TrueTomHarley

Where were you when we needed you? I saw the COBE's letter: "Alright, big man, lets settle this right here, right now! You think you're a tough guy? Running a country? Well, I run a congregation back here in the States!" He wasn't even flagged for Abuse!

I must not be sharp here in reply, and I will not be. I have been told to play nice. Instead, let us focus on how Putin will shake in his boots as he reads a letter on the business stationary of Bob's Cleaning Service. Okay, there are elements of comedy in everything, but one must not be distracted from the big picture. Paul said to Agrippa: 'I know you know about this, for it has not been done in a corner." Same here with the Russian situation. It is clear that it is accomplished by God's organization. Not only does the organization brilliantly coordinate this campaign, prompting front page coverage from the NY Times, and Time Magazine on 'day of delivery,' but it is intensified because they have already succeeded in unifying a loyal people. All they had to do is ask individual JWs once to write - they did nothing else - and the response is more than anyone could ever have imagined. Clearly, organization is not a bad thing. It is a good thing. Our Russian brothers will know that they triggered a worldwide flock to jw.org - "is this website really extremist, as I've been told?" people will ask. Who knows what will happen when millions discover that it is not? It even thwarts opposers who were hoping to spin their pissy Austrailain story forever, but now it has been replaced in everyone's attention by a situation that makes Jehovah's Witnesses the good guys in the eyes of almost everyone. Mitigating this somewhat is that the fact that newbies screw up everywhere. It is part of the learning process. Unfortunately, it is a constant of life and is not unique to our people. People learn, and learn well, by making mistakes. As Mark Twain said: 'A cat that sits on a hot stove will never sit on a hot stove again. Nor will it sit on a cold one, for they all look hot.'

Whenever the elders come around to pester me about running the sound system, I ask them: "Just how much to you value the concpt of the congregation being able to hear because some idiot did not flip the wrong switch? Are you sure you want me to do this?"

No,no. Overlords have rebuked me. I am nice for now. You, too. Nothing nasty intended.

That disgusting hag of an anal-retentive old biddy of a Librarian was never my downfall. Without specifically clearing her, one might suppose that she eventually blew her top. In fact, he was always cool with it. He yelled at me when I was new and I hawked my book one time too many. My first two jibes in return, not necessarily on that same thread, were sharp, and I was somewhat surprised (favorably) that they were allowed to remain. But after that it was all play. I made peace with him privately and asked him what the ground rules were. “I plan to really insult the ugly old librarian,” I said. “Tell me if that gets old or if you don’t want me to do it in the first place.” But he said he rather enjoyed that part. I was flagged for abuse by someone. I am guilty of it, though perhaps not more so than the foes I battled are on other threads. But I clearly was the aggressor on the thread that was removed, and I was called on it. Nonetheless, it’s the ideas that interest me, not the people involved. Is it possible to address those same ideas in a venue that is 100% lacking in any rude conduct?

While some of our brothers are not the sharpest tools in the drawer, I doubt this is because of their Witness training. More likely, their Witness training sharpens their skills. You have only to look at the news media or political world, where highly educated persons routinely reveal themselves to be dumber than plants. If our people conduct themselves unwisely on the internet, so does everyone else. Enemies will always find something to pounce on. if two letters go to the judge, whether they actually stem from our people or not, haters can seize upon those two letters and ignore the 50 million others. It happens all the time in the political world and most other venues.

It reminds me of an ancient Catholic woman I spoke with years ago, furious with me because I had said Jesus was not born on Christmas day. "He was to! At MIDNIGHT!" True

Should the decision go against us, there will be much hand-wringing. We should keep in mind: (Yikes! On another thread, I am flagged as an abuser and the entire thread is taken down! "Behave, TrueTom!" they said) Being the Supreme Court, there may be no appeals left. If the decision goes bad on us, our Russian brothers become like the Hebrews 11 Christians, who walked about under duress, 'and the world was not worthy of them.' It happens with good precedent in a world not friendly to Christians. Jesus was not summoned before Pilate to receive a good citizenship plaque, was he?

McCain calls Kim Jong-un "that crazy fat kid running North Korea." Says he must be stopped. The crazy fat kid threatens to nuke America over the insult. (In covering the story, the Guardian included photos of Kim touring two pastry plants each wearing a wide grin on his face! High U.S. officials signal the time for patience is over, previous policies have failed. A few days ago, in response to some remark or other, Kim said that if a single bullet was fired, NK would nuke America. He can't yet reach America, though he is working hard on it and will be able to soon. But Japan and South Korea are understandably scared out of their pants.. In the face of such potentially catastrophic news, what is the top story in Russia these days? @bruceq tells us: It is the Russian extremism story

Go easy on this person, Anna. I've been known to agree with my own remarks so frequently that the authorities will send for guys with straight jackets.

It's hard to imagine that traffic to jw.org will not increase, perhaps even explode. In view of the publicity, people will want to see if it is truly extremist. This may be especially true with those we find difficult to reach: the newsworthy and well-connected. What will be the result when they discover that it is not? Perhaps that is the greatest contribution our Russian brothers make to Jehovah. True, some are preaching the Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter are proclaiming the Christ out of love, for they know that I have been appointed to defend the good news; but the former do it out of contentiousness, not with a pure motive, for they are intending to create trouble for me in my prison bonds. With what result? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and I rejoice over this. ... Phillipians 1:15-18

When Putin opens my letter, he will be disheartened. He will see several paragraphs. He will want with all his heart to read it, but he has several million other letters to get through. He will toss the letter. He will then open the next letter and discover, as he suspected from the envelope, that it is from a child. It includes drawings, one of a sad little girl because Putin is being mean to her nice friends, and one from a happy little girl, because he has had a change of heart. Putin will smile faintly, for everyone loves children. He will put this letter aside. Possibly he will show it to his grandchildren someday. He will open the next letter. It will also be from me – not the same letter, but worded and reasoned upon completely anew. He will roll his eyes. “Another letter from that windbag Harley,” he will mutter, and toss it in the trash. How many letters will Putin get? Eight million, at a minimum, as every Witness in the world will write him. They only had to be invited once, and they instantly responded. Putin has never seen anything like it and he will not forget it. It will not necessarily melt his heart. It may make him mad. He has a country to run. He has a world infested with verbal assassins he must stay abreast of. He even has would-be physical assassins, and one of them succeeded in taking out his favorite limosine driver, a no-doubt decent man. So he may not like it that Jehovah’s Witnesses try to flood his Kremlin and paralyze him, like the Dr. Suess king mired in oobleck. I apologize to him. I really do. Unfortunately, the well-being of my brothers is at stake, and we feel we must get his attention somehow. He is being given bad advice by religionists. If he takes it, he will look like an utter fool on the world stage because nobody can read JW materials, online or in print, and think them extremist. Perhaps he should get mad at those who would maneuver him into such a ridiculous position. Most likely, the eight million is just for starters. Six addresses are listed. Many Witnesses will send their same letter to all six, bringing the total to – say, 30 million. Yuri will not be jealous that Dmitry received the same letter as he. Some comfortable in writing will compose several letters and send each to all six. Make that 50 million. Then there will be non-Witness, human rights people. These will write in numbers of far less percentage, but there are far more of them. There will be some who don’t like Jehovah’s Witnesses and support the ban. Not to mention outright opposers who will be cheerleaders for him to take harsher measures. Will that bring the total to 60 million? More? Your guess is as good as mine. Will letters from opposers fool him? I doubt it. He will say: “Look, I can see why Harley would write me, and all his 8 million chums. But what about this loser? Is he pretending he is somehow my friend who would warn me of a great danger? Is he not part of the general world who was last week (in the U.S.) called me a thug and a murderer?” Putin may have them all sunk at sea and never read one. But he cannot fail to know of their existence and will perhaps wonder: ‘what would the world be like if everyone behaved as do these JWs, transcending national, racial, and social divisions to show loving concern for their spiritual brothers?

It's not necessary to bash other religions here, it's not a subject I'm trying to focus attention on or wish to continue. BUT As is usual, especially with the evangelicals, they are letting Jehovah's Witnesses do their heavy lifting for them, because they fear perhaps they will be the next group to be accosted. Read around and you will see that this is (once again) true. They hold back. Whatever support they offer is very tepid, because Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult that does not believe in the Trinity. If we win, they will latch on for the ride. Will they be grateful? Not for a second. We will continue to be maligned as a cult that fully deserves whatever bad comes upon it.

The trick will be to generate such worldwide publicity, to make every person aware, that for Putin to snuff out Jehovah’s Witnesses will be comparable to his strangling a cat on live TV. He may decide not to do it. He wants to be regarded as wise, as firm where necessary, but certainly not as an unhinged Kim Jong-un. To be sure, he plays hardball when he has to, but he may come to realize that here he does not have to. What with Post Offices around the world being crushed with the volume of JW letters, likely from every Witness in the world, (to him or to one of his associates) everyone except the most disconnected may become aware of the situation soon to be decided by him. Will he want to be an international pariah? All our letters will be respectful, [except some seeded in by those religious enemies who want the ban to proceed] in sharp contrast to how he is usually portrayed in the West. He may get fed up, not with us, but with the house church that is trying to feed him the line that jw.org is extremist, doing so for the purpose of taking out the competition. He may, on a night he cannot sleep, peruse jw.org, see that it plainly is not extremist, as every other nation in the world sees, and come to resent the house church that would have him look like a total ass on the world stage. In short, he may come to realize that, what with all the very real concerns facing his country, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not one of them.

There was a report (does anyone have it?) that our brothers in Russia have withdrawn all appeals and have instead requested the largest possible courtroom for the April 5th hearing, the 'overflow' courtroom. Though I haven't confirmed it (you may know all about it) it is exactly what they would do - play this out before the largest possible audience. It is just how Jehovah is having it play out on the world wide today. The GB invites us to write, to bring our gift to the altar. Our people respond to such an enthusiastic degree that national Post Offices are getting crushed. Of course, this leads to publicity everywhere as to just why that is, and the reason is astounding to non-Witnesses. I'd be surprised if every Witness in the world does not write to Putin or one of his chums. Surely, the world takes notice of a faith where each member takes such an interest in each other - especially since they risk getting run over in the parking lot of their own church once services are over. Putin may just load the letters on supertankers and sink them at sea - just how do you cope with millions of unexpected letters - but he cannot fail to be know that they exist. Those who hate Jehovah's Witnesses join in the fray, writing letters in support of the ban, like the Edomites of Psalm 137 who screamed "lay it bare!' This almost makes it better, for it adds to the tonnage. But more importantly, everyone takes their place on the world stage. Let the people firmly and publicly divide themselves into the sheep or goats category. Perhaps the GB is luring them all, as with hooks in their jaws. Meanwhile, note how our people conduct themselves. Note how extraordinarily respectful they are (as is seen in our videos) toward Russian authorities. Note the Sept 2016 Study Wt article on Defending the Good News before courts, which is being used today as a template. Note how our respectful response is so contrary to what the world would expect that it only adds to the witness. Let every person in the world become aware of and take a stand on this issue. If it is to be, let Russian officials look themselves in the mirror and publicly declare: "I believe, what with all the villains and scoundrels on the loose today in our country, that taking out Jehovah's Witnesses is the most important thing we can do." The campaign may fail in its goal of swaying the minds of Russian officials. But it will not fall short in its goal of giving a massive witness. it will not fall short in stepping up the preaching work worldwide, as it presents fresh evidence that 'the time left is reduced.' It will not fall short in giving our Russian brothers tremendous reinforcement. For the rest of their lives, persons will approach them and say: "You crushed our Post Office. Just what kind of people are you, anyway?" After all, if any of the hard or soft apostates here suffered the same hardships our Russian brothers are suffering, does anyone think their fellow apostates would come to their aid? Or would they just be roadkill?

The college people write PSAs and try to educate the dummies, but they are not able to effectively communicate with them. They patronize them. They talk down to them. They assign them roles and memes, always denoting intellectual inferiority, and the little people get fed up. The college people of this world are also ill-equipped to give counsel because the world is so fragmented. Everyone cares about only their pet topic. Everyone competes with others trying to advance their cause. “Hey, what are you here for? Getting poked, pinched, or probed?” says one ridiculous patient to another in the New York State TV doctors’ waiting room. The other fellow sheepishly admits he is in for colon screening. “Hey, it’s no big deal!” his accoster says, not unlike how apostates accost loyal ones. In another ad on the same topic, the TV wife says: “We got screened for colon cancer,” and her TV husband interjects: “so glad we did.” This happens to me all the time, too, as I am waiting in the doctors’ office: “Hey, why are you here?” a stranger says to me, “are they going to run a scope up your rear end?” “Yeah!” I answer, “how cool is that?” All this is a rather lengthy introduction to the way Awake educates on health, and other practical topics. The articles are written by real people, not college-educated buffoons. They afford their readers dignity. They grant them intelligence and common sense. The most recent example that comes to mind is the #6 Awake of 2016. ‘Disease – How to Reduce the Risk’ It’s a thorough, concise, and non-condescending discussion of a crucial topic. It does not focus on colon screening, for those guys do not come around with their scopes unless you or your insurance has oodles of money. The emphasis is on basic health education for the masses. Most persons of this world are quite limited in their health-care choices. If you have a magazine with world-wide circulation, you have a moral imperative to use it not to sell Pharma drugs, lawyer services, and automobiles, but to address concerns for the public good. Awake, the second most widely circulated magazine in the world, (the Watchtower is the first) does that. Countries with meager resources frequently express gratitude for such services. They don’t scream to high heaven, as they would in the United States, that Awake is a religious source, and thus no good. In some African nations, Witnesses were giving public education courses on how to control Ebola, cooperating (not co-opting) with the government’s efforts, but cooperating to such a degree that some governments simply handed them the ball. Articles in the Awake that deal with such public issues do not even mention religion. It all makes one very proud to be associated with an organization that accomplishes so much good.

Our people are loyal. They are beautiful. They are thrilled to be bringing their gift to the altar. But sometimes they are too flippant about what is really a very serious topic

Okay. Well, she knows one or two languages more than me, and that is a good thing. She may not realize that there are certain - how can they not be apostates? - who jump upon some of her posts and undercut / ridicule them. She would not like that if she knew, for she works so hard to provide upbuilding content.

The USPS is ever in financial crisis because fewer and fewer use actual paper mail. It seems Jehovah's Witnesses have bought them some breathing space.

It may be that I owe Queen Esther an apology, for she posts much fine content. If you see someone accosted by an apostate and the reaction is far afield from what you would expect it would be, it can be hard to get your head around why that would be. It is my bad, perhaps. I'll just have to work harder to get my head around it.

@johnlindsaybarltrop "This is also true..........no pun intended True Tom!!" Sorry, John, I missed something. I don't know what you're referring to.

Upon reflection, the title of this NPR piece says it all: Lack Of Education Leads To Lost Dreams And Low Income For Many Jehovah's Witnesses What are your dreams?

Russia, like many countries, has many protesters. Sometimes there is violence. They should not devote their energy to harassing the one people who do not protest.

AGAPE, my foot.

Nonsense. You always attack the person. It is the way to go. Of course, you do not attack him in his own house. That would be rude. You don't attack him on his own blog, for that would also be rude. Possibly, you may not even attack him on his own thread. There, if you visit, you must be polite. But therein lies the problem for the apostate. Nobody comes to his own house or his own blog, often not even to his own thread, because he is a loser, and everyone knows it. So he comes to your house, blog, thread, to make trouble, and there, as far as I am concerned, you blast him out of the water. Now, this is Queen Esther's thread, and Queen Esther poses as one of our people. If she is (for all are liars on the internet...in other words, don't be too gullible), then she is my spiritual sister. So she will understand it when you are not nice to one who tries to invade a loyal ones' thread with disloyal comments. You pour coffee for your welcome visitors, but your Rottweiler takes out the thief climbing through the window. What's so hard about that? And JTR is here too, I see. Excuse me for a moment why I hunt up some asinine, bombastic, offensive, photos. If you get too many thieves climbing in your window, then you move to another neighborhood.