by Joliette 47 Replies latest jw friends
They do not want the members having too much fun on activities that are not slaving for the GB.
Maybe they have realized that NOTHING in the WT routine is any fun at all, and came to the conclusion that the rank & file could not withstand the contrast if they did allow them something that WAS fun.
Rather ironic, isn't it, that they have practically removed all the older "fun" elements of the assemblies and regimented them into paramilitary parade drills?
J-Woods,
Yes, they even took away the good food! I used to love the coffe and pastry for breakfast, roast beef sandwich for lunch and a sundae to top it off.
Plus, IsaacAustin, it was actually sort of fun to volunteer to make or serve the food. It got you out of some of the boredom of sitting through the thing.
Plus again - it was fun to be able to sit anywhere you wanted and see people from other congregations. We did not have to wear mandatory JW badges out in public in those days, and we could decide which hotel to stay in all on our own.
And, plus again - many JWs I knew back in those days really enjoyed playing in the orchestra we had for assemblies. They did away with that when the first "kingdom records" came out - but for all I know, maybe the live music has come back on some occasions.
J-Woods, they used to have an orchestra?? What time frame was this?
If you said "Ok, why not another day? Let's pick a day and we'll do it" she would be forced to back track because the day isn't the issue.
That's the whole crux of the matter and it illustrates some of the faulty reasoning I am seeing with my wife.
My witness responds to that statement with, "Jesus never commanded us to celebrate His birthday." Therefore, they reason that since he never commanded us to celebrate His day of birth, He condemned it. Of course, they can also reason that since celebrating birthdays was wrong, why celebrate Christ's birth. That seems more solid except you also notice that the Bible does not condone nor condemn it.
In cases like this, for most people, it is us to the individual person's concious. However, 7 million witnesses worldwide surrendered their concious to the governing body.
J-Woods, they used to have an orchestra?? What time frame was this?
Almost all through the 1960s, as I recall. (I was in Oklahoma City at the time) The orchestra was ended by order of the society when the "kingdom records" came out - I believe at the end of the 1960s, early 1970s. The society also put an end to the use of the piano for kingdom hall songs at that time - everything had to be unified around those sappy records.
always seemed strange dumping the food after all it was a money spinner, our old CAH in Dorking had a ice cream kiosk and sold fresh donuts , also the fully fitted professional kitchen facility had a "soul food" menu for the Jamaican brethren and sisters, I always remember the old Jamaican sister who made these huge pots of curried goat rice and peas.
Some Old Light:
Watchtower, December 1904, pg 364: " EVEN though Christmas day is not the real anniversary of our Lord's birth, but more properly the annunciation day or the date of his human begetting ( Luke 1:28 ), nevertheless, since the celebration of our Lord's birth is not a matter of divine appointment or injunction, but merely a tribute of respect to him, it is not necessary for us to quibble particularly about the date. We may as well join with the civilized world in celebrating the grand event on the day which the majority celebrate --"Christmas day."
The Golden Age, December 24, 1919, page 215: "Christmas is regarded by many people as the date of the birth of the babe Jesus in a manger at Bethlehem. Whether the date is correct or not is of small importance, but the event was and is of the greatest importance."
Then the New Light:
Yearbrook, 1975, page 147: “At our early conventions, between sessions as the friends were chatting together,” writes Anna E. Zimmerman, “you might have seen some friends hand you their ‘Manna’ book [Daily Heavenly Manna for the Household of Faith], asking you to please write your name and address in their ‘Manna.’ You would write it on the blank page opposite the date of your birthday, and when your birthday came along and they read their text that morning for the day they might decide to write you a card or letter, wishing you a happy birthday.”
Yes, in those earlier days, dedicated Christians commemorated birthdays. Well, then, why not celebrate the supposed birthday of Jesus? This they also did for many years. In Pastor Russell’s day, Christmas was celebrated at the old Bible House in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Ora Sullivan Wakefield recalls that Brother Russell gave members of the Bible House family five- or ten-dollar gold pieces at Christmas. Mabel P. M. Philbrick remarks: “A custom that certainly would not be carried on today was the celebration of Christmas with a Christmas tree in the Bethel dining room. Brother Russell’s usual ‘Good morning, all’ was changed to ‘Merry Christmas, all.’”
What caused the Bible Students to stop celebrating Christmas? Richard H. Barber gave this answer: “I was asked to give an hour talk over a [radio] hookup on the subject of Christmas. It was given December 12, 1928, and published in The Golden Age #241 and again a year later in #268. That talk pointed out the pagan origin of Christmas. After that, the brothers at Bethel never celebrated Christmas again.”
“Did we mind putting those pagan things away?” asks Charles John Brandlein. “Absolutely not. This was just complying with new things learned, and we had never known before they were pagan. It was just like taking a soiled garment off and throwing it away.” Next, birthday celebrations and Mother’s Day were discarded—more creature worship. Sister Lilian Kammerud recalls: “How readily the brothers all dropped these holidays and admitted they were glad to be free. New truths always make us happy and . . . we felt we were privileged to know things that others were ignorant about.”
