Pete Zahut

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Posts by Pete Zahut

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  30

  Some thoughts on guilt.

  by New day in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  had an interesting conversation with my wife recently.

  she struggles with physical, emotional and psychological problems which have often caused her to miss meetings.

  she mentioned how she is equally tortured by guilt if she misses meetings and ministry, and severe stress if she does them.

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  Pete Zahut

  It seems to me a lot of JW's suffer from guilt but they are misinterpreting the guilt they feel. They often think their guilt is from not doing enough or doing the things they are supposed to do. The fact is they often don't really want to go in service or to all those meetings but feel like they SHOULD WANT to do those things and they feel guilty for NOT REALLY WANTING to do any of it.
  

  • The whole religion operates on the F.O.G. principle. Fear, Obligation, Guilt.
  • People are afraid of dying or being destroyed,
  • They are made to feel obligated to promote the Societies interests claiming their motivation is love for their fellow man but the main motivation is to save their own skins and they are ashamed of this.
    
  • They feel guilty for not doing what they're told to do and guilty for not wanting to do what they are told to do.

  Maybe you could ask your wife to show you from the Bible how many meetings per week the early Christians attended. How long were these meetings? Were they held at night making it difficult for children and working people? Ask her what literature they used to spread the word and ask her to show you an example in the Bible where ordinary congregation members (including children) engaged in door to door activity using printed literature, collected money for it and were required to report the time they spent and their placements. Where in the Bible was a quota of hours spent per month, given? Maybe if she could see that this guilt is man induced rather than coming from something specific and clearly pointed out in the Bible, she'd feel better.
  
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  40

  Are you ready for armageddon?

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just imagine the panic.disbelief.oh my god they were right.then you pee in your pants.what will l do?the plea for forgiveness.please let me through.l promise l''ll change.l didn;t mean what l said on that jw.com site.l was jokin.then you wake up it was only a dream.disbelief turns to relief.

  but it could happen..

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  Pete Zahut

  
  
  
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  26

  I quit the Goodwill :(

  by Joliette in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i couldnt take seeing people from the kingdom hall.

  you guys wouldnt believe how many jehovahs witnesses shop in the goodwill.

  i couldnt take it.

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  Pete Zahut

  When I was growing up, it was almost a status symbol among the Sisters in our Hall to see who could find the best prices on dresses for meeting, at the Goodwill or as they used to call it "Betty Ann's Dress Shoppe"
  
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  20

  How many times have the GB been wrong?

  by atomant in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  actually its quite amusing to observe the different reactions from within the org every time theres new light.how dumb does a person have to be to not realize its all a conjob.surely a thinking logical person would question all the changes over the years.lts almost like the blind leading the blind scenario.

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  Pete Zahut

  The were never wrong but were instead "Accuracy Impaired" and "Correctness Challenged".
  
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  39

  JW marriages: “They” looked good on paper.

  by Londo111 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i applaud anyone, male or female, who overcomes shallowness and looks at a person’s deeper qualities, especially in regard dating and marriage.

  the movie and fashion industry does much to institute shallowness to the point that, in my opinion, it promotes outright discrimination and judgmentalism even as they give lip service to tolerance..

  on the other hand, among jehovah’s witnesses, there seem to be a preponderance of incompatible marriages.

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  Pete Zahut

  My wife and I got married at 21(her) and 23(me) and we marvel at the fact that we are still together and are doing more than just fine, even though we made the biggest commitment of our lives while still operating on the notion that the world was going to end any day, everyone but we JW's were going to die and we were going to live forever in a paradise filled with wild animals that were going to be tame.
  
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  53

  Disturbance during Memorial 2016.

  by Ben131895 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  two documented disturbances during memorial 2016. type 'memorial 2016' on youtube.

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  Pete Zahut

  Tenacious a day ago

  I had not yet viewed the videos until now.

  Your actions are certainly commendable in the spirit of Paul's letter to the friends in Philippi as he wrote:

  dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear." ~ Philippians 1:12-14

  Paul also told the Corinthians that all things are lawful but not all things are beneficial, all things are lawful but not all things build up, let no one seek his own good but that of his neighbor. 1 Corinthians 10:23
  

  I believe the individual in the video was less interested in enlightening anyone or in defending true worship and preserving the purity of the celebration proceedings than he was in offending a group of people he has a personal beef with and showing them who had the upper hand...the last laugh. Lets just call it what it is instead of trying to make out it was done out of noble motives.
  
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  25

  I got my Memorial invite! I got my Memorial invite!

  by Dagney in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my first one!

  even though i got it saturday, march 26, in the mail in an envelope addressed to "my dear neighbor.".

  it's the thought that counts..

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  Pete Zahut

  Call the local Kingdom Hall and in a worried and somewhat hysterical manner, leave a voice mail explaining that you just got your invite in the mail because it was mailed the same day as the Memorial. Tell them that you're frightened to death that Jesus will punish you for not being there to participate...burst into tears and cry out "I just didn't know....why didn't anyone tell me??" then hang up.
  
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  10

  My life

  by wasone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in 1968 merle haggard released a country song with the lyrics " and i turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole.

  no one could steer me right but mama tried, mama tried.

  " the following year i too turned twenty-one and found myself in prison but not for the reasons haggard sang about.

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  Pete Zahut

  I was in Bethel at that time (76) stuck in the Bindery and never got to see what others were doing. I love hearing how the other half lived...I've got my popcorn ready....please continue your story !
  
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  57

  Did you participate in a Drama?

  by Hecce in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i am bringing this up because even it was a lot of work, for the majority of the friends this was a rewarding experience.

  camaraderie, joking, costumes, props and when the time came the celebrity status of being in the drama.. back in the 50s and 60s, conventions could be as long as 8 days and from about 1966 the dramas became an integral part of the program.

  we had one per day and the brothers looked forward to their presentation.

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  Pete Zahut

  I was a stagehand in a drama and also played the part of a rock in one key scene.

  The Dramas were fun to be part of because they gave a good sized group of people something to work together on that was considered by their peers to be a noble effort.

  As far as the drama's being successful, this was mostly because they were a welcome alternative to the drone of a stodgy old unlettered and ordinary man, reading off some canned talk hour after hour....day after day.
  
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  35

  out for a long time

  by Sledracer in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  my husband and i have been out for a long time, maybe fifteen years, i must say we are in a bit of a nowhere land spiritually, we find it impossible to attend any other church.

  we really resent so much of how they messed up our and our children's lives.

  we can't get back all those 25 years we were in.

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  Pete Zahut

  I have felt the way you do. I used to think to myself, I'll move and just go back to a new Hall on my own terms just so I'll have a network of friends again. I'll ignore all the non-sense and never let them have a hold on me....just play along.

  Then I come to my senses and realize that:

  • We often look at the past with rose colored glasses and remember things better than what they were.
  • When we try to re-create the past, we are often suddenly reminded why it was we left it behind in the first place.
  • We made friends much easier when we were young, the problem often isn't that there isn't an abundance of people to be friends with now, the problem is that as we get older we don't have the energy to invest in making friends, aren't as patient when having to adjust to new peoples idiosyncrasies and want things to be like they used to be without having to invest any more time in getting there.
  • You can't go home again...once you've seen behind the Wizards curtain, once you've grown in your understanding and overall view of things and once you know better, it's never going to be the same as it was.

  Perhaps you could sneak in to a meeting somewhere and duck out early just to see if you are remembering things clearly. For me, I just couldn't stomach the repetitive nature of the meetings, the doctrines full of holes, the JW lingo I'd be expected to parrot, explaining why I missed a meeting or a day in service, being expected to give talks and go from door to door. There's also the real life experience with the blood issue that opened my eyes in the first place and the fact that there'd be endless questions, files that would be transferred from my old Hall and the years of suspiciousness one would have to endure before one was truly accepted (if ever).