Posts by Pete Zahut

78

Work Christmas functions: Being a Bible Student (unbaptized)

by rulehayl in

jw
friends

hi all,i have been studying with the witnesses for more than 6 months and regularly attend both midweek & weekend meetings, and i am nearly at the end of the "bible teach" book.

my boss is adamant i attend team christmas functions.

she knows about my studying and potential baptism next year, and has suggested that i attend and just not participate in activities like kris kringle.

Pete Zahut

To other commenters - no my Study Conductor has not tried to separate me from any non-JW family members - and I don't really have any JW friends either.

Ask your Bible Study Conductor:

Why do we need a study manual to study the bible? Weren't Gods rules meant to be clear enough for humans to understand?
Did Jesus, his apostles and the early Christian Congregation study with people from a set of study aids?
Can I study with you straight out of the Bible without studying in a book or books that were written by men?
Why aren't the Study Aids from the 1950's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's being used anymore?
If the JW's had "The Truth" and were God's chosen religion since the late 1800's why have their beliefs changed so much and will they change again after I get baptized?
What about the people who died upholding those beliefs, if they were incorrect, did they die in vain or in a state of disapproval by God?
What are the two questions they ask you just before you are baptize and do I have to answer them?
Does the Bible show that Jesus and the early Christians asked those questions before they Baptized people?
Can I get baptized without having to join the Ministry School or without having to go from door to door each month?
What happens if I join the Ministry School and go from door to door but decide to stop doing those things after I'm baptized?
If someone I know gets married or has a funeral in a church, can I attend ?
Can I vote in a local or national election on issues that are important to me?
Once I'm baptized, will I be allowed to research anything I hear in the meetings, from outside sources or participate in religious discussion groups outside the organization?

For many of these and other questions, you'll be told that "it's up to your own conscience" but if you don't do things their way, you'll be heavily advised to comply and if you don't you'll be marginalized by the rest of the congregation and viewed as spiritually immature, spiritually weak or as a "bad associate". The individual Jehovah's Witness is typically a sincere person but is so heavily steeped in the religion that they don't realize the degree to which they have been mislead and they are able to rationalize the fact that they misleading you and that they are doing so for your own good.

25

Charles Manson Is Dead

by Bangalore in

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/obituaries/charles-manson-dead.html.

Pete Zahut

My Dad died young by supposedly upholding God's laws by not taking a blood transfusion and Charles Manson lived on the taxpayers dime for 36 of his 83 years then died of natural causes.

This is how I know there is no God.

29

1975... the year that keeps on giving.

by silentbuddha in

so i recently moved back to my really really really small hometown in the south.

it was the place that my parents moved to from a major city up north in the early 1970's.

when we lived here times were very tough financially and i was always told that the reason we did not attend meetings was due to the fact that we had no car / no gas for the car / could not afford repairs for the years we were there.

Pete Zahut

Thanks for relating your interesting Story.

It reminds me of a family from our area ( a large City up north) who also went to a tiny town in the south because they wanted the husband to quit his well paying job so the family could start a janitorial service and serve out the rest of this system as "Need is Greaters". I wonder how many other families like yours out there are who's story wasn't something that would end up in the JW yearbook.

This family (lovely people) struggled financially the whole time they were serving where the need was great and they lingered on in the small town, long after 1975 came and went because they were kind of stuck. They eventually ended up being able to move back to our area where the "need was greater" for middle aged Janitors. After that, they never could afford a decent vehicle and the one they were using had a faulty fuel gauge (among other things) and they never knew how much fuel they had.

One day the wife ran out of fuel along a major highway. The husband came to her rescue with a full can of gas. As he stood along the side of the side of the road filling the tank, he was fatally struck by an oncoming car.

It was interesting to hear the JW's spin things and almost made the whole incident seem like it was a fine witness for Jehovah.

78

Work Christmas functions: Being a Bible Student (unbaptized)

by rulehayl in

jw
friends

hi all,i have been studying with the witnesses for more than 6 months and regularly attend both midweek & weekend meetings, and i am nearly at the end of the "bible teach" book.

my boss is adamant i attend team christmas functions.

she knows about my studying and potential baptism next year, and has suggested that i attend and just not participate in activities like kris kringle.

Pete Zahut

I try my best to follow all of Jehovah's rules, but sometimes I just want to quit now because it becomes too overwhelming and difficult.

How do you know for sure whether the things they are telling you are"Jehovah's" rules or the rules made up but humans who started their own religion? You can prove just about anything if you know the right combination of scriptures to daisy chain together.

Deciding whether or not to be part of Christmas festivities at work is minor compared to the other things they'll want you to do. One of "Jehovah's rules" they'll expect you obey is to sacrifice your life or child's life (if you're a parent) should you have a medical emergency or surgery that requires a blood transfusion. My father died a horrible death in front of his 4 children and 5 grandchildren who were visiting him in a modern hospital full of professionals who were at the ready to save him. He died because he signed the Jehovah's Witness required "NO BLOOD TRANSFUSION" papers before having a surgery. Like you, he was only studying with the Witnesses at the time and the only thing he knew about blood transfusions was what he learned on his "Bible Study" with them. A couple of years later Jehovah's Witnesses changed "Jehovah's Rules" and decided it was ok to accept blood fractions but not whole blood. These fractions would have been enough to save my father.

Even though the elders told us that my Father will surely be resurrected in the "New System because he died upholding "Jehovah's Rules", they would not allow us (his JW family), to have his memorial service at the Kingdom Hall because he was "only studying" he wasn't a "Baptized member of the Congregation".

They used to say it was "Jehovah's rule" not to accept organ transplants or life saving vaccinations. Many JW children from years ago, contracted polio and other diseases because they were following "Jehovah's Rules" which were changed later when a newer generation of JW's realized the folly in these and other life altering beliefs that were in place at the time.

Funny how it is that " Jehovah's Rules" seems to always change along with whatever the current JW's believe.

10

JW gatherings

by Jules Saturn in

one of the things i don’t like about witness gatherings is the way everything you have to do or say has to be witness related.

the songs played at a party couldn’t be played if the lyrical content was “worldly”, and also hearing the same phrases.

a conversation about something in the news and someone will say “well, we’re living in the last days” or “we’re in this wicked system of things, everything is horrible”.

Pete Zahut

One of the things I don’t like about Witness gatherings is the way everything you have to do or say has to be Witness related.

....and if any kind of food was served, naturally there would the obligatory prayer said over it, as if were all in an "upper room" attending the "Last Supper".

11

stupid questions

by road to nowhere in

paragraph 4 today: "what are we gonna consider?

" maybe that is the article title?

the other is: "what will we consider next week?

Pete Zahut

"Today we are going to "consider" the study article in the October 1st Watchtower and by "consider", we mean that each and every one of us, is going to conclude, that the information presented is absolutely true."

10

"entitled" talks

by road to nowhere in

one thing that bugs the heck out of me is the exclusive use of entitled when offering the name of any talk or article.

can;t it ever be "on the subject of", named, titled, called, about or anything else.. i guess technically it is a correct usage, but entitled always (to me) means gives the idea of being in a special privelege, having a right to something or such..

Pete Zahut

Entitled means, to give a person or thing a title or to bestow a privilege or right of some kind.

The usage is correct but it does make it all seem more grand than it really is. No matter how mundane they might be, they refer to their meetings as "spiritual banquets" and "spiritual feasts" so it follows that they'd use the word "Entitled" to inflate the value of the talk to be given.

17

Bad experiences in waking someone up?

by Fred Flintstone in

i mean, is it advisable to try to wake a friend up?

what about the risk of he/she falling into depression?

anger?

Pete Zahut

Whether you're talking about waking up from literal sleep, or waking up from personal ignorance, both are best done gradually. Some people wake up swinging their fists if they are awakened too suddenly.

14

JW Baptism Anullment

by Farmer Jim1 in

jw
friends

has anyone ever successfully annulled their jw baptism?

especially if they were very young when baptised?.

Pete Zahut

No need to annul anything because a baptism is only as legit as you imagine it to be.

37

Convention “Highlights” - bwhahaha!

by Muddy Waters in

jw
friends

taking a walk down memory lane at those looooonnnnngg, tedious conventions... .

(boy, they weren’t kidding when they spoke about being long-suffering and having endurance!).

but what were some of your convention highlights, or lowlights, from back in the day?.

Pete Zahut

Speaking of Highlights..

Remember how there was always someone sitting nearby and you couldn't help but notice that almost their entire Bible was highlighted in yellow?

I always wondered if this was done to impress nosey people like me or were the comparatively few scriptures that were left un-highlighted, the ones that they considered noteworthy?