Pete Zahut

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Posts by Pete Zahut

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  10

  Results of the 2018 Global Survey of Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Unstuck in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it's long overdue, i know, and i apologise profusely but it's tough working full-time and trying to spend time on all the ex-jw work that i want to do...... that said - here are the 2018 survey results for anyone interested and i am already working on the 2019 results.

  also, i'm tweaking the survey for the 2020 release which will be soon..... hugs to all!.

  sherrie d'souza (aka unstuck!).

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  Pete Zahut

  https://jwsurvey.org/general-information/results-of-the-2018-global-survey-of-jehovahs-witnesses
  
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  24

  Bringing Reproach on Jehovah's Name

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  all my jw life i was reminded constantly about the importance of not bringing reproach on jehovah's name.

  decisions on whether or not to disfellowship an individual often turned, not on the seriousness of the sin, but on whether the incident was public knowledge and had resulted in bad publicity for the congregation.

  i recall a middle-aged lady being reported to the elders for shoplifting a sweet worth less than £1- and the elders' insistence that a judicial committee must be formed because the store manager and staff knew that she was a jw (i successfully argued that all she needed was support for her dreadful family life, but that's another story).

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  Pete Zahut

  In view of all the bad P.R they're getting, I'm sure there are many many JW's in Australia who are very glad that the preaching work has been put on hold for Covid 19. Can you imagine what sitting ducks they'd be if they were to stand on a sidewalk with a cart or go from door right now?
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  21

  Have You Lost Any “Friends” Because Of Your Political Views?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have lost a couple of fb friends.

  i have had conversations with many of my friends regarding politics and since we generally view politics in the same way, there is little dissension.

  however i do have some friends that don’t see things properly, my way, and i still like them.🤗lol....i know of some families that have stopped talking to each other because of something as stupid as political differences..

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  Pete Zahut

  Does that mean, with all due respect, that only those who don't view things your way are not viewing things "properly?
  

  You must not have seen the smiling emoji he used, indicating that he was being facetious.

  Perfect people like me saw the emoji and knew that he was only kidding. (that's me being facetious)
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  21

  Have You Lost Any “Friends” Because Of Your Political Views?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have lost a couple of fb friends.

  i have had conversations with many of my friends regarding politics and since we generally view politics in the same way, there is little dissension.

  however i do have some friends that don’t see things properly, my way, and i still like them.🤗lol....i know of some families that have stopped talking to each other because of something as stupid as political differences..

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  Pete Zahut

  The other day my Son's very privileged mix race (white/asian) girlfriend (former JW) made yet another post on her Facebook/Instagram about BLM and "White Privilege" and this one was particularly unfair and almost propaganda like. It was meant to prove "white privilege" by showing silly photos of of white people on sidewalks holding up picket signs pleading for more toilet paper and demanding that strip clubs, hair salons, gun ranges, golf courses and massage parlors be opened up. Then it showed photos of very concerned and earnest looking black people holding up blood stained picket signs demanding justice and pleading for the police not to kill their sons etc. I felt this was an unfair comparison and the photos were blatantly biased and not helpful to anyone.

  I had already had enough of the whole topic a couple of weeks ago and stopped listening to the news because I was starting to feel depressed and anxious. While my wife was at work, I began "snoozing" from our Facebook and Instagram accounts the posts of anyone we know who was making any kind of political/ racial/ negative posts or comments and this included my sons girlfriend. My wife was unaware of what I'd done, and a few hours later, the girlfriend sent us a scathing group text message. Up to this point she always seemed to adore my wife and I and turned to us like a second parents. She demanded to know why she had been blocked and why we wouldn't allow her to have her own opinions. My wife who was unaware of what I had done, said there must have been some mistake or maybe our account got hacked. The girlfriend as much as said she was lying and said that we said we were unbelievably ridiculous and narrow-minded etc.

  Earlier, I heard my phone ping but didn't check my messages for about 10 minutes. When I did, I saw to my horror, the exchange between my wife and the girlfriend and realized what was going on. I immediately sent a text message to both, explaining what happened.

  I said, "I've been feeling pretty low what with the worries over Covid 19 and with all that's been going on in the world these past couple of weeks, so for my own mental health, I decided to stop watching the news and to "snooze" anyone on our social media accounts who are making political comments of any kind, for now, until all of this blows over because it seems to me these comments may be doing more harm and could be making things worse. It's not that I believe you aren't entitled to your own opinions, it's more about me not being able to tolerate any more negativity in my life. I only want to see our baby grandchildren's photos and our friends vacation photos etc. for now. My plan is to unsnooze everyone once all of this blows over and I didn't realize that anyone would be able to see that I had snoozed them. (apparently I had hit the "blocked or unfollow" button instead of snooze)

  My wife sent the girlfriend a message asking if she was OK and if she could call her and she said she didn't want to talk to us.

  I have a feeling she's feeling bad about having turned on us so quickly and easily in defense of complete strangers and is feeling foolish. Especially since we've been nothing but welcoming and have helped her and my son in so many ways.

  I hope she will get over this and realize that we too have the right to handle our social media accounts as we see fit and that we meant no harm to her.
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  40

  Remember this

  by James Jack in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this was my elder bag.

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  Pete Zahut

  They were always out in the aisle and often the owner of the bag would forget that it was there and would stumble over it when he got up during the meeting to use the bathroom or take care of some other urgent business that couldn't wait.
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  30

  How Could We Have Been So Heartless?

  by BluesBrother in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am addressing here those who, like me, spent decades in the organisation that we called “the truth”.

  perhaps like me you were brought up in it from an early age.

  looking back now i wonder that i could have been so heartless as to believe that the mass slaughter of billions of people was “good news”.

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  Pete Zahut

  I don't think it was a matter of being heartless. We were taught that the destruction of the wicked was a done deal as far as Jehovah was concerned and the only way out of it was to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses. It was more a matter of saving our own souls. Those scriptures reaffirmed our fears and gave us hope that if we played our cards right, would be spared and we could help spare as many people as possible if only we were diligent enough.

  What didn't make sense is the idea that Jehovah was going to kill everyone who was not a JW and if we didn't warn them thoroughly enough by using every possible available moment of our time to do so, we too would be killed. We were taught that he hated "token witnesses" and anyone who was "lukewarm". We learned that he was going to kill the wicked and he was also going to kill people who weren't necessarily wicked but who didn't spend their free time wisely going from door to door as much as they could have or joyfully enough, attending meetings regularly enough, studying and underlining th literature enough and participating in the meetings enough. We knew that we could do everything right but fail at the end by giving in when tortured. We knew that if we made it into the new system, we didn't deserve it but were there because of Jehovah's undeserved kindness and that in a thousand years, we'd be tested all over again.

  A lot of JW's said they "love Jehovah" but I just never could...I feaerd him and didn't understand him but I never loved him and I felt guilty for this and feared for my life since childhood.
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  104

  Aunt Jemima and Mrs.Buttersworth Need To Be Destroyed!

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we have to get rid of these racist relics.

  i propose that we destroy all these bottles of syrups and burn every pancake box !

  we need to get rid of anything that reminds us of anything negative concerning slavery.. in boston they decapitated the head of christopher columbus and got rid of his statue.

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  Pete Zahut

  With Aunt Jemima gone, eventually people will stop referring to JW's as Jemima Witnesses.

  What about Lucky the Leprechaun? Isn't he demeaning to Irish people with his stereotypical red hair and backwoods Hollywood version of an Irish accent ? "Always aaafter me Lucky Chaaaarrrms"
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  18

  dump google

  by phoenixrising in

  1. social
  2. current

  i have noticed as of late that google searches are heavily filtering searches and shopping.

  i know they keep track and monitor your activity but when i can not find things or articles because they don't fit googles bs naritive its time to leave.

  duck duck go is my replacement.

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  Pete Zahut

  My son has converted to Bing and sings its' praises.

  I refuse to ever use bing because it randomly attached itself to my computer several times and took over my browser without authorization. It highjacks your searches away from the search engine you normally use and its a devil to get rid of.
  
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  17

  Covid19 "Suggestions" (aka rules)

  by Huxley1979 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so a co just said in his talk yesterday that anyone that doesn't follow the branch's covid19 "suggestions" is disobedient and the type of person that won't survive armageddon.

  didn't the letter say that each head of household would choose for himself how to apply the "suggestions"?.

  the funny thing is there are other countries where none of these "suggestions" have been given..

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  Pete Zahut

  It’s not so much about obedience, it’s about image and liability.

  If JW's disobeyed the CDC guidelines and continued attending meetings and going from door to door, they'd be known as Covid's Witnesses (not a good image).
  
  
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  20

  Pioneer School Funny Picture

  by pale.emperor in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  found this on one of the exjw reddit pages.

  a "hilarious" group photo.

  another sign that this isnt the same religion we remembered of the 80s and 90s - and i dont mean that in a good, progressive way.. you can just smell the virginity oozing out of the front and back row.. .

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  Pete Zahut

  This is either a bunch of Pioneers who had a normal group picture taken and were asked to do a " crazy photo" just for fun...

  -or-

  This photo was taken moments after the overlapping generation concept was explained to them for the first time.