Posts by Pete Zahut

172

May tv.jw.org program

by zophar in

jw
friends

the may broadcast on tv.jw.org.

we need money!.

http://tv.jw.org/#video/vodstudio/pub-jwb_201505_1_video.

It may be too late now, but if I were them, I'd keep the Governing Body off JW. TV and out of the public eye. Let them remain a magical mystery to the rank and file. Presidents, Kings and Queens know that it is not good for their public image if they are seen too often to in too much detail by the common people.

I noticed they (subtly) showed a Sister going online from her Ipad to make a credit card donation to the Society. As relative newbies to the Internet, I'm wondering what kinds of security checks and balances they have going on their side of things. I had all my money stolen from me when I was a Bethelite. Wouldn't it be something if someone from the inside who needed funds to get out, hacked into the credit card account or a contributor(s)?

A few things I want to know.

If there are nearly 8 million JW's and each of those 8 million, contributed say...1 dollar per month (most give more), where are those 8 million dollars per month / 96Million per year, going ? Are they really bad at managing money or is it going somewhere we don't know about?
Why do they need a 1 million dollar plus regional translation office? These days, most of this work can be done remotely or on a laptop in a home office.
All people need is a Bible translated into their language. Why is it necessary to keep printing all this new literature every month? Surely every necessary biblical topic has been covered at least a dozen times in the last decade. Why not reprint those articles or edit them when doctrines change?
Why isn't Gods word enough to reach people now the way it was in the Apostles day? If they didn't create all this printing work for themselves, it wouldn't take so many millions per month to spread the word and would eliminate the need for the thousands of Bethelites who's time is tied up cleaning rooms, growing food, doing laundry and printing endless magazines.

172

May tv.jw.org program

by zophar in

jw
friends

the may broadcast on tv.jw.org.

we need money!.

http://tv.jw.org/#video/vodstudio/pub-jwb_201505_1_video.

Pete Zahut

Quick observations after viewing the Video.

My kind patient wife who loves everybody....can't stand to watch Lett...which is so unlike her.
Lett kept referring and comparing the Watchtower to "other publishing companies".
He kept referring to the Governing Body in the third person as if he wasn't part of it.
I noticed they didn't dare to use the scripture at Luke 14:28 about sitting down and counting the cost before building a tower. It appears they must have assumed a certain amount of donations would be there to cover all the building they've been doing and didn't actually have the funds. Maybe they HAD to sell the Brooklyn properties.
He didn't give any numbers showing that it is the growth of the organization that has caused the need for new Kingdom Halls. He'd surely be bragging if that were the case.
He didn't mention the reason they need new Halls is because the sold off the valuable ones.
All of the experiences of JW's shown in the videos lately have been indicating that Jehovah does intervene in peoples lives today and make good things happen. It's as if they're really encouraging magical thinking more these days. Perhaps they think it will help with donations. Give a lot....Get blessings.
Lett is probably kindly, simple, naive and deluded...he has obviously been coached in his gestures and voice modulation but still doesn't quite get it. He was "acting " the whole time....none of it was genuine or spontaneous.
I think the rest of the GB trot Lett out in front of the camera whenever there's something to say that would embarrass the rest of them. They know that kind hearted JW's will cut him more slack than they will any of the rest of them.
There will be JW's who will be pushed over the edge by this video and will begin fading or will move on mentally at least.

172

May tv.jw.org program

by zophar in

jw
friends

the may broadcast on tv.jw.org.

we need money!.

http://tv.jw.org/#video/vodstudio/pub-jwb_201505_1_video.

Pete Zahut

This was an Infomercial for the WTBTS and as usual there is no verifiable proof of any thing they said. All of the explanations of what they are doing with the money and the "experiences" meant to tug at your heart strings, have more holes in them than Sponge Bob. No data, no graphs, charts or numbers....only anecodtes told by those still under the spell of the Watchtower Corporation. In one of the "experiences" about a newly baptized family man who quit his job as a cook rather than work Sunday and attend a meeting at another Hall, they actually said that Jehovah listens more readily to the prayers of those who have the status of being "newly baptized". He was encouraged to leave his job because of this and it took him 6 months to find another but he Pioneered on whle drawing unemployment benefits, until another job turned up. Most people would have either gone to a Sunday meeting later in the day or would have secured a job before leaving the one they had.

As far as Bro. Lett, I'm trying to imagine the spokesman for Amazon or Apple speaking to stockholders or prospective customers in such a childish and exaggerated manner or offering such feeble examples of what they are doing and why they should continue to be supported.

9

One short New Testament verse sums up the problem with faith.

by nicolaou in

"for we are walking by faith, not by sight" 2 corinthians 5:7. that's it right there.

don't value the evidence of your own eyes or trust what you can measure and test; no, just have faith.. the frustration is that even when this is pointed out to the devout believer they still don't see the problem.

they still see faith as a virtue and something superior to 'sight'..

Pete Zahut

The trouble is, growing up as a JW, there was always a mixed message. On one hand they wanted you to have faith and wait on Jehovah to clear up all the things that don't make sense. Then on the other hand, when it suited them, instead of faith being enough, they went to great lengths, employing lengthy and convoluted explanations of Bible doctrine, providing dates and supposedly faith strengthening evidence that I blindly trusted and had faith in until it all turned out to be incorrect. They told me to have faith in THEM and THEIR explanations or the evidence they provided.

I realize that myself and many others were using the word faith to feel good about not wanting to bother looking any further.

32

Would you call JW HQ???

by DATA-DOG in

i have a friend who is still in.

this friend is a partaker, but has serious doubts about the org.

this friend wants to stand up as a man, and wants to call wtbts hq.

Pete Zahut

If this "friend" is truly of the Anointed, shouldn't answers to these kind of questions have already been revealed to him by the most high?

In the past, they were supposedly the one's who us regular folks would turn to for answers to the more perplexing questions and they'd be the ones to tell us "what's what" and "who's who".

78

Am I the only "witness here besides the admins?

by TheOnlyRealWittnessHere in

jw
friends

with all the negativity here i was wondering if i am the only one here that's a witness.

.

the topic pretty much says everything..

Pete Zahut

Civil War

Jumbo Shrimp

Random Order

Act Naturally

Only Choice

Real Witness

34

A Taxi Driver Gave Me 4 Magazines This Morning

by Tempest in a Teacup in

jw
friends

as we had reached my destination, i paid him and was getting down when he handed me something.

then i saw it was the wt and awake.

i just had the time to say: "oh, okay, thank you!

Pete Zahut

Miraculously , the hours on his Taxi meter matched the hours entered on his time sheet. He was commended for the consistently high number of placements he reported each month but was counseled for not making any return visits.

Unfortunately he won't be recommended for microphone duty during the meeting until (Jehovah willing) some improvement is shown in this area. This will however be reviewed once again when the Circuit Overseer returns.

70

Anti-JW billboard going up in Texas

by sunny23 in

the first ever billboard has been crowd funded on reddit and will be going up.

i'm curious to know if it will cause a spark in any jw's who already have questions or doubts and lead them to research into the child abuse cases and lead them to the thought that the wt and gb are not inspired or gods mouthpiece.

at the very least it will provide people a topic of conversation and questions to the jw's who knock on their door: "so whats this whole sex abuse in kingdom halls thing about i saw on the billboard down the road?

Pete Zahut

JW's will spin this at the next convention by saying that as a result of what was intended to be persecution by Satan's Apostates, many new studies were started with those inquiring about the billboard.

We are like Dandelions, Brothers and Sisters. If you kick us, we spread to the wind and grow even more (((clap clap clap...applause....applause))) No proof of any of it being true will be given, but everyone gets a warm fuzzy feeling and are sure to pass by the contribution box on the way out.

10

A Toast to Windchimes

by DarioKehl in

i recently researched on jw dot org why toasts are not allowed.

in the article, they candidly admit that wedding bands also have pagan origins, but their modern understanding trumps this fact since they serve another function: signifying whether or not a person is married.

same with neck ties, i guess (although their pagan origins were not mentioned in the article).

Pete Zahut

When international conventions come up, it's ok for delegates to be decked out in traditional clothing from their culture. Surely, some of those have origins that could be called "pagan." And how is that not nationalism?

My Wife's JW relatives (white people) are Missionaries in Africa. Whenever they post on facebook or Instagram photos of themselves and the African Witnesses at meeting or in service, they are all wearing western shirts and ties and knee length dresses.

They study their American religion with the African people and make them give up their traditional clothes and make them wear the "JW appropriate" western clothing.

When these same relatives come back here for the assemblies, they are always wearing full on African garb and jewelery. His outfits always consist of a long brightly colored tunics and loose pajama like pants and a little circular cloth hat on the back of his head (even during the prayer). (Ever the smart a***, I always ask him why he isn't wearing a bone in his nose). She always has a brightly colored long wrapped dress over loose pants and huge matching headdress. The clothes are nice but they look ridiculous on blond people in a western U.S city, especially when they go somewhere to dinner. Talk about drawing attention to yourself.

Anyway, as far as banning things with Pagan origins, we weren't allowed to eat "Hot Cross Buns" because they had a religious (Easter) origin.

6

Regarding the Nepal earthquake

by Syme in

over 6,100 dead in nepal until now.. a huge disaster, a terrible tragedy, and in front of that, the average j-dub will have in his mouth the "earthquakes from place to place will happen" prophecy.. a tragedy of that size happens, and what do jws do?

they almost rejoice, because in their mind it "fulfills" bible prophecy, and on top of that, they can't wait to see what positive impact on the preaching work that disaster is going to have.. remember that famous photo-of-the-year, where a vulture waits for that starved african boy to die, so that it can eat the body?

that's the case here.

Pete Zahut

It reminds me of the time I heard a bunch of JW's talking about how complacent everyone is getting these days....even JW's. One woman (Sister Jones) said "What we need is a good earthquake to bring us all to our senses".

There was a smart aleck teen standing nearby who said out loud to one of his friends.

"Pfffft....did you hear that....Sister Jones is actually HOPING for an earthquake"

Everyone broke out laughing and Sister Jones gave him the filth look.