Librarian! THEN you'll BOTH be in big trouble, for she plays no favorites, except if she should take a liking to me.