Sheep and Goats

Category: Countries/States

  • Journalist Down – the Youngest Reporter in Rochester

    Rochester’s youngest reporter, a 14-year old from the gritty city, was robbed! He tweeted the bad news @GSLShow. They lifted his camera from his bike while he was in the Family Dollar! It was worth $1000. But he promptly started a gofundme page and had it all back within 24 hours. It’s impossible not to love this kid. The cops in Rochester certainly do and have adopted him as one of their own. When he started getting bullied (for hanging out with cops) he marched into City Hall and asked what they were going to do about it! CBS This Morning ran a very nice story about him. Alas, some editorial idiot bannered it: ‘Local Youngster Follows His Dreams!’ He’s probably just having fun, the goal of all youngsters. I hope he doesn’t get too big for his pants, but the media people will encourage that outcome with all their might.   (From: 'No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash')

    Two years later the young man is still at it. He covered the Rochester Jazz Fest and landed an interview with the executive director. He is to be found at crime scenes. He has done guest spots on radio. He has thanked local business Rowe Photo for their support, calling them 'family.' He tweets that he has passed all his classes, and "10th grade here I come." His Twitter feed says he wants to make a difference in the community. He is probably being mentored by some. I hope so.

    "Whipping out your phone doesn't make you a journalist. You need to ask questions do interviews and gain trust from your community. it's not easy being a journalist, especially being the youngest journalist, so before you say 'I'm a journalist,' for whipping out your phone, you're not," he tweets.

    His very latest tweet, just two hours prior to this post, is alarming: "I have now declared a journalist down just about a few moments ago. @GeofferyRogers [himself] was shot by a BB gun with a leg injury."

     

  • A Dangerous Criminal That Everyone Can See is Not

    Okay, do I understand this correctly? Dennis Christensen presided over a Bible study meeting at a Kingdom Hall in Russia one year ago. He has been jailed for a year in pre-trial detention, after police broke in with SWAT team gear to arrest him. Several motions to have him released on his own recognizance have proved unsuccessful and bank accounts have been frozen, leaving his wife to fend for herself. Only now, after a year in prison, is his case finally coming to trial, having been postponed several times.

    And…a key prosecution witness is an individual who will testify out of sight, his or her voice garbled by electronic means. Are you kidding me? For a Bible teacher? Is it prosecution theatrics to plant the notion that Jehovah’s Witnesses are as dangerous as the mob?

    And then…more evidence that this escalation is unheard of, at least in the Orel court, it turns out that no one knows how to make the machine do what it is supposed to. The witness’s testimony is garbled to such an extent that nobody could understand it, and the trial was postponed until they either got someone who knew what he was doing or brought in a better machine. “Try speaking in syllables,” the judge (or someone) had said, but it was no good.

    Look, you want to fear the authorities, “for it is not without purpose that it bears the sword,” and it sure has been bearing it lately with Jehovah’s Witnesses, the subject of numerous SWAT team searches in various parts of Russia. One tries not to invoke images of Boris and Natashia from Bullwinkle, but with reports like these it is hard to banish the thought.

    Prosecutors attempted to restrict news media coverage to the trial. But Dennis doesn’t see himself as a criminal and stated such secrecy would impede a fair trial. The judge agreed with this and denied the motion of the prosecution.

    Christensen

    dennischristensen, #jwrussia, #stopJWban

    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why

     

  • I Mean, Bernie Sanders is so ‘Been There, Done That’

    As the whole-wide-world international version of Newsweek ran the cover of the persecution of religious minorities in Russia, with Jehovah's Witnesses the foremost target, the American cover was of Bernie Sanders.

    I mean, Bernie Sanders is so 'been there done that.' This country is insane over politics.

    I thought I had taken the following out of 'No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash' when I revised it to remove much of what was political, but instead I recalled that I had merely modified it, liking it for the family reference:

    "It is steering the supertanker for four-to-eight years through rough seas and around treacherous shoals that will not matter in the long run. It polarized families. I saw it in my own extended family. One cousin I hadn’t seen in years began to extol the virtues of Trump. “Well, let me tell you about your Mr. Trump,” another cousin whom I also hadn’t seen in years cranked up. Everyone else cleared the room. The exodus was considerable, for I come from a dairy farm family where the kitchen table might easily be twelve feet in length, and it will figure into this book in later pages. Years after everyone left their agrarian roots, we would still refer to such reunions as ‘going down to the farm.’"

    The insanity over politics only intensifies and it peaks in the routine reports that 'Trump falsely stated" or "Trump charged without evidence." Now, there have been (and are) countless liars, villains, scoundrels, and neer-do-wells throughout history, but I have never heard a, for example, "Putin falsely stated," "Kim falsely stated," "Benedict Arnold falsely stated," or even "Hitler falsely stated." No matter what sort of drivel or poppycock anyone serves up, media just repeats it without pre-screening. I get it, already. They hate him.

    It is almost like inviting guests into your home and they proceed to hash out their battles right in your living room. It gets so old. When Trump tweets that North Korea has launched its missills, people of good sense will run for the hills. People of the media will run to their keyboards to point out that the idiot can't even spell the word right.

    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why

    Newsweek cover WNMF

  • Background Material for Media

    I have written a free 160K word ebook on the problems of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. It covers worldwide news reports, trials, ban of the Bible, and confiscation of property. Also, separate chapters are devoted to the most vehement accusations against Witnesses (most of which are made everywhere) and philosophical answers they might make to such accusations.

    The book contains about 500 endnotes. It is faithful to the Jehovah’s Witness point of view (I am an active Witness) and that of their parent organization. Arguments made in support of faith and freedom of worship will be of interest to all minority religious groups, all of whom experience harassment today. There is also a ‘safe’ version of the book, with all quotations from extremist sources removed. To the extent possible for a Westerner, it is written from a Russian point of view. In ebook form on Smashwords, it is free. 

    https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/815620

    'extremist' quotes removed:

    https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/826384

     

    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why

  • There is a Second Version of ‘Dear Mr. Putin’

    The book quotes a few times, not often, from Watchtower publications. Technically that makes it extremist and it can be like the broken tail light the cop stops you for as a pretext to making more serious trouble.

    Hence there is an identical 2nd version for anyone who wants to avoid the problem with all such quotes replaced with 'redacted' or 'redacted for reader safety' or the like. Both are found at

    https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=tom+harley

    Enjoy.

    The stopgap measure will only apply to Russia, because anywhere else you can read a Watchtower quotation without being thought extremist. And since relatively few Russians speak English anyway, the release of the 2nd Dear Mr. Putin is mostly symbolic. The book covers are identical, save only for the message in the orange ball.

    Not only does the new version not violate any extremist law (unless and until the book itself is declared extremist) but it serves to highlight the silliness of it all, for context nearly always indicates that the eliminated quotes are perfectly innocuous. However, every effort is made to be deeply respectful of the government. In no way could this be described as a protest book. It also strives to relate things from a Russian perspective.

    [edit: See revised: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why]

    Dear Mr Putin Russian edition Dear Mr Putin (1) (1)

  • Beasts, Kings, and Armies Up to No Good

    Does anyone think that when Revelation 19:19 takes place –

    "And I saw the wild beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the one seated on the horse and against his army."

    people online will say it may just be that God is using or allowing people of 'the world' to punish or straighten out his people of this day.

    It is a notion I hear from time to time from malcontents.

    Does anyone really think the wild beast and the kings of the earth and their armies will say as they gallop: "We hate God! There will be none of HIM around here"?

    I think they will not. They will say:

    "We LOVE God. And even where we don't, we love people's right to worship if that is what they want. It's just that these JWs are doing it wrong and must be stopped."

    If JWs are not the godly people who are "everywhere spoken against" (Acts 28) and who suffer people "lyingly saying every sort of wicked thing against them," (Matthew 5) and of you Jesus said "if they have persecuted me they will persecute you," (John 15) who would they say is?

    Charge_of_the_Light_Brigade (1)

    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why

    photo: Caton Woodville

     

  • “We Are Not in America” Russian Witnesses Are Told

    Reports Chivchalov on February 9: (Anton Chivchalov Blog) 
     
    "At least 16 dwellings of civilians in Belgorod and 12 dwellings in Kemerovo … are suspected of continuing the activities of the organization "Management Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia".
     
    "In the evening of February 7, 2018 in Belgorod, large groups of law enforcement officers, consisting of police officers, the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and armed fighters of the SOBR, simultaneously invaded a number of private houses of local residents. In some cases citizens were thrown on the floor, put to the wall, then all were forcibly taken to the police, in the homes they searched.
     
    … citizens were confiscated from the Bible, all electronic devices and media, passports, money, in some cases even photos hanging on the wall. Already the next day, interrogations of citizens began, which are in the police on the agenda. It became known that an investigation team was established, consisting of 12 (!) Investigators of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. …
     
    "In Kemerovo, …[an official suspected that] at least 14 local residents continue to profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. The judge of the central district court of the city of Kemerovo, Irina Ivanova, at one point satisfied at once at least 12 of her motions. As a result, a search was carried out in 12 houses of peaceful believers, which continued even during the night. In some cases, armed SOBR officers in masks opened their doors by force, bursting in, putting civilians face to the wall with their arms raised or falling to the floor. The apartment was sometimes invaded by more than 10 people, including police officers, Rosgvardia and the Investigative Committee. Citizens were denied the opportunity to make a phone call or to invite a lawyer; the refusal was accompanied by an explanation of Stanislav Shlagov, senior police officer for particularly important cases: "We are not in America."
     
    "Citizens, including women and the elderly, experience a state close to shock. Many have exacerbated chronic diseases. Telephones, tablets, computers, personal belongings, information carriers are confiscated. It is reported that witnesses who were present during the searches were familiar with the police and actively assisted them, in some cases with their tips."
     
     

  • Sometimes God Strikes Them With Hemorrhoids

    It appears that the St. Petersburg branch facility confiscated by the government from Jehovah's Witnesses will be awarded to a medical research group, reports Vademec.ru. It is worth $15 million dollars.

    It is not the same, but when the Philistines made off with the ark, they ended up with hemorrhoids. No, it is not likely to happen. A branch building is not the ark. But one can always dream.

    The one conceivably valid reason for banning the New World Translation in Russia is that it employs the word "piles" at 1 Samuel 5:6 – a euphemism. What in the world are piles? It is in no other translation that I can see. Nor does the NWT avoid unpleasantries elsewhere. I can't figure it out.

    The American Standard Version says God smote them with "tumors." The King James Version says "emerods."

    The old Wycliffe Bible removes all doubt: "Forsooth the hand of the Lord was made grievous upon [the] men of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and he smote Ashdod and the coasts thereof in the privier part of [the] buttocks/in the more privy part of their tail ends."

    Should they stock Preparation H in the new medical building? And will the move come back to bite Russia? It certainly bites us. It has been observed that it provides a powerful caution to anyone wanting to invest there. Aggravate the government and they will take your property.

    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why

  • If You Are Going to be Unjust, Do It Big Time

    I am of the unusual opinion that if you are going to ban Jehovah's Witness activity is Russia, then it is a good thing, not a bad thing, to also ban the New World Translation and seize the branch headquarters building. Each drags in people who might not otherwise care.
     
    Human rights people protest when Witness activity is banned, but it is partly offset by: 'well, they ARE a pain and they DO call unannounced at inconvenient times.
     
    But when you ban the Bible – even ringleader Dvorkin thought that was going too far. It plainly is a Bible; he doesn't like it, but it plainly is one. His country looks like a nation of goons. He is as if to say: 'we cut them off from U.S. organizational and monitory support. That's enough. Break both their legs and they will die! You don't ban the Bible as well, which only make us look like a country where Fred Flintstone is chief.
     
    I say ban it for exactly that reason.
     
    The academic community couldn't believe it. The Russian expert witness to the Court, an ex-JW, has an education that "doesn't correspond to anything" (mathematics degree) and she just "copies any sort of nonsense off the internet." She had the court harrumphing that it doesn't say 'Bible' on the cover, but 'Sacred Scriptures,' also that it said Hebrew and Greek Scriptures instead of Old and New Testament. She had them perturbed over its use of the name Jehovah, and then it was pointed out the Russian Orthodox version also uses the name.
     
    They got concerned that the Jehovah's Witness Bible doesn't support the Trinity and our people showed them that the Russian Orthodox translation also doesn't support it. The Court is plodding about in matters of which it is completely ignorant, Dvorkin fumed, and it shows painfully.
     
    Good. Let the record reflect that.
     
    The decision regarding the branch headquarters draws in the potentially much more influential business community. Said the Witness representative:
     
    "Of course, we will appeal this decision. It is based on nothing, except the desire of the prosecutor's office to simply seize the property. We did not hear a single legal argument. This is expropriation. Russia encourages foreign business to invest in the country, but what investments can be made if the property is not protected and can be seized at any time?" Injustice
     
    I say it is a good thing for them to seize the building. It cannot serve its intended function anyway. Let it serve its new purpose of calling attention to oppression. One Russian news source opined they will ultimately give it back accompanied by huge financial damage penalties. Witnesses will take the matter to the ECHR and also, since the Watchtower Society is American-based, "the American one," whatever that means.
     
    If you are going to go unjust, do it big time and make sure everyone knows. The Governing Body saw to it that the initial trial was videotaped in the largest venue possible. That video is widely available. At one point the Russian judge asked the Ministry of Justice whether it had prepared for the trial, so unsupported was their case. In the end, he did what he knew he had to do if he wanted to keep his job, but his interaction with them clearly exposed a sham system, which was repeated at the appeal, repeated again at the trial over the Bible, and again at the hearing to confiscate the branch headquarters.
     
    And it was repeated in the case in the imprisonment without trial of Dennis Christensen, the first Witness jailed post-ban, and a Danish citizen. The Ministry of Justice insists he is a dangerous criminal. His last religious act was to preside over a typical Bible study at the Kingdom Hall. His last non-religious act was to build a playground (he is a carpenter) for the children. His second-to-last non-religious act was to take part in a public park cleanup for which the congregation received a certificate of appreciation from the town officials.
     
    A lot of people don't like Jehovah's Witnesses – they are a hot-button topic in several ways. But they do know that rule by law and even common sense is a good thing, not a bad thing and when they see it so arbitrarily violated, they get more worked up than they would over Witnesses themselves. #StopJWBan
     

  • It Just Might All Be True

    The most absurd accusations about Russia flow from Western media these days. Surely CNN’s report that Russia utilized the Pokemon Go game to undermine the American spirit takes the cake. ‘Is there no end?’ RT.com has, in effect, asked. ‘Is there no accusation too preposterous?’ Unfairly, perhaps, but predictably, Russia’s bullying of all minority religion and the outright ban of one suggests that the answer is that there is not, and that all accusations must be carefully assessed.

    All but the most repressive nations on earth have learned to accommodate the human urge to worship as each person sees fit. Russia sides with the forces of repression in this regard, and even surpasses them when, for example, it bans the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ website as extremist – the only country on earth to do so. Everyone else on the planet can visit and plainly see that it is not. How can Russia not lose face? A certain journalist laments the rise of Muslim terrorists run amok today. Of course! Everyone know what extremism is and they know that Jehovah’s Witnesses are not it.

    Columnist Andrew Sorokowski posed the question: “Why would a nation of some 144,000,000 risk its international reputation to persecute a religious sect numbering no more than 175,000 followers?” Yet Russia has done so. Religious repression hardly accounts for media accusations, of course, which are driven primarily by American politics. But it suggests to the unpracticed eye that all such accusations just might be true and that there is no accusation too ridiculous to be dismissed out-of-hand. People hear of Dennis Christenson, jailed 5 months without trial for merely leading a Bible study – how can they not imagine Russia capable of unlimited nastiness?  It is sad to see the self-inflicted decline of a great nation.

     

    See: I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses—Searching for the Why

    Russian_Bear_(15)_(14459051718)