TrueTomHarley

Most of these churches that defy government quarantine restrictions do so because they see the government being opportunistic—‘never let a crisis go to waste.’ They are intensely political on the right, celebrate the Bill of Rights, and they fear that government surveillance, monitoring, restrictions will not revert to normal after the crisis has passed. To them, the crisis is the wedge to introduce permanent restriction of freedom. Some see it as a deliberate move to so decimate capitalism that all that will be left is for socialism to take the helm. A fringe of these people even think the ‘crisis’ is manufactured for exactly that purpose—to extend control and restrictive means of government over all persons. And don’t get them going about Bill Gates!
None of this is so absurd to be dismissed out of hand. See how popular Bernie Sanders is, or even Elizabeth Warren. The trouble with conspiracy theories is that once a few of them turn out to be true it becomes so much easier to swallow anything coming down the pipe. I am glad that we really don’t have to worry about it. We never put our trust in human institutions, so if it turns out that there are machinations amongst them, it does not unsettle us to the degree that it unsettles people who do put full trust in human self-rule. Nor do we look to human institutions for ‘staying power.’ If they don’t go down this way, they will go down that way. All we have to do is stay loyal to God, no matter what, and let the chips fall where they may. When push comes to shove, this life is not the ‘real’ life of 1 Timothy 6:19.

Most of these churches that defy government quarantine restrictions do so because they see the government being opportunistic—‘never let a crisis go to waste.’ They are intensely political on the right, celebrate the Bill of Rights, and they fear that government surveillance, monitoring, restrictions will not revert to normal after the crisis has passed. To them, the crisis is the wedge to introduce permanent restriction of freedom. Some see it as a deliberate move to so decimate capitalism that all that will be left is for socialism to take the helm. A fringe of these people even think the ‘crisis’ is manufactured for exactly that purpose—to extend control and restrictive means of government over all persons. And don’t get them going about Bill Gates!
None of this is so absurd to be dismissed out of hand. See how popular Bernie Sanders is, or even Elizabeth Warren. The trouble with conspiracy theories is that once a few of them turn out to be true it becomes so much easier to swallow anything coming down the pipe. I am glad that we really don’t have to worry about it. We never put our trust in human institutions, so if it turns out that there are machinations amongst them, it does not unsettle us to the degree that it unsettles people who do put full trust in human self-rule. Nor do we look to human institutions for ‘staying power.’ If they don’t go down this way, they will go down that way. All we have to do is stay loyal to God, no matter what, and let the chips fall where they may. When push comes to shove, this life is not the ‘real’ life of 1 Timothy 6:19.

Most of these churches that defy government quarantine restrictions do so because they see the government being opportunistic—‘never let a crisis go to waste.’ They are intensely political on the right, celebrate the Bill of Rights, and they fear that government surveillance, monitoring, restrictions will not revert to normal after the crisis has passed. To them, the crisis is the wedge to introduce permanent restriction of freedom. Some see it as a deliberate move to so decimate capitalism that all that will be left is for socialism to take the helm. A fringe of these people even think the ‘crisis’ is manufactured for exactly that purpose—to extend control and restrictive means of government over all persons. And don’t get them going about Bill Gates!
None of this is so absurd to be dismissed out of hand. See how popular Bernie Sanders is, or even Elizabeth Warren. The trouble with conspiracy theories is that once a few of them turn out to be true it becomes so much easier to swallow anything coming down the pipe. I am glad that we really don’t have to worry about it. We never put our trust in human institutions, so if it turns out that there are machinations amongst them, it does not unsettle us to the degree that it unsettles people who do put full trust in human self-rule. Nor do we look to human institutions for ‘staying power.’ If they don’t go down this way, they will go down that way. All we have to do is stay loyal to God, no matter what, and let the chips fall where they may. When push comes to shove, this life is not the ‘real’ life of 1 Timothy 6:19.

Most of these churches that defy government quarantine restrictions do so because they see the government being opportunistic—‘never let a crisis go to waste.’ They are intensely political on the right, celebrate the Bill of Rights, and they fear that government surveillance, monitoring, restrictions will not revert to normal after the crisis has passed. To them, the crisis is the wedge to introduce permanent restriction of freedom. Some see it as a deliberate move to so decimate capitalism that all that will be left is for socialism to take the helm. A fringe of these people even think the ‘crisis’ is manufactured for exactly that purpose—to extend control and restrictive means of government over all persons. And don’t get them going about Bill Gates!
None of this is so absurd to be dismissed out of hand. See how popular Bernie Sanders is, or even Elizabeth Warren. The trouble with conspiracy theories is that once a few of them turn out to be true it becomes so much easier to swallow anything coming down the pipe. I am glad that we really don’t have to worry about it. We never put our trust in human institutions, so if it turns out that there are machinations amongst them, it does not unsettle us to the degree that it unsettles people who do put full trust in human self-rule. Nor do we look to human institutions for ‘staying power.’ If they don’t go down this way, they will go down that way. All we have to do is stay loyal to God, no matter what, and let the chips fall where they may. When push comes to shove, this life is not the ‘real’ life of 1 Timothy 6:19.

In the US there is a call for mandatory lockdown. Those who resist that call say What is the point?’ What, are you going to put people that disobey in jail, and thereby make the problems worse? That has happened in NYC. There is not much that can be done unless people voluntarily cooperate. 
Horrible thing for those in prison. Yes, they should be released. Will they be? At least JWs have the knowledge that this life is not the ‘real life’ of 1 Timothy 6. None of us wants to die—death is inconvenient and it makes people feel bad—though death itself is not a cause of fear for those who trust in Bible promises.

In the US there is a call for mandatory lockdown. Those who resist that call say What is the point?’ What, are you going to put people that disobey in jail, and thereby make the problems worse? That has happened in NYC. There is not much that can be done unless people voluntarily cooperate. 
Horrible thing for those in prison. Yes, they should be released. Will they be? At least JWs have the knowledge that this life is not the ‘real life’ of 1 Timothy 6. None of us wants to die—death is inconvenient and it makes people feel bad—though death itself is not a cause of fear for those who trust in Bible promises.

No, you blockhead. 
It rescued postal systems throughout the world, most of whom are on the ropes, as they have been in the United States forever, and they bought us serious good will from the superior authorities which may prove useful some day.
“They will sit, each one under his vine and under his pork chop tree and hopefully learn some sense, or if not, at least some decorum.”

Can one really say something about the Trinity in the third person and expect to be taken seriously? I am still trying to punch my way out of that paper bag.

I believe the position of Pork Chop Secretary remains unfilled.

No, you blockhead. 
It rescued postal systems throughout the world, most of whom are on the ropes, as they have been in the United States forever, and they bought us serious good will from the superior authorities which may prove useful some day.
“They will sit, each one under his vine and under his pork chop tree and hopefully learn some sense, or if not, at least some decorum.”

Works well with me. There are some others who would use it to bolster their claim to ‘true anointed’ status.
 

It is great news.
I certainly hope I will not be forced to admit that @James Thomas Rook Jr. is a true prophet 
 

Works well with me. There are some others who would use it to bolster their claim to ‘true anointed’ status.
 

I would not disagree that the description fits, but I gave you that name and I get to say how you earned it.
Admitted, your story is better than mine, because mine doesn’t fit in all particulars.
Slow Joe used to refer to the semi-grifter preachers who set up storefront churches as ‘pork chop preachers.’ They preached just enough to keep themselves in pork chops. There was no particular judgment as to whether they were sincere or not, but the inference is that they knew just enough of the Bible to buy their pork chop and no more.
I like the description. I applied it to you. The insulting connotations really don’t fit. The home-spun seat-of-your-pants ones do.

It is great news.
I certainly hope I will not be forced to admit that @James Thomas Rook Jr. is a true prophet 
 

Let us suppose that an anonymous and/or unknown person writes an endlessly long letter to an established mechanic and explains in great detail the basic principles of car manufacturing and the interaction of the engine components, while making clear from very early on his belief that the mechanic is incompetent and doing everything wrong.
Even though the mechanic loves cars, wants to improve in his ability, and engine talk is ‘music to his ears,‘ he will still toss the letter in the trash as one from a self-important, tactless know-it-all. If he answers all, it will be to say: “You have your own ideas as to how things should be done, I can see. Open up your own shop and let me know how that works out.” 
The problem is one of hubris but it is more than that. It is also the purely practical reality that “we have this treasure (the ministry) in human vessels (us).“ One of the limitations of being human is that you do not have all day to attend to a any given thing. Any writer with the slightest bit of sense knows that he has to structure his introductory letter accordingly.
God, how can people have such little self-awareness?!!

Yes, of course. What is it with people?
You have to craft your letter. It may be that they get hundreds of these per day. Does he really think they are patiently going to plow through a letter from straight out of the blue that is plainly telling them how to do better what they think they already are doing pretty well?
His very self-assumed air of being their corrector virtually guarantees that they will hang with him through three paragraphs at most. People are so full of themselves today.

Yes, of course. What is it with people?
You have to craft your letter. It may be that they get hundreds of these per day. Does he really think they are patiently going to plow through a letter from straight out of the blue that is plainly telling them how to do better what they think they already are doing pretty well?
His very self-assumed air of being their corrector virtually guarantees that they will hang with him through three paragraphs at most. People are so full of themselves today.

You are.

Facts are nice, but they are overrated. They are downright dangerous things in the hands of some, who handle them as deftly as a surgeon with a jackhammer.
Facts mean little in themselves. It’s how you put them together that counts. That’s why the Bible lays relatively little emphasis on the head and instead lays it on the heart.
The heart determines what it wants and then entrusts the head to devise a convincing rationale for it, giving the appearance that it is the head running the show. But it is the heart all along.

I will have to admit, Russian women COULD knock you out!

The premise, and apparently the hope, of this entire thread Kos stated early on:
“I told my wife that maybe there will never again be meetings as before. I hope the JWs will wake up and start to examine the scriptures seriously and search what all this could lead to.“
In fact, it looks like meetings are pretty much going on with barely a hiccup. They have simply switched to conference-call software, with telephone tie-in for any not up to speed on this. If Kos foresees that every child in the world can download apps showing the alignment of the planets, I don’t why he would have any problem foreseeing this, but it doesn’t appear that he did. Rather than take his self-predicted five years to make himself even more insightful and pure than he already is, maybe he should repent if possible and try to get into that new format with his wife rather than being a drag that she must contend with.
Our congregation will start with the conference calls at this mid-week meeting, Zoom in our case. (We will meet in Zoom Rooms—who would have thunk it?) Over the weekend we streamed it from apparently one of the Bethels. I could not help but think how the contents would have been disappointing to any ‘anti-cultist’ because there was not a bit of alarmism and everyone treated the virus threat as just one more run-of-the-mill challenge to adapt to. Referred to several times in comments, it wasn’t even called the ‘Chinese virus.’ They didn’t get into any squabbles if they should be able to do it that way or not—since it gets some all incensed, they avoided the term, and just said virus or Covid 19 or Corona or whatever. It is so much like this world to ‘taunt’ the other side, deliberately getting them going usually for the sake of putting down, if not ridicule, but they didn’t stoop to that for a moment. It almost made me ashamed that i do stoop to it (but probably not ashamed enough to stop), though I am trying to restrain myself, not always easily.
They didn’t sensationalize this virus even a little bit, much less use it to ‘scare’ people. It easily could be used that way. They didn’t. Not even a hint of it. So I will—just in a speculative bent, you understand, no more.
For the longest time we have said our preaching will end someday. What if this turns out to be it? It’s not impossible, though no one suggests it. I expect this to blow over and normal preaching and activities will resume, but there is no reason to accept that as a foregone conclusion. What if the world leaders who just assume you can shut down the entire world economy and start it up again are wrong, and instead another worldwide Great Depression ensues? The deaths then will dwarf anything that the virus itself brings on, including many a suicide. Will people endure it as resolutely as they did 90 years ago? I wouldn’t hold my breath, not with the belligerence and non-cooperation that defines the overall culture today. And wouldn’t that be a decisive verdict to the facades men have erected? The worldwide financial bedrock, that everyone depends on and have taken for granted will endure no matter what—dissolving so easily in the face of what might well be an overreaction to a virus only two or three times more nasty than the regular flu—bad, to be sure, but not nearly as bad as the devastation triggered in the all-out war to contain it, a war that leaders can only hope will be won but do not know. As that mighty structure crumbles, who knows what efforts nations may go to in their desire to shore it up?
Then all these ones on the outside lambasting the Witness organization every time one of them so much as farts may begin to feel less comfortable. For the Witness brotherhood appears to be holding up pretty well, and it is holding up well independent of material assets. If worse comes to worse, you can run the whole program from a server in Brother Lett’s dorm room. It might even be that conditions could devolve to Acts 2 mode, in which Christians are physically caring for the needs of others. If you have kept yourself plugged into the brotherhood that, with all its flaws, is one run on love, you will be able to weather whatever shaking of the world is going on. Those who have put themselves outside it and are united in nothing other than their finding fault—of them I am not so sure.
A speaker quoted from Numbers 12 recently. “Face to face I speak with [Moses], and not in riddles. Why then, did you not fear to speak against him?” Yes, I know, I know—those taking the lead today are not Moses, but I am not so unfearful to declare they are not filling exactly the modern role that he did the ancient. Yes, they are not Moses, but then Moses was not Moses in the eyes of his critics. What were they murmuring about? His Hittite wives. He really did have Hittite wives. It was not an invalid complaint. God accepted him anyway and struck down those who would rise up against him.
I can easily extrapolate, based on the snarling hate expressed by some here for the theocratic organization, and current events showing that opposition shifting into high gear, most notably in Russia—I can envision that attack on the city ‘existing without bars’ and ‘the city that seems open to plunder’—I can easily envision it—not as a slam-dunk gonna-happen-now, but certainly as a possibility. Will religions in general hold onto their own as JWs hold on to theirs? Time will time, but I’m dubious. How many will so easily switch to new methods of keeping in touch? How many are so organized into not just congregations, but groups within congregations, so that no one other than those who willfully keep their distance is overlooked?
Revelation presents scenarios of people ‘warring against God’ and one can’t help but wonder: ‘Who would be stupid enough to do that?’ Now some scenarios emerge. ‘Do not meddle with these men so that you may not be found actually fighters against God,’ Gamaliel said. It was enough to dissuade the Sanhedrin. ‘Forget that!’ enemies say today as they go in for what they imagine is the kill.
The view of the humanists is that human solutions must prevail, and they are livid that any would look to another source. They are livid that any would put their trust in anything else. They attack and put the most ridiculous interpretation on Letts’ words about what doesn’t bother him at all, because they can’t stand what he looks to for salvation. To one of these yo-yos ranting about how he uses calamity to ‘exploit’ members with fear so as to keep them in line, I said that ‘the entire premise of the faith is that we are living in the last days of this system of things in which difficult times will prevail. To point to evidence of that does not frighten them; it strengthens them—it validates their faith.’

The gray boxes suddenly appear with name only. It is like a drum roll announcing the appearance of yet another friend. Then the video comes online, as though the cymbal crash. I can get used to this. There are some aspects of it I even prefer—such as wearing my slippers.

The fellow’s got a screw loose, and that is partly why I have exercised no authority to have him deleted. By being so histrionic he makes his side look bad

A man of style, grace, and polish will always match his slippers to his tie.