Posts by Pete Zahut

39

When you were an active JW, did you ever have dealings with a pyramid scheme?

by Tameria2001 in

i'm not sure why this memory popped up, and i was wondering if any others, when they were still active jw had dealings with a pyramid scheme involving other witnesses in the organization?

at the time it was 1993, and my husband and i were still newlyweds.

once in a while, we would attend a neighboring congregation because that was where he grew up, and some of his family was still attending there at the time.

Pete Zahut

Over the years I must have encountered all of the different angles JW's got involved with to get rich quick in the guise of wanting to make enough money to pioneer or ride out this wicked system of things.

The use of anecdotal stories rather than data was the norm but the biggest red flag for me was when being part of the selling of the product was more important than the product itself. The next giveaway was when they used expressions such as "we're really excited about this product", "Double blind studies have shown", "third party independent testing proves..."

I remember there was there was one product called Nikken and they sold magnetic headbands for migraine headaches and expensive mattress toppers for insomnia.

There was also one called "Super Blue Green Algae". This was literally pond scum that was supposed to not only make your rich but cure all of your ills and make you smarter to boot.

Oh well...scammers gotta' eat too I suppose.

6

Wisdom Needed

by Solzhenitsyn in

2 things.

from your experience would you say that capitulation (going along with) and/or enforcement of all the ridiculous rules and sub-minutia (stupid crap: beards, wash the car for sat svc, no tight pants, paint the kh with a 2" brush vs. a 4" brush cause the boe says so) rules are primarily made possible or facilitated by the friendships that are maintained within the borg?

also, would you say you saw yourself as part of the power structure or subject to it?.

Pete Zahut

That which we learn or come to believe with deep emotion, is very difficult to change or unlearn.

The JW religion and others reach you at an emotional level with what is thought to be kindness and love but the kindness and love is actually fear and shame based. They sing belief based songs intentionally designed to stir the heartstrings and further entrench you.

Strong emotions will almost always override hard evidence even when it's right in our faces .They convince you that they are chosen by God(which is unprovable). Once you buy into that concept they lovingly and subtly lead you to believe that if you don't give yourself over to their beliefs, you'll be not only an utter disappointment to everyone you know and care about but you'll eventually be put to death by God.

No normal person wants to die or be badly thought of or be considered a disappointment by their families, friends or those around them. Humans are hard wired to survive, to preserve their own lives and to be part of a group or society. The JW religion and others dwell on topics that keep those fears at the forefront and they cash in on the basic human instinct of survival. One is constantly reminded of their own mortality and of the fact that abandonment by the group is a real possibility if one doesn't comply.

The best way I know to rid yourself of the JW residue causing you so much consternation is thoroughly prove to yourself through research that their history is full of damning evidence, their teachings are not at all accurate and their claim of being the one and only true religion are not only unfounded but unprovable.

20

Russia Confiscates $30.4 Million Property From Jehovah's Witnesses

by Room 215 in

https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/russia-confiscates-30-4-million-property-jehovahs-witnesses.

it would appear that with this most recent confiscation the total taken from the jws by moscow amounts to more that $75 million.

(ouch!

Pete Zahut

This is theft, unlawful seizure inextricably linked to multiple raids, arrests, tortures etc. I don't understand how anybody having principles other than "I hate Watchtower" can glorify it.

I feel the same way but one has to remember that much of what is happening to them because they refuse to comply by the law of the land. It's my understanding that the JW's weren't the only religion singled out but other groups like the LDS/Mormons complied with the government and continue to operate much as the always did while JW's are having their properties confiscated and enjoying playing the martyr card.

In the past, the Governing Body caused unnecessary hardship beatings and even the death of their followers by taking what they called "A Stand" for Jehovah over the purchasing political cards and refusing alternative options to national draft requirements while they themselves lived safely in the lap of luxury back in New York. They told a one sided skewed version of the story to their followers to make themselves look like courageous martyrs.

15

Dubtown episode - melch’s week from hell

by Dubtown in

new dubtown episode.

poor melch cant take part in anything in high school.

https://youtu.be/egcegptsn00.

Pete Zahut

Well done and humorous as always. Such detail....where do you get all the Lego pieces that fit the specifics of your story? Interesting info on the blood fractions. Hadn't thought of that particular angle.

41

Do You Take Any Special Vitamins or Meds That You Would Recommend?

by minimus in

jw
friends

as we get older , we tend to feel the aches and pains or some tiredness like never before.. i have some friends who are in excellent condition and i’ve asked what their secret was.. some swear by cbd oil as a cure all for aches and localized pain.

greek yogurt is a natural food that can attack gut fat as does taking probiotics.

have you found anything that makes you more energized?

Pete Zahut

As far as vitamins, I take a multivitamin and a vitamin called "Weider Prime Testosterone Support for Men". I can't tell if the Multivitamin does anything but I know the latter does for sure. It's a bit spendy even at Costco but it's worth it.

I know this won't sound like anything most people would like but I eat steel cut oats every morning with raisins, walnuts and a little flax seed sprinkled in and non fat milk poured over it. I don't add any sugar because the raisins make it sweet.

The thing is, I want to watch my cholesterol but I also need protein in the morning so for the past 7 months or so I've been adding egg whites (pasteurized, from a carton) to the oatmeal once I've added the milk raisins and nuts etc.

In the past, the thought of eating raw egg whites would have made me queasy but they are virtually undetectable in any way and a bowl full of this oatmeal mixture keeps me going all morning even after going to the gym and I don't get the unexplainable mid morning fatigue I used to get.

I also add the egg whites to Kombucha and drink that once or twice a day if I feel like it.

The other odd thing I do is eat a handful of raw baby spinach and a few chunks of cooked chicken throughout the day and it keeps me from getting hungry. It's quick easy and inexpensive and it keeps me from snacking on things I'd regret. I'm 5'11, weigh 178 and have a 32" waist so I think what I've been doing, works.

32

The phrase "one of Jehovah's Witnesses"

by Ding in

jws don't say, "i am a jehovah's witness.".

instead, they say, "i am one of jehovah's witnesses.".

what does the second way of saying it convey that the first does not?.

Pete Zahut

Other religions can say I’m a Catholic, I’m at Presbyterian, I’m a Mormon because they are part of a religious denomination that has a name derived from its origin. To follow that pattern JWs would have to call themselves Jehovites or Russellites or something similar. It would make no sense for a Catholic to say “ I’m one of Catholics”.

The apostrophe after Jehovah in Jehovah’s Witnesses indicates belonging to Jehovah and who they are witnessing for and witnessing for him was their primary function back when the name was first introduced.

22

This Is It...

by JW_Rogue in

just finished watching the talk by tony morris on john cedars channel.

sounded to me that he was hedging his bets.

on the one hand he says "this is it" and out of the other he says prophecies are best understood after they are fulfilled.

Pete Zahut

What stood out to me was the way they kept dragging things out to make it seem as if there was some big revelation to come at the end of the program. It was if they were trying to keep people on the edge of their seat. Stephen Left even told them to hold off going to the bathroom lest they miss out on what was coming.

In the end, they pretty much said " yes, isn't it exciting? This is it but it doesn't necessarily mean anything right now". The audience seemed to be quite ready to giggle at the most feeble attempts at silly humor on the part of the G.B. even though they were talking about something that was of earth wide significance to mankind.

I thought it was odd when David Splane began speaking to the audience, he started off by saying that he was there to cheer them up after all the bad news they had heard in the previous talks. I thought the nearness of "The End" was supposed to be good news because it meant that the end of wickedness and mankind suffering was at hand. After all, isn't going from door to door supposed to be about delivering the Good News of Gods Kingdom to the world.

The whole thing was further evidence to me that these folks have become even more out of touch with reality than they were when I was attending 10 years ago.

21

Is this how you saw your Armageddon? I sure did :(

by Diogenesister in

i think most of our imaginations of the new world was probably nothing like the watchtower reality.

after all, we jws are very good at avoiding uncomfortable truths!

you can tell micheal jackson was a certain type of jehovahs witness.

Pete Zahut

I think most JW's have vague abstract notions about Armageddon, Paradise and what living forever would be like. I think the main concern for them is not growing old and dying and or not being destroyed at Armageddon. I don't think they think about it in any real detail, they just fill in the blanks with whatever soothes their own personal fears and makes them stop thinking about reality in general...especially the reality of what they say they believe. On some level they know that thinking about it too much will be the death of the magical illusion that keeps them buoyed psychologically.

For me, I was more concerned about the "GREAT TRIBULATION" and how I could possibly remain "faithful" while being tortured, which we were assured would happen. One of my big childhood fears was that during the tribulation "THEY" would threaten to injure my little sisters if I didn't "renounce my faith. How could a 10 year old boy possibly stand firm while witnessing his little sisters being tortured and why would anyone care if I lied and said I didn't believe in Jehovah anymore, just to keep save them. Then I'd hear them talk about Shadrach Meshach and Abednego the Hebrew boys who stood firm and were thrown into the fiery furnace. I always wondered what happened to them after that. Surely they went on to live noteworthy lives after having survived being thrown into a furnace. What was this furnace for and how come those boys were never mentioned again in the Bible. Was that the highlight of their life?

Anyway, I figured that if I could get through the TRIBULATION, the rest was up to Jehovah and there was nothing I could do about that part of it. I only hoped that I wouldn't die from being tortured or at the hand of Jehovah at Armageddon because not only would it be really painful but it would also mean I could never get married and have a family. This was a pretty sick way for a child to grow up but that's how it was and there's nothing I can do to undo the damage it has caused me.

20

36 years old today!

by Joliette in

jw
friends

can't believe how fast time has gone by.

my mom taught me that the world was gonna end by the time i was 25..

Pete Zahut

My mom taught me that the world was gonna end by the time I was 25.

That would have been in the year 2008. How did she come up with that date and what does she say now that 11 years has gone by since then?

23

My Bible Study Conductor's Letter to Me

by ohnightdivine in

jw
friends

recently, i wrote a sister, my bible study conductor, an email just telling her that i thought of her, and i thanked her for being a part of some milestones in my life many many years ago.

(for those who are reading my post for the first time, i was a very impressionable teenager at that time and i had the chance to live in their country for a while, spent much time with her, got to know her way of living, and essentially she became my life's mentor.

closer to me than family.

Pete Zahut

I disagree with some who have said that Friendship and or Love is unconditional. We all place conditions, large and small, on our friends and loved ones. If I had a friend or loved one who became disagreeable, or was late or didn't show up most of the time, became a slob, wasn't honest or who started doing things or supporting something I though was wrong, I might choose not to associate with him anymore until he changed.

Your friend wants you to be what she wants you to be. You knew her via the JW's and she wants you to be like you were back then, however you have grown up and are not the idealistic and easily impressed 19 year old you once were and that's normal, you're not supposed to be.

She has every right to place her own conditions on her side of the friendship but you don't have to buy into the idea that just because this woman that you're viewing with your 19 year old eyes doesn't agree with your choices, you re the problem in this situation.

I think her letter was condescending, manipulative and full of those odd JW catch phrases designed to make the user (her) sound and feel as if they are on a higher more virtuous plane than the the recipient (you). She liked you better back in the day when using them on you had the desired effect.