TrueTomHarley

On 7/31/2017 at 11:07 AM, TrueTomHarley said: There comes a time when one must suck it up and move on - either stay or leave, but move on. @b4ucuhear: Is that what I should have told my sister? My younger sister was sexually molested by an elder. She stayed despite that without making waves, until she started to see other things she found deeply disturbing and then she did "move on" as you say. Actually, she shouldn't have "moved on" because later on, most of the elders (the bad ones) were either removed or disfellowshipped - half of them were apostate (but that's not all they were up to). Of course nobody wanted to believe anything (even with concrete evidence) since they were regulars on the circuit assembly platform and on even on the district convention. It took about 10 years to sort itself out (should have been much quicker considering the evidence), but it did, (although it took other elders to step in and do what actually had to be done.) Still, 1 Timothy 5:24 will prove to be true if you wait, in one way or another. ……. TTH: "This ‘superfine apostle’ in the 2 Corinthians 11:5 mold was a big honcho in the HVAC world and would freeze everyone out of the Kingdom Hall because he liked it cool - even locking the thermostat so nobody not under his control could touch it. One elderly sister declared she would no longer attend meetings – where was the love? "It developed that this man planned to poison his wife so as to move in with another woman, and all the while maintain his position in the congregation. Joe Merlin sniffed him out in a heartbeat. ‘How can you guys be so naïve?’ he cried before one Body of Elders who could not believe what was right before them. But when the dust at last settled, one of them approached him: ‘You’re right, Joe - we are naïve.’ Sometimes Jehovah’s people are naïve. They are the ‘sons of the light’ whom the ‘sons of this system of things’ do end runs around." From the chapter 'Dirty Rotten Lowlifes' in 'No Fake News But Plenty of Hogwash.' …… @b4ucuhear I respect you for that. Knowing bad things can happen yet having the strength of faith and character to stay - as you seem - spiritually strong in the truth. Might I ask you to share with us what enables you to maintain your faith and dedication despite faith testing situations (whether you were personally in that congregation or not?) …….. Why Remain a Witness when Bad Things Happen? Here are things that have helped me. I’ll add some others, maybe. First, the psalm that says if you love God’s law, there is no stumbling block. (Ps 119:165) Humans will let you down from time to time. God never does. Second, Peter’s statement to Jesus when the latter said something outrageous. “Lord, where else shall we go?” (John 6:68) Exactly. Who else enjoys the basic spiritual truths and does the scripturally appointed work of Jehovah’s Witnesses? (Why would Jesus say what he did, knowing it could so easily be misconstrued? Can it be that he does so to separate the keepers from the bad fish?) Third, recognition that the key is, not to try to sanitize the present, but to unsanitize the past. Meaning the congregation, Paul says that in any house there are vessels for uses both honorable and dishonorable, and one must keep away from the latter. (2 Timothy 2:20) Plenty of riff-raff back then, he is saying. The Hebrew scriptures even point to times and situations when God's people acted worse than the nations, so if they are instances today here or there, it should hardly be a shocker, even if it goes on for a few years. In OT times, it went on for decades. Fourth, I like it that God mocks the wisdom of this world - wisdom which has given us the disaster we all must live in. From where is that wisdom dispensed but in the world’s system of higher education? Only Jehovah’s Witnesses eschew it, and despite that (or because of it) they have constructed a seamless system the envy of human governments that can’t reliably provide the most basic of services. We are the one religion of size that have not strayed from its ‘working class’ roots so as to suck up to the ‘better’ people. Acts 4:13 says the elites were astonished how the leaders of Christianity were ordinary and unlearned by their standards. That remains so today. Current GB members start out, not from a lofty perch above others, like in any other organization today, but from humble full-time service below that of most persons they later lead. Fifth, a recognition that the crowd is always wrong. While some fear the prevalence of apostates will harm the true faith, I think, to the discerning one, it strengthens it. Hostility over Jehovah’s Witnesses is way out of proportion to any sins they have committed, and are often entirely bogus. Ann mentioned Muslims. They have tendency to produce murderous extremists and they have a sharia law that, taken seriously, does far more than shun transgressors, and savages Western notions of woman’s rights. Write an article about Muslims and you will receive many hostile comments. Write one about Jehovah's Witnesses and you will drown in hostile comments, though their numbers are far fewer and their transgressions far less serious. Don’t follow the crowd for evil ends, Exodus 23:2 says, or, as everyone’s mother said: if everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you jump too? If the crowd says the religion stinks, it must be good. That’s for starters.

She eats like a horse - that's all I have to say. "I can't help it; I get hungry when I'm nervous. Pass me two more of those donuts, please," @The Librariansays. So far I've raised only $2 from admin, who declared it an acceptable risk, since she owes him 20.

"This is Brian Brexit reporting for tomsheepandgoats.com. I am at the world headquarters of TheWorldNewsMedia company to report on the missing report of a strange person - uh, I mean, the strange report of a missing person (sorry). I am speaking with the company president, Allen Admin. Mr. @admin, what do you make of this report?" Not much, to tell the truth. She's probably just off on another binge. Happens all the time. But we have credible information that she has been kidnapped by TrueTom and is being held for ransom. If that idiot thinks anyone's going to pay to get her back, he should change his name to DumbTom. Still, her disappearance is a little hard to fathom. You mean that she didn't have a enemy in the world? No, not that - everyone was her enemy. I mean that, if he kidnapped the woman, he's going to have to put up with her. Even if his ransom demands bring in tens of thousands, it's probably not worth it. Does this create a hardship for WorldNews replacing someone with her technical expertise on short notice? Your joking! Look, we were trying to roll out simple thread technology and she managed to get everyone confused. Alright, so TrueTom is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but there were others. Even @Annawas having a hard time, and @b4ucuhear. Who will replace her? The janitor always does when she is tanked. I imagine he will do so now. You know, it's strange... You mean, about @The Librarian? No, I mean about the janitor. He's a janitor, right? And yet he owns 15 suits. I don't care anything about the corporate agenda of that sect he's with - it's not my business - but it is still strange. Thank you, Mr. Admin. For tomsheepandgoats.com, this is Brian Brexit reporting.

To tell you the truth, he or she or it is so flabby it is hard to tell.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I have kidnapped @The Librarian If you ever want to see her again, (and I know I am taking a risk in saying this) you are going to have to dig down into your pockets and pony up. I figure if each reader pays $1000, that should be enough to secure her release. There will be no special rates for those in full time service. I'm playing hardball. Updates periodically.

Okay, @The Librarian, I have worked through today's backlog. FROM NOW ON I WILL CONFORM - MORE OR LESS - TO YOUR NEW IMPROVED SYSTEM. You can even blow this comment to smithereens if you want. DO YOU HEAR THAT, BIG BOY? @James Thomas Rook Jr.LET'S TAKE IT OUT ON THE STREET! YOU AND ME, BIG FELLA! NO MORE PUBLIC FIGHTING! Let the poor librarian repair her busted furniture, tape up spines on the damaged books, put the 33 rpm records away that you have hurled at me as frisbees, and start afresh!

Why would they want to? Is it not a house of worship? Would you transform yours into a "JTR'S INSPIRATIONAL SAYINGS" storefront?

Ha Ha. Pity the poor @The Librarian! Just when she is seething in rage that nobody regards her system and comments have veered off to Pluto, one unpredictably leads right back to the threads theme!

'Ozzie's Operating System' and 'Bob's Browser Service' Doesn't that work here? I'm going to behave. Honestly I am. After I get though a few comments I see have stacked up. It's a good explanation your provided. Hopefully easy to use. Will @The Librariansuceed in her mission to impose ORDER and make her library NEAT AND TIDY? Good l**k on that, especially when people drop bombshells with leads going 10 different directions. Nonetheless, I vow (strike that: promise....strike that: intend....strike that: hope....strike that: will comply if it is easy) to comply with her wishes (the old hen) so that, while I may be a rabblerouser, there will be 20 others worse than I for her to harass.

perhaps this displays differently on different screens. I see no option other than to comment as I have been.

I have no idea how this works. I did see some announcement about it previously, didn't take the time to grasp it and told myself I would learn it by trial and error if need be. I figured it was just the librarian trying to get me to do her work for her and her silly dewey decimal catalog. I will do it (or try, probably) if I understand it........What? Do you mean just starting a new topic?

He is from far away. "In my culture," he says. Cut him slack on that account, or learn from him. If he is from Africa, for example, @Arauna once observed that children and young women are raped there routinely with no one at all to stand up for them. Outrage over sexual molestation appears to be a privilege of the monied lands. Imagine how strange a brother from that different place and culture might find this discussion. Of course, this is just guesswork based upon a phrase and a unique way of reasoning. I may be all wet. Perhaps he is from North Dakota.

"This ‘superfine apostle’ in the 2 Corinthians 11:5 mold was a big honcho in the HVAC world and would freeze everyone out of the Kingdom Hall because he liked it cool - even locking the thermostat so nobody not under his control could touch it. One elderly sister declared she would no longer attend meetings – where was the love? "It developed that this man planned to poison his wife so as to move in with another woman, and all the while maintain his position in the congregation. Joe Merlin sniffed him out in a heartbeat. ‘How can you guys be so naïve?’ he cried before one Body of Elders who could not believe what was right before them. But when the dust at last settled, one of them approached him: ‘You’re right, Joe - we are naïve.’ Sometimes Jehovah’s people are naïve. They are the ‘sons of the light’ whom the ‘sons of this system of things’ do end runs around." From the chapter 'Dirty Rotten Lowlifes' in 'No Fake News But Plenty of Hogwash.'

Yes. Every time @The Librarian has fallen off the wagon. How can you be so insensitive? I was trying to spare her the humiliation, not reminding everyone. She was once a woman of substance, after all. (She still is, but it is from all those donuts - not the same thing)

Yes. It is a good reproof. I have endeavored to mitigate that remark elsewhere, saying we never know for sure who that verse fits. But it a point worth repeating.

While I endeavor to verbally smash certain ones in the teeth with a baseball bat, I have, with some difficulty and with occasional regressions, learned to fight ideas and not people. The people are merely actors playing a role written out for them long ago. Sometimes in Hollywood, actors who have long played the villain sign on to play a role as a good guy. Hebrews 6:4 puts the damper on that somewhat in a spiritual sense, but you never know for sure who is described therein. Yes, you are jealous for Jehovah and will tolerate no rivalry, as scripture says you should be. Believe me, I understand. To be sure, I was helped in my 'progress' by @adminslapping an A on me (abuse) and removing an entire thread before you came along. It is still a challenge to separate the sinner from the sin when the former so obviously relishes the latter role. But I am trying. Even with @BigMouth I am making significant progress. Though I am completely (well, partly) reformed, @admin has yet to imitate our Lord and Saviour, and extend forgiveness and obliterate my past record of evil. But the night is yet young. The fat lady as not yet sung. (No offense to @The Librarian) If I can restore my pristine reputation with The World Media forum, I will able to die with a smile on my face.

Besides, it is the reason for hatred that must be factored in. If Muslims have found a mixed reception in the West, it is because, in some inexplicable way, the religion produces extremists far more numerous and vicious than anything emerging from the 'Christian' world. Plus, if features sharia law that undoes decades of progress in woman's issues. And at its harshest, it does considerably more than shun those who run afoul of it. Ordinary run-of-the-mill Muslims suffer for these perceptions, which, as always, are exaggerated, yet all you have to do is read the paper to see that they are not manufactured out of thin air, as are many of the claims about Jehovah's Witnesses. With them, essentially, it is that they preach a message that few want to hear, and can be overbearing.

I like the blog test. Write something praiseworthy of Muslims and you get a smattering of protests. Write something praiseworthy about Jehovah's Witnesses and you get so many howls that your ISP carrier threatens to increase your rates. The Canadian website Bruce mentions has had to post a disclaimer: "We are not Jehovah's Witnesses. We are just trying to report on them. Leave us in peace. We don't want to hear why you think they are a cult!" They have not had to do that with Muslims although 1000 times more numerous.

As food for thought, Suzie, if you feel guilty, we should not assume that they do not - brothers holding positions of authority. This is true even though they are not accused of anything personally, unlike the clergy of some religions, but of merely 'bungling' the reporting, not conforming to the world's rapid about-face on this issue - years ago, authorities would send a molester right back into the home, assuming rehabilitation was possible and was preferable to breaking up a family. The GB is between a rock and a hard place. Where elders investigate, especially in cases of abuse 20 or more years ago, they may find, for whatever reason, that the family head does not want to go public. Perhaps all involved were family or extended family, and the head does not feel that calling in the cops is the way to go. Where it was not legally required, it was not for the elders to steamroller him and go over his head. That's why (2017) our brother pleaded with authorities to make it a requirement everywhere. That way, no one is tarred and feathered for not going 'beyond the law.' Even if the family head has been conditioned not to report - an allegation provable only by anecdote - the type of evidence that is discarded everywhere else - a constant refrain of apostates, that does not alter the fact that family wishes cannot be disregarded by a theocratic organization, unless there is a specific law to the contrary. Leadership by apology is in vogue today. How much of it our people should do is arguable - I don't go there. It's not my place. Suffice it to say, however, that among determined enemies, a apology only stimulates demands for more apologies, and the more apologies never lead to forgiveness, but only demands for resignation. Thus, it plays into the enemy's greater goal of halting the proclamation of the kingdom message. This is not to say that everyone concerned over child sexual abuse has that goal. But many do, and they have used the situation to advance their own ends.

Make them say "Shiboleth" to be sure.

Your move, Allen.

Thank you for this. A person can only act upon what they know and have been trained to identify. If only the detailed instruction given at the 'Don't Give Up' Regional Convention had been given many years ago, for the obvious first line of defense in this regard is for parents to recognize potential dangers. But nobody did back then, not I, not you, not anyone who had not been specifically educated - and that was almost nobody. Feeling guilt is inherent with any parent contemplating difficulties their children have faced - who but the most insensitive has not been there? - but hopefully it fades knowing one did all one could have done with what knowledge one had at the time, allowing for human imperfection. Ideally, the children themselves come to know this in time. If there is one thing modern times have taught us, it is how amazingly fluid sexuality is. I don't think anything is permanent unless one determinedly reinforces it. In the entertainment media are plenty of people like Ani DiFranco. She identified as lesbian early on and gained countless fans on that account. She betrayed and outraged them all by 'growing out of it' and getting married, now calling herself 'bi-sexual.' So we could all be, most likely, depending upon many factors, chief among them the environment we are immersed in.

900. Nonetheless, be careful that @Ann O'Maly does not nail you on this with some remark about how browsers adjust to the tastes of their masters. Don't misunderstand, I am completely with you on this, but it may be that an 'apostate' browser will not point so unfailingly to where it should. Consider, too, that nobody has better apostates than Jehovah's Witnesses. Ours are the best. There is no contest. Ours are the most prolific. Ours are the most vitriolic. Ours are the most Velcro-like - they cannot move on. I am proud of them. You cannot read the Greek Scriptures without being struck with the obsession over battling apostates. Therefore, whoever their successors will be must also be mired in similar battles.

Now I am aided greatly knowing the time schedule. Now I know when my arch enemy will post and when he will not. If right wing radio is on, he will not. He is busy. He must not miss a word. To be fair to Rush, I would not necessarily classify him as 'right wing.' But if my villain knows the show in such detail so as to pepper each comment with Rio Linda barbs, it is fair to say he listens also to the programs that truly are right wing. His obsession with both the DECLARATIONS of the FOUNDING FATHERS, THE GLORIES OF WAR, and the SACRED RIGHT to bear ARMS is a significant tell. To do a full disclosure, I also knew about Rio Linda, though not in such detail as to spell it properly. It was a bit of a trap, to see him walk into it with both clown's feet. To be fair, it was not the GLORIOUS VICTORY I had anticipated it might be. Perhaps it merely made me look as petulant as he. But, hey - I'm not writing in the Bible canon.

NOW you've got it! Look, it's not as though thoughtful material cannot be found here, but one cannot waltz through as if they were at the assembly hall. Scoundrels lurk everywhere. Having said that, not all threads are created equal, not all are as "hot," and one poster said he thinks the villains keep their heads down to an acceptable degree here. It probably doesn't help that I call them villains. Gasp! Am I the cyber bully? Some here think so, but no one has shown me the door yet. I don't doubt that and it is a most serious thing. Having said that, suicide is growing in 'popularity' today, especially with the young, and with adolescents it is almost becoming trendy. People are fragile and this system of things appears designed to expose their frailty and exploit it to the fullest degree. It is last-ditch effort at discipline, to be applied when all else has failed. Aspects of it may be arguable. The general idea is not. The GB is ever conscious of the individual - it is not they who mock the lowlifes of Rio Linda - yet they dare not forget the Jehovah insists upon a clean people of exclusive devotion. It is no mere passing phase with him. The current Bible reading schedule of Ezekiel reveals many examples of this. Not to equate this with anyone current, but Judas went suicide. No one would say it was the Lord's fault. Stretching the point just a little, one could say his problem was with God's visible organization, not with God himself. Jesus looked pretty human to him, not at all qualified to do what the Messiah was supposed to do. And those yoyos he was attracting! It was just too much. Judas wanted the refined people.