Watchtower's New "Toy Story" - What Parents Need To Know

by cedars 166 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  garyneal

  OMG, not that crap again. My daughter just got over that irrational fear of Super Why no thanks to our JW babysitter. Then my wife practically bans our family from watching The Princess and the Frog because she does not like the shadow man. Yet, she loves Tinkerbell and sees nothing wrong with watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I made no bones about pointing out the level of hypocrisy this shows, a level I had not seen since the days when I was attending an Independent Fundamental Baptist church.

  But hey, I like Toy Story, especially Toy Story 3. In that movie, I can picture Sunnyside Daycare being the Watchtower Society, Lotso the Bear is Judge Rutherford, Big Baby is Pastor Russell. The clown who was with big baby and lotso but later left the daycare is Raymond Franz.
• 

  garyneal

  Finding parallels in children's movies and the Watchtower is quite fun sometimes.

  Take Tangled for instance. The TOWER, and MOTHER, then you have a teen who leaves the TOWER and finds herself at war with herself. She later learns that everything MOTHER was telling her about the big bad world is a lie.
• 

  cedars

  Thanks everyone, both for the support and observations. In particular, I will be sweeping through the article to see how/if I can implement 00DAD's suggestions.

  I'm absolutely astounded with how this article has taken off. This is very definitely what you would call a "hot topic".

  We're now on 371 facebook "likes", and the article has pulled in 2,429 unique visits in less than 2 days. I'm simply blown away!! I think the helpful feedback from posters on this forum has a lot to do with it.

  People continue to link in from all over the web:

  http://boards.4chan.org/co/res/37240833

  http://www.jehovahswitnessrecovery.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13161&start=40

  http://nastyrnyi.livejournal.com/68247.html

  I really hope this momentum carries the issue into the press/media. We can only hope!

  Cedars
• 

  Aussie Oz

  poor little Caleb

  he didn't disobey his mother when he walked dirt ino the house, he's a kid and just plum forgot. Didn't stop daddy giving him a lesson though.

  Dumb Jws can't see the difference

  Oz
• 

  cedars

  00DAD - Right! I've implemented suggestions 1 and 3 by replacing "infants" with "children" (if I've missed the word "infant" anywhere, please let me know), and beefing up the section that discusses the arguments used by Caleb's mom, or lack thereof. I've included the picture of withered old Adam and Eve from page 50 of the "Great Teacher" book to remind readers of what Caleb was confronted with. The entire reasoning is laid out as follows...

  In the film, no logical or scripturally-based argument is offered to Caleb as to precisely why Jehovah “hates” toy wizards, or why they make him “sad”, or why owning one would be an act of disobedience against God. Caleb is shown a picture from the Learn From The Great Teacher book (page 50) depicting Adam and Eve as a withered and miserable old man and woman following their sin. This somewhat scary and morose picture is shown as the consequences of disobeying Jehovah, but no explanation is given as to WHY owning a toy wizard is an act of disobedience to Jehovah that would leave Caleb in a similar predicament to Adam and Eve. Caleb is merely informed that Jehovah doesn’t like the toy when his mother says: “So what if YOU disobey Jehovah, and play with toys he doesn’t like?” The key question of WHY Jehovah “doesn’t like” Caleb’s toy is by-passed as almost irrelevant.

  Caleb’s Mom even neglects to read the scripture from Deuteronomy 18 that I mentioned above. Some would argue that Caleb might be too young to be confronted with scriptural arguments from the bible, but this doesn’t stop his Dad from pulling out a bible in Lesson 1 when Caleb treads dirt on his Mom’s clean floor. Surely if Caleb’s toy is so offensive to God, this warrants a similar appeal to the scriptures for guidance? But this doesn’t happen. Evidently what the scriptures have to say on the matter is of no consequence. Instead, Caleb is merely pummeled with baseless implications about his toy to which, faced with no alternative, he eventually yields.

  As regards points 2 and 4, I'm somewhat at a loss as to what to do with those. I agree with what you say regarding point 2 and not putting die-hard witnesses off so early in the article. However, I keep returning to the thought that if you really need me to explain to you why there is nothing harmful or satanic about children playing with plastic toy wizards, then this article probably isn't for you!! Sorry, but that's how I see it. Point 4 just confused me entirely I'm afraid - do you have a specific paragraph you would like me to change, and a specific sentence that you would like inserted? I did tweak my brief "critique" of lesson 1 to include the fact that Caleb's Dad goes down way too hard on him for a simple accident.

  Anyway, I really appreciate your thoughtful suggestions. As with those of others, I believe they've further improved the article. It's a shame this needs to be such a "work in progress", but I felt it was important to get the message out quickly, and I wrote it with one arm tied behind my back due to being quite emotional on the subject. I therefore appreciate the "group effort" in fixing it!!

  Cedars
• 

  Chariklo

  "I'm so proud of you for obeying".

  Never once do JW's seem to say "good boy" or "good girl". I've spent most of my life, one way or another, with children, either with my own, or my grandchildren, or teaching, and in other ways too. I find myself saying constantly "good boy/girl", "well done" etc.

  Even if there's a lesson to be taught, even if things aren't done quite right, children blossom and grow through encouragement. Guilt-tripping a child is always wrong, utterly wrong. Counter-productive, too. Encouragement, praise, more encouragement, support, helping alongside, getting down to their level...these are the things that work and bring results.

  That mother stood looming over Caleb. He's little! Any other mother would have got down longside him and they'd have done it together. He was playing, for goodness sake!

  These are the things that produce mature, well-balanced adults.

  It's called Love and Common Sense, and seems to be to be singularly lacking in JW upbringing.
• 

  oompa

  i am so enjoying this thread...did i miss the youtube link?? and facebook page link or invite? what i like soooooooooooooo much cedar is that i did not see one positive post about your subject here....WHERE ARE ALL THE IRRITATING JW DEFENDERS NOW???????????? and why does the bible not even say ANYTHING about demons getting IN anything but pigs and humans....nothing dead or inanimate???? im going to start selling DEMON IN A ROCK....like the old pet rocks!

  I just posted the other day about the power of youtube and www and what a great witness they are giving...and i am going to do my part to help this sucker go viral....PLEASE GOD LET IT JUST BLOW UP!!.................oompa

  and ditto charikio...i was inclined to spoil kids rotton at the hall and bring candy and toys and play with the ADD one all through the meeting to keep him busy...these kids are being deprived of dreams
• 

  cedars

  oompa:

  what i like soooooooooooooo much cedar is that i did not see one positive post about your subject here....WHERE ARE ALL THE IRRITATING JW DEFENDERS NOW????????????

  Thanks oompa. That's an interesting point! Actually jws came on yesterday and had a bit of a rant at me, saying I had completely misjudged this issue and was showing ignorance regarding the way the Society has traditionally tackled the occult. He was saying things like "what planet are you on?" or similar. His comment came before a lengthy forum blackout yesterday, and I was preparing my counter-argument when, inexplicably, his original comment was wiped along with a few others. By the time the forum was back up and running, there was nothing for me to reply to!

  The power of Sparlock? Who knows?!

  Cedars
• 

  thomyorke

  I am just curious, who was this "professionals", who make such a crap?

  Probably, Society got some ex-multimedia workers, who wrote this "animation" on a Mac studio...

  But... each Pixar low-budget 1-minut cartoon are 10o times better!!!
• 

  cedars

  406 "likes" on the article. Word is STILL getting out on Facebook!

  Added to that, there are 4,113 views of "Lesson 2" on Amelia's facebook channel.

  If this issue isn't viral already, at this rate it soon will be.

  Cedars