Posts by Pete Zahut

65

My Introduction - An ex-elder's story of waking up later in life.

by doubtfull1799 in

background:.

my parents got the “truth” while i was in primary school.

i was baptised at 14. i loved school and was extremely studious.

Pete Zahut

Thanks for sharing your personal "JW story". I was particularly touched by the part where you said you cried for days after losing your hope of everlasting life. That's a tough one isn't it ? My wife and I faded in our early 50's after being raised in the religion. Like you, it was a perfect storm of events and doctrinal conflicts that made being a JW intolerable. We had to come to grips with our own mortality in a matter of days rather than over a lifetime as most people do. Sometimes the pain and emptiness was unbearable, but here we are, years down the road, making more than just a go of things. Coming to grips with ones own mortality is a very freeing thing once it happens. It's much easier to deal with than having to constantly convince yourself that you're going to live forever in a paradise when you know on some deep level that it can't possibly be real.

It's difficult at first but try not to spend too much time on "what might have been". When those thoughts come up, shoo them away just as you'd shoo away flies buzzing around at a picnic you were trying to enjoy. Why let those kinds of thoughts spoil your day? After all, what is wasted time really? Time passes and is gone, whether we do something productive with it or not. What if you'd have been allowed to attend University and you'd been hit by a bus a week after graduating? None of us knows if things would be any better if we'd have turned left instead of right at a fork in life's road.The main thing is that you're still here and will do better now that you know better.

I found that most if not all of the depression and anxiety I suffered over the years was due to suppressing my own common sense and from attending those bleak and mind numbing meetings. Once I was away from all of that and I had recovered from the rude awakening that I had been duped, things began to get better and better.

My hope is that this will be the case for you as well. It would be great if you could manage to continue on as you are without the JW's doing any more damage to your life than they already have. I hope that by formally disassociating, you won't be burning any bridges or making things more difficult.

You know what's best in your own circumstance but the main thing is you are moving forward and no longer spinning your wheels chasing after a fantasy.

58

Assembly Dramas:They were so bad.... but.... you waited for them to break away from the monotony!

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

.

you do remember the four day assemblies... sitting outdoors being fried in the sweltering heat,getting heat stroke in the middle of july in an outdoor baseball stadium.sitting outdoors from 9:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. was so much fun while you wore a suit,long sleeve shirt and a tie while your brain fried.

mom's who had children to take care of,lug strollers,feed all the kids,take them for bathroom breaks and try to not faint from the heat.. the sound and audio was always breaking and barely audible from the wind,airplanes flying over and (if you attended the cicero,illinois circuit )you would smell horse manure from the horse stables next door.. you know that you are a jehovah's witness.... when the only excitement waiting for the drama... where brothers and sisters dress up in ancient cloths,fake beards,fake rocks and fake soldier uniforms and wave their hands incessantly to pretend that they are acting out a drama.the excitement was unbearable!.

Pete Zahut

At one assembly I was at, there were tennis courts adjacent to the stadium the that you could see from your seats and still look as if you were looking at the stage and were paying attention. The players were only a speck in the distance but watching the matches broke up the monotony of being at the assembly. A couple of the players decided they'd create a little drama of their own by playing a set naked just to shake things up for the religious nuts at the stadium. It was hilarious to hear the murmuring of the crowd rise to a crescendo and to see all the righteous JW's with binoculars straining to get a better look.

19

JW.ORG Now requires personal address

by AverageJoe1 in

logging on to the user area access today, there appeared a message saying that they now require a postal and physical home address to attach to your profile, with a note saying that the branch may change the details as they see fit.

this raises several questions in my mind:.

why would they need to have your physical address on file?.

Pete Zahut

Perhaps there was a problem with people logging on and pretending to be interested in a free home bible study and JW's were being sent to a fake address ??

66

Was There ANYTHING Positive That You Experienced Because of Being a JW?

by minimus in

jw
friends

was there anything positive about your jehovah's witness experience?.

Pete Zahut

Children from abusive homes can often find something positive to look back upon but that doesn't negate the fact that although they had a roof over their heads, were fed and sent to school, they were still abused.

I attribute my good health and still youthful appearance to the clean lifestyle I lived and also due to the fact that I never got to do anything because I spent decades preparing for meetings assemblies and service, attending meetings, assemblies and service, coming home from meetings, assemblies and service and trying to recruit others to attend meetings, assembly and to eventually go in service.

Ships are safer when they're tied up in the harbor but that's not what ships were built for.

22

The Timing of Telling My Parents My College Plans.

by WeatherLover in

jw
friends

i know that at some point i have to tell my parents that i'm planning to go to college.

i basically have two options:.

1. tell them early.

Pete Zahut

It's a crazy thing that your going to college would be considered bad news.

Is the college you plan on attending nearby so you could live at home if your parents are favorable or would you have to move away anyway?

Are you certain you'd be kicked out if you went to college?

Why can't you attend college and not mention ending the JW thing just yet. Let them get used to the idea of college and then gradually fade away sometime in the future.

Perhaps you could sit them down and have the following conversation:

You: Dad...Mom, play along with me here but can you give me 3 examples of things that no parent ever wants to hear about their kid?

Your Parents: No parent wants to hear their child is sick, or they've been in an accident or they are in trouble with the law.

You: What about if they heard their child had been accepted into college?

Parents: Well...no, that wouldn't exactly be bad news....why are you asking us this?

You: Well it occurred to me that even though parents all over the world are overjoyed when their kids go on to higher education, it might come as bad news to you, if I were to tell you I got accepted into a college.

Then take the conversation from there, hopefully you'll have put things into perspective for them.

26

Hit by a car evacuating due to oroville dam. Ever been hit?

by Wasanelder Once in

went back to get info from driver who tapped our car in line of cars exiting the area.

after getting her info, she waited till i walked back to our car and punched the gas, hitting me.

then drove off.

Pete Zahut

Not that your injuries weren't bad but I'm glad it wasn't worse. If you didn't get the woman's license number or there were no witnesses, perhaps there was a nearby business that had a security cam going. It's a slim chance but I know someone who was able to provide evidence of a crash that way. My guess she didn't have insurance and was making a run for it.

Hope they're able to get you patched up good as new....until then we'll have to excuse any typos you make while posting here. LOL !

GET WELL SOON !!

31

I need some advice please

by JaMu in

i am a non-jw girl dating a jw man for almost 5 years now since end of high school.

most of the relationship has been long distance.

when we started dating, we wanted a serious long term relationship that would end in marriage one day.

Pete Zahut

Just a few random thoughts:

Whenever I had a girlfriend, I couldn't wait to see her... wanted to be with her at all times or at least as much as possible.
Can't imagine having serious feelings for a woman and not being "intimate" for 5 years.
Do you suspect you may be the "girl on the side" to him and that he has others as well?
Have you asked him what "unevenly yolked" means to a JW? If not, ask him to explain the term and where you fit into the picture and what this will mean for your relationship, long term.
How trustworthy is he if he can spend 5 years hiding the fact that he is breaking one of the major "JW tenants" (see above)
Not sure why you refer to yourself as a "Girl" and to him as a"Man" is the use of those phrases telling as to your age differences and or equality in this relationship? If so I see more red flags.

Anyway, there are lots of variables to this story that I don't know but it sounds like your instincts are on high alert over this and as far as I can tell, they should be. It seems like you deserve better treatment than what you've been getting. I'm glad you came here to ask your questions....you deserve to be someone's number one....rather than strung along in the shadows by a guy who's in the grips of a weird religion.

8

Funny event at the Memorial celebration

by DaPriest in

for this award, i would like to nominate something that happened in berlin south english, again.we all have seen people that try to disrupt the memorial celebration, and this is not amusing at all.

its quite sad.

what is amusing is when the disruption occurs from within.an incident occurred once, when a brother was passing the bread around.

Pete Zahut

Someone brought their bible study to one Memorial at or Hall. He was a frail trembling elderly man who was very hard of hearing. There were 5 of 6 chairs between he and the closest person to him so when it came time for him to pass the wine, he got up and teetered down the aisle holding the wine glass in his shaking hands, sloshing it all over the place. As he handed the glass off to the next person he shouted (as deaf folks often do without realizing it) "WELL HERE YA' GO...IF THERE'S ANYTHING LEFT OF IT, THAT IS !"

There was much snickering to be heard throughout the hall.

23

Cart Witnessing On Their Wedding Day

by pale.emperor in

this photo is doing the rounds on jw inspirational on instagram.

although the brothers and sisters think this is "oh so amazing" and "so cool" it's actually very sad and quite shocking.

what, people cant even enjoy their wedding day without the cult invading their special day.

Pete Zahut

I'm guessing they were having their photos taken in the park just adjacent to where this cart was and some uber JW (probably the brides Mother) though it would be cute to get a shot by the literature cart to show all her friends.

The Bride looks as if she's only putting up with it to avoid making a scene and he looks like a bit of a schlub who's hoping the whole thing is over before one of his mates from work sees him.

I remember being at a wedding one Saturday where the Presiding Overseer ran after the bride and groom and flagged them down as they were driving away to leave for their honeymoon. A bunch of us were standing nearby and heard him tell them that there was going to be a really good talk Sunday and he thought it would be a good idea for them to attend. The bride hooted with laughter rolled up her window in his face and the pair of them drove off.

It was classic !

9

Homeless guy begs with the Watchtower

by ShirleyW in

jw
friends

after that crazy story about the bride and groom going out in service in their wedding attire, that reminded me of a scene yesterday in one of the subway stations, a disheveled homeless guy had one hand out begging for some money, "does anyone have some spare change to help me " he kept saying, in his other hand was a copy of the magazine.

so what must've happened was some dub passed him by and instead of giving him a quarter gave him a copy of the latest publication.

although some of the beggars use their money for alcoholic beverage anyway instead of food i'm sure that magazine will be put to good use when he feels the need to take a squat somewhere and needs some paper.

Pete Zahut

They actually feel that it is better to give this man bible literature so he becomes a JW, shaves, get's new clothes and suddenly his life is on the right track. To be honest I do not see this as bad. I think it is better to teach this man how to live so he can benefit himself. But at the same time the JW would never help a poor man out. Their money is for the WTBTS only!

I would agree that in some cases, any form of structure to live by (even the JW's) is a step in the right direction to get someone back on the right track. In the case of the individual I was commenting on, it was pretty clear that his issues were more problematic than what a bath, a shave and a watchtower article could resolve. He was obviously in need of medication and long term mental care from highly trained professionals whom by the way, the good folks at the Watchtower, view as being part of Satan's WICKED organization.