Pete Zahut

Joined

• started 56 topics
• posted 3,252 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Pete Zahut

• 
  29

  Lying In Wait At a Bed & Breakfast

  by Cold Steel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a few years ago while traveling in the northeast, my wife and i stopped in new haven, connecticut, at a b&b we'd reserved for the night.

  no sooner had we unpacked and moved into the living room for tea and treats, our hosts began to talk about religion, and we learned they were jehovah's witnesses.

  i didn't mind so much, but my wife was outraged that our hosts would use their place of business as a launching point to do missionary work.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Pete Zahut

  You should have told them you're an apostate and they'd have left you alone....maybe even given your filthy apostate money back.
  
• 
  29

  Lying In Wait At a Bed & Breakfast

  by Cold Steel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a few years ago while traveling in the northeast, my wife and i stopped in new haven, connecticut, at a b&b we'd reserved for the night.

  no sooner had we unpacked and moved into the living room for tea and treats, our hosts began to talk about religion, and we learned they were jehovah's witnesses.

  i didn't mind so much, but my wife was outraged that our hosts would use their place of business as a launching point to do missionary work.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Pete Zahut

  Kind of a sweet deal for the JW's though....they can get their time in without having to go from door to door or stand by a cart and they make a little money, to boot.
  
• 
  14

  Recording of doorstop meeting with JWs

  by MrMonroe in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i was alerted to the presence of jws in my street, so i grabbed my voice recorder and placed it by the front door.

  several minutes later there was a knock, i pressed "record" and opened the door to two jw women.

  the recording below runs for 25 minutes.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Pete Zahut

  Interesting conversation....these ladies were definitely given reason to rethink their typical JW logic. Once they heard you use the expression "still in good standing" the conversation was over....I think they must have known you were a former JW at that point. Their cognitive dissonance was running rampant throughout the conversation and I think it must have been a relief for them to be able to dismiss you as argumentative or as an apostate and therefore with a clear conscience, not have to question themselves anymore.
  

  When she said " I don't listen to criticisms that are designed to tear down my faith" it would have been interesting to point out that from what you've seen, JW literature is designed to tear down the faith of other people, right at their own front door and to point out to them that their religion is backed by Satan himself and in fact they will die if they don't convert to the JW religion. Despite this, they expect others to read their literature anyway and to listen to them when they come to their door. No one is out to break their faith, it's just that JW's are always criticizing others and boasting about theirs being the only true religion. It's only natural that a thinking person would point out the flaws in the reasoning that has drawn them to that conclusion.
  

  When she compared transfusing blood to transfusing alcohol, it would have been interesting to point out that comparing an injection of alcohol to a blood transfusion, isn't a valid comparison since alcohol, whether it's ingested or injected would still have the same adverse effect on the body that the doctor was concerned about. Yet if a starving person is given a blood transfusion, they'd still be starving to death because transfusing blood and eating blood are two different things and have two different effects on the body. Also, in certain places in the bible it shows that anyone who does ingest animal blood, would be unclean for a certain period, no one had to die over it. The scriptures are talking about dietary laws regarding animal blood not human blood used for medical purposes.
  

  She pointed out that taking a blood transfusion would jeopardize her relationship with Jehovah. Did she mean it would be jeopardized forever....doesn't he as a loving father forgive us of sins and weaknesses? Would he not understand how a person out of fear for his life, may have a moment of weakness?

  I loved how you made them think about how much actual "study" of other faiths and religions they had done before coming to the conclusion that JW's were the only true religion.

  You kept calm and logical throughout the conversation....well done !
  
• 
  30

  Do you remember this WT calendar art?

  by compound complex in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  these are of early '70s vintage, i recall.

  my job was to sort through thousands of these and be sure they were not "off register.".

  .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Pete Zahut

  It was "speculated" that the beautiful lady descending into the water is Damaris, the man plunged, Dionysis, the plunger, Paul the Apostle. A very talented Bethel sister, whose name I don't remember, was the artist.

  Was the artist/sister named Melissa Bellows? She and her artist husband Bill are still there as far as I know.
  
• 
  30

  Harmagedon backpack... Are we retarded??

  by sp74bb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  sorry for this matter has been already discussed.. i got shocked after watching this video:.

  kingdom hall disaster demonstration.

  this is really insane !!!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Pete Zahut

  Nothing wrong with being prepared but I was curious where they were going. If ones house is intact enough to into it to get your "go bag" after there's been an earthquake, why not stay there instead of heading out on the road and getting caught in traffic which is probably already a mess? Living in earthquake country, we keep an emergency kit in our cars in case there's an earthquake while were on the road and we can't get home. Our emergency supplies are in our shed in case the house is too damaged to enter it. I've never heard of an earthquake alarm like they had in the beginning of the skit. I'm sure that was to create a sense of drama for the hand full of people in the audience. JW's love a good scare now and then to remind them not to get too comfortable in their current life and to give them the sense that they've got and inside edge when the world falls apart.
  
• 
  41

  David Splane on the "older members" of the GB

  by Richard_I in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in the august broadcast, david splane is shown in a morning worship video.

  i just wanted to focus on the end of the video, were he has this to say:.

  the governing body loves to get together and discuss the bible.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Pete Zahut

  After all these decades upon decades of Jehovah's (supposed) direction over the organization, shouldn't the Governing Body have everything about the Bible figured out by now? They've covered every possible topic in their publications over the past 100 years, so what are these guys really doing with their time back there in New York? How hard is their job that they need so many of them living in the lap of luxury being supported by the donations of the other sheep?
  
• 
  81

  Elders and Attendants sing, clap and turn backs on Street Preacher after Duluth RC.

  by ToesUp in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  very strange behavior by the attendants and elders after the duluth, ga, rc.

  on the first link the attendants start to exit the arena, then line up and turn their backs on the street preachers.

  (around the 6:00 mark).. elders and attendants after duluth rc.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Pete Zahut

  I get it...the guy was annoying to them but there was no issue, legal or otherwise until these "servants/leaders' made one of it. Now instead of random people milling by, these "Brothers" made a captive audience of themselves and were gathered together in one spot hearing entire sentences rather than random words making it possible for this his guy to preach to those "taking the lead". They were hearing every word he had to say rather than simply ignoring him. They gathered together to show him they were shunning him and to enjoy a bit of the martyrdom they crave, in the process.
  

  I wonder what would happen if a hoard of people stood around on the street in front of their literature carts this way and sort of "backed up" into them and made them move along ? What about back in the day when they used sound cars to blast their message through the streets and forced people to listen?

  The only personal power JW's have is to shun or turn their backs anyone who doesn't agree with them or play along with their game and doing this as a group effort really warms their hearts and makes them feel extra virtuous .
  
• 
  11

  'Parents' magazine cover with JW.org cartoon kids

  by undercover in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  making the rounds on facebook among jws is a photo of a 'parents' magazine cover that shows the cgi jw.org kids on the cover, and an article headline about how wonderful the teaching tools on jw.org are.

  (i don't have the time or the desire to hunt the photo and post it - sorry).

  i immediately suspected some bored and naive jw doing some photoshopping.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Pete Zahut

  I wonder if there's a way to email this in to Parents Magazine?
  
• 
  81

  Elders and Attendants sing, clap and turn backs on Street Preacher after Duluth RC.

  by ToesUp in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  very strange behavior by the attendants and elders after the duluth, ga, rc.

  on the first link the attendants start to exit the arena, then line up and turn their backs on the street preachers.

  (around the 6:00 mark).. elders and attendants after duluth rc.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Pete Zahut

  I'd say from the waistlines of most of those fellows, they need to lay off the Cheese Danishes and quit sitting around for days on end at these assemblies. In the first video, did you see the pair of hips on the guy in the grey suit? They practically took up the whole screen on my iphone. Good thing the "race for life" isn't a literal race...just sayin'.
  
• 
  29

  "Inactive" non Attenders, how much power do the JW's have over YOU ?

  by Phizzy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i was thinking about this because of the constant reminders we get in posts that we inactive non attenders have to be careful what we say to jw's, and what we do that they may learn about etc, if we don't wish to be before a j.c. the power they have is limited by what we give them.

  now, i do not wish to be declared df'd of da'd, it would kill my old mum i think.. but i refuse to live my life looking over my shoulder, that, in my opinion, is giving them too much power.. i openly vote, i openly donate blood, i enjoy the odd cigar etc etc.. how much power do you allow them to have over you ?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Pete Zahut

  They have more power over my life than they would have if it were up to me. Unfortunately, my wife's family, even though they know we were wronged, are one misapplied scripture away from shunning us and she doesn't want that to happen. Consequently, we have to filter our facebook posts, censor ourselves when talking to them and pretty much let anything they say just slide on by. This irks me to no end because I'm the type who can't stand playing other people's games or pretending to go along with things I don't agree with. This is especially difficult when they make condescending remarks about non JW's or use some shortsighted JW form of logic that has more holes in it than Sponge Bob.