Posts by Pete Zahut

8

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development - did you miss a stage?

by Butterfly607 in

erikson's stages of psychosocial development include this fifth stage:.

"the fifth stage of erik erikson's theory of psychosocial development is identity vs. role confusion, and it occurs during adolescence, from about 12-18 years.

during this stage, adolescents search for a sense of self and personal identity, through an intense exploration of personal values, beliefs, and goals.".

Pete Zahut

Growing up JW you identify and define yourself by the religion first and foremost. All the blanks are filled in...no need to look elsewhere.

20

Role Call, Number of Family Members Who Have Shunned You!

by The Bethelite in

jw
friends

just one left, my sister.

i haven't talk to her in over 15 years.

the rest are all dead.. i'm not counting my ex wife and all her family.... .

We are not being fully shunned by family members but are definitely being marginalized my nearly all of them. Some have "unfriend" us from social media once they realized that we were no longer attending meetings.

My wife's aunt and uncle have never met their daughters husband and their 3 grandchildren (don't even know their names) and they haven't spoken to her and one of their sons for over 10 years simply because they walked away. At a large family gathering, everyone was sitting in a large group eating and talking. Things got mighty quiet when one of the old aunties intentionally asked them in front of everyone, what the names and ages of their grandchildren were. They couldn't answer and were mortified in front of all the non JW relatives who had all of their children and grandchildren present.

The old auntie didn't let them off the hook and chastised them for it saying "Cant imagine bringing children into this world and them abandoning them simply because they didn't take up my religion". It was something to see the look on this Elder and Regular Pioneer's faces as they were called out on their unloving behavior. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

17

Did you have a Narcissistic JW Parent?

by Butterfly607 in

did anyone else have a parent who could be described as highly narcissistic who was a jw?

how was that for you growing up?

which was worse - the narcissistic religion or the narcissistic parent?.

Pete Zahut

Did anyone else have a parent who could be described as highly narcissistic who was a JW? How was that for you growing up? Which was worse - the narcissistic religion or the narcissistic parent?

My Mom (bless her) tended to be motivated by what others thought of her and used us kids to make herself appear favorably in their eyes. Of course there was the notion that we'd live forever one day, but us giving talks, having parts in the meeting, going in service "placing" a lot of magazines and being well dressed at the meetings was mostly about her looking good in the eyes of others, in the here and now.

Like many, she was caught up in the JW idea that the whole world is watching us and enough is never enough. Knowing that everyone was watching each others works and that they were evaluating each others spirituality by them, mustn't have been easy on her own as a mother with an "unbelieving" mate. Nevertheless, it wasn't fun to be someones trained poodle.

25

Do You Support Sanctuary Cities?

by minimus in

jw
friends

if you do support sanctuary cities, would you be happy to live in one?.

hey, in the bible, sanctuary cities were acceptable, right?

?.

Pete Zahut

My understanding of a U.S. Sanctuary City is that crime and criminals are not tolerated but individuals won't be sought out specifically because of their immigration status. They believe that's the Federal Government's job

Sanctuary cities aren't exactly welcoming illegal immigrants with open arms. The hope is that existing illegals will not be afraid to report crimes that they are aware of or have been victims of, use health facilities and enroll their children in schools, for fear of being deported.

Studies have shown that in sanctuary cities, there is still a general distrust of the government by illegals and the sanctuary status of the city they are in, has little effect on improving it's crime rate or it's economic situation.

I'm not sure why a local government wouldn't want to assist the federal government with enforcement of immigration laws of the country they are a part of and claim to support.

I don't imagine there is anywhere in the world where I could just sneak in with my family and somehow expect to put my kids in the local school and take advantage of the medical services etc and not be asked/told to leave ( I'd move to Tahiti if I could do that, LOL! )I'd expect that the lot of us would be apprehended and eventually deported. That would be part of the risk I took. Yet when people do this, rather than blame the parents for doing something highly illegal, there are those who criticize our government for enforcing it's laws and the problems that arise when the existing system becomes overwhelmed.

32

Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

by Sea Breeze in

david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

Pete Zahut

It's easier for some to believe that because of the complexities of the earth and it's inhabitants, it would be impossible for it to have gotten here without being created by a complex, almighty and powerful god. Even though they believe he has always existed and had no creator, himself.

10

Letter Detailing My Latest JW Encounter

by Roger Kirkpatrick in

to whom it may concern: .

i am writing this letter in the hope of reconnecting with two jehovah’s witness elders whom i met at a literature display in downtown new braunfels, across the street from krause’s.

i explained to them that my daughter is a jehovah’s witness and, therefore, i am somewhat familiar with their beliefs.

Pete Zahut

They said they would have to do some research, and they promised to call at my home. They took note of my address, but I have never heard back from them.

After that conversation, they are probably no longer Jehovah's Witnesses.

22

Murmurs from the locals

by Moster in

jw
friends

i was ministered to by several different people at a jw funeral i attended today.

one older lady said to me, "you know the end is right around the corner, just look at the state of the world today".

i said, "well yes but that has been the mantra for decades, remember 'stay alive till '75'".

Pete Zahut

She then says, "well that never came from the governing body, that was local ones saying that".

Moster: ....and today, the "local ones" are approaching people at funerals and repeating the new mantra,

"the end is right around the corner".

24

The "figurative" heart

by Sour Grapes in

about 25 years ago i gave a talk about how when the bible talks about the heart that it is the literal heart and how the heart and the brain are connected by nerve tissue.

the watchtower even stated that some people who received a heart transplant would take on some of the personality of the donor.then all of a sudden the borg changed and said that when the bible refers to the heart that it is figurative.

then when ever the watchtower referred to the heart it always put the word figurative in front of it.. does anyone know why there was a change in the use of the word heart?

Pete Zahut

To be fair, the Society only picked up what a lot of medical reports were saying in those early days of experimental heart transplants.

Yes, that is very true and one can't fault them too much over that. The problem I have is that they seemed to gloss over the fact that they had once based their logic and interpretations of certain scriptures on the heart literally being the seat of our emotions. For a good long stretch of time, they even claimed that a person would take on the personal traits of the donor after an organ transplant and a blood transfusion. They use secular information that supports their beliefs yet they speak with authority on these matters as if what they are teaching has been revealed to them by Jehovah himself. As far as I know, they never actually came out and said that they were wrong and corrected themselves once they knew better. One could respect them for that if they did. Like other matters, they simply stopped talking about it and after a time, began using different phraseology when talking of this subject.

17

First Xmas? Or older traditions? 🎄

by Theonlyoneleft in

is anyone here doing their first xmas this year?🎄🎄.

i love xmas!

almost around the corner and i’ve started thinking of all the prep needed for family time.

Pete Zahut

Thank goodness for mothers like yours and now you.

Kids may not seem to be noticing the extra things that their parents do for them but they're taking it all in and one day, they'll look back on it all with appreciative eyes.

I was raised JW so I never had any Christmas memories, only secretly admiring the decorations and music and dreading the inevitable "why no Christmas" questions from the kids at school and in the neighborhood and having to stick up for Jehovah by sitting alone in the school library while everyone else ate goodies and exchanged gifts.

These days, (somewhat guiltily) I put up tiny white lights on the topiary trees at our front entrance and I put lighted pillar candles (battery powered) on a wrought iron candelabra, up in the arched part of our living room window. I still have a little trouble doing this, due to the residual guilt left over from being a JW, even though I know better.

Last. year we had a family dinner during the holidays. My wife is a fantastic cook and set out a beautifully laid table of food and deserts. Our youngest son and his girlfriend (also and X JW who he met at college) brought over presents for all of us. What was meant to be a family dinner, turned out be sort of Christmas like. Our oldest Son and his wife and toddler still attend meetings on occasion but had no problem with all of this. It was so nice to have the whole family there and seeing our grandchild being spoiled by her doting family and our sons goofing around like they did as boys. It was heartwarming to see their young ladies getting along so well and being such good friends.

This year we have a second grand baby and just found out there's another one on the way. We're looking forward to more of these occasions but are unsure how our Son and his wife will explain all this to their children as they grow up. There's always going to some awkwardness surrounding the holidays, I'm afraid. I know we'll never recognize them as having anything to do with religion. Rather, they will simply be memorable family occasions.

24

The "figurative" heart

by Sour Grapes in

about 25 years ago i gave a talk about how when the bible talks about the heart that it is the literal heart and how the heart and the brain are connected by nerve tissue.

the watchtower even stated that some people who received a heart transplant would take on some of the personality of the donor.then all of a sudden the borg changed and said that when the bible refers to the heart that it is figurative.

then when ever the watchtower referred to the heart it always put the word figurative in front of it.. does anyone know why there was a change in the use of the word heart?

Pete Zahut

There had to be something that caused this change.

Back in the late 80s there was a local Dentist in our area who was dying and volunteered to be the first recipient of a mechanical heart. He lived for a time afterward and showed the full range of human emotions.

This, coupled with all the heart transplants that became commonplace afterward, the JW notion that the heart was something more than a pump, was blown to shreds.

True to form, they never owned up to the misinformation they had spread all over the world. Instead, they just stopped talking about it until it just went away.
But it didn’t go away.... lots of us remember.