Pete Zahut

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Posts by Pete Zahut

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  52

  Collapse of JW Org - Possibly on the Horizon?

  by JWTom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this topics get a great deal of discussion here.

  what i find interesting is even some of my pimi family is embracing the reality that all is not well with jw.org and that many current jws are just going through the motions due to not having a good way out of the org.

  wondering what could realistically lead to the collapse of jw.org in the not distant future?

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  Pete Zahut

  Large institutions that came into existence back when the Watchtower did and who seemed unshakable, have been disappearing one by one.

  Sears and Macys for example as well huge newspaper and magazine establishments that seemed unshakable have either gone away or are about to. Soon there will be very few libraries because you'll be able to download any book you want at any hour of the day. Large universities will become more and more rare as students will be attaining higher education virtually. The only reason these places will exist is simply because people want to be together.

  In my area, in the 3 mile stretch between my house and the Kingdom Hall there are about 7 large churches. Most of them are adding on or remodeling. Besides Sunday and weekly services where the parking lots are full, they offer education programs, sports and music activities and social services for their membersWhat JW's value the most about their religion is the association and that is all but gone these days. Instead of playing up the association aspect and providing a bigger sense of community for the JW's, the folks at Watchtower have always discouraged it and have only allowed association to take place on their own terms. They have always been afraid of what might happen if their members got organized without them.

  With the changes that the internet and technology has made in the world, the information the control the Watchtower once had over their followers is dwindling. They need to provide a bigger sense of community if they hope to survive. Attending stale repetitive meetings just isn't enough for people anymore and trudging around from door to door to spread a supposedly urgent message, is making less and less sense, to more and more people.
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  53

  Politics and Hope

  by lriddle80 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so there are a lot of atheists on here.

  my question: where does your hope come from?

  that the right people will be put in political positions and will eventually form a utopian society that will meet all needs and we will have equality for all?.

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  Pete Zahut

  Politics and Hope

  Hope is a tease designed to prevent us from accepting reality. We can claim to know what's going on in the big scheme of things but all we really have is the here and now.

  Life has some wonderful aspects as well as some difficult realities. Better to face them head and make the best of things within our own capabilities and within the framework of our own circumstances.
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  26

  Congregation Letter - 2021 Magazines Delayed???

  by JWTom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  we had a letter read in our cong.

  last week that said the public wt and awake would be delayed during the beginning of 2021. meaning we would just use the 2020 version into 2021 and there would be no new ones at the beginning of 2021 until an undetermined time sometime during the 1st half of 2021. at least that is the gist that i remember.

  it was in what atlantis provided but there was no further detail....very brief.. any more intel or speculation on this?

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  Pete Zahut

  Magazines delayed...zoom meetings.....no assemblies....letter writing...none of it makes much of a difference to the main objective that JW's claim to have which is spreading the good news.

  If the end of this system is dependent upon the "good news" being spread throughout the earth, a few well placed television, radio and internet ads could have the job done in a matter of hours. They could briefly tell people the gist of the message and where to learn more about it. The supposed end to mankind suffering could happen within the year.

  Instead they're spending millions on building a state of the art video production facility to make cultish videos to sell to JW's. In the year 2020 JW's are still carrying on as if it's the 1950's writing letters one by one in longhand.

  Spreading the message in a timely manner has never been their true objective.
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  15

  Thinking about Flipper

  by HappyDad in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  with all the fires raging in california and oregon, i have been thinking about flipper and hoping he is ok. .

  flipper..........if you read this, know that we are sending love your way.

  we will most likely worry about you until we hear from you..

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  Pete Zahut

  I left a voicemail with Flipper to see how he's doing and let him know about this post. I'll reply once I hear from him. He is in Grass Valley which is a good distance from the fires themselves but the smoke must be pretty bad.
  

  
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  27

  UGHHHHH Wife wants to pioneer. Our future together doesn’t look promising

  by goingthruthemotions in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  ughhhhh wife wants to pioneer.

  our future together doesn't look promising .

  i told her she doesn’t know what she is getting into.

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  Pete Zahut

  Seems like a smart time to become a pioneer now that the ministry is virtually at a standstill. She'll get to have all the Kudos without having to really do anything and it won't be her fault if she doesn't get her time in.

  I wouldn't take it too seriously or "draw any lines in the sand" over this. If it were me, I'd play along with it realizing that she'll soon tire of making phone calls and writing letters. You could even have her practice on you as if she were presenting the "Truth" to you for the first time.

  My wife had relatively no problem with being a JW but she left soon after I did. Without judgement or arguing, I used to tell her that I had sort of forgotten what the reasoning was behind certain doctrines and in explaining them to me, she realized how feeble the JW reasoning was.

  I never argued, or pushed her into a corner but instead followed up with further questions, hoping that she'd be able to refresh my memory. In the process, she began to look past the JW mantra and to ask her own questions instead of waiting to being told what to believe.

  (Simplified Example)

  Me: I've forgotten what scriptures we used to show the reason that Jesus had to die for all mankind.

  Her: John xxx says that he had to lay down his life to buy back the life that Adam and Eve lost for mankind when Satan convinced Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit.

  Me: Ok...yeah I remember that part but I can't remember what the actual scriptures we used to support the belief that Satan, who had been alive since the beginning of time and was the one who directly rebelled against Jehovah, would remain alive all these thousands of year but Adam and Eve and the rest of the yet unborn human race had to be punished immediately and would continue suffering and dying by the billions?

  I'd go along with or agree with whatever explanation she provided, but in the process she got to entertain alternative thoughts that she'd have normally rejected if I had I stated them outright or had been confrontational.
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  30

  Worldwide preaching campaign targeting government officials.

  by smiddy3 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  does anybody know what this message will contain ?

  is it designed to provoke a response that will bring persecution on the religion ?

  or is it just going to be some meaningless weak campaign to get the rank and file all excited about it and achieving nothing.. or is it going to suggest to the government officials that this mob could very well be the next jonestown /wacol incident and we need to act now.

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  Pete Zahut

  Hopefully they'll scold the U.S. Government for making them look bad back in 1986 when they raised another false alarm when George Bush proclaimed that there'd be a "new world order". They should demand and apology and an immediate reinstating of that objective . (fast forward to the 2.30 mark)

  https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4528359/user-clip-george-bush-defines-world-order
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  18

  Belgium: Jehovah's Witnesses will be tried for hate crimes on February 16.

  by yalbmert99 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  belgium: jehovah's witnesses will be tried for hate crimes on february 16.. https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20200915_93224449.

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  Pete Zahut

  Members will claim that they shun of their own free will.

  Decades worth of JW literature detailing how former JW's are viewed, will show the courts otherwise.
  
  
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  17

  "I still miss it Dad" My 41 Year Son Admitted

  by 1234 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on the 18th of september i turned in my disassociation letter in to the tigard congregation, 19 years ago.. my son turned in his letter in november 2001, 19 years ago shortly after me.

  he was 21 years old.. two days ago we were working together on a wrap for his a/c unit on his bus.. out of blue, he says "i still miss it dad.

  not the religion.

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  Pete Zahut

  I would just like the ones I knew, could see me now, doing things most people do for enjoyment and pleasure , not things like robotic , as attending assemblies, or participating in JW speak.

  Yes...it is very satisfying to run into former JW friends and have them be amazed that you're looking so well and that your life isn't the train wreck that they fully expected it to be.

  When we left the "Truth" I half expected my life to be cursed by God or to receive an onslaught tribulation from Satan. Instead, the years of anxiety that I suffered through as a JW, disappeared as if overnight. I landed the best job I ever had, our son enrolled in university and ended up with a degree and a job as an Environmental Scientist and so on. A tiny part of the former superstitious JW part of my brain suspected that all this success could be Satan rewarding me for going against Jehovah. Fortunately I was old enough to realize that this was nonsense and went out of my way to prove them wrong. But some young former JW's don't have the benefit of hindsight and fall into the trap of letting the old superstitious worrisome JW mindset, control them.

  I wish that every former JW could have the same success that I had and many, if not most ; do well. Unfortunately, "still in" JW's don't hear of, or don't speak about them. They only discuss the ones who fit their narrative. The ones who because of the low opinion of themselves that they were conditioned to believe, headed straight for the things not worth having in this world, simply because as JW's they were taught that if you're not a JW, then you are "worldly" and "worldly people" only do bad.
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  17

  "I still miss it Dad" My 41 Year Son Admitted

  by 1234 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on the 18th of september i turned in my disassociation letter in to the tigard congregation, 19 years ago.. my son turned in his letter in november 2001, 19 years ago shortly after me.

  he was 21 years old.. two days ago we were working together on a wrap for his a/c unit on his bus.. out of blue, he says "i still miss it dad.

  not the religion.

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  Pete Zahut

  It's human nature to look back on the past with rose colored glasses. Even abused children can look back on certain aspects of their childhood with fondness.

  If your son could snap his fingers and step back to that time period knowing what he knows now, it's likely he'd take one look around and want to leave. He'd realize that it wasn't as good as he is remembering that it was.
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  27

  How do you switch off the thoughts of being raised JW and feelings of anger

  by Zeds Dead in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  raised as a jo blow and married into it.

  37 years in it and now last 7 years out of it which feels great.. have memories of being a kid in school in the uk and just hating everything about being the jw kid.

  bullied, embarrassed in front of others and self-esteem went into the toilet.wished i was born into a different family.. what angers me is the messaging i would receive at home when i talked about being bullied.

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  Pete Zahut

  These memories and feelings sometimes play in circles in my head and looking for comments on how others handle this?

  Our feelings are caused by our thoughts and our thoughts are only as important as we allow them them be.

  Like any bad habit, it takes about 6 weeks of concentrated effort to unlearn the habit of dwelling on unwanted thoughts, but it can be done.

  Write your unwanted thoughts down as they occur and write down the conclusion you've drawn about these thoughts. Then write down a positive statement to replace the unwanted thought.

  Example:

  Negative Thought: "I wasted my whole life as a JW"

  Conclusion: "The past is over and it can't be changed. I don't want to waste anymore of my life over this matter."

  Positive Thought: " I have learned valuable things from my past but I choose live in the present moment and to live my life one day at a time"

  _______________________________________

  Negative Thought: "I'll never get rid of the anger from being a JW."

  Conclusion: "A lot of things happened to me that should never have happened but millions of people have overcome worse experiences than the ones I had. I can rid myself of my anger as well."

  Replacement Thought: "I am in control of my thoughts and emotions and I choose to think positively about the future."

  
  

  Collect as many of these positive thoughts as you can and memorize them. Practice them 3 times a day for 6 weeks by physically writing them out and saying them out loud as you write them. When you catch yourself dwelling on your JW past, start repeating your memorized thoughts over and over (silently or out loud). This can be done just about anywhere and at just about any time.

  Remember. Your subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between the past or the future. Your body will physically react in the here and now, to whatever you're thinking about in any given moment. That's why, for example, you can physically blush when thinking of something stupid you did 10 years ago or you can feel a wave of anxiety just by thinking about something worrisome that might happen in the future.
  

  Your positive statements need to be in the here and now.

  For example, instead of saying, "I'm going to be a more positive person who tries to live in the moment", you should say it as if it is already so, "I am a positive person who lives one day at a time".

  It sounds too simple to be effective but it works. In time you'll begin to catch yourself early on in the negative thought process and you will arrest them and replace them with positive thoughts. Eventually they will occur less and less often. You will be able to apply this skill in many areas of your life besides with the JW problem.