Posts by Pete Zahut

21

"mum, i been naughty, i'm disfellowshipped."

by Sabin in

jw
friends

so last night we get a phone call from our girl & she tells me the above.

turns out she has been d'ed for a month.

infact she made me turn off the speaker phone so her dad wouldn't hear & i could tell him quietly later.

Pete Zahut

We are so alike, passionate, so i'm worried i'm gonna blow it with my big gob, getting all emotional. My husband said she gonna go back i have to except it.

From the sound of it, your husband may be right. It sounds like she's made up her mind and wants to go back. All you can do is let her know that no matter what direction she goes, you'll always be her Mom no matter what.

If she goes back and gets reinstated, it doesn't mean that's the end of the story. If she's reinstated, she can have the best of both worlds if she decides to fade someday.

Perhaps you can try some reverse psychology on her such as:

"I know you were quite lonely back when you when you considered yourself as doing better spiritually but if you think it's best to go back then of course I'll support your decision. There might be times when it will feel like your options are limited as far as meeting anyone and who knows how long this system will continue but if you've made up your mind to go back, that's your decision to make. I'm ok so long as you aren't being pressured or doing anything out of guilt or fear or that I will think poorly of you one way or the other."

As far as why she isn't being shunned, I'm baffled. As far as I know, this is highly unusual. They've said a lot lately about not even associating with DF'd family members unless absolutely necessary.

21

"mum, i been naughty, i'm disfellowshipped."

by Sabin in

jw
friends

so last night we get a phone call from our girl & she tells me the above.

turns out she has been d'ed for a month.

infact she made me turn off the speaker phone so her dad wouldn't hear & i could tell him quietly later.

Pete Zahut

Before offering advice....how old is your Daughter? Am I correct in understanding that she is full on disfellowshipped and is not being shunned? Could it be that she was only publicly reproved and that's why people are love bombing her rather than avoiding her?

41

Missed it by that much ----------23

by John Aquila in

i almost had a freaking heart attack.

i even threw my coffee cup at the wall and starting yelling like crazy when i got the the 5th number correct.

i was checking my texas lottery ticket for this past saturday.

Pete Zahut

I've been given Lottery tickets and have bought a few myself over the last few years but have only won a few Dollars.

My Cousin (25 ish not a JW) was given notice by his employer that he was to be laid off from his job. On his way home from work he stopped at a Mini-Mart and picked up some Beer to ease his anxiety about what had happened. The cashier gave him $2 in change so he told her to give him 2 lottery tickets, then stepped aside to scratch them off . One of them was a $2 winner but when he handed it to the cashier and asked for two more tickets, the next customer in line got angry and pushed forward telling my Cousin to get back in line and wait his turn.

This customer bought a large amount of Lottery Tickets and walked out of the store. My cousin was next in line and bought 2 more tickets, one of which was a $12,000 winner.

He went home and told his wife he had some bad news and some good news. She said she too had good news and that she was pregnant with their 1st child. He told her he'd been laid off his job but had just won $12,000. They hopped in the car and drove to the Lottery office at the State Capitol and collected their winnings.

21

Tell me what you think.

by Aroq in

ok, i'm willing, and thinking about going to the meetings, but there is a catch.

i'm not, nor ever be a jw.

i know too much about their beliefs.

Pete Zahut

Just an idea or possible option but since you have agreed to let your wife take them to the meetings then it's only fair that you get equal time to talk to them about what they've learned and share any alternate ideas you may want them to know about.

You could attend the meetings weekly or now and again and make it clear to the family and the JW's who may commend you for being there, that you are only there to monitor what your children are being taught and to make sure they aren't receiving a one sided view of things.

Seems to me you will come off as being reasonable and fair (especially to the kids) and will keep peace in the family. The biggest problem with growing up JW is the way they close off any discussion about alternative views. You could fix that problem by knowing what they are learning and making sure they get the other side of the story.

34

Banned from the second school!

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

i've been told by a jw friend that when her hall recently had a refurb that big changes were made to the second school.. one, a large sign has been placed on the door telling people not to use it and to sit in the main hall itself.. two,that all the chairs which used to face the large windows looking into the main hall are now side on to the window facing the wall instead.. this is because "so many people were sitting out in there!

people were finding all manner of exhuses to sit-in there and the brothers want us to all be together in the main hall!

" she said.. of course i didn't tell her what i really thought of this but seriously?

Pete Zahut

Definetly about control and not trusting that individuals know how to conduct themselves without being monitored. As is always the case with JW's , It's not enough that one attends meetings, reads the literature and applies the counsel in ones life as one sees fit. It's about small minded uneducated individuals who've been given the authority or have taken it upon themselves to enforce, monitor and generally intervene in peoples personal relationship with god.

I went to a congregation once where the P.O. wasn't happy with the teenagers level of participation during the meetings so he made all of them sit in the first few rows on Sunday. He'd assign each one of them a paragraph or two to answer during the previous Watchtower study and they were to have it prepared when he called on them the following week. This went on for some time until the teenagers all decided to get up after the public talk and go have their own Watchtower study at one of their houses. One young brother went from 19 years old to 20 years old in this time period. He sat in a regular seat one Sunday after he turned 20 and the usher came back and told him to move up front. This brother flatly refused and kicked up a fuss during the meeting.

Eventually the parents put a stop to it all but had to have their teens sit by them instead of with their friends during the meeting.

This same P.O would also sit behind the young brothers and observe their hair length. If their hair was getting anywhere near their ears, he'd lean forward, tap them on the shoulder and whisper "get a haircut or I'm pulling your publishers card". Once again the parents kicked up a fuss once the young brothers began saying "fine....go ahead and pull it".

This guy and the elders under him came to be known as the "Gestapo Crew" and people started leaving the Congregation (including my family) and attending the other congregation that met there or the one in the next town.

For some people with anxiety, it's a comfort knowing the back room is available should they start feeling overwhelmed, same thing for people with small childeren. Also for those who find themselves running late, they go ahead and attend the meeting knowing that they can just duck into the back room without disturbing anyone. Without that option, they might decide to stay home.

32

I can't take it anymore!

by BlackWolf in

jw
friends

my dad was recently made an elder about maybe 6 months ago, and now he is never around he's always at work or doing some kind of jw crap.

now he conducts the watchtower study and is even doing the special talk tommorow.

he's become an even more strict controlling jerk than he was before, and i'm never allowed to go out and do anything non jw related because he doesn't have the time.

Pete Zahut

You know best how he'd react but maybe you could get your Dad a nice card and express the concerns you've mentioned here, in a very respectful way.

In so many words, you could tell him that you love him and miss his presence in the house and that you've seen a change in him and in the family since he's become an Elder and it hasn't been for the better.

(Do a google search of "Ministers Kids" and get some statistics on how it effects their lives and maybe you know of some JW Elder's kids who've have had a rough time)

In a tactful way let him know what you've learned about the matter and how you already feel you are at the breaking point. Tell him you're afraid of the family breaking up. Tell him that you remember how the Society says fathers main responsibility is to put his family first and it feels like lately his Job and Congregation responsibilities are first and the family is suffering because of it.

Just an idea, but I know if my kids would have done something like that, I'd have definitely sat up and taken notice.

29

Amazing Growth! Jehovah Is Blessing The Preaching Work!

by Divergent in

jw
friends

today's text:.

saturday, april 2. the little one will become a thousand.—isa.

60:22.. perhaps we live in an area where there are few witnesses or where we do not see a lot of immediate results in our preaching work.

Pete Zahut

Do we know if the "growth" has occurred among actual East Indians or is it among westerners who for one reason or another are living in India?

34

Would we exist if Adam and Eve didn't sin?

by truth doubter in

my son asked me 40 years ago.

should we be glad adam sinned?

because if he hadn't, we would not be the person we are.. any opinions?

Pete Zahut

Your son is talking about the Butterfly Effect and Chaos Theory where even the smallest of changes in the way things occur, can have far reaching effects in the universe and the flow of History.

All of us are here mostly by random chance. If our parent's would have had sex 10 minutes sooner or 10 minutes later on the day/night we were conceived, it's likely that another little sperm would have fertilized the egg and someone else would have been conceived instead of us. That's why its so hard for me to believe that just because we happened to come into existence via this random occurrence, that we were intended to live on and on for all eternity.

12

BOE: 2016-03-21 Re: Donations to “Jehovah’s Witnesses of India”

by wifibandit in

march 21, 2016 to all bodies of elders in the united states branch territory re: donations to “jehovah’s witnesses of india”

Pete Zahut

Probably just a rumor but I heard that women in India who become Witnesses, in order to cut their former religious ties, are required to put the letters JW and Org on either side of the red Dot they often have tattooed on their forehead.

14

What is a generation? Matthew 1:17 is pretty clear to me

by pleaseresearch in

so we have this ridiculous teaching of an overlapping generation, something the bible clearly does not teach.

if this has been mentioned before i apologize.

but it's interesting that at the start of matthew we go through the genealogy of jesus.

Pete Zahut

I'm someone who has faded for the past 10 years. No way can I get my head around this JW generation teaching.

You can make sense of just about anything if you're explanation is creative enough or your audience is gullible enough. It doesn't matter to these folks whether or not what they are taught makes sense. They want to be told what to think and do by someone in authority so that they are not responsible for the outcome in the big picture.