Posts by Pete Zahut

24

Latest Circuit Assembly Money Assault!

by eyeuse2badub in

probably not new to many of you but i'm gonna post it anyway!.

i went to a circuit assembly last week at the fremont, ca assembly hall in fremont, ca to be with my wife so she could be there to 'witness' the baptism of a person she "studied" with about 2 decades ago!.

at the main entry to the assembly hall there are 3 or 4 large double door entrances.

Pete Zahut

In addition there were 2 ATM's also located in the foyer with a sister posted at each of the ATM's.

Why would they need a sister posted at an ATM?? Is she there to make them feel as if someone is seeing how much they donate or if they are pretending to donate? Maybe she's there to collect PIN numbers LOL !

I remember when the idea was that when you'd make a contribution, you wouldn't want to be conspicuous about it. I can't imagine standing in the foyer of an assembly hall and using an ATM. I imagine there are those who like being seen standing at the ATM. I wonder of you can make a withdrawal?

15

How can a building dedicated to God, be sold?

by krismalone in

i was just wondering this morning about all the kingdom halls and branches being sold to "babylon the great" and other businesses.

every single kingdom hall and bethel branch that has been sold was "dedicated to jehovah" by the watchtower corporation.

a special meeting with a guest speaker gives a talk and then offers a prayer dedicating the building to yhwh.

Pete Zahut

Just because they decided to dedicate a building to Jehovah, doesn't mean it ever was or that he accepted it or even exists for that matter. Nothing they've ever said or done is true or real so why should this be any different?

14

Has leaving made you racist

by Steel in

so i use to go this hall that was basically 100 percent white and basically anyone under the age of 40 has either faded or makes a token effort to keep the peace at home, of course outside of the usual dregs of society .

the hall went from two congs to one and i was quite happy that in ten years they would be lights out.

then in the last two years about six young filipino families have moved in and three of them are newly baptized .

Pete Zahut

I feel like a horrible person for thinking like this.

It was your mother's theory not yours. If you feel horrible about it....quit thinking that way.

Poor pre-natal care can cause all sorts of problems including learning issues. I think that rather than because of intelligence issues, the reason you're seeing so many folks from these areas is because they are often easily impressed or taken in by all things western. When you get to know them, they often don't fully "get" what the religion is really about. Because of cultural differences, they don't see it the same way as someone from the west does. When it comes to religion, they seem to gloss over the hard realities of the doctrines they believe in and are more interested in the routine and rituals that make them feel safe and gives them sense of belonging that comes with associating with a group of people. They are usually much more flexible about things than a JW from the west, JW's have a prepackaged program that makes it easy for new ones to belong, which is nice but it doesn't mean they have the ultimate truth or are the one true religion and that anyone who doesn't join them is and enemy of god and a follower of satan, as they claim.

8

I watched the movie "Two Popes" today ,Netflix.

by smiddy3 in

and i thouroughly enjoyed it ,i almost got to the stage of wanting to become a catholic.

it was a joy to watch the two main actors in dialogue and banter with each other..... and i`m an atheist ?.

pope benedict & pope francis.

Pete Zahut

And I thoroughly enjoyed it ,I almost got to the stage of wanting to become a Catholic.

Francis and Benedict had vastly different ideas on the way the church should go.

Perhaps they disagreed upon the policy of their corpses being put on display for the public for a few decades after they died. I toured Vatican City and St Peter's Basilica a few months ago and although impressive, as bad as the GB is and how blindly JW's follow them, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if they dug up Charles Taze Russel and put him on display at the new HQ in New York. Would people flock to take pictures and kiss his glass tomb. It was pretty weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx4cfcMGkHE

7

Police and Fire Department Officials in Guatemala Benefit From Bible-Based Workshops

by TheFadingAlbatros in

https://www.jw.org/en/news/jw/region/guatemala/police-and-fire-department-officials-in-guatemala-benefit-from-bible-based-workshops/.

i am surprised that a government authority is calling on a religious organization to give their police and fire department officials instructions to behave in a better way with the guatemalan population.

the organization of jehovah's witnesses is well known to separate families (shunning) and have in the past protected numerous pedophiles within their organization ( maybe they are still doing it now somewhere in secret, who knows ?

Pete Zahut

There must be more to this...there usually is. I'm guessing a JW is employed with the Police Dept. or the local Police know the JW's because they are on the street and were offered free instruction. Perhaps the Police department wanted to know more about these people since they encounter them so often on their beat.

I'm not sure how the JW's will get around to telling the Police that they are employed by a government run by Satan and now that they've heard the message, they're all going to die soon if they don't become JW's.

Law enforcement personnel need instruction from highly trained professionals who have thoroughly examined the complexities of law enforcement rather than the simplistic answers they'll get from any JW publication. It's all very well to teach the Police to be nice and kindly but the criminals they are encountering aren't playing by the same rules and they need to know how to deal with them from both a legal and psychological standpoint.

12

Help with my novel I'm writing

by pimonotforlong in

i don't know if i'm submitting this under the proper subject area, but i had a question i was wondering if anyone had any expertise on.. i'm writing a ya novel inspired by my experiences growing up and being a teenager as a jehovah's witness.

it is a fictional story though.

however, my critiquing beta readers are torn between whether i should make it the actual jw religion in the book, or if i should make a fictional religion based on the jws.

Pete Zahut

Oh if only there were a place we could go to go for answers. LOL !

You'd definitely need to consult an attorney but I'm guessing some sort of disclaimer at the beginning would be necessary.

Or maybe you could just name the religion in your story something suspiciously close to Jehovah's Witnesses.

Yahweh's Chosen Witnesses

Armageddon Watchers

Witnesses of his holiness

Watchtower's Witnesses

Latter Day Witnesses

17

Just a moan - regarding the latest trend in ignorance of the English language!

by The Fall Guy in

jw
friends

in recent months i have noticed more and more people on the net (including here) are using this latest perversion of the english language -.

"i would of done this..........or he would of tried to change things".

it's would've - short for would have!.

Pete Zahut

The one I hate is when people don't pronounce the T or D sounds in certain words or the N'T sound when using a contraction such as wouldn't or didn't. This seems to be mostly done by young women.

The word WOULDN'T becomes WUH'-ENT and the word DIDN'T becomes DI'- ENT

Even in the JW Caleb and Sophia video where the repeatedly mother say's Say'-en instead of Satan.

The word OFTEN becomes OFFEN. I offen go out in field service but this week I di'-ent. I wood-a, but Sa'-en the devil woo'-ent let me.

19

Who's Happy To Go Abroad and Drive on the Other Side?

by snugglebunny in

jw
friends

i do it most years.

being in the uk, virtually every other country nearby drives on the right.

we drive on the left.

Pete Zahut

I live in the U.S but have driven in the UK, Ireland, Wales and Australia. The difficulty I noticed is that when crossing the street on foot or driving, I was in the habit of looking left first rather than to the right and wanting to go right into a roundabout rather than left, which can be disastrous.

In Brisbane Australia a few minutes after renting a car we were in a pretty bad accident when an 84 year old man came out Into traffic from a parking lot and hit us and then went up onto a sidewalk and knocked down the supports for the overhanging roof of a store, which came crashing down. I automatically assumed the accident was my fault since I didn't feel sure of myself yet. The Police came but I wasn't ticketed and thankfully there were no injuries. I had to pay for the damages of my rental car upfront before I could leave the country. Later when I got home, the other drivers insurance Co. tried to make me pay for the damages to his car which was totaled. I viewed the intersection on Google Earth and determined that there was no way I could have been at fault. Since I wasn't ticketed and since they couldn't give me any proof that I was at fault, they stopped pestering me. After that narrow escape, we took the train everywhere and did the same in Europe this past summer.

I think that's what I will do from now on....a lot cheaper and less stressful.

71

If You Had The Choice To Live Anywhere In The World or Any State Where Would You Be?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i do like the usa but winters suck!

florida has some charm but it gets brutal with heat and humidity.

california is too looney.

Pete Zahut

I'm thinking of selling our family home for something smaller and easier to maintain and staying here in Seattle from June through November and the rest of the time possibly in West Palm Beach area of Florida in a condo that has a small patch of grass or patio or a small house with a small yard and pool.

The summers here in Seattle are very comfortable and the area is beautiful with lots of outdoor things to do. I like winter (skiing, sitting by the fire etc) but the winters here tend to get a bit too grey. I retired early and don't want to spend the whole winter looking out at the rain. The trouble too is that we have 2 little granddaughters and a grandson on the way so we don't want to miss out on being with them. So wherever we go, we'd probably fly or drive back here to see them once a month.

I bought a new Ford Transit Van and have insulated it and finished off the inside as a camper and before making a final decision about Florida, we plan to do road trips south to explore areas where we might want to live during the winter.

43

Did You Know Any "Genuine"" Old School Anointed?

by Number 6 in

growing up in scotland in the 1970s in scotland the anointed were few and far between, but we had one old dude in our cong who claimed to be one of the anointed.

in the days when it was taken seriously.. i'd be curious how you viewed them.

thing is, he wasn't an elder, or even a ministerial servant, just a plain old publisher.. but he was revered like he had a hotline to jesus.. the other week i was talking to a friend of similar age to me but who hung around the wt a lot longer than i did, and he just commented "oh him... he was a doddery old fool who used to just sit and piss himself.

Pete Zahut

Growing up in the 70's there were a few of what I thought of as legit members of the anointed class.

Two of them were sisters and one was a brother.

There were a lot of JW's at the time who sold their homes and bought mobile homes and they moved into a mobile home park across from our Kingdom Hall so they could hunker down and wait out the end of the "system of things".

The two anointed sisters lived side by side with their husbands and family in double wide trailers and were pioneering. Neither knew how to drive so being across from the Hall meant they could walk over there for meetings and service. Both sisters were married, one of them was elderly and always wore a turban. (as a kid I used to think she didn't have time to dry her hair before the meeting and had it wrapped in a towel LOL!) She was married to an elder and everyone spoke of her in hushed tones and the hall would grow quiet whenever she would answer at the watchtower study. Years later when she finally died, her obituary said that she was once a palm reader before becoming one of Jehovah's Witness. (This somewhat explained why she always wore a turban LOL! ).

The other anointed sister was married before becoming a JW and had 3 teens who were holy terrors. Her husband was opposed and used to look into the windows of the Kingdom Hall at night to see what she was up to in there. Her kids came along reluctantly but progressed. The son gave his first talk while high on Mescaline he had purchased behind a pet shop in the city (he told me this years later). Eventually this sister convinced her husband to study and get baptized but as time went on, this she got the "heavenly calling" and began partaking of the emblems. Her husband was genuinely pissed because this meant that she had gotten him to believe that he was going to live forever in paradise but now because of this anointed business, she wouldn't be there.

The older anointed brother that attended our Hall was a bit of a country bumpkin and would give the Memorial talk each year. When looking up scriptures he'd use such expressions such as "Lookie' here at what da' Bible say at Luke 22...". His talks were ploddingly slow and confusing and if you weren't already familiar with JW teachings, you'd be thoroughly confused. I saw many a "visitor" scratching their heads in confusion during his talks.

When our boys were babies, I took evening classes at the local community college. The classes were sometimes on Tuesday which meant that I couldn't attend the book study. This anointed brother came over and told me that end was so close that the book study was our lifeline and a college education was a waste of time and that I was putting my spiritual welfare in jeopardy. He asked me how I'd like the idea of some other man raising my boys and being married to my wife in the new system instead of me. I wanted to throw him out of my house but he was of the "anointed" so he too was special for that to happen.

That was 30 years ago, my boys are grown, have college degrees and children of their own and I retired early with a pension. That anointed brother has been gone for at least 15 years . Armageddon didn't come and there is no longer even a "book study". His much younger mail order asian wife is married to another man. Jokes on him I guess.