TrueTomHarley

I don’t think that i ever said that. If I did, the context has been so altered as to make it meaningless

Perhaps they were, but there is such a thing as being clueless as to human relations. You don’t just show up on someone’s doorstep and start demanding things, taking for granted that your authority and wisdom is recognized by all, when you are in reality a complete stranger and nobody knows you from Adam. Any time an actual brother tries that on an actual doorstep he gets his head handed to him, as he should, for being so self-important.
I wrote my previous comment last night, and I would have taken it down this morning had it not been replied to. I began to think that he is unwell and, that being the case, it was not very sporting of me to retort as I did.
Look up from your egg breakfast, James, courtesy of you multitudinous chickens. My limo has just pulled up and I am on your doorstep to tell you everything that is wrong with you and how you must shape up if you would hope for God’s tolerance. It goes without saying that I know everything and you know nothing. Black is how I like my coffee.

It is very confusing, and I think it may be a work in progress. There would be no need for passwords were it not for people like on this forum, who will not behave and who will ‘zoombomb’ or otherwise cause chaos given the first opportunity. Trolls have got to be among the most odious things on the planet, necessitating layers of security in many organizations because they simply will not behave.
It drove me nuts, too, at first attempt. At present, so far as I know, you cannot stream the assemblies from the jw app that suggests you can. Again, I think it is a work in progress. Tell her to contact her elders. They will be able to get her in without fuss. Other online meetings are hosted and the host will not let in anyone unrecognized. Easy to set up in advance, however, to avoid problems. I am not sure whether you could do it for her or not. If you told the elders what jerks they were as you departed, and how you run them all down of the WNMF, they might not believe your good intentions now.
They have to guard against determined opposers, not all of whom are stupid. It is roughly the equivalent of how in times of ban, the brothers are very careful in screening people, since liars come around feigning interest when their real goal is to make it hot for the brothers. In the meantime, the jw.org website is freely open to all, with tons of videos and talks.
Passwords in general are a nightmare, triggering constant aggravation. It may be one of those situations where it is observed, “If everyone was a Witness, there would be no need for locks—theft would be so rare that most could do without.” Same with passwords, I suspect. They may not be completely unnecessary, because people are people, but probably a 4 digit one across all accounts would serve just fine.

It is just the most absurd thing, the way it is phrased: “I have tried to inform you of the necessary adjustments you ought to take in order to truly be in the truth.”
It is just so pretentious. It is almost as bad as getting an ultimatum from the womanfromthehills of Facebook.
Will they read a letter like that at Bethel? Dunno, but I never would. I might read one or two, but I gather that they receive a steady stream of these from ones who indicate from their very first words that they are unhinged.
I can deal with loopy. And I can deal with self-important.  But someone who is loopy AND self-important....well, I don’t know how to deal with that. Pity the brother they’ve assigned to plow through stuff like this, but it just may be that nobody is assigned.
I mean, can’t you just see this fellow rebuking Peter in the first century for blaming everything on that roaring lion the Devil, and telling him how if he doesn’t get his act together, there will be even further persecution?

God and his Son love the Amaharets. They are chosen over the lofty. It is one of the most significant lessons a person can learn from  the Bible 

Columnist Andrew Sorokowski wrote at the time of the ban: Why would a country of 144 million trash its international reputation for the sake of harassing a harmless 175 thousand? 
Yet Russia has done so, painting itself before all as though a land of thugs

Columnist Andrew Sorokowski wrote at the time of the ban: Why would a country of 144 million trash its international reputation for the sake of harassing a harmless 175 thousand? 
Yet Russia has done so, painting itself before all as though a land of thugs

Book ‘The Righteous Brothers’

It is still there, much expanded, and when we visited a few years ago, was where the literature was printed. So far as I know, printing moved out of Brooklyn many years previous to its sale—perhaps some specialty things were printed there, but no more than that, and Patterson has never been used for printing.
They did stop growing food there ages ago, having decided it could be purchased more economically, all factors considered. It used to be as you entered on the main road, residence buildings were on your left, and various fields of produce, along with a barn or three, were on your right. There was no printery at all.
’Davey the kid,’ who I have written about a few times, and who appears in the afterword of Tom Irregardless and Me, worked in the cheese room there. He later published a book on cheese-making. He and a few other Bethelites formed ‘The Farmhand Band’ and would entertain others of the family—perhaps even those outside. I tagged along a time or two as others who knew him went down to visit, though in time we would serve together as elders in an outside congregation.
He was one of those enormously talented brothers that everything he touched turned to gold. Walking into the 8-story Medical Arts building in Rochester—for upon leaving Bethel, he had to make a living—in order to secure the cleaning contract, the manager noted some areas of particular challenge, but then conceded that he didn’t know much about cleaning. ‘That makes two of us!’ Davey told me his (unspoken) reaction later, as he wowed the fellow with pure charm. “It’s my gift,” he told me later, “they never say no.”
He built a Kingdom Hall in Rochester, built another one, and then an Assembly Hall. Of course, it wasn’t all him—there were committees, but he was always the go-to driving force, if only because he seemed never at a loss as to what to do, while others needed time to get their heads around new things. During the Assembly Hall build, he got tired of putting out ‘cleaning fires,’ as he would call them, which would take him away to the telephone. So he took some college courses, accumulated enormous college credit via ‘life experiences’ and emerged a psychotherapist. I would joke with him that—poor fellow that he was, he always suspected that half of us were nuts, and now that he had become a psychotherapist he discovers that even the half that he thought were sane—they’re nuts, too.
He told me of the respect he had gained for the college courses with regard to psychology. He had entered upon the coursework assuming that it would be all necessary drivel, but he presently said, ‘Hey, I am not doing some of these things myself’ and benefited accordingly. 
He died a while back and so this is more-or-less an obituary that I did not intend when I started this remark—thanks for giving me the prod. His wife has died, too.  And to think that Davey made major waves in his non-believing family, for he by-passed a full university scholarship for the sake of enrolling as a pioneer. He wasn’t exactly typical.
(Srecko’s link is of ‘Mountain Farms’ the original location of Gilead—much smaller and far removed from the other three complexes.)
 

Book ‘The Righteous Brothers’

It is still there, much expanded, and when we visited a few years ago, was where the literature was printed. So far as I know, printing moved out of Brooklyn many years previous to its sale—perhaps some specialty things were printed there, but no more than that, and Patterson has never been used for printing.
They did stop growing food there ages ago, having decided it could be purchased more economically, all factors considered. It used to be as you entered on the main road, residence buildings were on your left, and various fields of produce, along with a barn or three, were on your right. There was no printery at all.
’Davey the kid,’ who I have written about a few times, and who appears in the afterword of Tom Irregardless and Me, worked in the cheese room there. He later published a book on cheese-making. He and a few other Bethelites formed ‘The Farmhand Band’ and would entertain others of the family—perhaps even those outside. I tagged along a time or two as others who knew him went down to visit, though in time we would serve together as elders in an outside congregation.
He was one of those enormously talented brothers that everything he touched turned to gold. Walking into the 8-story Medical Arts building in Rochester—for upon leaving Bethel, he had to make a living—in order to secure the cleaning contract, the manager noted some areas of particular challenge, but then conceded that he didn’t know much about cleaning. ‘That makes two of us!’ Davey told me his (unspoken) reaction later, as he wowed the fellow with pure charm. “It’s my gift,” he told me later, “they never say no.”
He built a Kingdom Hall in Rochester, built another one, and then an Assembly Hall. Of course, it wasn’t all him—there were committees, but he was always the go-to driving force, if only because he seemed never at a loss as to what to do, while others needed time to get their heads around new things. During the Assembly Hall build, he got tired of putting out ‘cleaning fires,’ as he would call them, which would take him away to the telephone. So he took some college courses, accumulated enormous college credit via ‘life experiences’ and emerged a psychotherapist. I would joke with him that—poor fellow that he was, he always suspected that half of us were nuts, and now that he had become a psychotherapist he discovers that even the half that he thought were sane—they’re nuts, too.
He told me of the respect he had gained for the college courses with regard to psychology. He had entered upon the coursework assuming that it would be all necessary drivel, but he presently said, ‘Hey, I am not doing some of these things myself’ and benefited accordingly. 
He died a while back and so this is more-or-less an obituary that I did not intend when I started this remark—thanks for giving me the prod. His wife has died, too.  And to think that Davey made major waves in his non-believing family, for he by-passed a full university scholarship for the sake of enrolling as a pioneer. He wasn’t exactly typical.
(Srecko’s link is of ‘Mountain Farms’ the original location of Gilead—much smaller and far removed from the other three complexes.)
 

Increasingly he says nasty and largely irrelevant things just for the sake of saying nasty and irrelevant things. 
He may go the way of Matthew 4 5784, who eventually dropped all pretense of being here to help, earned a rebuke or two, and left of his own volition, a New Year’s resolution—though he is back now sparingly, and may even have turned over a new leaf in some regards. 

Increasingly he says nasty and largely irrelevant things just for the sake of saying nasty and irrelevant things. 
He may go the way of Matthew 4 5784, who eventually dropped all pretense of being here to help, earned a rebuke or two, and left of his own volition, a New Year’s resolution—though he is back now sparingly, and may even have turned over a new leaf in some regards. 

According to tabulations April 20, 2020, three years after the liquidation of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ communities, 332 people became victims of criminal prosecution, 166 of these undergoing imprisonment. These are honest, non-drinking workers: teachers, builders, firefighters, accountants, lawyers. Authorities ruin their career, paralyze their life.

From left to right, top to bottom: Galina Dergacheva, Sergey Loginov, Igor Trifonov, Galina Parkova, Vitaliy Popov, Elena Nikulina, Dmitriy Vinogradov, Maksim Amosov
https://www.jw-russia.org/en/

In this case the answer is not particularly important, nor interesting. The situation prompting the question is what arouses interest. Here is a list of religions ‘of the world.’ Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are ‘no part of the world’ are not on it. Who cares why? I don’t.
Even so, I did mention three possibilities: 
“Is it an oversight? Is it a snub? Is it avoidance because any story about Jehovah's Witnesses will reliably attract swarms of their virulent "apostates' alarmed at any favorable mention and insistent upon maligning their former faith and so RNS just doesn't want to deal with it?”
Which one of the three it is doesn’t interest me. It is like when the Die Hard villain finally dies himself, after two hours of mayhem, and you learn in the epilogue that he was also behind in his contributions to the United Way. Who cares?

In this case the answer is not particularly important, nor interesting. The situation prompting the question is what arouses interest. Here is a list of religions ‘of the world.’ Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are ‘no part of the world’ are not on it. Who cares why? I don’t.
Even so, I did mention three possibilities: 
“Is it an oversight? Is it a snub? Is it avoidance because any story about Jehovah's Witnesses will reliably attract swarms of their virulent "apostates' alarmed at any favorable mention and insistent upon maligning their former faith and so RNS just doesn't want to deal with it?”
Which one of the three it is doesn’t interest me. It is like when the Die Hard villain finally dies himself, after two hours of mayhem, and you learn in the epilogue that he was also behind in his contributions to the United Way. Who cares?

I don’t know where the strike throughs came from. It wasn’t me, unless it was by accident. A software glitch? Dunno. But there weren’t supposed to be any. 
That is acknowledged, too. Searching, one may find some things. But in the tree of faiths that includes most everyone, at least in the alternative or other category, Witnesses are not to be found.
As you stated to Srecko, I’m not upset about it, and Bethel may even be happy about it. As usual, 4Jah is all wet. These others he mentioned can and are maneuvered into other forms of violence, even if nationalism has become passé for some of them. And without a unity founded on love, it takes nothing for the national king to convince them that the villains are to be found in the domain of the other king. It takes nothing to stir up people today.

One of them is not JW per se, but is of someone who wrote a book on how to refute them, along with the Mormons, latching on to key scriptures cites and how to answer back.
Bring it on, I say. Any Witness worth his salt knows how to answer such things.

I haven’t. Nor have I seen anyone here who has. More importantly, The JW organization clearly hasn’t.
https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/topic/87136-‘using’-the-pandemic-to-‘recruit’-people-sheesh-what-is-it-with-these-nutcases/
But if any individual has, I can certainly understand. A pandemic that has not been seen in 100 years. Economic disruption not seen since the Great Depression. In the US, there have been numerous reports of food lines up to two miles long. I would forgive any brother for going there, even if the organization itself has not. So far it is just one more nail in the coffin of human mismanagement of the earth to them.

One of them is not JW per se, but is of someone who wrote a book on how to refute them, along with the Mormons, latching on to key scriptures cites and how to answer back.
Bring it on, I say. Any Witness worth his salt knows how to answer such things.

That is the moral of the post that you stated more succinctly than I. In a list of “the religions of the world,” we are not on it.
If you were to ask Bethel to describe their faith, very quickly would come up that statement that true Christians “are no part of the world.”
Make of it what you will. I don’t make anything of it. I just note it.
 

That is the moral of the post that you stated more succinctly than I. In a list of “the religions of the world,” we are not on it.
If you were to ask Bethel to describe their faith, very quickly would come up that statement that true Christians “are no part of the world.”
Make of it what you will. I don’t make anything of it. I just note it.
 

I don’t know where the strike throughs came from. It wasn’t me, unless it was by accident. A software glitch? Dunno. But there weren’t supposed to be any. 
That is acknowledged, too. Searching, one may find some things. But in the tree of faiths that includes most everyone, at least in the alternative or other category, Witnesses are not to be found.
As you stated to Srecko, I’m not upset about it, and Bethel may even be happy about it. As usual, 4Jah is all wet. These others he mentioned can and are maneuvered into other forms of violence, even if nationalism has become passé for some of them. And without a unity founded on love, it takes nothing for the national king to convince them that the villains are to be found in the domain of the other king. It takes nothing to stir up people today.

I visited religionnews.com and found that my religion does not exist. Jehovah's Witnesses are nowhere listed in their tree of faiths. Everyone else is. Jehovah's Witnesses are not. Can it be? RNS "strive to inform, illuminate and inspire public discourse on matters relating to belief and convictions," says their About page. So where are Jehovah's Witnesses?Few religions have been in the news as much as they, especially with their recent ban in Russia. Is Religion News Service a Russian site? No. Is it their aim to suck up to the Russians? I don't think so. So where are the Witnesses?
The reason that there is not a Jeopardy clue: "They visit door to door to speak about the Bible" is that the answer is too obvious and would stump no one. In some ways Witnesses are plainly the foremost of religions. "And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14), for example. Nobody is known for taking the "good news of the Kingdom' to each and every person like Jehovah's Witnesses, especially before "the end will come.' Here is a cartoon of how JWs found Osama Bin Laden:
Or what about the verse, "beating their swords into plowshares.' (Isaiah 2:4) It is an inspirational slogan for all. The ones who actually DO it are Jehovah's Witnesses. They may be the only ones to completely do it, in that, not only will they not participate in wars, but they will not perform civilian work that is clearly designed to support war efforts. 
Yet, look through the comprehensive list at the bottom of the religionnews.com website"”they do not appear.
The first place you check, of course, is Christianity. There you find four subdivisions: Catholics, Latter Day Saints, Orthodox, and Protestants. If they are in any of the four, it must be Protestants. There you find three subdivisions: Black Protestants, Evangelical, and Mainline. Well, they're not the first or the third. Since they preach the good news of the Kingdom, could they be the second? Nope. Scroll through the stories in that category. You won't find them.
Okay, got it. They are not counted as Christian because RNS assumes that one must believe in the Trinity to be Christian"”many times we've run across this. It makes no sense, but there it is. Most verses used to advance the Trinity teaching are verses that, if they were seen in any other context, would be instantly dismissed as figure of speech. There is no verse that directly states the Trinity, and the one in the King James Version that does (1 John 5:7) has been recognized by all modern scholars as a spurious insertion and thus either removed or footnoted. One almost pictures a scribe reviewing scriptures, getting madder and madder that his favorite doctrine is no where to be found, and slipping it in when no one was looking. 
Where else might Jehovah's Witnesses be if not in the Christian category? Well, maybe the Alternative Faiths category, or the Other Faiths category. Nope. Scroll through the stories on either category. They do not appear. 
Is it an oversight? Is it a snub? Is it avoidance because any story about Jehovah's Witnesses will reliably attract swarms of their virulent "apostates' alarmed at any favorable mention and insistent upon maligning their former faith and so RNS just doesn't want to deal with it? (See TrueTom vs the Apostates) Dunno. But is certainly is strange. 
Now, to be sure, if you enter Jehovah's Witnesses in the Search box, a few items appear"”not many, but a few. There is someone there at RNS that knows that if your textbook is the Bible, if you teach from it, if you have even invented an entirely new non-commercial distribution channel and translated it into overlooked languages of developing countries so that common persons there are not stuck with some 200-year old turkey of a translation that they can neither understand nor afford, you must be a religion. Still, Jehovah's Witnesses are not listed in the list that includes everyone else. 
Do not think that the JW organization will be miffed at not being included in the list. They may even draw satisfaction from it. "Good. Here is a list of the religions "of the world' and we are not on it," they may say. If there is one verse they take seriously over there at JW HQ, it is John 17:16, where Jesus prays about his followers: "They are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world."
For that reason I will not go the RNS site and holler, "Hey!"”what is it with you clowns?!" The site is an offspring of the Missouri School of Journalism. It speaks of the "academic experts' that monitor all. I don't want to tangle with experts. Maybe they will try to pull rank on that basis. Who knows? Maybe they are right. Maybe I am not part of a religion, even if I do speak of the Bible door to door and keep the peace.

I visited religionnews.com and found that my religion does not exist. Jehovah's Witnesses are nowhere listed in their tree of faiths. Everyone else is. Jehovah's Witnesses are not. Can it be? RNS "strive to inform, illuminate and inspire public discourse on matters relating to belief and convictions," says their About page. So where are Jehovah's Witnesses?Few religions have been in the news as much as they, especially with their recent ban in Russia. Is Religion News Service a Russian site? No. Is it their aim to suck up to the Russians? I don't think so. So where are the Witnesses?
The reason that there is not a Jeopardy clue: "They visit door to door to speak about the Bible" is that the answer is too obvious and would stump no one. In some ways Witnesses are plainly the foremost of religions. "And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14), for example. Nobody is known for taking the "good news of the Kingdom' to each and every person like Jehovah's Witnesses, especially before "the end will come.' Here is a cartoon of how JWs found Osama Bin Laden:
Or what about the verse, "beating their swords into plowshares.' (Isaiah 2:4) It is an inspirational slogan for all. The ones who actually DO it are Jehovah's Witnesses. They may be the only ones to completely do it, in that, not only will they not participate in wars, but they will not perform civilian work that is clearly designed to support war efforts. 
Yet, look through the comprehensive list at the bottom of the religionnews.com website"”they do not appear.
The first place you check, of course, is Christianity. There you find four subdivisions: Catholics, Latter Day Saints, Orthodox, and Protestants. If they are in any of the four, it must be Protestants. There you find three subdivisions: Black Protestants, Evangelical, and Mainline. Well, they're not the first or the third. Since they preach the good news of the Kingdom, could they be the second? Nope. Scroll through the stories in that category. You won't find them.
Okay, got it. They are not counted as Christian because RNS assumes that one must believe in the Trinity to be Christian"”many times we've run across this. It makes no sense, but there it is. Most verses used to advance the Trinity teaching are verses that, if they were seen in any other context, would be instantly dismissed as figure of speech. There is no verse that directly states the Trinity, and the one in the King James Version that does (1 John 5:7) has been recognized by all modern scholars as a spurious insertion and thus either removed or footnoted. One almost pictures a scribe reviewing scriptures, getting madder and madder that his favorite doctrine is no where to be found, and slipping it in when no one was looking. 
Where else might Jehovah's Witnesses be if not in the Christian category? Well, maybe the Alternative Faiths category, or the Other Faiths category. Nope. Scroll through the stories on either category. They do not appear. 
Is it an oversight? Is it a snub? Is it avoidance because any story about Jehovah's Witnesses will reliably attract swarms of their virulent "apostates' alarmed at any favorable mention and insistent upon maligning their former faith and so RNS just doesn't want to deal with it? (See TrueTom vs the Apostates) Dunno. But is certainly is strange. 
Now, to be sure, if you enter Jehovah's Witnesses in the Search box, a few items appear"”not many, but a few. There is someone there at RNS that knows that if your textbook is the Bible, if you teach from it, if you have even invented an entirely new non-commercial distribution channel and translated it into overlooked languages of developing countries so that common persons there are not stuck with some 200-year old turkey of a translation that they can neither understand nor afford, you must be a religion. Still, Jehovah's Witnesses are not listed in the list that includes everyone else. 
Do not think that the JW organization will be miffed at not being included in the list. They may even draw satisfaction from it. "Good. Here is a list of the religions "of the world' and we are not on it," they may say. If there is one verse they take seriously over there at JW HQ, it is John 17:16, where Jesus prays about his followers: "They are no part of the world, just as I am no part of the world."
For that reason I will not go the RNS site and holler, "Hey!"”what is it with you clowns?!" The site is an offspring of the Missouri School of Journalism. It speaks of the "academic experts' that monitor all. I don't want to tangle with experts. Maybe they will try to pull rank on that basis. Who knows? Maybe they are right. Maybe I am not part of a religion, even if I do speak of the Bible door to door and keep the peace.