Posts by Pete Zahut

Nicely written post by the way Amanda. You sound like a very thoughtful and compassionate person. I hope you will look up other former JW's in your area who can relate to your situation and ease your burden while you make the transition.

It is when we're looking backward in time, that we feel anger, regret, frustration and sadness. Looking too far forward in time brings on anxiety and fear. Try to live in the present moment as much as you can and look for little things to be grateful for each day or each hour if need be. Like most of us have had to do, keep your nose pointed in the direction of where you want to be and in time, little by little you'll find yourself there. It's the law of attraction. We are drawn toward what we think about the most.

11

Different Types Of Abuse

by Amanda Moore in

there is alot if press here in australua on the royal commission about child abuse in the jw faith.

however that is just one type of abuse, abuse can be physical or mental, we tend to forget about the various types of mental abuse in the jw faith.

my story is not unique and apologies for grammar etc.. my father and mother emigrated to perth australia many decades ago when i was very young.

Pete Zahut

I had terrible anxiety issues as a JW. Looking back I realize this all stemmed from growing up in expectation that in the near future, my father, most of my relatives and possibly myself if I wasn't a good boy, would be destroyed at the hand of God at Armageddon. If I was deemed good enough to be spared from destruction, there would surely be some sort of torture or tribulation to endure before the whole thing was over.

Even as an otherwise normal man with a nice wife and family of my own, when I hit my mid 40's I started having free floating anxiety attacks. These didn't stop until about a week or so after I decided to stop going to meetings.

I spoke to different Drs. and Counselors during my decade long ordeal but I never talked to them about being a JW as I didn't want to bring "reproach" on the organization. They were baffled as to what was going on with me. Nothing they gave me or said to me helped.

It wasn't until I began to awaken from the TRUTH that I allowed myself to talk about that aspect of my life. It was then that all the pieces began to come together. I was diagnosed with a PTST like syndrome due to a childhood that was filled with horrific end times predictions that never occurred. My Counselor told me that Children aren't equipped with the emotional tools needed to process that kind of information and telling a child that the world is going to end in destruction, and that their father and friends and possibly themselves will be destroyed by god in a cataclysmic event, is a form of child abuse.

JW' s endure weekly if not daily doses of this kind of thing and there's no wonder so many of them are messed up. I am so thankful to be at peace with myself. Even with all the serious things going on out there, I have never felt more at ease with the world as I do now. It is so much easier to live knowing that certain weather events, natural disasters and human activities are random rather than caused by or as a result of a supreme being who purposely inflicted havoc on the human race.

65

Major changes to convention security beginning in 2017

by Edison Trent in

short info on interesting changes to the major conventions this year: there will be a new security concept that will be implemented at all regional conventions in 2017.. similar to other major events (e.g.

festivals, concerts), there will be admittance controls in stadiums.. - at each entrance, there will be a massive presence of attendants that look at each visitor.. - there will be pocket checks at the entrance.. - suspicious persons are no longer left on the convention grounds.. - suppliers to the stadium will be intensively inspected by attendants.. - there will be a special sign for attendants that must enter the stadium before 7.30 am.

all others (even all attendants) can only enter after 7.30 am..

Pete Zahut

Honestly, I think they've been very foolish about this in the past. Door to door knockers and Convention attendees have been sitting ducks for whatever nut case they happened to encounter.

Either way, these heightened security measures will be more fodder for their "end times" predictions. "See how bad things are getting friends? Jehovah's people have to be cautious as serpents yet innocent as doves"

The irony of it is, most of them believe they are Jehovah's chosen people and will say that he is protecting them yet on some level they know it's not true, hence the need for these security measures. It's the same sort of reasoning that lets them preach that the end of the system is upon us yet go ahead build a new billion dollar headquarters, claiming they'll need it after Armageddon, even though every factory, resort, hotel, warehouse and home on the planet would be theirs for the taking, afterward.

27

Striking Out On My Own

by Saethydd in

those of you who know my story are aware that i'm currently disfellowshipped and living with my parents.

up until now, my plan has been to be reinstated and then fade, but recently my plans have changed.

in a conversation with my mother a few days ago and she made it clear that she would not be okay with me getting reinstated with the purpose of going inactive.

Pete Zahut

I'm sort of on the fence about the idea of drawing a line in the sand with a letter that may come back to haunt you later for reasons you can't identify at this point in time. Then again, I like the idea of a Disfellowshipped person"owning it" and not slinking away into the wild blue yonder without having his or her say.

If you'd care to, I for one would be interested in seeing your letter before you send it. There's a lot of clever people on this forum who will likely have valuable input to help you through this life changing move you're about to make.

Either way, you know your situation best and it sounds to me like you're sort of relieved to have a plan.

Just curious...did your Mom bring up the topic of "reinstatement then fading" coincidentally or does she know that was your intended plan at first? I can't imagine you'd have told her that was what you were thinking of doing.

61

Would human settlement of Mars invalidate Bible prophecy?

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i don't think this topic has been discussed before but yesterday i read something to the effect that trump wants a human mission to mars to be completed within his presidency.. with that being said, the watchtower teaches that what started on earth ends on earth, in other words, the fall of adam and eve would end with the passing of the 1,000 year millennial reign when christ destroys all his enemies, rebellious "perfect" humans, and the devil and his demons who are let out the abyss for a short while.

he then hands the kingdom back to his father.

an elder in my old congregation once told us during a public talk that he was an ardent astronomer but then referenced the scripture where it says, "the earth he has given to the sons of men" (psalms 115:16).

Pete Zahut

Ray Franz in his book said that there was a point in time when the Governing Body considered changing the significant JW date of 1914 to the year 1957. That was the year Sputnik was launched by the Russians and because such a thing was new and scary and Russian, it seemed to fit the description of the Luke 21 prophecy about fearful signs from the heavens, in the end times.

It seems to me any JW worth his salt could spin just about any world event or accomplishment to fit their favorite woeful Bible prophecy, including the establishment of a space colony.

P.S. I loved Outlaws cartoon....even in outer space, the sister's space suit had to have the obligatory skirt...HA!

18

Apostate carts

by Normalfulla in

so i've recently been travelling about usa and mexico and of course seen the carts parked at tourist spots all over and i had a funny thought ...if somehow we could get a bunch of identical carts together and print up a placard with a few key facts about the real truth with jwfacts logo and just park them right in the same areas ,dress up in our old meeting clothes and stand about with a coffee and look on our phones i wonder what response we would get from anyone ?

or park them outside assembly's and just stand.off at a distance ...basically the same thing they do to all society !.

Pete Zahut

One could quietly stand by a Literature Cart with a sign like this:

37

"Hard work never killed anyone," or "I have to give up knitting."

by compound complex in

greetings, my aging friends:.

it's not really a funny subject, our getting old and our bodies falling apart.

sure, as the saying goes, hard work won't kill you, but it can wear out your body.

Pete Zahut

Hard work never killed anyone but nobody's ever died from taking it easy either.

I didn't have time to read any of the previous posts but here's what I know.

#1 Get medical advice and possibly physical therapy

Inflammation is not our friend.
White blood cells attack inflammation and inflamed joints can become permanently damaged by this.
Ibuprofen, acetaminophen, aspirin relieve pain and reduce inflammation
Ice reduces inflammation.
A combination of ice, and anti inflammatories (used as directed) is very effective in reducing the pain, inflammation and the healing time.
Not using the painful joint can sometimes make it worse.
Don't stop using the inflamed sore joint but use it moderately but only after doing very light stretches (as directed)
Always do stretches and warm ups even if you're not currently having any joint problems and ice joints when they've been stressed even if they don't currently hurt.

13

I have a big nose...

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

surprisingly whilst hating being born with this over large nose, women have fallen in love with my nose.

so with regards to look and charm, what i hated about my physical attributes, many women have found attractive.

anyway i just wanted to say what we find unattractive about ourselfs, doesn't necessarily mean others do.

Pete Zahut

Anyway i just wanted to say what we find unattractive about ourselfs, doesn't necessarily mean others do. In fact it could be our main asset.

I have dimples in my cheeks and on my chin. Your post reminded me of how my older brother used to tease me merciless about them and convinced me they were something to be embarrassed about. When I was a kid, I thought when someone pointed them out, they were pretending to be nice but were really, making fun of me. When I got older I found out that a lot of girls actually liked them but the idea that they were ugly was firmly implanted in my mind by then.

Fast forward, I married a girl with a Marie Osmond smile and dimpled cheeks, both of our sons have them, our married son's wife has them and now our adorable little granddaughter has one on each cheek and one on her chin. My brother posted our family photo on his facebook page and made a big deal about all of us being dimpled and admitted that he had always been jealous of mine. It even turns out that people are now going to plastic surgeons to have them installed. Who knew people would pay to have the thing I hated most about myself as a kid ??