Posts by Pete Zahut

The thing that always threw me off and no one was able to answer satisfactorily,was the fact that Jesus HAD to die or be sacrificed in order to buy back the life Adam lost for mankind.

If everyone would have listened to him and accepted him how would he have paid the "ransom" ? If he was perfect and no one killed him, would he have just lived on forever?

21

George Cook former DO, now just an elder at Prince's home congregation KH

by oppostate in

george cook, omg, george f'ing cook, whattttt!.

caption: elder george cook (right), one of the nine elders of the small 90-person congregation, said prince regularly ‘witnessed’ alone in the community and in groups.

he was very detail oriented and very eccentric.

It's ironic that he said Princes drug dependency was a personal matter and that he was in good standing in the congregation, because George Cook reprimanded a group of Mothers in our Congregation (including my own) for putting on a 50's party for the teenagers. He said we shouldn't be emulating the world and it's dress with our costumes, rather we should emulate the Pioneers and Missionaries of that time period.

My Mother told him he was being ridiculous and turned on her heel and walked off.

Another time he told the Sisters that in Chicago where he was from, only hookers wore knee length boots and they shouldn't be wearing them so as not to stumble anyone in their ministry . My Mother quickly pointed out to him that his wife's long red fingernails were like those on the societies depiction of the harlot riding the wild beast and were quite distracting to the householders while turning the pages of the Bible and showing them scriptures about Oh...I don't know....modesty, well arranged dress and the external braiding of the hair, for instance.

The Brothers knew better than to pull any of their B.S on my Mother because she knew her bible better and was more articulate and had a sharper wit than any of them and George Cook was no different. Funny how these years later, he views a 57 year old man who wears androgynous clothes and make-up, to be perfectly acceptable by the societies standards.

9

ANZAC day.

by zeb in

the 25th april in australia and new zealand is called anzac day.

the word is from australia new zealand army corp.. on this day are commemorated the lives of those lost in war.

the 25th april is the day in 1915 that the forces under incompetent commanders landed on the coast of turkey at a place called gallipoli or galliboli in turkish, in an effort to force turkey out of the great war.. the landings were an unmitigated blunder.

Pete Zahut

So if you hear of the word ANZAC you now know now where it is from.

And how Anzac biscuits came about.

20

Being Positive around family that are still in.

by freddo in

jw
friends

if you are a fader or you have reduced activity markedly - say resigned as a pioneer or an elder or ms or gone inactive and still have some relationship with your immediate family or spouse - how do you stay positive around them when you feel like shaking them out of their stupor but believe deep down it would be counter productive?.

thoughts from all most welcome..

Pete Zahut

The best thing to do is give them the blankest look you can muster whenever anything JW related comes up. It really gets their curiosity up when they realize that it makes no difference to you anymore what JW do or say.

Them: There was an earthquake in Timbuktu today...the end is really getting close...

You: Blank look on face...eyes blinking.... crickets chirping in the background.... (do not answer no matter how uncomfortable the silence is) Count to 100 and change the subject.

29

If Prince had an addiction to prescriptions drugs, it's a personal matter but if I want to grow a beard or attend college, it's not.

by ToesUp in

jw
friends

interesting article i found about prince and the jw religion.

i guess they are trying to get their 15 minutes of fame.

i find it disturbing that the elder stated if prince had an addiction to prescription drugs, that is a personal matter but the hundreds of intrusive jw rules like going to college (not scriptural) and growing a beard (also not scriptural) are not also considered a personal choice.

Pete Zahut

I always got the sense that even though they supposedly don't view one person as more important than another, when someone noteworthy becomes a JW or says something complementary, it somehow serves as validation and quiets their own insecurities about the religion.

"See....even someone as famous and wealthy as Prince recognizes that we have The Truth"

Prince was said to be worth $300 million so apparently he didn't have to continue performing or living that lifestyle in order to survive, yet JW's are willing to give him a free pass even though they themselves would be reprimanded for doing the same thing. They are expected to quit employment that keeps them from attending meetings, has bad association after hours or endangers their spirituality.

29

If Prince had an addiction to prescriptions drugs, it's a personal matter but if I want to grow a beard or attend college, it's not.

by ToesUp in

jw
friends

interesting article i found about prince and the jw religion.

i guess they are trying to get their 15 minutes of fame.

i find it disturbing that the elder stated if prince had an addiction to prescription drugs, that is a personal matter but the hundreds of intrusive jw rules like going to college (not scriptural) and growing a beard (also not scriptural) are not also considered a personal choice.

Pete Zahut

Everything you do, from whether or not you smoke, whether or not you wear tight pants or whether or not you believe a certain JW doctrine is a "personal matter ! Since when do they not get involved in the personal matters of the congregation members?

This comes as it emerged the Purple Rain star was cremated in secret on Friday - in accordance with Jehovah’s Witness tradition that a person’s body must be cremated within a week of death. -DailyMail

You can't really go too much by what is said in the media....they always get things skewed or just make things up. Who knows how this reporter came up with this bit of nonsense.

58

Jehovah's Witness Church Release Statement

by truthseekeriam in

jw
friends

"we are saddened to hear about the death of prince rogers nelson, who was baptized as one of jehovah’s witnesses in 2003," the church said in a statement obtained by people.

the church said that prince "found fulfillment as a witness and in sharing his faith with others.

http://www.people.com/article/prince-dead-jehovah-witness-release-statement.

Pete Zahut

This comes as it emerged the Purple Rain star was cremated in secret on Friday - in accordance with Jehovah’s Witness tradition that a person’s body must be cremated within a week of death.

You can't really go by what they say in the media.....they always get something skewed.

58

Jehovah's Witness Church Release Statement

by truthseekeriam in

jw
friends

"we are saddened to hear about the death of prince rogers nelson, who was baptized as one of jehovah’s witnesses in 2003," the church said in a statement obtained by people.

the church said that prince "found fulfillment as a witness and in sharing his faith with others.

http://www.people.com/article/prince-dead-jehovah-witness-release-statement.

Pete Zahut

They didn't allow us to have my Dad's memorial in the Hall because he wasn't baptized yet, even though he bled to death because he signed the "no blood" paperwork before having open heart surgery. This happened a matter of months before the began allowing "Blood Fractions" that would have been enough to save him.

The brothers said he'd be resurrected because he died faithful to Jehovah but because he wasn't baptized, they couldn't allow us to use the Hall even though he was a clean living, good and exemplary man they'd known and associated with for decades. This event was the beginning of the end for a lot of us in terms of leaving the Organization.

Prince on the other hand is known throughout the world for his often highly sexualized music and performances, androgynous dress and make-up and generally odd behavior. It will be interesting to see if his funeral is at a Kingdom Hall or maybe an Assembly Hall. It will not go over well with the "still in" members of my family, if this happens.

38

Hard to Remember but Back in the Ninteen Fifies...

by new boy in

jw
friends

my writing a book about my strange life as a jw.

i need some help.. does anyone remember when they used to get these charts out at the service meetings which had all the hours, "back calls" and bible studies on it?

what did they call that?.

Pete Zahut

I only remember as far back as the early 1960's but they were still using the tote board as was mentioned. They'd draw a curtain on the back of the stage revealing the board and examine how well the congregation as a whole was doing in comparison to the expected national quotas.

I remember feeling pressure to "place" my quota of magazines and to get my quota of hours in for the month. Others have mentioned the "Rotten Review" that you had to sign and turn in to your Book Study Conductor but no one has mentioned the Rooming Work.

The Rooming Work involved knocking on doors and instead of peddling magazines we were told to ask the householders if they had rooms available in their home for JW's to say in during the summer convention. It was the oddest thing to be told at meeting that the "world" hates us and then turn around and ask them to let us use their bedrooms and bathrooms. Some of the Witnesses had pretty low standards and the visiting Brothers and Sisters sometimes ended up staying in some very sketchy places. I was always impressed at how generous"worldly" people were because none of the JW's I knew offered up rooms in their own houses.

I also remember the smell of the literature when you first came into the Kingdom Hall and the sound of the brother banging those big rolls of Watchtower and Awake magazines against the literature counter in order to break the paper ring that held them together. Looking back, I Wouldn't be surprised if the home made ink and glue the society used back then, could be linked to all the cases of depression one used to see among the JW's. (come to think of it, it was probably a combination of the glue and the contents of the magazines that was at the root of it all)