babygirl, that whole "posters of celebs = idolatry" was the reason my parents never allowed me to decorate my room with posters of musicians I liked. Part of me feels that it was a really stupid rule to have enforced on a young person. But another part of me is a teensy bit grateful as that prevented me from turning into one of those mindless fan-girl types. But still, the point of view is ridiculous.
Pro sports is idolatry
by Robert7 20 Replies latest jw friends
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SPAZnik
Thou shalt only idolize OUR organization.
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WTWizard
The Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger is being ridiculous. Sports teams need names, just like street names, congregation names, city names (which are often named after people), and state names. One is not idolizing them by rooting for them.
Even some of the displays of fanaticism are not idolatry. Putting up posters does not constitute idolatry, since one can merely have a crush on someone or enjoy the artistic value of a poster. Nor does dressing up in team colors. Some of the things people do are stupid (and that includes the fans that will break out on the fields and start fights), but they are not in the league with idolatry.
I will tell them what is idolatry. When you unquestioningly obey someone or something most or all the time, and make a sincere attempt to totally obey them unquestioningly, you are idolizing that person or group. The Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger demands unquestioning obedience, and hence idolatry. It goes beyond liking a sports team, musical group, or artist. The last I knew, most people that have Britney Spears or 50 Cent posters are not blindly obeying those people, and hence are not worshiping them.
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yourmomma
before i woke up the main social activity among many of my witness friends was watching football and playing fantasy football, sometimes for money. we all love sports, and all have sports teams. we all wear jerseys, etc. sports is like the last thing witnesses could do, and now they are trying to stop it? i would have never gone for that. ever since i got directv in 1999, i watch NFL sunday ticket ALL day from 1pm to midnight. many witnesses watch as well. even if i hadent woken up, they would have to pry my jersey off my cold dead body before i would have given up sports. sadly, i was always more of a rebel, alot of people would just go along. althoough there are some that would wake up i bet.
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Tired of the Hypocrisy
Going along with that....it was mentioned at a circuit assembly that any kind of posters that you would have of a person, whether it was an athelite or singer or other "star" that would be considered idolatry. They just love mentioning the word "fanatic"...just to sad they don't see themselves as religious fanatics.
Reminds me of a young man who was told that the posters of the rock n rollers on his walls were idolotrous garbage. He sarcastically asked if he was supposed to put up a poster of the governing body? I imagined this horizontal poster with the gb standing piously! LOL
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Robert7
before i woke up the main social activity among many of my witness friends was watching football and playing fantasy football
Watching sports is nothing more than a leisurely activity. The FDS is just trying to control our lives in every possible way, so we have more time in the 'field ministry'. God forbid we ever have fun...
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undercover
I remember similar talks about idolizing sports teams and stars back in the 70s.
I remember it because my favorite NFL team was on a good run for a few years winning conference championships and a couple of Super Bowls and then I'd go to the hall and hear that I'm being unbalanced by wearing team colors or displaying posters of sports stars. We were even counseled about talking about sports before and after the meetings.
We were told that if we were spending most of our free time talking about sports then we loved that more than Jehovah. If we loved Jehovah more, we would be talking about spiritual things in our spare time. It was the first indication to me as a young person, that I might not be truly righteous enough to be a zealous Witness, as I rarely spent free time talking about spiritual things. I was more interested in sports, music and cars.
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carla
Was this just one guys 'talk'? or will it be making the rounds to all the kh's?
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Robert7
My guess is that it's part of a standard outline, so it will make its rounds. The whole talk wasn't about pro sports, but a good 5 minutes was spent on it. No idea what the talk was titled. I didn't pay attention that much :)
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yourmomma
when i was going to the hall regularly ALL i EVER talked about was sports. i mean, what else can you talk about? movies? no. poker? LOL!. that was the one thing everyone had in common. i remember one time there was this 50 year old brother, who i had nothing in common with, he was trying to come back to meetings, and so i would talk to him about sports, and he was into it. so it was kind of an encouraging situation. so one time, his wife comes up to me, while we are talking, and interrupts us and tells me i should be talking about spiritual things more. i said, "did we not just sit through a 2 hour meeting filled with spiritual things?" she didnt get it at all, and her husband had this look of dispair. so she leaves, and i say "hey, how bad are the knicks now?" he laughed and we went by into our previous conversation before we were rudly interupted. i also have another story about being counciled by elders for going to a basketball game, but if i give the details, i will probably reveal too much. i dont want to get hauled in front of a JC just yet.