Posts by Pete Zahut

16

Why does it affect us so deeply?

by stuckinarut2 in

jw
friends

i was having a great chat with a valued friend and fellow forum member today on the phone.. we were discussing how deeply we all get affected by jw interactions - even years after fading or disassociating.. you know what i mean.

those days when we run into jws who we considered to be our close friends.

or "loving shepherds" who don't act kindly.

Pete Zahut

Being a Jehovah's Witness is part of our very DNA. It was like our arm or leg - integral to who we were as a very person! Not something that could easily be removed from us!

That which we believe to be true and knowledge we have gained (even if inaccurate) when held in place with emotion, is very deeply seated and hard to get rid of even when we know otherwise.

That is precisely why fear tactics (subtle or blatant) and heartfelt singing are often part of the tactics JW use when indoctrinating it's new converts and to keep existing in place.

9

I love this Quote

by stuckinarut2 in

.

Pete Zahut

"Truth Sounds Like Hate to those Who Hate The Truth"

That is precisely why Jehovah's Witnesses revel in the notion that they are universally hated for speaking what they call "The Truth of God's Word" even though most people don't even know who they are more often than not, the legal systems in most lands support them in their rights to preach.

37

Why are they announcing 2019 conventions so early?

by Richard_I in

jw
friends

i was just told there will be international conventions in canada in 2019. .

so i looked at jw.org and i see that there's a whole bunch of conventions now listed on the site for 2019.. isn't this odd?

normally we were told the location of conventions during the first week of january.. did they realize there was less in attendance in the 2018 conventions, and want to give ppl more time to make travel arrangements??

Pete Zahut

Zeb: Darknight 'parties and talent shows'...?

Darkknight: Yes we had to coordinate “entertainment” for these delegates the last time and they chose me to take the lead in this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QxDGtAsKFM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFddXZiPZgA

37

Why are they announcing 2019 conventions so early?

by Richard_I in

jw
friends

i was just told there will be international conventions in canada in 2019. .

so i looked at jw.org and i see that there's a whole bunch of conventions now listed on the site for 2019.. isn't this odd?

normally we were told the location of conventions during the first week of january.. did they realize there was less in attendance in the 2018 conventions, and want to give ppl more time to make travel arrangements??

Pete Zahut

The last International Assembly was back in 2014 and during the hoopla, spiritual fervor and the widespread rolling out of red carpets for international delegates, if anyone would have said out loud that this "system of things" would continue on until 2019 and there would be more International Assemblies taking place, they'd have been considered borderline apostate, spiritually weak or at the very least a negative spoil sport.

32

Remember the Wife of Lot

by Addison0998 in

for family worship last night, our family watched remember the wife of lot movie since it will be discussed in the meeting this week.

there’s a few things i noticed that i didn’t think about last time i watched it.. first, the dad is very of course against his daughters going to college or even trying to find a good job.

yet he does accounting, which is a very good job that almost always requires a college education.

Pete Zahut

Lots' wife was really worth her salt!
just saying!

And she was a "Pillar" of the community.

54

Explain why you are happy if you believe there is no afterlife vs when you joined JW's

by Bad_Wolf in

one thing that has intrigued me are so many who have left, who are wholly convinced everything in existence is merely by chance now, also claim they wouldn't want to live forever, and perfectly fine if this is the only life.

now, i would understand that if you were raised into the religion.

i was raised into it.

Pete Zahut

I came to the realization that most people don't necessarily want to live forever, they just don't want to die.

They are afraid of not knowing what will cause their death and not knowing what happens afterward. Not knowing has always been unpleasant for humans who are wired to preserve themselves alive and who are aware of their own mortality. In most cases, thinking about what "might happen" is worse than dealing with it in real time.

Having the promise that the world will end before you grow old and die, solves both of those problems. My very elderly JW mother in law is realizing that she probably won't live to see the end of the "system of things" and the promise of living forever is of little comfort to her. She just didn't want to grow old and die.

15

Nothing in life is stable as a Jehovah's Witness...

by silentbuddha in

at least in hindsight it would appear so.

i remember as a small kid not making friends because ultimately they were going to die.

i never saved anything because money would be useless in the new world.

Pete Zahut

How could anyone be stable after attending 3 indoctrination sessions a week where all the flaws of everyone else in the world are highlighted and everyone is preparing for a cataclysmic event that never occurred.

20

Satan temping Eve. Had she not ate

by pleaseresearch in

being the loving god that he is :).

how do you imagine this playing out.

let's say eve didn't eat and so we didn't fall into sin.. what do you think god would have done with satan and his demons?.

Pete Zahut

How do you imagine this playing out. Let's say Eve didn't eat and so we didn't fall into sin.

The whole story is nonsense from beginning to end but according to JW's the issue that Satan brought to the forefront was God's "universal sovereignty" and needing to prove to the myriads of angels that God had the right to rule.

Satan tempted Eve with the fruit but even if she refused, by his actions Satan had challenged Gods authority and even told Eve that she could be like God herself and would not die. When God eventually confronted Satan about this matter, Satan likely would have made the same challenge, that of being able to turn everyone away from God. If God destroyed Satan there and then, just as in the original story, it would have looked as if he was afraid of Satan. If "universal sovereignty" was the real issue, he'd have had to let Satan continue in order to give him time to prove himself without any interference.

The only way the human race would win out in this scenario is if Adam and Eve were able to have at least two perfect children before someone succumbed to Satan's devices.

14

The elephant on the street

by Normalfulla in

as a contractor i travel around for my job, i was stopped this morning to buy some milk at a store in a small village i guess and as i turned a corner i saw 2 elders i know personally manning a cart in the cold outside the store with not a soul in sight and an unlikely place for much traffic even though it was outside a country store.

1 elder is my brother in laws father and the other was in my old cong when i left, i said hello, talked about the weather and general chit chat and was my usual self, they were pleasant also but nothing was mentioned to me about anything spiritual etc.

i know they will be aware of some of my reasons for leaving (the few that i talked about initially before shutting my trap) but they were unwilling to engage in saving my life with their work!

Pete Zahut

Apart from a pathetic excuse for witnessing, I thought it odd that these guys can be pleasant to an obvious org deserter but others I. E family and friends act as I'm pretty much dead.

When JW's are manning those literature carts, they are not being their true selves rather they are merely actors playing a part they've often rehearsed for decades. They also feel particularly vulnerable and exposed while standing out there. Many times their backs are up against a literal wall . Standing against a building and watching the public pass by, they feel they are a spectacle, Even though no one notices them, they feel obligated to put on a happy face because they are representing the organization in public.

You had the upper hand over them as soon as you approached their cart. The dynamics would have been much different if they were on their home turf or in a situation that gave them the upper hand instead. Disciplining those who disagree with them is the only personal power they're allowed to exercise and they often revel in it.

114

The biggest news of the year for Mr. and Mrs. Totally ADD

by Still Totally ADD in

jw
friends

this is bigger than christmas and birthdays wrap into one.

thanks to the australian royal commission our youngest son has woke up.

we received a e-mail from him tonight where he apologized to us for shunning us all these years, how bad he felt for doing this.

Pete Zahut

I'm sure there are many many more who's eyes were opened by what was revealed during the ARC hearings. May this bring your family closer together and make up for all the time that was lost. Keep a close eye on your son though because typically there's a mourning period for those who loose a known way of life even if it was their choice to do so.

(You and your son may be interested to see this news article I saw this headline yesterday.)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-44672442