Posts by Pete Zahut

27

Striking Out On My Own

by Saethydd in

those of you who know my story are aware that i'm currently disfellowshipped and living with my parents.

up until now, my plan has been to be reinstated and then fade, but recently my plans have changed.

in a conversation with my mother a few days ago and she made it clear that she would not be okay with me getting reinstated with the purpose of going inactive.

I'm sort of on the fence about the idea of drawing a line in the sand with a letter that may come back to haunt you later for reasons you can't identify at this point in time. Then again, I like the idea of a Disfellowshipped person"owning it" and not slinking away into the wild blue yonder without having his or her say.

If you'd care to, I for one would be interested in seeing your letter before you send it. There's a lot of clever people on this forum who will likely have valuable input to help you through this life changing move you're about to make.

Either way, you know your situation best and it sounds to me like you're sort of relieved to have a plan.

Just curious...did your Mom bring up the topic of "reinstatement then fading" coincidentally or does she know that was your intended plan at first? I can't imagine you'd have told her that was what you were thinking of doing.

61

Would human settlement of Mars invalidate Bible prophecy?

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i don't think this topic has been discussed before but yesterday i read something to the effect that trump wants a human mission to mars to be completed within his presidency.. with that being said, the watchtower teaches that what started on earth ends on earth, in other words, the fall of adam and eve would end with the passing of the 1,000 year millennial reign when christ destroys all his enemies, rebellious "perfect" humans, and the devil and his demons who are let out the abyss for a short while.

he then hands the kingdom back to his father.

an elder in my old congregation once told us during a public talk that he was an ardent astronomer but then referenced the scripture where it says, "the earth he has given to the sons of men" (psalms 115:16).

Pete Zahut

Ray Franz in his book said that there was a point in time when the Governing Body considered changing the significant JW date of 1914 to the year 1957. That was the year Sputnik was launched by the Russians and because such a thing was new and scary and Russian, it seemed to fit the description of the Luke 21 prophecy about fearful signs from the heavens, in the end times.

It seems to me any JW worth his salt could spin just about any world event or accomplishment to fit their favorite woeful Bible prophecy, including the establishment of a space colony.

P.S. I loved Outlaws cartoon....even in outer space, the sister's space suit had to have the obligatory skirt...HA!

18

Apostate carts

by Normalfulla in

so i've recently been travelling about usa and mexico and of course seen the carts parked at tourist spots all over and i had a funny thought ...if somehow we could get a bunch of identical carts together and print up a placard with a few key facts about the real truth with jwfacts logo and just park them right in the same areas ,dress up in our old meeting clothes and stand about with a coffee and look on our phones i wonder what response we would get from anyone ?

or park them outside assembly's and just stand.off at a distance ...basically the same thing they do to all society !.

Pete Zahut

One could quietly stand by a Literature Cart with a sign like this:

37

"Hard work never killed anyone," or "I have to give up knitting."

by compound complex in

greetings, my aging friends:.

it's not really a funny subject, our getting old and our bodies falling apart.

sure, as the saying goes, hard work won't kill you, but it can wear out your body.

Pete Zahut

Hard work never killed anyone but nobody's ever died from taking it easy either.

I didn't have time to read any of the previous posts but here's what I know.

#1 Get medical advice and possibly physical therapy

Inflammation is not our friend.
White blood cells attack inflammation and inflamed joints can become permanently damaged by this.
Ibuprofen, acetaminophen, aspirin relieve pain and reduce inflammation
Ice reduces inflammation.
A combination of ice, and anti inflammatories (used as directed) is very effective in reducing the pain, inflammation and the healing time.
Not using the painful joint can sometimes make it worse.
Don't stop using the inflamed sore joint but use it moderately but only after doing very light stretches (as directed)
Always do stretches and warm ups even if you're not currently having any joint problems and ice joints when they've been stressed even if they don't currently hurt.

13

I have a big nose...

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

surprisingly whilst hating being born with this over large nose, women have fallen in love with my nose.

so with regards to look and charm, what i hated about my physical attributes, many women have found attractive.

anyway i just wanted to say what we find unattractive about ourselfs, doesn't necessarily mean others do.

Pete Zahut

Anyway i just wanted to say what we find unattractive about ourselfs, doesn't necessarily mean others do. In fact it could be our main asset.

I have dimples in my cheeks and on my chin. Your post reminded me of how my older brother used to tease me merciless about them and convinced me they were something to be embarrassed about. When I was a kid, I thought when someone pointed them out, they were pretending to be nice but were really, making fun of me. When I got older I found out that a lot of girls actually liked them but the idea that they were ugly was firmly implanted in my mind by then.

Fast forward, I married a girl with a Marie Osmond smile and dimpled cheeks, both of our sons have them, our married son's wife has them and now our adorable little granddaughter has one on each cheek and one on her chin. My brother posted our family photo on his facebook page and made a big deal about all of us being dimpled and admitted that he had always been jealous of mine. It even turns out that people are now going to plastic surgeons to have them installed. Who knew people would pay to have the thing I hated most about myself as a kid ??

57

Your opinion is watchtower extremist?

by poopie in

jw
friends

court gave 4 reasons you agree disagree.

Pete Zahut

Your opinion is Watchtower extremist?

A person who breaks into the homes of others and steals their valuables is a criminal.

A person who alters the books to syphon money from the corporation they work for is a criminal but his crime is considered a white collar crime.

Both crimes are punishable by law however if given the choice, most people would prefer to be the victim of a white collar crime than the victim of a crime where physical violence could be involved. Both are crimes none the less and given their choice one would ideally avoid both scenarios.

JW's are mild mannered in appearance and lifestyle and it's difficult to view them as radical however the often undetectable and far reaching effects of some of their belief based actions are much like the crimes of a white collar criminal. They occur once trust has been granted and they take place over an extended period of time. If one had to choose, they might choose to be the victim of the radical beliefs of a Jehovah's Witness rather than the victim of some radical middle eastern group but with both scenarios, there's suffering involved and there should be measures taken to make it difficult if not impossible for them to happen.

19

Why Were the Anabaptists Not Chosen by Jesus in 1919?

by berrygerry in

wt acknowledges their lack of neutrality during ww1, and previously stated that this was followed by a period of refining.

however, they were still the one group that far-and-away were the only ones that were practicing first-century christianity the most closely, as well as being the only group trying to do so.. interesting read about the hutterites ( http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/courtsandcolonies/chapterone.pdf ).

, especially this quote about ww1:.

Pete Zahut

Nobody was chosen because nothing significant actually happened in 1919. That date, and the idea of being "chosen" was a JW thing.

184

Outcome - Banned in Russia - Final

by OrphanCrow in

jw
friends

i just watched the live feed from the russian court room and followed the updates on the russian exjw forum.. just waiting for confirmation from other sources...but, it looks like the final (and expected) result is:.

banned.

which means that the wts property in russia now belongs to the russian state..

Pete Zahut

Random thoughts on this:

Extremist Group: As X-JW's we are somewhat accustomed to the idea of shunning, not taking blood and speaking against the worldly governments. As distasteful as those things have become to us, we still may not see JW's as an "extremist group" However I can only imagine how bizarre these practices must seem to outsiders and on some level, I can understand why the Russian Government upheld it's decision.

Letter Writing: Does this verdict mean that Jehovah wasn't able to thwart the Russian government or didn't pay any attention to the millions of prayers and letters beseeching him for help?

JW spin: I'm guessing the spin on this will be one of "This aint' over till it's over...Jehovah has a plan and will enact it in due time." Many will see the ruling as part of the fulfillment of Bible prophesy about governments turning on religions. The Witnesses would have been giddy with delight if the ruling had been reversed but now they can feel martyred and excited about the end being all the more at hand. Either way, they'll spin this as a reason to rejoice. To me, the lack of impact the letters and prayers had on this issue, only demonstrates that the Governing Body isn't being directed by "Jehovah" or anyone else. If Jehovah has another plan, or if this is part of Bible prophecy, then why did the GB direct 8 million people to pray and write letters in the first place?

6

Watchtower Society Fails In Unconditional Love

by pale.emperor in

was watching an episode of the young pope yesterday (really enjoyed the series), at at the end there it dealt with the theme of "unconditional love".

it made me think of the love i have for people i know.. i looked up the wikipedia intro of unconditional love and it reads:.

unconditional love is known as affection without any limitations or love without conditions.

Pete Zahut

Is there really such a thing as unconditional Love? Don't we all place unspoken conditions on our friends and family?

I love my older Brother but if he hurt one of my kids or was generally causing trouble in my life, I'd stop associating with him under the condition that once he changed his ways, he'd be welcome again.

I understand the JW shunning concept to a point but what I disagree with is the enforcement that takes place in the private lives of individuals at the hand of those representing the Watchtower Society. It's one thing for a congregation to say to an individual, " You've been living a lifestyle that isn't in accord with our beliefs so we're going to stop using you in the meetings and calling on you to comment ". It's another thing to publically make an announcement about that individual and expect everyone he knows and his entire family to cut him out of their lives and punish them as well if they don't choose to.

If my friends at work found out I was embezzling from the company, I'd likely be fired and they'd not want anything more to do with me. It would be a different case if the company not only fired me but disciplined any of the other employees who still talked to me if they chose to. This likely would be illegal and a person could do something about it. Within the JW congregation, they infringe on the individuals personal rights outside their doors and there's very little or anything a person can do to stop it.

115

Could a petition to make shunning illegal work?

by aboveusonlysky in

jw
friends

we're currently watching leah remini's series about scientology and the main thing she seems to focus on is the shunning policies of the scientology organization which let's face it are very similar to jw procedure.. i was wondering with all that's in the media recently about bullying could a petition be put together to get the goverment to consider making religiously mandated shunning illegal?

has such a thing been tried before?.

https://petition.parliament.uk/help says the following - .

Pete Zahut

I think it would be more effective to somehow bring the shunning practices to public light so as to embarrass the organization or at least a lot of it's members, into taking a second look at the practice.

A documentary style video played on national television that comprised of interviews that tell the background story of the people who are being shunned and the oft times heartbreaking effect it's had on their lives. There are likely millions of former JW's who have been shunned and they all have a story to tell. JW's might become thought of not only those annoying people who knock on your door but the ones that shun their families and friends who speak out or leave.

It would be really effective if a former JW celebrity were able to conduct the interviews and use his or her celebrity to get it aired.