Pete Zahut

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Posts by Pete Zahut

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  41

  Caption This Photo From The January Study Edition

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. social
  2. humour

  so as some are probably aware the january study edition has two articles on the anointed.

  one basically discouraging people from believing they are anointed and another about how ones should view partakers.

  this photo is from the second article:.

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  Pete Zahut

  
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  53

  QUICK! Questions to ask MARK SANDERSON!!!!!!!

  by TeenageInsider in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  quickly!!.

  mark sanderson at a regional assembly.. i will find him and ask him questings.. please quickly leave questions you want me to ask.. i will record and post updates!!!!.

  hurry..

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  Pete Zahut

  Ummm mark ?? Is your chin double, or overlapping?

  Mad Puppy

  Is your tummy lapping over, or overlapping your belt ?
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  28

  This Website Was Mentioned By The Governing Body

  by JW_Rogue in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  okay, so at the "imitate their faith" ca there was a special speaker from the gb.

  and he started discussing psalms 1:1 and how we today could "sit in the seat of scoffers".

  he then mentioned that many bros. and sisters criticize the org and think they are so smart by researching online.

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  Pete Zahut

  Must be quite a problem if they actually admit it's happening and even go so far as to use the word "many".
  
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  53

  QUICK! Questions to ask MARK SANDERSON!!!!!!!

  by TeenageInsider in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  quickly!!.

  mark sanderson at a regional assembly.. i will find him and ask him questings.. please quickly leave questions you want me to ask.. i will record and post updates!!!!.

  hurry..

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  Pete Zahut

  Ask him if it's permissible for you to donate blood during the blood drive at work if they sign papers agreeing to break your blood into fractions before administering it to anyone??
  
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  51

  I lied to the elders

  by atacrossroads in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i stopped attending meetings all together in january 2015. before that my attendance was irregular at best.

  my husband followed suit a few months ago after months of research, agony, and indecision on his part.

  from the very beginning i laid low and did not share with anyone what i found out about the witnesses because i did not want to be df'd.

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  Pete Zahut

  That conversation was a private one between you and your Mother, you were speaking to her not to them and if she chose to repeat what you said, that's her choice but you owe them no explanation. Call it "spiritual warfare" (they do when they aren't fully truthful) ...you were simply safeguarding your own spirituality (among other things).If you questioned them about something that was repeated to you about a private conversation they had among themselves, they'd tell you to buzz off.
  

  Your Dad is heartbroken....well it's you who should be heartbroken. You had your own mother betray you to a bunch of men who she knows full well have the power to alter the course of her family forever. Your Dad should be angry at her, not you. She went over his "headship" and went to the Elders before he even had a chance to hear what you had to say and get it sorted out within the family rather than have them turn up on your doorstep demanding answers of you.
  

  It might be a good idea for you to do a search of this site to see examples of "warning letters" that different ones sent to their elders, letting them know that if they make any announcement about them, there will be legal action taken.
  
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  38

  1974 Special Meetings

  by NeonMadman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as we all know, armageddon was just around the corner in 1974. at the district conventions that year, it was announced that there would be two special meetings during the month of september; one would be for interested people (e.g., bible studies, family members, inactive, etc.

  ), and the other would be for baptized publishers.

  these were to be held in place of the service meetings for the two weeks, iirc.

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  Pete Zahut

  @PaintedToeNail

  You are spot on when you say that as a child, hearing the adults you trusted and depended upon, speak of torture and persecution, is the cause of your life long struggle with anxiety. The older of my two sisters, the one I referred to in my earlier post, (a lovely beautiful girl) has had terrible difficulty with this all of her life. She learned to be afraid at an early age and her brain has been wired to go directly to panic at the first sign of any kind of uncertainty..I dealt with this myself but to a lesser degree and it disappeared without a trace a few weeks after I decided to stop being a JW.
  

  It was very ignorant, selfish and unloving for the adult leaders of this organization not to stress the importance of shielding children who haven't developed the necessary coping skills, from being present when this kind of information is being discussed. If they needed to talk about this stuff, they should have held a special meeting and ask parents not to bring their children and or made arrangements for the kids to be brought into the back room for some kind of kid friendly program.

  Instead they made sure we, along with the adults, were intentionally frightened out of our skin. They thought of it as a way to keep us in line and as a way of making sure we stayed with "the truth". We spent our lives prepared for a cataclysmic event that never materialized.
  

  I'm very sorry you've had to deal with this unnecessary affliction and burden in your life.
  
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  38

  1974 Special Meetings

  by NeonMadman in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  as we all know, armageddon was just around the corner in 1974. at the district conventions that year, it was announced that there would be two special meetings during the month of september; one would be for interested people (e.g., bible studies, family members, inactive, etc.

  ), and the other would be for baptized publishers.

  these were to be held in place of the service meetings for the two weeks, iirc.

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  Pete Zahut

  Wow....thanks for posting these...does this ever bring back memories.

  I remember as a kid attending meetings on dark winter nights with the rain pounding on the roof and these kinds of ominous letters and topics being discus from the platform. A lot of people were downright frightened, kids in the Hall were quitting school to Pioneer and people were quitting their jobs and selling their homes to get out from under debt and preparing for the tribulation. Everyone was hunkering down and waiting for the day we'd have to head for the hills.Our Presiding Overseer would often run the meeting 45 minutes overtime, sternly warning us of the approaching tribulation.
  

  I remember tossing and turning at night worrying about my 2 little sisters and wondering how I'd ever be able to save them during the Tribulation if someone made me choose between them being tortured or me renouncing my faith. The oldest of the two girls used to start bawling at the meeting at the realization that our Dad wouldn't survive because he wasn't baptized. She'd beg my Dad to come back to meetings before it was too late. He'd just look at my Mom and ask pleadingly "Why must they say these things in front of the children ? ".
  

  My parents sold our nice home so that we could move into a mobile home park across the street from the Kingdom Hall where about 10 other JW families lived. My Mom convinced my non JW Dad that this was the thing to do since the end was so near and there was no point owing money on a house that could be taken away from us when the economy got really bad during the tribulation.

  Freddy Franz would have been proud of the way they squeezed a family of 6 into a 12'x 60' mobile home. My Mom Pioneered and we along with everyone else, waited for the tribulation to hit. I used to get off the school bus at the stop down the road so that no one would see that I lived there. It was at that time they were emphasizing that if young ones were of and age of understanding and didn't get baptized, they would be destroyed at Armageddon. I got baptized in the summer of 74 at the International Assembly in Vancouver Canada but was one of the only kids in my hall to continue with school. I Pioneered in the summer and went in service on the weekends or sometimes in the evenings.
  

  Finally in about 1978, the end hadn't come and my parents couldn't take being crammed into such a small place with a growing family. The Brothers had quit studying with my Dad because he was too shy about going out in the door to door ministry and the society said not to wast time studying with people longer than 6 months if they aren't progressing. Thankfully as a non JW he didn't quit his job and was able to get us back into a nice house again. It was so great to have our life back and have Mom taking an interest in her art, music and garden and having her be there when we got home from school.

  That was 40+ years ago, both Mom and Dad are gone and I'm about to be a Grandpa and no JW today cares about what we went through in those days. It's as if it never happened and they merely dismiss the 5 decades I spent trying to live up to the directives coming from Brooklyn New York which included a year at Brooklyn Bethel.
  
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  105

  Does anyone think Jehovah is protecting the org. despite all the talk about THE ARC ?

  by tor1500 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been thinking this for a while.

  even before the arc scandal.

  it seems no matter what, the org.

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  Pete Zahut

  Seems like if Jehovah wanted to help anyone, it would have been the children that were molested, especially the little girls and sometimes boys who had it happen while out in service or involved in a "theocratic" activity.

  We are used to the harsh judgement and condemnation of others who sin or make mistakes, which we learned from our JW training and experience. I believe non JW's may be more lenient toward those who have been accused of wrongdoing and are careful not to go above the law or be hasty when determining how best to enforce the law.

  It's not an easy thing to go after a large faceless organization that has a certain amount of power and influence and credibility. If Jehovah is helping them cover up their mistakes or evade punishment rather than helping the helpless little kids, then what does this say about the God of the universe?

  (Then again....he did curse and allow to continue, the suffering of billions of people and animals for thousands of years and is going to destroy a bunch of people soon so...)
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  108

  Leaked Elder's Video: How to deal with a suicidal sister

  by cappytan in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this video will be played at one of the clam meetings in march 2016.. the content is kind of old news because it is a recut version of a previous video produced for the elder's school.

  however, it's still significant because it shows that the organization still has dissenting brothers in positions of leadership.. my thanks to the leaker.

  feel free to claim credit here.

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  Pete Zahut

  People who are depressed and who's only hope is that Jehovah will help them, should NOT be told to read the book of Job. To a depressed person, seeing that Jehovah's solution to Job's loss of his TEN children was to replace them with ten more children, is enough for them to realize that now, on top of everything they are going through, they can't even count on Jehovah for any real help.

  This woman needed real practical help...NOW ! She needed someone to spend the night at her house. She needed someone to hold her car keys for a time. She needed someone to sit and grieve with her and not tell her to look at some F'ing bible story and tell her in so many words to quit feeling sorry for herself. She needed someone to walk her through the process of finding a LEGITIMATE counselor who is trained to teach people to manage grief.

  These "unlettered and ordinary men" have no business acting as if they have some special insight about such a serious matter simply because the can cobble together a few old chestnuts everyone has heard a million times in the Watchtower. They should have insisted that she be monitored by family or friends until she could be seen by a professional.

  As a side note. Did anyone catch that she said she was looking forward to being reunited as husband and wife with her deceased husband ? Is this a new thing? What if he gets resurrected and he doesn't want to marry her again....want's to play the field for 8 or 10 thousand years or so?
  

  Also, how can anyone in this day and age still think the account of Job was anything more than a parable? Job's wife would have had to carry 20 kids (10 of them late in life) if this actually took place.
  
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  36

  A JW experience

  by Saintbertholdt in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this is a quick experience i have recently had and i have two questions at the end.. a couple of weeks ago, the dogs were barking at the gate on saturday morning and wouldn't you know it, it was some witnesses.

  there was a father with his lovely wife and their young daughter.

  the father did all the talking as mother and daughter just dutifully smiled and watched.

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  Pete Zahut

  My answer to those questions is as follows.

  Bad news sells and that's why the daily media concentrates on the handful of people who are causing problems each day rather than on the billions who are having a normal day.

  Jehovah's Witnesses meet together each week to listen to talks and study and discuss literature that primarily focuses on the wickedness of certain people of the world and highlights the mistakes made by other religious groups. They then use the news events of the day to confirm that their negative foregone conclusion is true. Even though they all benefit from all the historically unprecedented improvements in current health and living conditions and the strides that others have worked hard to accomplish in this regard, they choose to see the world as broken and irredeemable and the only solution is for God to kill billions of men women and children if they don't become Jehovah's Witnesses.

  Do you see anything skewed about this?