TrueTomHarley

The general rule is that where the law requires the names of even suspected abusers to be handed over to secular authorities, the JW organization will do it. That's further than most go. Two thirds of those required by law to report persons they suspect of pedophilia, such as medical people, do not do it.

The question is not whether or not child sexual abuse has occurred among Jehovah's people. Of course it has. We are people, and child sexual abuse is viral today - it is everywhere and seemingly uncontrollable. What I address is the pleading hope of opposers to paint JWs as a hotbed of abusers. It's a ridiculous charge, and they know better, for they are not overly stupid. But their primary concern is to take down a religion they hate. Elsewhere I have written of the backdrop that must be considered when reading any story of pedophilia involving any group.

I worried some at first that opposers might latch onto Tom Irregardless and Me and try to sink it with bad reviews simply because they hate JWs - not sure if they would do that or not, for not all are intellectually dishonest. But now that I have a number of positive reviews, even if they wrote bad ones, I would play the contrast, writing something like: '8 positive reviews and then the apostates discovered it - that says it all.' It could be put in the book's metadata, which one sees before any reviews. If anything, it would help the book, which does not treat anyone, least of all opposers, in a hateful way. I received a very kind and lengthy review of Tom Irregardless and Me from Ivor E. Tower. Authors are grateful for a review of one or two lines. Mr. Tower goes several paragraphs and illuminates some of the ‘Tom Irregardless and Me’ characters. He is a non-Witness scholar who has written extensively about Jehovah’s Witnesses and his real name is recognizable to studious readers of Watchtower material: “Tom Harley’s Tom Irregardless and Me has been described as “a romping and riotous defense of Jehovah's Witnesses and their place in today’s world.” This really sums up the book, which is a light-hearted look at numerous aspects of the Watch Tower Society from the perspective of a practicing Jehovah’s Witness in the US. “To the outsider, Jehovah’s Witnesses may seem deadly serious and preoccupied exclusively with their religion and the Society’s own publications. Harley dispels this stereotype. The book is about real people and issues, although the author has changed the names of rank-and-file members to preserve name anonymity. Tom Irregardless is an elder who uses the spurious word “irregardless” liberally in his Bible talks. Other characters include John Wheatnweeds, who hinders members from their house-to-house ministry by spending inordinate amounts of time expounding the text of the day before they set out. Then there is posh brandy-sipping Bernard Strawman, who receives frequent visits from the publishers, but continues to raise facile objections to their faith. Vic Vomidog, an apostate, repeatedly seeks to hamper their work. Other chapters are about real JW celebrities such as Prince, who is the subject of an entire chapter. “Despite being light-hearted throughout, Tom Harley raises serious issues such as flag salutes, Darwinism and creationism, theocratic government, the paedophile scandals and the dangers of online grooming of minors, and the accuracy of the New World Translation of the Bible. Tom shows a remarkable breadth of knowledge and reading too – he has by no means exclusively studied Watch Tower publications. “My favourite part of the book was the parody of Mickey Spillane near the end, where Tom Harley envisages a house-to-house publisher acting like one of Spillane’s macho characters. For those who don’t know, Spillane was a novelist whose books were renowned for their sex and violence, until Spillane converted to become a Jehovah’s Witness in 1951 – a decision that drastically changed his writing style. “Tom Harley states that he hopes Tom Irregardless is “entertaining but serious at heart”. This sums up the book well. It’s a good read, while providing valuable insights into life as a JW.” I’m very grateful to Mr. Tower. They line up around the block for a recognized name like John Grisham or Stephen King, but it is extraordinarily difficult for a new writer to break into the ranks. ‘Recall how many books you have purchased in the past year from a totally unknown writer,” one source advises. “Now you know why you should not become an author."

The backdrop of all pedophilia stories is that authorities are frothing over their inability to make a dent in child abuse. We all know it. You can't throw a stone in any direction without hitting ten pedophiles. The authorities drop 95% of what is thrown to them. We all know that, too. Constantly we hear of crimes against children by people who were already on the sex offender registry, which is so watered down with 'innocuous' offenders that it is worthless as a tool to law enforcement. The young man who had sex with his underage girlfriend whom he later married does not belong on the sex offender list. The Economist Magazine in 2009 (easily searchable) ran a series on just how chaotic and useless such lists are. Today such lists are mostly a tool of public shaming or even revenge - they do little to protect children. The authorities who must monitor internet child porn in order to do their jobs liken it to Medusa - one look and you turn to stone. The battle is not being won. It is being lost, and authorities are pulling their hair out over it.

Not specifically. I think it is common knowledge that a patient google search would uncover. It is ignored because .....people gots to get high!

These days cigarette smoking is maligned in the media. It is strange that marijuana smoke is not, for it is physically more harmful to the lungs.

To undergo such a struggle and to think, rightly or wrongly, that it would have been different with greater education, is a significant grievance. To stay loyal under such circumstances shows a laudable love of God. I got around all this by not learning the truth until after my education days were done. Today Witness parents are encouraged to take an active role in their offspring's future plans so that they will be able to support themselves decently. But that was not so much the case in the past. Guiding one's child in career or job choice was often a catch as catch can affair - many parents did not do it, sometimes through neglect, but usually through inexperience.

I'm surprised that the above comment was allowed to stand here, for it has nothing to do with anything. Elsewhere this character was advised to take it out on the street when he likewise tried to hijack a thread to take down a religion he hates. He was advised to start a separate thread. Why should he think he can barge in here and sully a post which consists only of two Bible verses?

Here is a caption for Intrepid Traveller's posts: Please look at this dirt I imagine I've dug up about Jehovah's Witnesses. Please. Please Please, I've worked so hard on it. Please. i couldn't have made it easier for you. Look how I put the links right there where you can click them. Please do it. Please. Please Please. It's what I do all day every day. i hate them so. Click on the three links. Okay, well just one of them. PLLEEEEEZZE click on the links. Please. Please Please Please. Please Please Please. Please Please. I hate them and the work they do. If they were to go down there would be no one to carry on their Bible education work. The lowly ones would starve spiritually. I don't care. Screw the lowly ones. It's their own fault for being lowly. Please click on a link. Please. Please Please PLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our morons went on to build a massive infrastructure, even including an 880 language website, in order to declare the Bible's Kingdom hope to populations worldwide at minimal cost - a hope that transforms even their present life for the better. When your morons have done the same, then we can talk. So far they seem only interested in destroying, not building

Don't cross the librarian. Surely we learned that at school Don't cross the Librarian. Surely we learned that at school If fully documented reports should become available from someone who is just trying to be helpful, I won't read them, because I don't have to. I am fully willing to concede that our guys may have screwed up in a given case. Or it may be slander that someone positiively PLEADS with me to read - someone who says he is my friend. But I don't feel I need to read it, for even were it to be a clear victory for his side, it does not change the fact that our guys are our guys. It does not change the fact that our guys preside over a Bible education work - even producing a website with 880 languages - that nobody else feels they need bother with - 'to hell with the lowly ones,' they say. It does not change the fact that the JW policy on child abuse is among the strongest ones out there.

I like the song video; ‘Why We Went to Bethel.” I like that it is all children. Adults are in the background for support. They clap, sway, play instruments. But the centerpiece is the kids. If you weren’t paying attention, you might miss that it is shot in different countries, with different choirs of kids. That’s how seamless it has been produced by really capable people. I like the child that pops up at the end, “Thank you, Jehovah.” The brother who I think I would like in person will not join in the singing. He just won’t do it. But he will watch the Sergei vignettes just before, which are just as good. In fact, they are better.

I like Micael's comment. it is all the better for trying to put it in a language not his. Invite children along, or even require, for there is nothing but garbage on TV at home. But they speak when they are ready. They are not shamed if they don't, nor praised overmuch if they do. Like the blonde girl in the video who left the truth for 15 years - she had felt she must be the perfect child. From the book 'Tom Irregardless and Me:' (the story is true) "I had worked in the ministry once with Willie when he was seven. At the doors, I had introduced him, same as I once had with my kids – “Hi, I’m Tom and this is my friend Willie. We’re taking turns talking and…it’s his turn.” The boy would launch into his presentation. The householder might look at me expectantly, and I’d say: “sorry, it’s his turn.” As long as he was comfortable, it remained his turn. Presently he had decided he did not want to be introduced - just as my kids had decided. After all, the introduction was really for my sake, not his. Show up at the door with a waist high child, and it is the child who starts speaking? The householder looks at you as if to say: “what about it, dummy - cat got your tongue?” “Tell you what,” I said. “Not only will I not introduce you, but you can introduce me. Or you can take every door.” And that’s how it had gone. He took every door except one or two awkward ones which I handled. When a householder would look toward me, I would apologize and explain that I was far too bashful to speak."

Yes, you are possibly correct. But I will call them morons anyway, for purposes of this post. In some cases, they have been around and should know better. In other cases (of simple disagreement) it is the method - blaring a loudspeaker before passing thousands who pay not the slightest attention to you. But you offer food for thought, which is good.

One brother told me on the Questions articles (he wasn't being serious) (I think): 'I just read the question, then skip to the bottom to see whether I can do it or not.

One must keep in mind that the source material here is a site hostile to Jehovah's Witnesses. It does not mean everything they say is a lie. But it does mean their conclusions cannot be taken as impartial reporting. They are like the media pretending to be impartial while covering Trump - everyone knows they hate his guts. Is the abuser truly female as was the victim? Possibly that might account for some of the failure to report an incident of abuse, even the girl's own dad, persons unable to get their heads around that, or thinking that serious abuse would be male upon female. Dunno. In these days of litigation, anyone with any assets must maintain lawyers. Surely it cannot be a sin to consult them before deciding upon a course of action. Everyone else does, why should JWs not? But if they were somehow given wrong counsel from that team, or if they otherwise failed to comply with PA law, then there is a price to pay - it's the way things are today. In that case, the JW team seeks to negotiate a settlement, as would anyone, so that they don't have to sell every Bethel building to cover it. Whether they did a good job or not - how would I know?

To be fair, someone should report satisfaction statistics for those who have gone to (recent) college, for it is not free, and job openings do not necessarily greet graduates. Moreover, if you flame out today, you find yourself working at McDonald's trying to pay off the astronomical bills you have so far run up.

Put yourself in the latte category if you are spiritual and you want to go to college. But in general, we try to get our specialized education a la carte, since the 4 or 6 year experience packages acknowleged gems in a dumptruck load of turds. Put yourself in the latter category if you are spiritual and you want to go to college. But in general, we try to get our specialized education a la carte, since the 4 or 6 year experience packages acknowleged gems in a dumptruck load of turds. Put yourself in the latte category if you like to break at Starbucks in service.

A scarcity of money, time, and education is generally a major obstacle to quality Bible translation, as has been observed. But I think the organization, largely because it is organized (and dedicated, and stresses self-sacrifice) has gotten around all three of them. On education, when we find an expert, he trains 100 others. When the world finds an expert, he competes with other experts. If he trains them, it is at a significant fee which works, along with other factors, such as a for-profit distribution channel, to price the final product out of reach of the common people it is hoped to benefit. Our people produce a straight-forward master text in English. All the translators are schooled in translation techniques. They are all encouraged to ask questions about specific problems or verses, and when they do, the answers become part of a database accessible to all. Regarding 'free,' it isn't really free, since our people may get room and board. If they're in full-time service, as I think most/all of them are, they receive a small monthly stipend. It's not as though they must log their regular workday at the factory, and then translate an hour or two after dinner. 'Generous' or 'Efficient' or 'Whole-souled' are better descriptive words than free. Regarding time, I'm not sure that is a factor. There are no deadlines that I am aware of. They get to it when they get to it. If they find they need more time, they are granted it. However, I don't want to quibble over these things. Maybe there is a better way to do it. But what is typical is the remark heard at the weekly meetings this week - the Nepalese man expressing appreciation for the NWT in his language. In English there are many readable translations, the NWT is not the only one. But nobody cares about the Nepalese because they do not have any money. Thus they are stuck with some 200 year old turkey of a translation that they can't understand, until the NWT comes along. That situation is repeated in many lands.

I like how the current video vignettes are taylor-made for the persecution right now taking place in Russia, though they were first shown at the Regional Conventions worldwide and had to have been in the pipeline for at least a year prior. It is not now at the extreme depicted in the videos, but it could easily become so, and has been that way in times past. The Russian brothers are being fortified with food at the proper time. Not to mention that, if shaming does any good, the current authorities are being shamed for backing/permitting what is going on. How many clips are there? Five? Six? But three dealing with persecution: 1) the friends jump when there is pounding at the door, only to find it is not the police this time, 2) Sergei arrives home to find the cops have beaten up his dad, 3) Sergei gets five years in prison, which he can avoid if he renounces his faith. All themes that have played out in various places with God's people. The vignettes are such a great way to do conventions, by the way. It used to be talks supplemented by demonstrations. But now it is talks supplemented by sequential videos, until it dawns upon you that the videos are the main story and the talks are supplemental. There are some very talented people in the teaching department.

If Melinda Mills wanted to save me from looking like an ass before the entire forum, she would write some letters to the GB and then tear them up. Sorry, Melinda. It was Anna. My apologies.

He socked the whiskey down, did he?

You know, I had a story about being towed across the Adirondack mountains driving a dead (they usually were) Opel Kadett, following by ten feet the tow vehicle with flasher lights on in the dark so that they became hypnotizing but I had no choice but to endure (or die) for 120 freezing miles because the battery was dead and I could not use my horn to signal and when I finally got to my apartment I stood on the heat grate for an hour - but your story is better. Popped out like a cork, did he?

You know, I begin to think that I would like JTR in person now that I have learned he is part of a congregation. True, he is a hothead, but he is our hothead. I can work with that. Though I have a great many faults, an inability to get along with people is not one of them. Everybody likes me in the circuit. True, there are some who think I am too much 'out there,' but that does not translate into dislike. Everybody agrees that I am neither judgmental nor harsh, nor do I take offense. Everybody agrees that I do what I can to build up. (((Yeah, that's what you think, Truetom. We just don't tell you that you are a jerk!))) In the congregation, I think I would like JTR, for he is a straight-shooter, and that is a good thing. Like everyone else, I would run for cover when he explodes, but I would return when the coast is clear. If he has remained faithful despite ill treatment by ones in position of authority, that is a good thing and it earns my respect. Does he go in service? Possibly, maybe probably, for he does not forget his vow. I'd like to work with him. We would get along fine. However, if he conducts himself outrageously online, I will blast him out of the water to the full extent of my limited power. Imagine - slapping before me a cartoon specifically designed to malign God's organization - how could anyone not conclude he hates God's people, if not God himself? When the Orlando shooter is blowing them away at the gay nightclub, you don't rush in with balm for his spiritual pain. When JTR goes in service, he does not say "Good morning! I'm here to tell you what SOBs some of our elders have been." No. He starts a discussion. He shows a video. He places literature. He starts a Bible study. But when he returns he finds the householder has had a change of heart, because he has discovered JTR's words online. He is right when he is primarily concerned with what Jehovah (and his wife) thinks of him. He is right when he recognizes a moral obligation to tell the truth. But there is a time and a place. And abundant Bible counsel that some things ought to be covered over and, if possible, forgiven. He is wrong when he says that, since he learned the hard way over his lifetime, they can learn the hard way over their lifetime. Part of him knows he is wrong on this. If your old man treated you horribly, do you get back by treating your kids the same way? Unfortunately, some people do, and a family cycle of abuse never ends. As CMP pointed out, the current crop of elders benefits from ever more intensive courses on how to treat the flock. When the high-ranking brothers design these courses, they put themselves through it first, for the saying "half of those at Bethel are there to test the other half" is not lost on them. They don't just design the courses for the peons. They put themselves through it first. The poor elders of JTR's congregation don't know what to make of him, perhaps. He so plainly carries volatile anger, and they, being of a different generation and just trying to do the best they can, don't know where it comes from from I'm not aghast at giving away a fault. As I get older, i get to indulge some wants and I have written two books about the only thing I know - theocracy. There, I give away many faults. Especially in the second book, where one (real) character (a fellow like Diotrophes) is a "dirty rotten lowlife." Believe me when I tell you that he was. But the two books are both playful in overall tone and they have the greater context of the good guys winning. Some comments here would suggest that the good guys don't have a prayer, or even that there are no good guys. Maybe I don't understand this forum and don't belong here. Maybe I should retire to my own blog. All the players here were entrenched long before I came along, and maybe I don't understand how things work. Maybe this forum is more private than I imagine and not freely viewable by anyone in the whole wide world that knows how to do an internet search. Although we are advised from Jesus to forgive whenever possible, sometimes there is occasion to tell something dark and nasty. Is it here? Maybe it is, though I will still blast away at whatever seems designed to tear down until someone shows me the door. If they don't 'play fair' with Jehovah's reputation, I see no obligation to play fair with them. Melinda has her letters that she doesn't send. I have my books. We're all encouraged to have our say in our heart to Jehovah and leave it at that, wherever possible. Reveal stuff in the context of where it may help, and there are such times, but don't put it on the clothesline in the front yard where the whole world sees the shit on your underwear.