TrueTomHarley

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.

RIO LINDA IS A RUSH LIMBAUGH REFERENCE!!! it is a poor community of downtrodden people that once was the butt of jokes in Rush's early broadcast days! THE VERY PEOPLE JESUS INVITED TO COME TO HIM!!! "Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you," Jesus invites. "Come to ME, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will RIDICULE you - WEEK AFTER WEEK AFTER WEEK, IN 6000 OF MY 7000 POSTS!!!" invites JTR!!! "GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE, THE WRETCHED REFUSE OF YOUR TEEMING SHORE." What noble sentiments! The very words on the STATUE OF LIBERTY! Could anything possibly spoil them? YES!!! "AND I WILL STICK THE LOWLIFES IN RIO LINDA, AND MAKE FUN OF THEM CONSTANTLY!" says JTR!

Yes, but what is Rio Lindo? You can even call me dumb for not knowing. What in the world are all those references about?

And what is this 'Rio Lindo,' already? You say it all the time. Where does that come from?

Far better not to answer the big guy directly, insofar as answering his questions - IMO. They are merely designed to give himself a soapbox to preach from, which he will do in any case. 7000 TIMES!!!!!

Hey, big fella! I note again that I have made 692 posts here to your 671. What's wrong - cat got your tongue? Yes, I know, I know - 7000 posts total. But they are all on apostate websites where you are merely preaching to the choir.

How about mentioning how you were never thrown out when you took advantage of 3-day Regional Conventions, put on at significant expense by the GB and countless volunteers - so as to trash in 7000 comments everything dear to them? It's rather like when we were invited to dinner at an elder's house. We went, dined, ate all courses, visited with the other guests - and then for the next 12 months bellyached to everyone what rotten chefs they were, how they were trying to poison everyone, how they were truly despicable people - before accepting their invitation for the next year to do the same thing again.

Though I am not a vulgar man, I am sorely tempted to post a bit of it simply to enjoy the spectacle of JTR screaming over a naughty word while he posts the vicious stuff he does against theocratic direction.

Perhaps it is but a manifestation of the verse: to the Jews I became a Jew, to the Gentiles I became a Gentile, to the Punk Rockers, I became a Punk Rocker.

The website owner also looms as a mysterious figure who may be spiritually minded or may not know spirit from a whorehouse. For the most part, I think he sits back and shakes his head at his good luck in attracting such a vociferous rabble to his website.

It is based upon math, which is easy as pi.