Posted by JustaMessenger [LovesDubs] on November 13, 1999 at 09:38:36 {OA5YBxH8IA0hi4VK0MIQSQBW4HHNMw}:
In Reply to: *URGENT! ? forwarded posted by AF on November 02, 1999 at 05:57:37:
Dear Alan F
IN PASSIM
Firstly, a word of thanks for all the sterling work you have done for the
cause. I really enjoy reading what you write - all of it. If forced to be
a critic, I would only add that you conducted the recent debate with "the
man with many handles" ( ;-) ) in a manner far too restrained and
honorable. Do not underestimate how language and meaning (including, the
meaning of "meaning") can be abused and manipulated by a "skilled" (!)
interlocutor. I have fought similar battles in alt.religion.jehovahs-witn
- "One Brow" comes to mind - and adopted a dissimilar strategy to your's,
with proven effect. This (small) criticism fails if "it" was your genuine
attempt by you to change the mind of your interlocutor - but surely you
realize that would have been a practically impossible task. You are or
should be writing for the benefit of the other readers, not the said
interlocutor who is a lost one beyond redemption except via the method set
out in Ephesians 5:11.
THE MEAT
AF wrote:
>Whatever the identity of "GB" turns out to be, you've clobbered your own
>credibility by your statement about the Society not investing in the
>stock market. My reliable sources have been in the presence of GB members
>who often discussed the performance of the Society's investments.
Au contraire: the credibility of your reliable sources may well have been
clobbered by the above, as THE WTBTS DOES NOT (AND HAS NOT FOR A VERY LONG
TIME, IF EVER) INVESTED (DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY VAI A TRUST OR OTHER
VEHICLE) IN THE STOCKMARKET.
The key words being WTBTS, INVEST and STOCKMARKET - to whit:
* Activities by private individuals acting on their own behalf is not
WTBTS.
* Acquiring such investments other than by investing do not count.
* Investments which are not quoted stocks do not count.
As proof of a negative is impossible, do ask your sources to name one
example of such an investment. Public records of stockholdings can then
be checked, and I shall be vindicated.
You will find Mr Penton's claim on this specific subject to be mistaken
(attn: Farkel!).
THE VEGETABLES
>Nevertheless, keep up the good work on your list of quotes.
Thanks - it continues: wwhat you have seen so far is but 20% or 25% of the
whole (intended) work.
Here is a gem from p2738-9 of the WT reprints, in a quoted plaint against
a Professor who had published a tract roundly denouncing the WTBTS:-
"Can you as a fair minded man approve an attack which cites the price of a
book as an argument against it; that cites the missionary zeal displayed
in advocating its teachings as argument against it; that calls names -
'nocturnal hallucinations,' 'hydrophobic,' 'packed full of fundamental
error,' 'product of insanity,' compared with 'the infidel Renan'?"
Sounds as if Prof. Moorehead (NOT Morehead, as the WTBTS misprints) got
the true measure of the "Beast" ;-)
Also - the word "I" (as the first person singular pronoun, and excluding
its use within quotes from the Bible) occurs ~25,000 times (!!) in a 20
year sample of Watchtower magazines! This serves to remind us of what the
WTBTS really is about.... I will write later on this matter - as cetain
other words (imputing dishonesty to others, for example) occur with
disproportionate frequency... The WTBTS is obsessed with fraud because it
is a fraud itself, an unkind one might be minded to say ;-)
Love
Prominent Bethelite.
note: I am or was a Prominent Bethelite (i.e. associated with *A* Bethel).