Questions about Athletic Activities while a JW

by AjaxMan 36 Replies latest jw friends

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  AjaxMan

  Hi, everyone.
  On my researches about the JDubs. I read that they are restricted or forbidden from engaging in activities such as sports, working out in a gym or in Martial Arts.
  I, who does all three, have a question for the members of this forum:

  When you were a JW, could you do any of the three activities mentioned?
  Were you Discouraged, Frowned Upon, Shunned or Restricted from doing any of these activities?

  The main reason is because I see a little double standards. For example, The Williams Sisters in Tennis and they are JWs.
  Also, a JW (not the one that I befriended) who I had a discussion on the net practices Martial Arts>

  I like to know what is the WBTS stand on any of these activities.

  Feedbacks are welcome.

  Ajax

  I am not a JW, Never Was and Never Will Be!
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  ashitaka

  My father, while a little more lienent now, still forbids sports. The "bad association" clause in the contract, methinks.

  ashi

  DUBs are strange
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  LB

  Don't be certain the Williams sisters are JW's. Grandma certainly is in that family. Who really knows.

  When my son was studying he played some highschool sports. When he thought he wanted to get baptized the elders sat him down and discussed his "poor association" caused by his sports. After all aren't all highschool jocks beer drinking masturbating fornicators? He quit right away and replaced the sports with..... nothing ....
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  Utopian Reformist

  Show me an article that FORBIDS weight training? I think most articles have always warned against taking time away from meetings and service to engage in certain activities not forbid them entirely.

  Now, most of my Bethel friends were all weight lifters and I have always lifted weights before and after the Borg. However, you are correct about the warning to avoid after-school activities. That has always been the stance, avoid cheerleading, avoid varsity sports, etc..

  I think the new literature is more vague about these matters.
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  Nathan Natas

  From my 20+ years experience, I can tell you that the watchtower certainly discourages these activities, especially if they would be done in association with "worldly people" as in school after-hours athletic pursuits or commercial training facilities. They'd (the WTS) probably come down hardest on martial arts, believing that such training is "preparation for war." I think that at one time a watchtower publication actually said that self-defense was an innate knowledge and did not have to be learned or practiced.

  (Hypocrasy, when you learn that the WTS officers have BODYGUARDS!)

  Now, in actual application, the rules flex tremendously depending on local conditions - and "local" can be down to the level of who your parents are. I knew some guys who were in my age group growing up as JWs who were both fairly athletic, practiced judo, and served in their restricted-entry high schools as hall monitors, engaging in all the juvenile conflicts that come with that territory. It was OK for them - both Mom and Dad were Dubs with "rank" in the congregation, and they could do no wrong. Don't get me wrong - these were both good guys, and I envied them for the freedom they enjoyed that was denied me.

  I think that in dub-dom, if you ignore their little rules long enough to become GOOD at whatever it is you shouldn't be spending time on, you get a free pass - a nod and a wink and let's move on.

  So, in my experience, formal practice of martial arts was out of the question. If you went to the beach and engaged in some romping with the guys, well, that's just horseplay, right? Working out with weights was likewise discouraged - "bodily trainng is beneficial for a little, but godly devotion... blahblahblah." Usually if you started to workout you would begin to hear negative comments. Still, there were exceptions. It was OK for someone in the circuit to donate an Olympic weight set for the use of the bethelite who were assigned to live at the assembly hall. The guys who availed themselves of this opportunity got pretty big pretty fast - ah, but they were of a different caste than mere publishers.

  School sports, as i said, were discouraged because of the 'bad associations" they would involve.

  By the way, Chess was practice for war also - strategy, you know.

  In one way, these restrictions serve a useful purpose - they get the kids to abandon the religion early on.
• 

  Room 215

  Once again,

  It's a huge parenting blunder to follow the WT party line on sports.

  My personal experience (I raised five kids while in the WT), can tell you the kids need to learn the lessons in esprit de corps and interdependence in acheiving an objective that team sports can provide. On the contary, forbidding them often will cause them to seethe with resentment and a lifetime of ``what if?'' if you don't let them get the urge to play and compete out of their systems.
  
  It's also an excellent way for them to deal constructively with the raging hormones of adolescence.

  The key to success is parental supervision. You've got to invest the time in stopping by once in a while at the pratices, going to the games; of course, that means les time for the Kingdom Hall rituals of weekend service and meetings, and that's one big reason for the dim view Brooklyn takes of athletics, and another reason why family dysfunctionality is so surprisingly pervasive among JWs (see recent related thread).
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  LB

  Oh the martial arts, I forgot about that one. My son had studied karate for 7 years. He was pretty good at it but the reasoning they had was first they felt it was intened to harm others, much like carrying a gun. The main reason they discouraged it was because it was spiritual at times, so it would be like false worship.

  I kept his trophies, he doesn't want them as he still agrees.
• 

  AjaxMan

  LB, I am sorry about your son. Hopefully, everything is OK between you and him.

  Nathan, I cannot believe that WTS officers have their bodyguards. Talking about double standards.

  To everyone who posted in general, it seems to me that there are too many double standards and favoritism in that area: Some are allowed to do it, others are not.

  Also, to everyone who posted or will post, thanks for the feedback!

  Ajax

  "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and the best things never die." - The Shawshank Redemption
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  Hairy Harr

  Nathan is right on about the company line. I remember being told that you didn't need training..just pray and you'll get out of any situation. I believe there's a short line in the Elder's manual about martial arts and Boxing. I was told we should not even watch such things. Well when I got fed up I started Boxing at a gym at the ripe old age of 40+ and I think it helped save my sanity. It gave me an outlet for the unjustice that I received and got me into good aerobic shape...everytime you hit the heavy bag or the speed bag you just envision the faces of the motherf*ckers who f*cked you over and destroyed your family(sorry, it gets personal with me). I remember reading somewhere that the Apostles (I think Paul) was involved in some sort of training...probably wrestling, that was big.
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  Darkhorse

  I know a JW whose children participate very much in school sports; and this person will attend the games and whenever able the children's practices.

  This person also is employed at a fitness facility, and spends much time there working out on personal time; as well as on the job.

  Both of these activities consume a large amount of time; do not know where the person finds time to go to all the meetings, etc. JW's are supposed to attend. I am not a JW - wouldn't have any idea how a person could manage such a schedule.

  We speak quite a bit at the facility the person is employed at. I think as somebody else mentioned above, it could depend on "what is acceptable to the local congregation" or the person is a marginal JW. The person I know is "marginal"; however, there is an invisible barrier between us; and there is some "double-life" going on.