The last time I saw Crumpet was at her wedding. She may have gotten disconnected from this site in the changeover. I don't really know.
This was Purple Sofa's last post a year ago:
Posts by Terry
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3Crumpet and PurpleSofa
by JWdaughter intwo posters that i haven't seen in awhile that i like.
anyone heard from them?
i hope all is well!
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Terry
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The saga of Russell and Rutherford
by Terry ini think little charlie russell having been born after many miscarriages by his mother, was doted on and coddled beyond normal.
his mother died of a fever epidemic when he was about 9 and he may have associated burning with fever with burning in hell.he seemed to be obsessed about hell for awhile even to the point of graffiti on sidewalks marking scriptures as warnings.he was privately tutored and brought into the men's clothing business and given and adult's responsibilities.
although the family was presbyterian, there appears to be a streak of insubordination in the genes because they switched to a congregational church with an autonomy of leadership and no organizational oversight.why was this a big deal, do you think?
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Terry
Oh, that's an off-the-top-of-my-head sort of thing.
There have been some excellent historical books out in the last decade that combed every jot and tittle of that early period of End Time and Age to Come history.
The above is more or less an opinion piece, but thank you for liking it. -
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The saga of Russell and Rutherford
by Terry ini think little charlie russell having been born after many miscarriages by his mother, was doted on and coddled beyond normal.
his mother died of a fever epidemic when he was about 9 and he may have associated burning with fever with burning in hell.he seemed to be obsessed about hell for awhile even to the point of graffiti on sidewalks marking scriptures as warnings.he was privately tutored and brought into the men's clothing business and given and adult's responsibilities.
although the family was presbyterian, there appears to be a streak of insubordination in the genes because they switched to a congregational church with an autonomy of leadership and no organizational oversight.why was this a big deal, do you think?
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Terry
Not all that long ago, I had occasion to chat with a man who was the attorney for a large cabal (all related by blood) of Pentecostal TV evangelists. In the course of our conversation, he opened my eyes to a great many things, not the least of which was the poisonous inevitability inherent in becoming a prominent public spokesman for God's 'truth.'
He described the process."All those people reaching out to YOU with absolute love and faith is stronger than any drug. It ignites a fire in the ego. I've seen some really good people drown in admiration as their character begins to rot. They feel more than powerful. It becomes a sense of entitlement, greed, and invulnerability. The worst part is how willingly the humble poor folks, their members, just throw themselves into victimhood with a frightening joy! The transformation from Jekyll into Hyde is like a werewolf when the moon turns full."
He went on to tell me of how besotted with money, drugs, sex, and debauchery formerly strait-laced preachers become so easily, an inch at a time. He shook his head and described phonecalls in the middle of the night with cries for "Help" when these evangelists went a step too far and needed legal help to pull them out of a jam; the suitcases filled with cash, and the payoffs in sleazy motel rooms.
I spoke to him about the Ex-JW's who wanted to blow the whistle on the Watchtower organization and he dropped his head in shame."You don't know how sick of my life I've become. I am the keeper of secrets so disturbing I can't sleep well any longer. I want to be a whistleblower and just tell everything I know--and believe me--I could take the whole network of famous preachers down in a heartbeat because every last one of them has filthy secrets to hide. . . "
I urged the man to do so. He looked at me with his face drained of color and said, "I wouldn't live very long if I tried that--and they have made quite clear that I should understand it."
He told me about Robert Tilton, a local TV evangelist who had been taken down by an investigative report. Tilton had owned so many satellites used for TV ministry, NBC leased some of them for their broadcasts. His ministry required one million dollars per day just to break even! The hardest part of being Tilton's attorney was finding ways to hide all the cash.
Not only did this conversation disturb me, it caused me to reflect on the JW.org manifestation of a TV-style presence and the sudden appeals for cash. Lawyers and litigation are draining of resources like a gambling addiction in Vegas. The money flows in and goes away with such blazing swiftness--the chase after more and more funding gets out of hand to the point the ENTIRE ministry is only focused on the acquisition of $$$$.
How deep is the Watchtower cabal into that swirling whirlpool of eventual self-destruction? How many lawyers are on the 24/7 payroll? What are their legal expenses each day around the world?
All of this harkens back to Charles T. Russell and his lawyer J.F.Rutherford--comrades in duplicity--who were living in much easier times BEFORE taxation was even an issue. Just how much corruption eventually rotted away the veneer of a righteous group of "Bible Students"?
I think history shows the answer. The Bible Students fell away so rapidly and with such broken-hearted disappointment at what Rutherford had brought to fruition, they more or less doomed themselves to become starved of cash.The attorney, just before he got up to leave, said something to me that stuck.
"Every effective minister will gain a following and one day the moment will come. Every last one of them will be at a crossroad. The most important decision of their life will be facing them. Do they go BIG and reach for the fame, fortune and power--or will they remain a minnow in a puddle, humble and unsung? It is an intoxicating test of character every last one of them fail--at least from my experience." -
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The saga of Russell and Rutherford
by Terry ini think little charlie russell having been born after many miscarriages by his mother, was doted on and coddled beyond normal.
his mother died of a fever epidemic when he was about 9 and he may have associated burning with fever with burning in hell.he seemed to be obsessed about hell for awhile even to the point of graffiti on sidewalks marking scriptures as warnings.he was privately tutored and brought into the men's clothing business and given and adult's responsibilities.
although the family was presbyterian, there appears to be a streak of insubordination in the genes because they switched to a congregational church with an autonomy of leadership and no organizational oversight.why was this a big deal, do you think?
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Terry
I think little Charlie Russell having been born after many miscarriages by his mother, was doted on and coddled beyond normal. His mother died of a fever epidemic when he was about 9 and he may have associated burning with fever with burning in hell.
He seemed to be obsessed about hell for awhile even to the point of graffiti on sidewalks marking scriptures as warnings.
He was privately tutored and brought into the men's clothing business and given and adult's responsibilities. Although the family was Presbyterian, there appears to be a streak of insubordination in the genes because they switched to a Congregational church with an autonomy of leadership and no organizational oversight.
Why was this a big deal, do you think?
You might suspect Charlie had a feeling of being too special to follow other people's orders. Maybe he was reared like a little Prince destined for greatness.
Charlie must have been spoiling for a debate because an atheist got ahold of him and apparently left him dazed and confused for awhile.
It is here where young Charlie probably had to choose whether he was a retail merchant by trade or man of higher principles destined by God to educate the whole earth about God's soon-to-arrive Prince of Peace.The fact that a young man would seek such an apotheosis is astonishing unless he was a preening Narcissist. I'm no psychiatrist, but I suspect he had delusions and perhaps burgeoning megalomania.
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Russell was living at a time of great unrest. After the War of 1812, a Baptist lay preacher named William Miller had gotten a big reputation from juggling scriptures and dates resulting in a mad dash to escape the downside of Armageddon. The prediction of `1843/1844 must have caused a thrilling sensation in all Christian folks who took such things seriously.
I speculate that young Charlie Russell saw the effect of Miller's predictions on simple church folk to the extent they began leaving their own churches and preparing themselves for Christ's coming. This was truly a Big Moment!
Despite the 'Great Disappointment,' the true believers would not admit defeat or own up to being dead wrong. A great many clever and imaginative Christians had their own unique ideas. Some printed and published those schemes along with charts and dates and all sorts of crackpot speculations.
Keep your eye on these people!
They were stubborn and impervious to reason. If you got them in your corner with just the right kind of razzle dazzle you would have a strong core of solid gold as a foundation for whatever kind of ego monument you'd care to build.
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Civil War had damaged Christian's Puritan ideals of a shining city on a hill. People were eager for answers and quick solution to their very human woes. If somebody could convince them of a way out of their problems--that man stood to make a fortune!
This is where Charles Taze Russell emerged as a very wily and ambitious "Seeker" as well as an investor in such ideas.
Two things launched C.T. Russell's career as a future pastor, columnist, author, lecturer and entrepreneur of a worldwide movement. He was able to AFFORD his weird hobby, dabbling, cherry-picking, and eventual invention of a theology.
What if you ran your religious ideology like a business? Not like his competitors in the marketplace of ideas who were on a shoestring--but really put some money behind the marketing and distribution?
He partnered up with men who were high-profile and got in with the crowd of movers and shakers and began competing--not as a businessman selling clothing--but as a purveyor of religious crackpot ideas exemplified with dazzling bullshit.
He hired book salesmen (colporteurs) and publicized his work in a way nobody else could afford to do. He put his money where his mouth was and got in at the right time.
Russell had just the right personality, manners, courtesy and genteel style to win over women (who were the bulk of Christianity as far as becoming followers.)
His weird arrangement with Maria Frances Eckley to have a sexless marriage formed a beneficial partnership (she was a helluva editor and writer) and a terrific "photo op" when the two of them began working the crowds both in print and in many visits to homestyle Bible Student gatherings. This was a power couple like Jim and Tammy Faye Baker in later years. The glow of success and divine light was irresistable.
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The selfstyled Pastor Russell believed his own bullshit up to a certain point when his personal actions and treatment of others (partners and wife) triggered an awakening.
He became shrewd, cowardly, stealthy, litigious, self-aggrandizing, and cruel.
Throwing himself into a whirlwind of predictions, prognostications, pyramid schemings and, above all, churning out a revolutionary method of Bible Study (Studies in the Scriptures) he broke down the barrier for common folk by making study Topical and lending his slant to a pseudo-revelatory tutorial about End Times.
Being half-charlatan and half-assed spellbinder, Russell spent the last years of his life juggling lawsuits, marital scandals, newspaper exposes, and the disintegration of his slapdash prophetic fulfillments which were crashing and burning right and left.
The fact that he edited out all his Wrong predictions and changed the wording in reprints, indicates a guilty state of mind and awareness of his errors.
As he aged and grew frail, he had on staff both a firebrand lawyer with gigantic ego ambitious to outgrow his humble agrarian background and an autodidact with a photographic memory who had had plans to be a theologian.
Rutherford was the lawyer and Franz was the whiz kid with the photographic memory who had an invaluable talent. He could dip into the Bible and pull out anything you wanted him to produce and make it sound like it was prophecy.When Russell died on a train in Texas on Halloween, Rutherford and his carefully placed minions knew exactly what moves to make both legally and strategically to produce an insurgency with the goal of commandeering Russell's shell of an empire and branding it as his own.
Rutherford was the polar opposite of Russell and he damned near wrecked everything by making enemies out of allies right and left. But, with Franz by his side, a wicked legal mind, and a bellicose temperament, he blazed a scorched earth policy across the entire Bible Student movement.Rutherford was ruthless, diabolical and hellbent on being a Big Man who could make everybody bow to his unbridled power. He published a book (The Finished Mystery) under false pretenses (Russell's 7th volume) and got himself and the other Directors of the Society prosecuted by the Federal Government for being traitors to their country in a time of war (WWI).
Luckily for Rutherford and the others, the war ended soon after and the unnecessary expense of prosecuting a religious organization's lunatic administrators who had appealed on a "Writ of Error" turned on a whim and the case was dropped. None of these men were exonerated, simply released.
Rutherford went on a holy crusade to punish everybody everywhere and he became a tyrannical monster throwing people of faith into the fire to create martyrs and publicity for his new-fangled religion with the awkward new name: Jehovah's Witnesses. What else would a Lawyer and part-time judge think of but "Witnesses"?
These first two men were larger-than-life and totally driven by inner demons. They surrounded themselves with ardent supporters and cronies who would march into the furnace for them. They built an empire off the volunteer army of true believers by keeping the carrot of heaven or paradise in front and the stick of Armageddon to create fear of ferocious destructions at the hands of an angry, vengeful God.
Every wrong step made, and each faulty explanation given--each silly prognostication and preposterous prediction, drove the weak members out and solidified the cognitive dissonance of the staunch loyalists who remained on.
We all know the rest of the story. One day we joined them and one day we left it all behind with a hole in the center of our life like a festering holocaust in our spirit.
Russell, Rutherford and each who followed, became contaminated with the same cancerous ideology of doom and fealty--an absolute belief based on nothing more than the psychotic ravings of self-centered mandarins full of themselves with ambitions to rule as kings and priests over the earth. This elite band of brothers is a festering pimple on Jehovah's ass admired by one and all. -
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Defining What is the Truth about the Truth of the Jehovah's Witnesses Religion
by Finkelstein inin an endeavor to clearly define the truth about the truth of the jw religion, whats your personal perception of what you understand of how this religion came to be, in its inherit beginning and how it was able to sustain itself over the years ?
from my own perspective i think the strategic actions by its founding leaders to draw attention to their own published works such as the singular endeavors starting from c t russell and onward.
the self proposing recognition by people such as j rutherford, that god had specifically (1919) chosen " his " organization exclusively, is really where and when this assuming man made power began and continued to flourish.. but the real significant thing that created attention to the public's eyes and imagination was when both russell and rutherford proclaimed that christ had returned and he had started to divide and choose who was going to be saved from destruction and live on in a earthly paradise and who was to be killed at the soon to come day of judgement.
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Whatever happened to "YOU'RE WELCOME"? Has "NO PROBLEM" replaced it?
by Terry inwherever i go, i say "thank you" to clerks, servers, delivery people, hosts and hostesses and the response has become invariable: "no problem!".
have i aged to the point i'm now an old fuddy duddy who doesn't "get it"?.
is it counted mannerly to avoid, "you're welcome" in favor of "no problem"?.
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Terry
That's a good likeness. Those damned clouds! -
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Whatever happened to "YOU'RE WELCOME"? Has "NO PROBLEM" replaced it?
by Terry inwherever i go, i say "thank you" to clerks, servers, delivery people, hosts and hostesses and the response has become invariable: "no problem!".
have i aged to the point i'm now an old fuddy duddy who doesn't "get it"?.
is it counted mannerly to avoid, "you're welcome" in favor of "no problem"?.
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Terry
Okay. No problem!
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Whatever happened to "YOU'RE WELCOME"? Has "NO PROBLEM" replaced it?
by Terry inwherever i go, i say "thank you" to clerks, servers, delivery people, hosts and hostesses and the response has become invariable: "no problem!".
have i aged to the point i'm now an old fuddy duddy who doesn't "get it"?.
is it counted mannerly to avoid, "you're welcome" in favor of "no problem"?.
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Terry
Wherever I go, I say "Thank you" to clerks, servers, delivery people, hosts and hostesses and the response has become invariable: "No problem!"
Have I aged to the point I'm now an old Fuddy Duddy who doesn't "get it"?
Is it counted mannerly to avoid, "You're welcome" in favor of "No problem"?
If so, why? Further--do you prefer being assured you have not been a problem
rather than being told how welcomed you are?
Are manners dead?
Or . . .is it a manifestation of the lack of parenting?
Am I at fault? Should I just relax and go with the flow and forget the world of yesteryear?
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I COLLECT QUOTES. . . Here are some of my favorites
by Terry inplease post your favorites too.
my favorite quotations:.
you cannot change what you refuse to confront.. sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.. don’t think of cost.
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Terry
Great stuff! Keep them coming.
"When you leave the Kingdom Hall and JW's behind, you gain your freedom. Freedom to be, say and do. . . what exactly?
Ask yourself: "What do those bastards expect me to say and do? What do they think will become of me?"
There is your roadmap. Just head in the opposite direction!"
_______I like to print quotes on little slips of paper and carry them in my pocket to glance at during the day. You'd be amazed at how often one comes in handy in a conversation.
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Is this a site controlled by atheists?
by The Rebel inunder the exterior of being an ex- witness site, is this site simply converting atheism?.
i pose the question, because many come here in distress and insecurity with the realization that the w.t is wrong but still retain a belief in god.
my personal opinion is the threads on god are not challenged by an atheists personal animosity to believers, they are challenged and become confrontational because the atheist wants an elaboration and factual proof to a believers faith.. is this unreasonable?
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Terry
You can't control chaos!
That's what strikes me as hilarious, the idea that this world is under the "Control"
of a secret group of men. Ha ha ha ha.
As far as this Discussion Group is concerned, you can start a topic whichsays, "White is White" and you'll get arguments and probably an accusation of
racism.
There is no control, only opinions.