Posts by Pete Zahut

The brothers in the band brazenly sing one of the most popular R&B songs of all time, whose lyrics celebrate the lustful feelings of a man or woman under the spell of love ("I Feel Good") and shimmying across the floor to denote anything but dignity and spirituality.

And (gasp)...said "shimmying" was done in britches that were kinda' tight.

What will Tony Morris have to say once he gets wind of this? (oh, and he will ).

16

this is a real picture

by brandnew in

jw
friends

yeah watchtower is blessing their efforts .

I kind of like that photo and it might be nice to go to meeting where things are a bit more "open air" rather than in a stuffy closed up building. This building may be just the right thing for that area and would be easy to repair and maintain. Folks who live there may only need a place to get in out of the direct sun or the occasional rain shower and may be glad they don't have to come up with the money to build an maintain a more formal building. Perhaps they even have a portable generator to run their flat screen (if internet is even available).

OR:

This is all they could afford once their funds were handed over to the folks back at headquarters.

33

New York Times article Dec 31 2015

by Gayle in

jw
friends

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/nyregion/stalled-brooklyn-park-exposes-rift-with-religious-group.html?_r=0.

jehovahs witnesses have been criticized by community leaders for not fixing up parks in dumbo, brooklyn, as promised.

.

Pete Zahut

I can't imagine even the Watchtower would stoop so low as to place their world headquarters in a small town like Warwick and expect to receive all city services free of charge.

I believe, in order to save on fire insurance costs, they have their own fire dept at Patterson so they may do the same at Warwick. Hopefully they won't need the Police much or the school system. They shouldn't have as much of an impact on the Warwick area proper, compared to Brooklyn where they shared the streets and sidewalks with the public. They will be on their own private compound now, rather than in the middle of a populated City. They may have wells on site for water but will need power and sewer unless they've got some kind of on site system of their own. If they need outside utilities, I imagine they'll pay the same rates for those as anyone else (maybe not). Shipping and trucking needs have gone down due to less printing and shipping of magazines and paper deliveries are likely reduced in comparison to what it was in Brooklyn. In order to get the land use permits they needed, the local Warwick government may have required them to widen their main road of usage, put in sidewalks and traffic lights to accommodate the new draw of visitors and additional trucking needs.

I imagine the Warwick Chamber of Commerce may welcome the draw of outsiders to their area, who may frequent their businesses etc. In my mind, this complex will be self supporting enough that JW visitors and residents won't go beyond the walls of their own compound for food, accommodations and the like. The Brooklyn neighborhood complained about this back when I was in Bethel. They thought the Watchtower was far to insular and put a strain on the local free public amenities without having any real beneficial impact on the local businesses.

33

New York Times article Dec 31 2015

by Gayle in

jw
friends

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/nyregion/stalled-brooklyn-park-exposes-rift-with-religious-group.html?_r=0.

jehovahs witnesses have been criticized by community leaders for not fixing up parks in dumbo, brooklyn, as promised.

.

Pete Zahut

I don't want to be one of those folks who rags on the Watchtower, finding fault with everything they do. After all, as we all know, there are two sides to every story and people say a lot of things in newspapers...even the New York Times.

That being said, it must be pointed out that if this same accusation was made against the Catholic Church, there'd be a nice little write up about it the back of the AWAKE magazine, along with some terse comment made about it being further proof that the Catholic Church is part of Satan's empire of false religion," Babylon the Great".

17

My Experience with Wordly Guys

by LaurenM in

sorry, two posts in a day..but i need to vent something: so far my experience with "worldly" guys has not been the best 1. my first guy experience was with a dude who left state and never came back 2. a coworker asked me to netflix and chill and i did 3. a guy wanted to sext me all the time but never took me out on a date and i did 4. a guy who took me on a great date but then asked me up to his apartment immediately after and then didn't call me after 5. finally, another great date, until after the guy texted me asking for nude pics..told him no!

so basically i've concluded that i had been giving off a vibe that i had no self respect and that was confirmed by me allowing them to use me as a sex object..but i'm hoping that not all worldly guys are like this, and when i start acting like i have self respect, they will treat me like that too?

is that a good assumption?

Pete Zahut

Before giving any real advice, I'd like to know more about the kind of places and/or how you met the guys you described in your opening post. How did the conversation get started? Did you immediately get asked out or was it after having been around them over a period of time etc ?

Depending on the setting (where when how) you first met, certain assumptions may have been made on the part of the guy without you realizing it. It would be good to know that detail so as to have a better picture of what's going on.

Also, if the guy seems a bit too at ease when he approaches you or is rather quick about asking you out after just having met, he may be a bit of a player. Although it's flattering to have someone take an interest in you especially if you're at all nervous or shy and you find it's easier for when they are a bit aggressive about it, If he's just going from one girl to the next and you're looking for something more long term, it would be good to figure that out up front by gathering some clues about the guy and how he operates.

When someone asks you out, you could screen the unwanted types by letting him know you and some friends are going to be at such and such a place on Friday, then saying " Maybe I'll see you there ? " If he's just looking for the here and now, he won't likely be interested. If he does show up and you hit it off and he asks you out again, you could suggest doing something similar. If he's interested in you and not a quick hook up, he'll agree to seeing you any way he can. He'll also be less likely to assume that you're a girl who is more causal about dating than you really are and that he needs to play his cards carefully if he wants you to take him seriously.

Jerks and clods who ask for or send X-rated pics are a dime a dozen and they're the ones who are the most vocal and aggressive. To them you're fair game...you're supposed to know the score. There are plenty of guys out there who know how to behave but they are more reserved and harder to spot.

35

What did being a JW teach you?

by punkofnice in

these are some of the things the wbt$ 'taught' me:.

dishonesty is fine if it's to trick people into joining the cult.. if your spouse stops believeing, the best thing you can do is break up the family.. the laws of the governing body overrule any other laws...or else!.

my friends are conditional.. avoid loving people, they'll only let you down or get df'd.. unintelligent dumbos are better than intelligent ones if the dumbos are elders or above.. hate is better than love.. i am not good enough and god will probably enjoy killing me.. demons will appear in my room at night.. ignore practicallity if being practical or loving prevents the leaders getting money or praise.. god hates.

Pete Zahut

They taught me to first and foremost look for what's wrong, unscriptural and pagan, with just about everything new I encounter.

They taught me to be satisfied and even feel extra virtuous about always being in a subordinate, subservient and unquestioning role to someone else in authority.

They taught me to live in expectation for the other shoe to drop and to see isolated incidents as all being connected to one another, in order to make their foregone conclusions about the world, appear correct.

44

Governing Body Letter details things that "have never been done before." - Really?

by cappytan in

jw
friends

[note: copy/pasted this with permission from reddit.].

once each year, the governing body writes a direct letter to the congregation members included in the yearbook.

in his annual message to the catholic faithful (urbi et orbi) delivered on christmas day, the pope spoke about world peace, terrorism, and the refugee crisis.

Pete Zahut

I have to question the mental stability and the decision making skills of anyone who would go to the expense and pain of having tattoo's lasered off, based on something they read on a religious website without ever actually talking to anyone from the religion. I call B.S. on this whole story....nothing but an anecdote to tickle the ears of the flock and to keep them going down the garden path.

7

Brooklyn Should Get A Thank You From the WTS

by konceptual99 in

jw
friends

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20151217/opinion/151219924/jehovahs-witnesses-should-leave-brooklyn-a-big-thank-you-gift.

Pete Zahut

Some of the comments people have posted below the article, are quite interesting (scathing).

16

Remember When Something Bad Would Happen And You Felt Its Really What They Deserved?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i was thinking about christmas and how celebrants may lose their home and all their possessions because a christmas candle burned down the house.. witnesses smugly would say, "well, they shouldn't have been celebrating the holidays!

".....yet if a jw got into a fatal car accident while going to a convention, it was clearly satan's doing..

Pete Zahut

lovesjehovah 10 hours ago
I've been a JW for years and years... Never once did I rejoice in the misfortunes of anybody. That is an individual characteristic, not a religions. You will meet people that are good and bad anywhere. Judging an entire group of people based on individual actions is bias and elementary.

As a former Bethelite and lifelong JW, I agree with the above reply for the most part however I think there is still a lot of truth in the premise of the original post. The JW's who make these unloving comments, more often than not go unchallenged by the JW's around them . JW's have been trained to look down on "the world" and have condemned (in their own hearts and otherwise) virtually everyone (except themselves) to a horrendous death in the very near future and they look forward to the day it will finally happen. They claim to be going from door to door out of love of their fellow man but sometimes the comments made in the car groups about the householders are often far from loving and demonstrate that they are really out in the ministry to save their own skins rather than to accomplish anything of a humanitarian nature. They often refer to householders who don't take the magazines as "goats" and they make covetous comments about living in their nice homes after Armageddon since they've decided in their own minds that the occupants, unlike themselves, will have been destroyed . Some JW's are so conditioned and immune to their judgemental view of non Witnesses that they don't seem to view the occupants of the homes as real people deserving of compassion and find it easy to be callous about them and pigeonhole them all as doomed

As you say, it isn't fair to judge an entire religion based on the actions of a few but I do have a problem with the way Witnesses hesitate to correct these unkind comments against worldly people for fear they will be looked upon as sympathizing with the world. The literature they leave with interested ones, is full of hateful comments about entire religious groups based on the actions of a few of their members of their leaders and in view of this, it's a testament to the people of the world that the Watchtower and Awake magazine are even still in existence (for now).