TrueTomHarley

If there has been kickback on manipulation and ‘control’ charges, and if there has been kickback on ‘flip-flopping’ charges, then I would like to see kickback on charges that Witnesses ‘cover up’ child sexual abuse. A good place to start is by pointing out that leaving reporting up to the involved parties is not the same as ‘covering up.’
Instead, the Witness organization states that it “abhors child sexual abuse,” which, in combination with its reluctance to go there otherwise, is spun by determined enemies as though they love the stuff. Not all will do what reporter Elizabeth Chuck did and attribute it to a “penchant for privacy.”
Why do they not respond in more detail? It may be that the sheer wickedness of the charge takes their breath away and makes them look like deer caught in the headlights. Yes, they know well the verse, “every sort of wicked thing will be lyingly said about you” but this—this is the wickedest thing of all! And the proactive arrangement started with such good intentions. Not so many years ago the notion of a religion “policing its own” was lauded as the ultimate in practicing what one preached. 
It wouldn’t be hard to do—to provide a brief defense of criticisms leveled at them. It might start with points such as:
“Covering up” is not the same as leaving it to the digression of ones affected to report. There wouldn’t be anything to be accused of covering up had not the Witness organization practiced what almost nobody else did—policing its own. Countless persons are arrested with regard to child sexual abuse. Their religious affiliation or lack of is never reported. The reason that it is so with Witnesses is that they tried to do something about it among their own. Unlike virtually anywhere else, where the leaders of an organization are themselves the abusers, the leaders of the Witness community are accused of botching the handling of instances—bad, perhaps—history will judge—but nowhere near as bad as being the ones who commit it. That’s a few for starters. More could be added, such as
The current “gold standard” of child sexual abuse to “go beyond the law” will inevitably cause you problems with those who, not surprisingly, expect you to abide by law. Child sexual abuse would appear to be the primary gross planetary product—30 years into all-out war against CSA and barely a dent has been made. Therefore efforts to prevent it ought to be given at least as much creedence as efforts to secure the barn door after the cows have fled. Nobody, but nobody, has done what the Witness organization has done, gathering every member in the world to consider detailed scenarios in which child sexual abuse might occur so that parents, obviously the first line of defense, can be vigilant. This was done as part of the program of the 2017 Regional conventions.  The reason that the greater world will never make inroads with regard to child sexual abuse it that it feeds with one hand what it is trying to punish with another. The TicTok app taking young people by storm has been described as a pedophile’s dream come true. Though it is parallel and thus not exactly the same thing, the 2020 NFL halftime show demonstrates that objectifying woman is the force that makes the world go round—the MeToo movement is doomed from the start.  The matter of CSA does not go away. It is not being solved. Rather, each month brings some new revelation of how the very elements of this world keep it firmly entrenched as a societal ill. It’s intricate involvement with the Child Protective Service agencies recently was reviewed in a story I must have missed. “We have set up a system to sex traffic American children” said Newsweek in January 2018:
And the latest scandal—pediatricians! “Sheds light on a problem that could rival priest scandals,” states an article extrapolating from a notorious case just how many there might be. And to think I got into a squabble with that nasty O’Mally, determined to put down the Caleb and Sophia video “Protect Your Children,” while she heralded one that specifically said that it was okay for a doctor to touch you in private areas. “Ask the young women of the U.S. Gymnastics Olympic team which video they think would have offered them more protection,” I told her.
Just a few basic tenets of defense for those who would like to have some response to when workmates, schoolmates, or neighbors hit them over the head with what they just saw on TV. It doesn’t cover every tiny thing—just the general outline. The nature of critics everywhere is that they would like their complaints on center stage, to the exclusion of whatever else used to be there. Maybe its not a good idea to indulge them so. Maybe it’s enough to correct matters that need it, such as making it crystal clear to members that there is no reproach in reporting child sexual abuse to police, since the abuser has already brought about the reproach. Maybe it is enough to focus on creating an atmosphere where CSA is less likely to happen. 
Maybe. But sometimes you do wish there was more (or any) of a public response.
I did like the WT attorney’s words at the reversal of the Montana verdict. “There are no winners in a case involving child abuse. ‘No child should ever be subjected to such a debased crime....Tragically, it happens, and when it does Jehovah's Witnesses follow the law. This is what the Montana Supreme Court has established.”

If there has been kickback on manipulation and ‘control’ charges, and if there has been kickback on ‘flip-flopping’ charges, then I would like to see kickback on charges that Witnesses ‘cover up’ child sexual abuse. A good place to start is by pointing out that leaving reporting up to the involved parties is not the same as ‘covering up.’
Instead, the Witness organization states that it “abhors child sexual abuse,” which, in combination with its reluctance to go there otherwise, is spun by determined enemies as though they love the stuff. Not all will do what reporter Elizabeth Chuck did and attribute it to a “penchant for privacy.”
Why do they not respond in more detail? It may be that the sheer wickedness of the charge takes their breath away and makes them look like deer caught in the headlights. Yes, they know well the verse, “every sort of wicked thing will be lyingly said about you” but this—this is the wickedest thing of all! And the proactive arrangement started with such good intentions. Not so many years ago the notion of a religion “policing its own” was lauded as the ultimate in practicing what one preached. 
It wouldn’t be hard to do—to provide a brief defense of criticisms leveled at them. It might start with points such as:
“Covering up” is not the same as leaving it to the digression of ones affected to report. There wouldn’t be anything to be accused of covering up had not the Witness organization practiced what almost nobody else did—policing its own. Countless persons are arrested with regard to child sexual abuse. Their religious affiliation or lack of is never reported. The reason that it is so with Witnesses is that they tried to do something about it among their own. Unlike virtually anywhere else, where the leaders of an organization are themselves the abusers, the leaders of the Witness community are accused of botching the handling of instances—bad, perhaps—history will judge—but nowhere near as bad as being the ones who commit it. That’s a few for starters. More could be added, such as
The current “gold standard” of child sexual abuse to “go beyond the law” will inevitably cause you problems with those who, not surprisingly, expect you to abide by law. Child sexual abuse would appear to be the primary gross planetary product—30 years into all-out war against CSA and barely a dent has been made. Therefore efforts to prevent it ought to be given at least as much creedence as efforts to secure the barn door after the cows have fled. Nobody, but nobody, has done what the Witness organization has done, gathering every member in the world to consider detailed scenarios in which child sexual abuse might occur so that parents, obviously the first line of defense, can be vigilant. This was done as part of the program of the 2017 Regional conventions.  The reason that the greater world will never make inroads with regard to child sexual abuse it that it feeds with one hand what it is trying to punish with another. The TicTok app taking young people by storm has been described as a pedophile’s dream come true. Though it is parallel and thus not exactly the same thing, the 2020 NFL halftime show demonstrates that objectifying woman is the force that makes the world go round—the MeToo movement is doomed from the start.  The matter of CSA does not go away. It is not being solved. Rather, each month brings some new revelation of how the very elements of this world keep it firmly entrenched as a societal ill. It’s intricate involvement with the Child Protective Service agencies recently was reviewed in a story I must have missed. “We have set up a system to sex traffic American children” said Newsweek in January 2018:
And the latest scandal—pediatricians! “Sheds light on a problem that could rival priest scandals,” states an article extrapolating from a notorious case just how many there might be. And to think I got into a squabble with that nasty O’Mally, determined to put down the Caleb and Sophia video “Protect Your Children,” while she heralded one that specifically said that it was okay for a doctor to touch you in private areas. “Ask the young women of the U.S. Gymnastics Olympic team which video they think would have offered them more protection,” I told her.
Just a few basic tenets of defense for those who would like to have some response to when workmates, schoolmates, or neighbors hit them over the head with what they just saw on TV. It doesn’t cover every tiny thing—just the general outline. The nature of critics everywhere is that they would like their complaints on center stage, to the exclusion of whatever else used to be there. Maybe its not a good idea to indulge them so. Maybe it’s enough to correct matters that need it, such as making it crystal clear to members that there is no reproach in reporting child sexual abuse to police, since the abuser has already brought about the reproach. Maybe it is enough to focus on creating an atmosphere where CSA is less likely to happen. 
Maybe. But sometimes you do wish there was more (or any) of a public response.
I did like the WT attorney’s words at the reversal of the Montana verdict. “There are no winners in a case involving child abuse. ‘No child should ever be subjected to such a debased crime....Tragically, it happens, and when it does Jehovah's Witnesses follow the law. This is what the Montana Supreme Court has established.”

If there has been kickback on manipulation and ‘control’ charges, and if there has been kickback on ‘flip-flopping’ charges, then I would like to see kickback on charges that Witnesses ‘cover up’ child sexual abuse. A good place to start is by pointing out that leaving reporting up to the involved parties is not the same as ‘covering up.’
Instead, the Witness organization states that it “abhors child sexual abuse,” which, in combination with its reluctance to go there otherwise, is spun by determined enemies as though they love the stuff. Not all will do what reporter Elizabeth Chuck did and attribute it to a “penchant for privacy.”
Why do they not respond in more detail? It may be that the sheer wickedness of the charge takes their breath away and makes them look like deer caught in the headlights. Yes, they know well the verse, “every sort of wicked thing will be lyingly said about you” but this—this is the wickedest thing of all! And the proactive arrangement started with such good intentions. Not so many years ago the notion of a religion “policing its own” was lauded as the ultimate in practicing what one preached. 
It wouldn’t be hard to do—to provide a brief defense of criticisms leveled at them. It might start with points such as:
“Covering up” is not the same as leaving it to the digression of ones affected to report. There wouldn’t be anything to be accused of covering up had not the Witness organization practiced what almost nobody else did—policing its own. Countless persons are arrested with regard to child sexual abuse. Their religious affiliation or lack of is never reported. The reason that it is so with Witnesses is that they tried to do something about it among their own. Unlike virtually anywhere else, where the leaders of an organization are themselves the abusers, the leaders of the Witness community are accused of botching the handling of instances—bad, perhaps—history will judge—but nowhere near as bad as being the ones who commit it. That’s a few for starters. More could be added, such as
The current “gold standard” of child sexual abuse to “go beyond the law” will inevitably cause you problems with those who, not surprisingly, expect you to abide by law. Child sexual abuse would appear to be the primary gross planetary product—30 years into all-out war against CSA and barely a dent has been made. Therefore efforts to prevent it ought to be given at least as much creedence as efforts to secure the barn door after the cows have fled. Nobody, but nobody, has done what the Witness organization has done, gathering every member in the world to consider detailed scenarios in which child sexual abuse might occur so that parents, obviously the first line of defense, can be vigilant. This was done as part of the program of the 2017 Regional conventions.  The reason that the greater world will never make inroads with regard to child sexual abuse it that it feeds with one hand what it is trying to punish with another. The TicTok app taking young people by storm has been described as a pedophile’s dream come true. Though it is parallel and thus not exactly the same thing, the 2020 NFL halftime show demonstrates that objectifying woman is the force that makes the world go round—the MeToo movement is doomed from the start.  The matter of CSA does not go away. It is not being solved. Rather, each month brings some new revelation of how the very elements of this world keep it firmly entrenched as a societal ill. It’s intricate involvement with the Child Protective Service agencies recently was reviewed in a story I must have missed. “We have set up a system to sex traffic American children” said Newsweek in January 2018:
And the latest scandal—pediatricians! “Sheds light on a problem that could rival priest scandals,” states an article extrapolating from a notorious case just how many there might be. And to think I got into a squabble with that nasty O’Mally, determined to put down the Caleb and Sophia video “Protect Your Children,” while she heralded one that specifically said that it was okay for a doctor to touch you in private areas. “Ask the young women of the U.S. Gymnastics Olympic team which video they think would have offered them more protection,” I told her.
Just a few basic tenets of defense for those who would like to have some response to when workmates, schoolmates, or neighbors hit them over the head with what they just saw on TV. It doesn’t cover every tiny thing—just the general outline. The nature of critics everywhere is that they would like their complaints on center stage, to the exclusion of whatever else used to be there. Maybe its not a good idea to indulge them so. Maybe it’s enough to correct matters that need it, such as making it crystal clear to members that there is no reproach in reporting child sexual abuse to police, since the abuser has already brought about the reproach. Maybe it is enough to focus on creating an atmosphere where CSA is less likely to happen. 
Maybe. But sometimes you do wish there was more (or any) of a public response.
I did like the WT attorney’s words at the reversal of the Montana verdict. “There are no winners in a case involving child abuse. ‘No child should ever be subjected to such a debased crime....Tragically, it happens, and when it does Jehovah's Witnesses follow the law. This is what the Montana Supreme Court has established.”

If there has been kickback on manipulation and ‘control’ charges, and if there has been kickback on ‘flip-flopping’ charges, then I would like to see kickback on charges that Witnesses ‘cover up’ child sexual abuse. A good place to start is by pointing out that leaving reporting up to the involved parties is not the same as ‘covering up.’
Instead, the Witness organization states that it “abhors child sexual abuse,” which, in combination with its reluctance to go there otherwise, is spun by determined enemies as though they love the stuff. Not all will do what reporter Elizabeth Chuck did and attribute it to a “penchant for privacy.”
Why do they not respond in more detail? It may be that the sheer wickedness of the charge takes their breath away and makes them look like deer caught in the headlights. Yes, they know well the verse, “every sort of wicked thing will be lyingly said about you” but this—this is the wickedest thing of all! And the proactive arrangement started with such good intentions. Not so many years ago the notion of a religion “policing its own” was lauded as the ultimate in practicing what one preached. 
It wouldn’t be hard to do—to provide a brief defense of criticisms leveled at them. It might start with points such as:
“Covering up” is not the same as leaving it to the digression of ones affected to report. There wouldn’t be anything to be accused of covering up had not the Witness organization practiced what almost nobody else did—policing its own. Countless persons are arrested with regard to child sexual abuse. Their religious affiliation or lack of is never reported. The reason that it is so with Witnesses is that they tried to do something about it among their own. Unlike virtually anywhere else, where the leaders of an organization are themselves the abusers, the leaders of the Witness community are accused of botching the handling of instances—bad, perhaps—history will judge—but nowhere near as bad as being the ones who commit it. That’s a few for starters. More could be added, such as
The current “gold standard” of child sexual abuse to “go beyond the law” will inevitably cause you problems with those who, not surprisingly, expect you to abide by law. Child sexual abuse would appear to be the primary gross planetary product—30 years into all-out war against CSA and barely a dent has been made. Therefore efforts to prevent it ought to be given at least as much creedence as efforts to secure the barn door after the cows have fled. Nobody, but nobody, has done what the Witness organization has done, gathering every member in the world to consider detailed scenarios in which child sexual abuse might occur so that parents, obviously the first line of defense, can be vigilant. This was done as part of the program of the 2017 Regional conventions.  The reason that the greater world will never make inroads with regard to child sexual abuse it that it feeds with one hand what it is trying to punish with another. The TicTok app taking young people by storm has been described as a pedophile’s dream come true. Though it is parallel and thus not exactly the same thing, the 2020 NFL halftime show demonstrates that objectifying woman is the force that makes the world go round—the MeToo movement is doomed from the start.  The matter of CSA does not go away. It is not being solved. Rather, each month brings some new revelation of how the very elements of this world keep it firmly entrenched as a societal ill. It’s intricate involvement with the Child Protective Service agencies recently was reviewed in a story I must have missed. “We have set up a system to sex traffic American children” said Newsweek in January 2018:
And the latest scandal—pediatricians! “Sheds light on a problem that could rival priest scandals,” states an article extrapolating from a notorious case just how many there might be. And to think I got into a squabble with that nasty O’Mally, determined to put down the Caleb and Sophia video “Protect Your Children,” while she heralded one that specifically said that it was okay for a doctor to touch you in private areas. “Ask the young women of the U.S. Gymnastics Olympic team which video they think would have offered them more protection,” I told her.
Just a few basic tenets of defense for those who would like to have some response to when workmates, schoolmates, or neighbors hit them over the head with what they just saw on TV. It doesn’t cover every tiny thing—just the general outline. The nature of critics everywhere is that they would like their complaints on center stage, to the exclusion of whatever else used to be there. Maybe its not a good idea to indulge them so. Maybe it’s enough to correct matters that need it, such as making it crystal clear to members that there is no reproach in reporting child sexual abuse to police, since the abuser has already brought about the reproach. Maybe it is enough to focus on creating an atmosphere where CSA is less likely to happen. 
Maybe. But sometimes you do wish there was more (or any) of a public response.
I did like the WT attorney’s words at the reversal of the Montana verdict. “There are no winners in a case involving child abuse. ‘No child should ever be subjected to such a debased crime....Tragically, it happens, and when it does Jehovah's Witnesses follow the law. This is what the Montana Supreme Court has established.”

Well, what in the world do you expect? “Yeah, I know that I was impeached, but I am really guilty—can’t believe I fooled them on that—they really should have convicted me.” You think he’s going to say that, or think that?
Do you know what acquittal means? It means not guilty. So when the process finds him not guilty, as he never thought he was, in the face of critics vehemently insisting that he was guilty as sin, even a traitor to the country—and given his personality not to shrink from a fight, would you not expect him to do a victory lap or three?
Do you even know what he was impeached for? Most Americans had only a hazy idea and if you explained it to them in more detail, many couldn’t see how it was an especial big deal—it is not as though the charge he made of the former VP’s son was untrue, after all.
You’re kidding me! And everyone else in town has the countenance of an angel?
Everyone is successful until their denunciation comes to a finish. C’mon, Kos! Ask JTR to tell you about how Cool Hand Luke kept coming at George Kennedy even though he had nothing.
Look, some find the guy’s candor refreshing. You lap up the commentator painting a picture of a Congress shocked—shocked!—that he would carry on so at a prayer breakfast, as though business as normal for them is devotion to prayer?! 
Enough of the stuff to float the Spanish Armada on, methinks.
At most, he is an example of the clay that does not mix with the iron. You might think of him as a bull in a china shop, but would you really want to liken government status quo as a ‘china shop?’
Call him a junkyard dog in a junkyard and you are on safer ground. But the only dog in Revelation is the one that goes down with about a half-dozen other types of scoundrels. And don’t start pumping a prophesy out of that—it was just a throwaway line!
4Jah’s true annointed, to manifest itself out of nowhere within ten years, may have an opening for head prophet, but as for me and my household, I can find a better one at any Seven-Eleven store.

Well, what in the world do you expect? “Yeah, I know that I was impeached, but I am really guilty—can’t believe I fooled them on that—they really should have convicted me.” You think he’s going to say that, or think that?
Do you know what acquittal means? It means not guilty. So when the process finds him not guilty, as he never thought he was, in the face of critics vehemently insisting that he was guilty as sin, even a traitor to the country—and given his personality not to shrink from a fight, would you not expect him to do a victory lap or three?
Do you even know what he was impeached for? Most Americans had only a hazy idea and if you explained it to them in more detail, many couldn’t see how it was an especial big deal—it is not as though the charge he made of the former VP’s son was untrue, after all.
You’re kidding me! And everyone else in town has the countenance of an angel?
Everyone is successful until their denunciation comes to a finish. C’mon, Kos! Ask JTR to tell you about how Cool Hand Luke kept coming at George Kennedy even though he had nothing.
Look, some find the guy’s candor refreshing. You lap up the commentator painting a picture of a Congress shocked—shocked!—that he would carry on so at a prayer breakfast, as though business as normal for them is devotion to prayer?! 
Enough of the stuff to float the Spanish Armada on, methinks.
At most, he is an example of the clay that does not mix with the iron. You might think of him as a bull in a china shop, but would you really want to liken government status quo as a ‘china shop?’
Call him a junkyard dog in a junkyard and you are on safer ground. But the only dog in Revelation is the one that goes down with about a half-dozen other types of scoundrels. And don’t start pumping a prophesy out of that—it was just a throwaway line!
4Jah’s true annointed, to manifest itself out of nowhere within ten years, may have an opening for head prophet, but as for me and my household, I can find a better one at any Seven-Eleven store.

Well, yeah, but if you see fulfillment of prophesy every time Trump blasts away at an opponent, the entire Book of Revelation will be fulfilled within the week.
If Kos must go into prophesy fulfillment, tell him to focus on how Trump vs Whoever has illuminated 2 Timothy 3:1-5. It used to be that if you read those verses and the householder didn’t agree that now is the time they are taking place, there wasn’t much you can do about it. Plainly, they are subjective, 
It is very hard to deny it now, though, with a straight face. Trump vs his enemies constitute Exhibit A of the world losing its mind. But it is only Exhibit A—one must not forget B-Z.

Well, yeah, but if you see fulfillment of prophesy every time Trump blasts away at an opponent, the entire Book of Revelation will be fulfilled within the week.
If Kos must go into prophesy fulfillment, tell him to focus on how Trump vs Whoever has illuminated 2 Timothy 3:1-5. It used to be that if you read those verses and the householder didn’t agree that now is the time they are taking place, there wasn’t much you can do about it. Plainly, they are subjective, 
It is very hard to deny it now, though, with a straight face. Trump vs his enemies constitute Exhibit A of the world losing its mind. But it is only Exhibit A—one must not forget B-Z.

Please don’t look for end-time prophesies here, Kos. And please don’t present network TV as the channel of love. Please don’t tell us that love emanates from Harvard. Nor tell us that Congress starts each day with consideration of the daily text: “Can’t we all just get along?”  Just don’t—on any of those counts.
Go back to your meetings, won’t you? Join your wife and kids. Tell the brothers that you’ll try to refrain from running ahead. Work on your people skills. You don’t have to parrot every little thing. It is enough not to grab the wheel.
Why is everything so American with you? NYC is Babylon the Great? Trump is the Man of Lawlessness? How are those in India or Romania going to get their heads around that?
If JTR got back in due to cherishing the core teachings, anybody can. Don’t present yourself as a true prophet arising in our midst and you’ll do fine. It’s okay to present yourself as a person having doubts about this, that, or the other thing. Congregation elders have mercy toward such ones. (Jude 22) But the mercy will wear thin if you present yourself as instructor to the worldwide organization.
 

Please don’t look for end-time prophesies here, Kos. And please don’t present network TV as the channel of love. Please don’t tell us that love emanates from Harvard. Nor tell us that Congress starts each day with consideration of the daily text: “Can’t we all just get along?”  Just don’t—on any of those counts.
Go back to your meetings, won’t you? Join your wife and kids. Tell the brothers that you’ll try to refrain from running ahead. Work on your people skills. You don’t have to parrot every little thing. It is enough not to grab the wheel.
Why is everything so American with you? NYC is Babylon the Great? Trump is the Man of Lawlessness? How are those in India or Romania going to get their heads around that?
If JTR got back in due to cherishing the core teachings, anybody can. Don’t present yourself as a true prophet arising in our midst and you’ll do fine. It’s okay to present yourself as a person having doubts about this, that, or the other thing. Congregation elders have mercy toward such ones. (Jude 22) But the mercy will wear thin if you present yourself as instructor to the worldwide organization.
 

They’d better not be tying to fool us again.

Please don’t look for end-time prophesies here, Kos. And please don’t present network TV as the channel of love. Please don’t tell us that love emanates from Harvard. Nor tell us that Congress starts each day with consideration of the daily text: “Can’t we all just get along?”  Just don’t—on any of those counts.
Go back to your meetings, won’t you? Join your wife and kids. Tell the brothers that you’ll try to refrain from running ahead. Work on your people skills. You don’t have to parrot every little thing. It is enough not to grab the wheel.
Why is everything so American with you? NYC is Babylon the Great? Trump is the Man of Lawlessness? How are those in India or Romania going to get their heads around that?
If JTR got back in due to cherishing the core teachings, anybody can. Don’t present yourself as a true prophet arising in our midst and you’ll do fine. It’s okay to present yourself as a person having doubts about this, that, or the other thing. Congregation elders have mercy toward such ones. (Jude 22) But the mercy will wear thin if you present yourself as instructor to the worldwide organization.
 

It must have been the old hen who made this into its own thread, and my second comment I no longer remember what that was about—some sort of inside joke that no longer is relevant, I suppose. But if you have actually been beat up and much as you say you have—I have never heard of such a thing—than I think you should focus on was even a little tiny bit of it your fault and work on that. It is much easier to work on yourself than on others. 
Since you treasure the core that is JW, know it is found nowhere else, and are determined not to forsake it, you should work on making peace with the earthly organization. Otherwise you simply have the worst of two worlds. Why should that be? Change. If you want to present that you have been wronged, I will grant that. Still, you must move on. 
For crying out loud, go to the AA meeting if you have to and memorize their prayer—it may not be from us but it is not bad at all: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Focus on the first and third phrases, for you have NO problem with the second.

@Health and Medicine, Clever Eagles remake. But yes, "too soon."
By a strange coincidence, we traveled on the "Anthem of the Seas" mentioned in the above post, about 10 years ago.  https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/anthem-of-the-seas
I already called it "Anthem of Di Seas." [pronounced: disease] because a "norovirus" breakout was affecting dozens, and even my own mother and father had to be quarantined in his room instead of being allowed out to the daily activities or meals. All the cruise personnel worked overtime standing around offering squirts from bottles of Purell saying: "Washy-washy? Washy-washy? Washy-washy?" Hard not to make fun of the experience.

Welcome to the Royal Caribbean,
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face.
Plenty of room at the Royal Caribbean,
Quarantines are here (this time of year) you can find it here
Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
'Relax' said the CDC man,
'We are programmed to receive.
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave!'

It must have been the old hen who made this into its own thread, and my second comment I no longer remember what that was about—some sort of inside joke that no longer is relevant, I suppose. But if you have actually been beat up and much as you say you have—I have never heard of such a thing—than I think you should focus on was even a little tiny bit of it your fault and work on that. It is much easier to work on yourself than on others. 
Since you treasure the core that is JW, know it is found nowhere else, and are determined not to forsake it, you should work on making peace with the earthly organization. Otherwise you simply have the worst of two worlds. Why should that be? Change. If you want to present that you have been wronged, I will grant that. Still, you must move on. 
For crying out loud, go to the AA meeting if you have to and memorize their prayer—it may not be from us but it is not bad at all: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Focus on the first and third phrases, for you have NO problem with the second.

It must have been the old hen who made this into its own thread, and my second comment I no longer remember what that was about—some sort of inside joke that no longer is relevant, I suppose. But if you have actually been beat up and much as you say you have—I have never heard of such a thing—than I think you should focus on was even a little tiny bit of it your fault and work on that. It is much easier to work on yourself than on others. 
Since you treasure the core that is JW, know it is found nowhere else, and are determined not to forsake it, you should work on making peace with the earthly organization. Otherwise you simply have the worst of two worlds. Why should that be? Change. If you want to present that you have been wronged, I will grant that. Still, you must move on. 
For crying out loud, go to the AA meeting if you have to and memorize their prayer—it may not be from us but it is not bad at all: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Focus on the first and third phrases, for you have NO problem with the second.

Tom Harley on James Thomas Rook
 
The title of my next book! History repeats itself!

You get much credit for this profound and obviously true statement.
You lose it all for this stupid one. Of course they pay one. 
“Besides those things of an external kind, there is what rushes in on me from day to day, the anxiety for all the congregations.  Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is stumbled, and I am not incensed?” 2 Corinthians 11:28
The greatest penalty is the one that we impose on themselves. To insist that this “penalty” was fully at work with Paul and NOT the Christian leadership of today is to impart motives and appoint yourself the judge. Didn’t you say that you were above such things? 
Ah...yes....here it is:
I admire your hangdog toughness on certain things—I really do—but much of your presence here is proclaiming that you will not “somehow punish them,” but praying that SOMEBODY would. Much of your presence is clearly vindictive.
Much of your presence here is the plain wish to settle scores, the plain manifestation of the grudge to end all grudges.
If it had the same draw, Anna and I would sell tickets to that.

JTR: I was circumspect in my answer because, after 20 years, I didn’t want to be reckless. Recollections can fade after that much time. I wanted to be sure as I dusted off the cobwebs of my back memory. You were so firm in your counter-response that I thought maybe you were aware of something concrete. But now I learn that 
Of course! All as reported by those who would be happy if JWs were to vanish off the planet. I go back to my own memory of things with more confidence.
Of course they were ‘special’ but the question not addressed is ‘What was special about them?’ They were special because they were the reports of judicial committees reporting disfellowshipping for any reason. You think that’s not ‘special?’ Do you think that half the mail volume at Bethel is reports of people disfellowshipped?
The idea behind sending such reports in a color coded envelope was so that Madge, the Bethel secretary, or whoever was filling in for her, would not be the one to open them. Blue envelopes were forward directly to Della White, Perry Bethel’s private secretary. As judicial reports, they would contain sensitive material that you didn’t want to broadcast to every Tom, Dick, or Madge. 
The idea behind all reports was so when someone was disfellowshipped in one congregation, he just couldn’t slip back into another congregation with his past expunged and start anew.  Any religion ‘policing its own’ would of course have such an arrangement. Since few, if any, did, it will sound quite novel. What they did with the info I don’t know. Perhaps just kept them filed away by name after a quick review in case that name ever came up again from another congregation.
As to writing detailed reports of anyone ever accused of CSA, as I said, I certainly would have remembered that because I would have been the one charged to write it. I suppose it is possible that such a request was received and I do not recall it because we didn’t have anyone to write about. Maybe I wasn’t even serving as an elder by 97, though my recollection was that it was about 99 or 00 that I discontinued serving. I do get a little hazy as to which years I served as secretary and which not, but it would have been most of them and certainly the ones at the tail end of my service. I suppose I could dig up some records and check, but
Would it make a difference? Or if the answer came back not what you have already concluded, would you not just say that he is a ‘company man’ saying whatever he thinks will cover his own rear end and that of HQ? As it is, 4Jah demands what proof I have that what I answered to you is the truth. The moron! The ‘proof’ I offered was the greatest proof any individual can offer—the evidence of an eye-witness. 
For many years I always had 3 or 4 of those blue envelopes in my desk, for whenever the need might arise. Use one, and they would send another in the next literature order, or maybe separately. Every other congregation secretary had a few of them as well. Yet I never sat in on or reported one matter of CSA. Therefore, they were for general ‘judicial’ use, and ‘special’ for that reason.
 

I’ve always enjoyed the Hornblower series of novels, starting with rookie or Midshipman Hornblower progressively up to Lord Hornblower. In a sort of osmosis way I picked up a vague familiarity with nautical terms. 

The original post about manipulating—who does it, to what degree, and whose is the most serious, brought out some predictable comments on the ‘never is heard a discouraging word’ website. ‘Unity of belief means brainwashing?’ one woman said. She thought not. She suggested that convincing followers to drink poisoned Kool Aid so they could all go to heaven was brainwashing. She suggested that flying your hijacked airplane into the Twin Towers so as to achieve the same goal was also brainwashing. She thought withdrawing from society to live in communes was brainwashing, as well. But she thought that if you live, school, and work in the general community, plus directly visit members of that community one-on-one to discuss your hope with them, plainly making connections in the Book that everyone has (or did) but almost nobody understands, that is not brainwashing. 
How bad can the ‘manipulation’ be, someone else observed, if it results it results in people unselfish, with good family values, respectful of laws, honest, peaceable, and so forth? Why—if people were manipulated to be like that, you wouldn’t have to fear going out at night, you could lighten up on carrying keys for everything under the sun, and in general enjoy much less stress. The old trite saying even came out that ‘given the state of our brains, they can use a good washing.’ It may be trite, but that does not mean that it is untrue. Witnesses have been nothing but benefited by choosing adherence to God’s direction.
Jehovah’s Witnesses make a mistake should they take to heart the cry of their opposers about ‘manipulation.’ Essentially, the cry is no more than the accusation that Witnesses march to the beat of a different drum, which none of them would deny. The manipulation that is detrimental is in just the opposition direction. “We know that we originate with God,” says John, “but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) Must “the whole world” not be ‘controlled’ or ‘manipulated’ for that to be the case? “The Devil is misleading the entire inhabited earth,” states Revelation 12:9.
So when the cry is made that “Jehovah’s Witnesses are manipulated!” simply translate it as “Jehovah’s Witnesses believe the Bible” and you will be fine—the two statements are equivalent. Witnesses are no more than the modern counterpart of Joshua, famous for his Declaration of Dependence: “Now if it seems bad to you to serve Jehovah, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve...but as for me and my household, we will serve Jehovah.” (Joshua 24:15)
Furthermore, stick it right back to those who favor independence from God to produce the fine world that their independence has brought them. Don’t settle for shallow answers such as pointing to clever gadgets like the iPad that I am putting to excellent use right now. Don’t settle for the admission that things may be getting worse right now, but the world is about to make a brilliant turnaround. Were that to happen, would it not be akin to a cry of ‘peace and security’ that I have read about somewhere? Learn to apprise the world’s offerings as did the Joker in the art gallery, flipping through paintings and rendering instant judgement: “crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.” In doing so, you will not be far from the Bible’s own conclusion—that there is a generation pure in its own eyes that has not been washed from its own filth. (Proverbs 30:12) 
Don’t walk around all glum as though there is no joy to be had in the present life, for that is plainly not so and JWs do not carry on as though it were. But don’t be ashamed to proclaim the real life of 1 Timothy 6:19, and don’t let modern opponents manipulate you into thinking that this life is the real one. No. This one is the irretrievably broken one set to be replaced when God’s kingdom comes.
Tell your critics to produce evidence of the child sexual abuse and human trafficking epidemic that they have stopped dead in its tracks. Ask them even to show how they have reached their laudable goal of no longer objectifying women—perhaps they will point to the Super Bowl halftime show (2020) as Exhibit A. How about the drug abuse problem that they have vanquished, or the homeless problem? “Why is it you Jehovah’s Witnesses always have to insist that things are getting worse?” one brother was asked by a detractor. “What does that view do for you?” He replied that it helped him to explain why the Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight (the latest revision) and not 10:30 AM.

Well, in the face of such a confident challenge (given that you always speak that way).....I’m not iron-clad sure, big boy. But I think so. I was an elder for 20 years until about 2000. I served as secretary for most of those years. Blue envelopes were well-known to me and to the elder body. Yet I never sat in on or forwarded any judicial case involving CSA. So I start to revert back to what I said in the first place—for me to recall them so well, even submitting them I think, they would have had to have been for any form of wrongdoing. 
Furthermore, had there been a specific request, in 1997 or any other time, to write detailed reports of anyone in the congregation who had.ever been accused of CSA, I certainly would have remembered it, because I would have been the one charged to do it. I would not have been like Pilosi ripping up the letter. I took letter-writing seriously, something that should hardly be a surprise to anyone.
So that’s my evidence. I could be wrong—20 years time is enough to forget details—but I don’t think so. What is your evidence? Do you have any? Or are you just repeating what you have read on the internet?

There were blue envelopes but they were for relating the disfellowshipping of any person for any reason. The idea was that someone disciplined for any sort of wrongdoing could not just slip into a new congregation as though a rebuke had never happened. Presumably, the envelopes were blue for privacy’s sake, so they would be forwarded to the right persons.
Today, It is painted specifically as though it was for CSA. That was not the case. It was for any type of wrongdoing.

I don’t think he knows anything.