Media in general approaches stories concerning Religion by simply accepting a PR statement or by
chasing a titillating story of abuse.
Religious sentiment and push-back are "hot potato."
The GB has cynically steered rank and file members into becoming Martyrs for PR purposes (proving the point by the end result: persecution.)
JW Brothers refused ALTERNATE SERVICE freely offered by the LAW only because the GB declared they must.
Would you suggest Jesus remain behind bars for two years or would you want him out in the community at a hospital?
That's really the insidious bottom line.
Posts by Terry
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4The Washington Post response to my letter
by Terry inhttps://www.c-span.org/video/?443445-1/qa-lillian-cunningham.
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Terry
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What Happened to Jehovah's Witness Young Men - and WHY did it Happen?
by Terry inhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1lo9jtmhf4b1-j9cn0enojshyw0rogv-qswxnrme-k6e/edit?usp=sharing.
_____within the last 6 months, i was contacted by one of my fellow jw's incarcerated with me and about 50 other bros. in the late 1960s.
we served time as convicted conscientious objectors in seagoville federal correctional institution.surprise surprise!
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What Happened to Jehovah's Witness Young Men - and WHY did it Happen?
by Terry inhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1lo9jtmhf4b1-j9cn0enojshyw0rogv-qswxnrme-k6e/edit?usp=sharing.
_____within the last 6 months, i was contacted by one of my fellow jw's incarcerated with me and about 50 other bros. in the late 1960s.
we served time as convicted conscientious objectors in seagoville federal correctional institution.surprise surprise!
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Terry
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lo9jTMhF4B1-j9cN0enojsHYw0ROgV-qSwXnrMe-K6E/edit?usp=sharing
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Within the last 6 months, I was contacted by one of my fellow JW's incarcerated with me and about 50 other Bros. in the late 1960s. We served time as convicted Conscientious Objectors in Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution.
Surprise surprise!
We were going to be able to use ZOOM for a REUNION!!
My heart soared like an eagle - until - I reminded myself I haven't been a JW for a long, long time.
In fact, I would be Public Enemy #1.
What to do?
I had profound feelings bubble to the surface and ethical self-questioning commenced.
I decided I would get the names and phone numbers and email addresses of each of them. I would contact them personally and get to know them as human beings again.
One by one I would walk them through their experience and my own after we were paroled.
We'd discuss what a shock it was to be free again but facing a few short years until 1975.
I refused to lie to them about my status if asked.
Not one of them did ask, oddly enough.
Yes, by SHARING what it felt like as co-equals, I'd give them a chance to know me as a human being BEFORE suddenly
facing the fact of my leaving, being Disfellowship, and gradually re-examining WHAT HAPPENED to us and why.
The link at the top is information I researched and compiled.
At some point in our newly developed bonding and renewal, I would evaluate exactly where each of them was in regard
to OPENNESS, skepticism, self-questioning, and curiosity.
If they felt damaged and were hanging on by their fingernails - I would email them my research.
If not - I would not shake them up with a slap in the face. No. I would not harm them psychologically.
A person who has remained absolutely "FAITHFUL" to the Organization for the last 50+ years simply could not
handle such an assault on their cognitive dissonance.
All this began about ten months ago.
The best-laid plans of mice and men go astray.
My old friends were heartbreakingly wonderful human beings who have been through hell.
We still LOVE each other in a way that only a Band of Brothers who have come through the Valley of the Shadow can bond.
Most of them are physically wrecked. They haven't had colorful lives.
They stayed in the rut. Empty lives creatively. Most but not all.
They have heard "Wait on Jehovah" a few too many times.
Regarding 1975 without wincing is very embarrassing for them.
But are they ready for my research and my hissing stick of dynamite? Nope. Not yet.
Only one Brother has read it. Without push-back or blinking or argument. He is my Rock.
The really smart ones are wary of being sniffed out and will hardly tip their hand to me for a while. I must be patient.
I am posting this (above link) research to get YOUR OPINION and SUGGESTIONS if you'd help me with it.
I need it to be possible for them to get through it without horror.
I've re-edited it many, many times taking out stinging condemnations and accusations.
You know what I mean.
I'm trying to be NEUTRAL and stop editorializing with a ranting screed.
Read it and reach out to me with your thoughts. Okay? -
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The Washington Post response to my letter
by Terry inhttps://www.c-span.org/video/?443445-1/qa-lillian-cunningham.
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Terry
My letter to Lillian Cunningham was as follows:
What is my interest in all of this?
I served time in Federal prison from 1967-69 as a 'neutral' Jehovah's Witness as a result of a conviction for violation of the Universal Military Training and Service Act.
I was privately counseled by my congregation leaders not to accept alternative civilian service. I was further counseled not to reveal I had been influenced in any way by other than my own conscience. This same deliberately invisible influence was carried out as a coordinated policy nationwide.During the Vietnam war, 5,000 draft-age men turned in their draft cards rather than be conscripted. These were protests. 200,000 men were accused by the Federal Government of being Draft Offenders. 25,000 were indicted. Out of the 25,000, only 8,750 were convicted. Out of the 8,750 who were convicted, only 4,000 were imprisoned. Most of these, with some exceptions, were young men--Jehovah's Witnesses, like myself, who surrendered our loyalty to an organization and its leaders claiming to speak on behalf of the only true God.
Five years before my appearance before a draft board, the Watchtower Society had quietly and unceremoniously changed the official interpretation of Romans 13: 1,2 rather quietly, flip-flopping back to the traditional plain reading Christendom had held for two thousand years!
In fact, the JW texts I was operating from had not been updated to include this change. I found out the hard way!
The Watchtower headquarters would not provide me with a membership card nor a letter attesting to my ministerial status. I later found out this was only provided in special cases where a "special Pioneer" was involved who spent 100 to 150 hours monthly knocking doors.I had the legal right to serve alternate service working in a hospital--had it not been for the private counsel of my JW elders in strict accord with their covert (by this time) policies on Christian neutrality.
This policy too, like the previous Romans 13: 1, 2 policy, was reversed many years later. Apparently, the malleable nature of Watchtower ‘truth’ repudiates its value as the divine mind channeled by an Almighty.
First Amendment champions? I think not!
I would argue the actions of Jehovah's Witnesses against their own interests, and the interests of their local community, as well as nationally, were coerced by fear of ex-communication in extremis, or at least insidiously coaxed into their beliefs through loyalty and disinformation.This religion is fraudulent in premise and has a historical track record of trampling on human rights.
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I included snippets and links to the Australian Royal Commission and the Walsh Trial transcript. -
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The Washington Post response to my letter
by Terry inhttps://www.c-span.org/video/?443445-1/qa-lillian-cunningham.
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Terry
DISPUTIN' with PUTIN____________________________WARFARE GUMBO in a large brass potCarve it up!.....Stir it slow...........serve it hot!Russki scalawags sleepin' on a cot....Hear em' rip........Let em' snore............Let em' rot!Sips from a cider jug: four and ninety-sixDrips from a leaky tent (out in the Styx)Hoist up yer bannerswatch yer manners - stay alert"Yes Sir and No Sir" or you're in a heap o' hurtDeath comes knockin' and she won't be chased awayTill the end......when it counts............on That dayDrum some thunder as you march in men!Rat-a-tat.....rat-a-tat..........rat-a-tatEyes wide wonder let the fights begin!Make ‘em pay.....make ‘em bleed..............All their kin.Listen for a trumpet blast,they'll come fast!We'll keep a fightin' till the final wretched gaspCries and a wailin'From the Widows for their menAs we watch laughing at the beauty of our Sin.--War is Hell--Stagger with the crippledand blink with the blind--War is Hell--Battle with a bottle take a final sip of wine--War is Hell--Martyr lies moulderin' beneath a funeral wreathWhere there'sWeeping andWailing andGnashing of teeth . . .There is a storyevery dead man we must tell:We must tell:War is HellWar is Hell______Terry Walstrom poem -
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Re: Use of revised New World Translation
by pixel inthis letter will be read this week.
you read it here first!.
re: use of revised new world translation .
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Terry
Can we connect a couple of dots on this subject?
♦Link to Court Documents♦ Court Case Website- https://bit.ly/3IOX7f9 Index # 523464/2021 King's Supreme Court
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vQ8RPLaeE8 -
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The Immoral Clock
by Terry inthe immoral clock.
my great-grandmother owned a grandfather clock.
i asked it carefully.. "your mother told me that if she doesn't wind her clock twice a day it slows down, it starts to lie, becomes immoral, and stops.
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Terry
Well, golly. Thanks for your kind words.
A writer without readers is like a possum without the letter "O". -
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The Immoral Clock
by Terry inthe immoral clock.
my great-grandmother owned a grandfather clock.
i asked it carefully.. "your mother told me that if she doesn't wind her clock twice a day it slows down, it starts to lie, becomes immoral, and stops.
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Terry
THE IMMORAL CLOCK
My great-grandmother owned a grandfather clock. It stood about six or seven feet tall and cried aloud:
TICK! TOCK! Tick! Tock!
As a small child, I stood in front of that clock fascinated.
"Why does it make that noise?" I asked.
"You see that pendulum going left to right, right to left, swinging back and forth? It's making that "Tick-Tock" noise."
This disturbed me.
I had clearly asked the wrong question.
I tried again.
"I mean - why does that thing have to swing back and forth and make the noise?"
(To her credit, my great-grandmother did not say, "You're too young to understand. When you get older - somebody will explain and you'll know.") Instead, she really made an effort on my behalf.
"A clock is a machine with one purpose only. It is a kind of map for time letting us know not WHERE we are, but WHEN we are."
Mind-blown - I swallowed hard and thought about her meaning.
I regrouped.
What exactly was it I was curious about and why could I not form the proper question to trigger the satisfaction of understanding?
She was watching my face as I struggled.
She pursed her lips and sighed.
She spoke sly words.
"Do you know what happens if I don't wind that clock twice a day?"
I had seen that happen - so I knew.
"IT STOPS".She smiled.
"Not right away. It slows down. IT LIES. It becomes immoral and then dies."(Explosion in my head.) I stood silent, saying nothing.
I think I said, "Thanks."
I probably just walked out of the room and made my way to my favorite thinking spot: on top of the roof of our house.
My great-grandfather had built our house in the late 1800s.
The two of them produced one child: my grandfather.
I falsely assumed a fact, not in evidence.
An obvious error of Logic. A "Grandfather clock" meant my own grandfather had built it.Later that day, I approached my grandfather with my fresh line of questions about his clock.
He laughed and reported:
“The name grandfather clock was adopted after the song “Grandfather’s Clock,” written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, became popular.”
Okaaaaay.
Back to square one.
Only one more question remained. I asked it carefully.
"Your mother told me that if she doesn't wind her clock twice a day it slows down, it starts to lie, becomes IMMORAL, and stops. What does she mean by that?"
I observed a change of weather in my grandfather's face, from sunny to stormy. Uh oh.
"My father...um, her husband ...um - he kept regular habits.
He was predictable and steady. He lost his job. That is when everything changed. He started drinking, gambling ...We couldn't depend on him anymore. He only thought of himself.
He won that clock in a poker game and brought it home like it was an important gift for mother. He wanted to get back into her 'good graces.' He wanted her to love him but he'd lost track of what a good husband provides in return."
I listened. He had paused lost in deep thoughts.
He continued."That's not how love works. If people who depend on you can't depend on you - they can't be expected to accept your useless and selfish behavior. "
I must have frowned. I'm sure I did. I said this:
"What about the clock?"
"My mother stopped loving my father. He lied. He cheated on her and got shot in the back by another gambler. That grandfather clock is not just a machine to her. It is a symbol of her world."
I was too young.
But I listened. I remembered.
When I got older I could playback the conversations in my head.
I suppose each of us is a kind of old-fashioned clock.
We need to be wound twice a day or we slow down, lie to ourselves and others and become immoral and then stop.
Or else?
We may know where we are - but become clueless as to WHEN we are ... no longer a value to ourselves or to others.
This world has become unstuck in time.
Terry Walstrom -
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Roman General Titus carried away treasures of the Holy Jerusalem Temple and the Vatican has stored them for centuries
by Terry inan article in the jerusalem post is quite interesting.https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-696068.
according to vatican expert dr. michael a. calvo, those vessels and others found their way to the vatican via another route, after making their way to byzantium: “these include temple candelabra given to pope innocent iii by baldwin i after the sacking of constantinople and the massacre of the christian orthodox population,” calvo claims.
“temple shofars and utensils; garments of the high priest; the tzitz – a gold plaque with the words kodesh l’hashem (“holy to the lord”); cultural objects, and many other objets d’art, books and manuscripts that the vatican and other churches have appropriated and placed in their own storerooms, libraries, and museums.”.
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Terry
An article in The Jerusalem Post is quite interesting.
https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-696068According to Vatican expert Dr. Michael A. Calvo, those vessels and others found their way to the Vatican via another route, after making their way to Byzantium: “These include Temple candelabra given to Pope Innocent III by Baldwin I after the sacking of Constantinople and the massacre of the Christian Orthodox population,” Calvo claims. “Temple shofars and utensils; garments of the High Priest; the Tzitz – a gold plaque with the words Kodesh L’Hashem (“Holy to the Lord”); cultural objects, and many other objets d’art, books and manuscripts that the Vatican and other churches have appropriated and placed in their own storerooms, libraries, and museums.”
Excerpt:
Late that night, and after much spiritual preparation, the rabbi met the guard at the Vatican gates, with his students remaining outside, and went down the steps (four stories under St. Peter’s Museum) to a hidden maze of ancient galleries attached to the Necropolis. After finally reaching the cave entrance, he saw what he saw, and writes in his book of Responsa that he saw “enough,” and was not capable of seeing anymore. He then turned around and practically ran out of the building.
