Posts by Pete Zahut

19

Going to see my abusive jw mother tomorrow

by Simonsez in

my me mother and i do not see eye to eye to say the least.

my childhood was fraught with her abusive behavior.

alas.she is old now and though i have not spoken to her in a year she called the other day and wanted to see me.

Pete Zahut

You could go see her and have as pleasant of a visit as possible. If she brings up your brother or asks your advice or opinion on anything (other than the weather), you could say something along the lines of :

"Mom....I'm not a JW anymore of course but I do still fully understand what that means in terms of you being able to fully trust anything a non JW like me, has to say about anything important. That being said, I'm going to refrain from making any comments or offering any advice other than to say that If you have concerns about what's going on with your personal affairs, why not have the elders check into it? That way you and I can have a nice visit today?"

---------------------------

Sometimes the less said the better. Not spilling your guts about your brother when given the perfect opportunity to do so, may garner her trust and spark further curiosity. She may look into the matter and find out what you already know and you'll come out smelling like a rose or at least won't be blamed for stirring the pot.

26

Was It Designed? (My head hurts)

by Cadellin in

i know i shouldn't--i tell myself this over and over--but i can't help peeking at these silly articles.

and then i see this and my head really starts hurting: so the gannet, if you don't know (and why would you?

) is a seabird that feeds on fish.

Pete Zahut

To me the question is, why this bird (whether it evolved or created) needs to dive so deeply to get fish since there are plenty of other kinds of birds who live nearby who also feed on fish, without having to go to such extremes to catch them.

Whether or not the bird in question evolved or was created, there is still no proof that God's name is Jehovah or that Jehovah's Witnesses are his chosen people as they claim to be.

52

So What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Do Now?

by minimus in

jw
friends

they don’t go to conventions .

they don’t go to assemblies.

they don’t go to meetings.

Pete Zahut

We stayed at my (Elder) brother in laws house this weekend and it was his turn to conduct the meeting for field service via Zoom. He got dressed in his meeting clothes and held the meeting from his back bedroom. After the meeting the other JW's, also dressed in their meeting clothes, set about making calls and writing letters from their own home. He went back to a home improvement project that he had been previously working on.

I said "It must be hard to arrange the car groups via zoom" . He laughed but I know that he sees how ridiculous it is to have to dress up as if you're actually going out from door to door.

24

What Is The Position Of Witnesses For People Who Are Inactive And Don’t Want To Be Bothered By Anyone?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i used to have some close friends simply pay me a friendly visit or call to see how i was doing.. i am curious as to whether or not the society instructed witnesses to no longer check on inactive ones and treat them as marked or disfellowshipped..

Pete Zahut

Maybe this isn't the best example but It reminds me of why we wear a mask for Covid 19....only I reverse. Most people think that wearing a mask is mostly about protecting themselves from Covid 19 when in reality it's mostly intended to prevent the mask wearer from spreading the virus they may have, to others via droplets.

The idea behind shunning is supposedly a way to prevent current JW's from being infected by your non JW ideas. It really isn't done out of concern for you and your spiritual welfare or about loyalty to Jehovah, as many JW's like to convince themselves.

It's more about powerless people being allowed to feel better about themselves by having an imagined authority over someone else and by looking better themselves, by comparison. Those who are secure in themselves typically don't go to any great length to punish former JW's . It's the ones who need or enjoy a good power trip, and take it upon themselves to go out of their way personally to make sure former JW's pay the price for them having to still have to keep doing all the nonsensical things that JW's have to do.

10

What’s Up With All These “Racists” Facebook Videos??

by minimus in

jw
friends

when i go to facebook, they now have tons of vids showing crazy sounding racists men and women of all ages railing against blacks and other minorities.

.

is this for real?

Pete Zahut

Thanks to social media, any dysfunctional ignoramus with a camera can use it as a weapon to tattle on other ignoramuses by posting a one sided moralistic version of whatever chaotic event they happen to be on any given day.

7

Marry in white - a worldly practice

by menrov in

i was not aware but just learned that is was queen victoria who was the first to get marries in white dress.

.

so, it is a worldly practice.... i assume jw's should reconsider whether they adopt / continue this worldly practice or keep away from it ... .

Pete Zahut

The whole JW notion of thinking they must set themselves apart from the world is so inconsistent. As the OP pointed out, the wearing of a white dress was a trend that Queen Victoria started so that she'd stand out and be more visible among the throngs of people at her wedding. It was also meant to signify purity and virginity.

Wearing a ring on the left hand had non Christian superstitious origins and the wearing a diamond ring specifically which came into vogue when the diamond cartel did a mass advertising campaign by giving diamond rings to celebrities and then showing this to be a trend among the rich and famous hoping that the public would try to emulate them and it worked. JW's followed suit even though they were emulating the world.

Marching down the aisle of a religious building (church) to a religious song (hymn) was a practice started in Christendom as was wearing a garter and throwing a bouquet.

JW's pick and choose what is or isn't "worldly" and ignore anything that shows their choices don't make sense.

21

How do I find a woman who is a Jehovah's Witness during COVID-19 Pandemic?

by Silkythefresh in

hello there, fellow believers!

i'm here today to talk about something that has been bothering my mind and my heart.

i truly want to find a woman who knows jehovah's name and worships him.

Pete Zahut

I find it odd that someone who describes himself as a 16 year old "boy", says he's looking for a "woman" instead of a girl as most boys his age would be attracted to. I know there is a pedophile problem in the organization so who know's what's going on with this kid.

One of my wife's relatives used to do odd jobs for a married sister who attended his congregation when he was about 14. After babysitting for her one evening, she told him to come into the bedroom where her purse was so that she could pay him but instead proceeded to teach him the facts of life.

This messed the poor kid up and he blamed himself as molested kids often seem to do. Instead of being every boys fantasy as is stereotypically believed, he was riddled with embarrassment guilt every time he saw her sitting with her family at the meetings. He hated her for being able to answer at the meetings as if nothing happened while he carried around this enormous burden and fear for what would happen to him at armageddon.

Eventually at 17 he ran away from home and quit going to school. He got odd jobs, lived in his car until he was accepted into the army. He was treated as the black sheep of his JW family but he would never tell them what happened to him and he didn't fully realize until he had kids of his own, what was bothering him. He eventually became quite successful, married and had a family and eventually was able to tell his wife what about why he ran away and joined the army when he was a kid. She absolutely loathed the JWs for what happened to her husband. Years later they told us about it once we left the organization.

Hopefully this post is a scam... who knows, but something doesn't seem to add up.

28

What defines a "Woman of Color" in Today's World?

by RubaDub in

jw
friends

we hear daily "a woman or color".

one person here mentioned that nikki haley (parents are from india) is a woman of color.. what defines "woman of color?

" is there some scan gun that they put point at your head and defines the pigmentation?.

Pete Zahut

In the U.S. a person of color is a way to describe anyone who is not considered white or is of European parentage. But this doesn't always make sense such as in the case of Barak Obama who is considered the first "black" president even though he is caucasian on his mother's side and was raised by that side of the family.

I'm guessing that one day, that reference will be considered "offensive" because it's like making the Caucasian a stand alone race and then everyone else, no matter what their parentage, is "of color" and it also tries to squeeze people into a box that doesn't describe them at all. I believe the reason it exists was for the purpose of collecting data and understanding certain trends or what was taking place in each segment of the population whether it be with males or females, with racial, economic or religious demographics etc.

I know people who's parentage is European, Asian and Black. You can't even tell what race they are and I imagine in about a hundred years, the matter of race will be a non issue. Right now we are experiencing the growing pains of a world that has become smaller due to jet travel and human migration. Like children we are learning how to share and get along with new people and new ideas. We'll hopefully do a lot better once we grow up a bit. Till then we're gonna' have to be patient with one another.

25

The women that abandon “The Good News” are a large army

by Aimee.Padilla in

to be born a woman is a great disadvantage in many parts of the world and much more if she is part of a destructive sect like the jehovah’s witnesses where she is submitted to the “theocratic order” being the base that sustains the corporate pyramid, displaying submission at all times before male authority.

those of us that have been part of this cult can verify that the woman has to carry out a series of practices that for the rest of society is somewhat incomprehensible.

i’d like to draw your attention to the act of head covering, if for any reason a woman has to pray in public while a male is present, who is not available to lead the prayer, she must cover her head because she wouldn’t be respecting the arrangement of authority if she didn’t.

Pete Zahut

Pete I'm tired of your bull shit on this subject. There would be no Society if women didn't rise to the needs. They are not at fault.....the Society is.

I suppose the only thing you can do about that is choose not read my comments. If you do happen to read them, try and see through the negative filters you may have on this topic and try to see what the real intent of my post instead of projecting your own negative notions onto my words. Who said anything about anyone being at fault? If you read my comment again you'll realize that I was saying that we all have responsibility for the choices we make and the responsibility to change our former choices once we realized they were wrong. Many a JW did so and faced the consequences, but most stuck with their old choices because it was easier than the alternative and it was easier to let others take charge of our lives or blame someone else than to face up to what we needed to do. My original post was to demonstrate that anyone can find someone to blame for what happened to them....even men. We were victims too. Like fools we spend hours giving and preparing talks, sitting in elders meetings, being examples being watched by everyone especially those looking to find fault, only to find out it was all a hoax. Men don't get to blame anyone for this, we don't get to refer to ourselves as "warriors" once we got the courage to leave.

What your now trying to promote sounds like an anti wives put down. Sorry if you lost your wife and children. But being an ass wipe on this forum is not the solution.

How did you ever come up with such a notion, and why all the crude language ?? Can't you not find a way to articulate your thoughts and feelings without resorting to crude and childish name calling?? As it happens I have a wonderful wife and she and my sons left the organization along with me. Thankfully she is not one to blame men or anyone else for the years she wasted as an intelligent woman in the JW organization and the things she was subjected to as well as the opportunities she missed. She realizes that she wasn't forced to do any of it. She liked the fact that men took charge. She didn't have to shoulder any of the responsibility nor any blame. She had 2 sisters who had the courage to leave once they became of age but she blindly trusted what she heard from the platform and choose to stick with it even though it didn't make sense. She freely admits that she did so simply because it was familiar and it was easy to go along with the status quo rather than risk being shunned like her sisters. She knows that there are people in this world who lived and are living under real oppression and she wasn't one of them She blames no one (including herself) that's why she was able to move on and why she isn't filled with resentment and anger.

You used to be one of our best and kindest respondents on this slowly dissolving forum.
If you are having former wife issues how about shutting the F up and growing a pair.

Well thanks I guess, for your initial compliment but what makes you think I've changed? More importantly, who do you think you are telling me I can't express my opinion as I see fit?

Grow a pair are you serious ?? It seems to me you might do well to heed your own advice and grow up as well. You might also try to figure out where all this apparent hostility and narcissism is coming from. Try and figure out why you'd become so rattled by a few sentences written by a complete stranger on a page in a public forum, that weren't even directed at you.

This forum has to be a highway for those who are exiting the JW world not some horse shit about the women who thought it was the truth and wanted to help others.
You know what.. it's better to wait to post until you have sobered up.

I have no idea what you were saying in your first sentence, but the last sentence gives me a clue as to what's going on with you today and you're assuming everyone else is in the same condition.

You needn't tell me the purpose of this forum. I'm well aware of its purpose and I'm quite sure it doesn't exist so that you can go on a foul mouth tirade and tell others what they can and cannot say, whenever you disagree with them.

25

The women that abandon “The Good News” are a large army

by Aimee.Padilla in

to be born a woman is a great disadvantage in many parts of the world and much more if she is part of a destructive sect like the jehovah’s witnesses where she is submitted to the “theocratic order” being the base that sustains the corporate pyramid, displaying submission at all times before male authority.

those of us that have been part of this cult can verify that the woman has to carry out a series of practices that for the rest of society is somewhat incomprehensible.

i’d like to draw your attention to the act of head covering, if for any reason a woman has to pray in public while a male is present, who is not available to lead the prayer, she must cover her head because she wouldn’t be respecting the arrangement of authority if she didn’t.

Pete Zahut

With rare exception the men were pretty much worthless in getting bible studies.
Thinking back we had a cadre of highly qualified sisters who couldn't be used in any position of authority. What a waste of a resource that was. What a waste of a gift.

I understand the complaint women in the JW organization have/had but in this case and isn't it good that men were "worthless" at getting Bible studies and isn't it a good thing that women were spared from having further culpability in the running and organization of a cult like false religion and misleading other vulnerable people? I don't understand why one would come to the conclusion that they were in a Cult and then complain that the cult leaders didn't allow them to have more authority in it.

I don't think anyone was intentionally "oppressed" from being a JW. Mislead, yes but the missed opportunities and wasted talents that both men and women experienced came from listening to men who (usually) had the best of intent when trying to apply ancient Middle East values in a modern western world. No one held a gun to our heads. A lot of young JW's had the courage early on, to do what they had to do to free themselves regardless of the consequences.

There is real oppression that took place in history and is still going on in the world but not many JW's today in the western world can (in my opinion) truly say they were "oppressed". Much of what we experienced, we allowed to happen because it was easier than having to face reality and make a big change. There was a personal payoff we enjoyed by staying as long as we did.