Posts by Pete Zahut

76

Hi, all...I'm a faithful JW who is sick of lies about us

by James Donalds in

i was baptized 30 years ago and have been in the faith for over 35 years.. our organization isn't perfect.

but i'm sick to death of seeing stereotypes about us.

we are not mindless automatons.

Pete Zahut

We are NOT mindless automatons. I smoke an occasional cigar. I've been known to curse a bit. Hell, I even vote. Others in my congregation know all this (except the voting) and I've never been given a hard time about it. Many of us ARE highly educated. I have a Masters Degree.We are not all scraping to get by. I have a comfortable six-figure income

You forgot to mention that even though you admire the governing body, you disregarded their admonition to avoid higher education. If you met them in person you'd probably also hide the fact that you smoke the occasional cigar and visit apostate websites and post comments there as well.

I don't think JW's are mindless drones at all. The problem I have is that most of them are like you. They know on some level that what they believe isn't altogether true or provable so they reconcile this reality with the real world by making an appearance of listening and obeying while secretly picking and choosing which of the governing body admonitions they are going to completely disregard. While doing this, they readily shun former JW's who are actually honest about who they are and the lives they want to lead. This includes cutting ties with close friends and family members who were disciplined for doing the exact same things you have done but they chose to admit that they disagree with the governing Body's direction on certain matters rather than hide it.

Rather than just go away and go their separate ways, they harrass us, make videos maligning us, endlessly whine about us and even go so far as to disrupt our meetings. If I decided to leave the JW's, I'd do just that. I wouldn't obsess over them.

Most former JW's would love noting more than to go away but they've lost their entire family and support system to the religion. They are hoping to salvage what they can of their lives by alerting others to the things they now know about the organization.

12

The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

the most unforgettable man i ever met(by telly walstrom).

this man was a walking contradiction.

he violated every sensible rule of human interaction which might lead to success--especially as a salesman.unthinkable!preposterous!now here is what you must know.philip moh was ugly to look at.

Pete Zahut

People want to believe good things about themselves. My job is to help them believe the best possible thing. A person who pays money month after month for life insurance gets nothing for all their payments. They must be dead for anything to happen! What kind of person buys something like that? I explain. Only a hero does that! A selfless person who truly LOVES others does that. It takes a great person with a great heart to reach out and help their loved ones even after they are dead. If you want to be remembered forever as that kind of hero by your wife and kids--I am there to help them. That is my job. Their job is to become that hero.”

Was he appealing to people's good heartedness or their narcissism ?

If their motivation for buying Life Insurance was make themselves appear as a hero in the eyes of others even after they're gone, it could be that narcissism was the motivating factor. Narcissists believe they are the center of the universe and are greatly motivated by what others think of them.

If the motivation to join a religion is because you've been convinced that not only do you get to think of your self as a do-gooder, but you'll get to live on and on forever, it could be that the narcissistic part of your personality is at play.

It seems to me most people claim they love god, love goodness and their fellow man but in reality, they are more concerned with appearing virtuous and righteous in the eyes of their peers, saving their own skins from some sort of punishment and possibly living forever. After all, it would be a shame for the world to loose someone as wonderful as me, how could the world go on forever and ever without me in it.?

I think religions and sales people know how to tap into the narcissistic part of all of us.

9

Question

by poopie in

jw
friends

if i text my disfelowshupp daughter and it's a normal text do i go to gehenna?.

Pete Zahut

If I text my Disfelowshupp daughter and it's a normal text do I go to gehenna?

Not unless you text her immediately after you've visited an apostate website.

37

You Just Can't Make This S--t Up!

by FedUpJW in

i know this is kind of trivial but i don’t want to partake in something that might have connections with something that jehovah disapproves of.

i checked the watchtower library and i didn’t find anything on gingerbread man cookies.. .

good lord...how incredibly stupid and helpless are jdubs getting?

Pete Zahut

When my kids were in Kindergarten my wife had a few of the little ones from the Hall over for a little kids party at our house.

One of the activities she planned was to make Gingerbread Houses. Everything went well until one Sister arrived with her child and was utterly horrified to see all the little JW kids going to town on their little houses.

From her reaction, you'd have thought they were bowing down to Satan himself. Her argument was that making Gingerbread men and Gingerbread houses was a Christmas activity so it was Pagan. The other mothers were perplexed as to what to do but my wife told her that she was free to go if that's how she felt.

The sister left and later went to the elders, but nothing more came of it. Flash forward about 3 years, this same sister left her husband and 2 kids for some guy she hooked up with on the internet. She ruined the family and the husbands finances. A few years later we heard that the guy she hooked up with, wanted to get involved with "wife swapping". She couldn't tolerate that so she left him and wanted her original life back but her former husband had already remarried an Non JW and her non-gingerbread eating kids didn't want anything to do with her.

Anyway.....the point is that these people who nit-pick over these inconsequential matters are typically one step away from doing something majorly wrong themselves. They are usually heavily involved in some sort of self delusion in order to reconcile the real world and imaginary world they are straddling.

28

So here is my long winded story....

by GTSfromSY in

thanks for the warm greetings all.

wow!

i am very moved, really.

Pete Zahut

So what I did, I looked up facts and reviews on The "Creation book" and found an essay that someone wrote to Bethel back in the day about every point, page per page, wrong with the creation book. Maybe some of you remember it.

Great story...thanks for sharing. Do you have a link to that essay on the "Creation Book"?

35

The wife told me I think too much...

by James Mixon in

jw
friends

please tell me how not to think too much and get a good night sleep.

when i was a jw i didn't think too much because i knew everything, but now my mind works overtime.

how in the hell can i shut it down and stop the anxiety???

Pete Zahut

This will probably sound too simplistic to be of any help to you but give it a try anyway and you'll be surprised at how effective it is.

Write down and memorize 10 positive affirmations and when you notice that you're caught up in unwanted thoughts, repeat your affirmations over and over silently or out loud, until the unwanted thoughts you are having, are crowded out of your mind.

At first the unwanted thoughts will creep back as your repeat your affirmations but if you gently push them aside and continue with your "mantra", you'll find that in time, you will have overcome the bad habit of letting your thoughts snowball as if they have a will of their own. You will be able to switch channels in your mind, any time you want which is a useful tool to possess.

You need to have a "head full of peace" at bed time, so instead of mulling the days events over in your mind when you lay your head on your pillow, simply repeat your affirmations over and over. If you are like me, you'll doze off to sleep instead of rehashing things that can be dealt with at a more appropriate time.

Examples:

I am calm and at peace
I am in control of my thoughts and emotions
I choose to dwell on peaceful and uplifting thoughts
My life is not an emergency
I am a strong and capable person
I live one day at a time
My body is relaxed and tranquil
I do the best I can each day
I am happy and healthy
My mind is at peace

Your affirmations should be relevant to your life, be said in the present tense and spoken as if they are so, even if they aren't necessarily true at the moment.

60

2017 Service Year Report Grand Totals

by Drearyweather in

jw
friends

2017 figures released to bethel families worldwide:.

peak publishers: 8,457,107. total baptized: 284,212 .

regular pioneers: 1,225,279 .

Pete Zahut

The increase in pioneers is probably due to the cart witnessing. It's nothing now to spend 3-4 hours in service standing around.

The carts have been around for a while now and I suspect we are seeing that more JW's are getting used to the idea of using them. Those who may have been intimidated by Pioneering in the past because of face to face encounters and the amount of knowledge they might be expected to convey in the door to door work, may see the carts as a more doable alternative. The carts I've seen are typically manned by 2 people and there are usually 2 carts near each other. That's 4 people (possibly all pioneering) and counting time standing in the same spot and being seen by virtually the same passers by.

I've also noticed that there's a lot of older ones doing the cart work and especially and increase in older men who are standing by the carts. I'm getting the idea that the "baby boomers" are retiring and Pioneering with the literature carts, is an easy way to go about it. It may be more affordable for them rather than driving a vehicle around all day.

15

Bitcoins: A new world without green backs.

by Fisherman in

jw
friends

the us army backs up the green back and saudi's oil must be paid in dollars so that every nation that uses oil must buy money from the us to pay for oil.. is it advantageous to print money or is digital money the upcoming economy?.

also, are bitcoins legal?

i read that market for them is soaring.

Pete Zahut

And sorry you didn't get in but I'm doing pretty good since I sold my bitcoins bought in 2015 at $300 a bitcoin and sold this year.

When you sell your Bitcoin, how are you paid ?

In regular currency or do they somehow transfer it's worth to a regular bank?

Is there some sort of exchange rate?

35

Professions in the Paradise

by The Real Edward Gentry in

jw
friends

we know there will be no money in paradise.

but there will almost certainly be jobs to do.

we will be perfect at our jobs but that doesn't mean we will be perfect at every job.

Pete Zahut

...and since we're speculating...

We will all be perfect so naturally, each of us will be good singers and will be able to learn any musical instrument or invent new ones. There will be no more sad "cryin' in your beer" songs, every song will have a happy ending.

Everyone will be special and no one will stand out as more interesting or talented than anyone else. Every perfect person will be able to build a home made of the perfect materials that have been produced perfectly so there won't be any need for repair and maintenance of anything. We'll figure out a solution for every problem with our perfect minds.

When we walk through a grove of Coconut palms and a coconut falls on our head, there won't be any pain. If we happened to notice there has been an injury to our skull, we'll know just what to do and no matter how severely our skull has been cracked, it will immediately heal back to perfection.

The animals will be peaceful and when our favorite pet Lion or pet Dolphin succumbs to the ravages of old age, suffers and eventually dies, we won't shed a single tear because crying is a thing of the past. We'll simply dispose of it's body and just get a new one.

Language will be the same all over the world so one will have an interesting accent or a unique colorful way of phrasing things. When we visit other lands, we'll feel right at home because everyone everywhere is in unison and we all do things the same way. We will all be in agreement about everything at all times so eventually, we won't even have to speak to each other because everyone will have said all there is to say.

Won't it be nice....I can't wait.

19

The Judge on Trial: Uncovering the Real J F Rutherford [Part 1]

by pomo6780 in

enough rhetoric for now, here is my promised first part to my series.. for the benefit of lurkers, i'm using mainly wt publications as my research to show this information isn't 'apostate'.

part 1: association with russell and the bible students.

i want to ask an honest question.

Pete Zahut

The link below is to an article from the 1918 Brooklyn Daily Eagle that some might find interesting. It paints a much different picture of the early years of the movement, than what we were presented with.

You have to scroll forward to follow the article as it continues on other pages through the newspaper.

https://bklyn.newspapers.com/image/55300002/?terms=russell