Watchtower, Wolverine, and the LIE that every 13-year-old saw RIGHT AWAY...

by Unlearn 18 Replies latest jw friends

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  Unlearn

  i'll always remember this issue of the Awake warning JW parents about comic books and why they were so dangerous.
  the cover had a kid on the front sitting indian-style reading a comic book, wide-eyed and smiling. came out in the early 1980's.
  i'll always remember it because it screwed up one of my favorite past-times: i was around 13 years old and a hardcore collector.

  after this article, it was a continual tug-o-war with my dad over comics....and it lasted until i was 18 and moved out.
  
  here's what was telling about that article:
  it picutred some comics in one panel...one of them being a copy of WOLVERINE, from the limited series that came out in the early 80's. btw, the cover of that comic shows him sitting in the dark...dejected and sad over the fact that (as you learn in the comic) someone very close to him has just died. underneath the image of this comics cover, the AWAKE caption said something about how certain comics (such as the one depicted) deal with 'the occult'.
  
  at 12 years old, that was the first rumbling of something fishy in WT (from my POV)....i knew it then, but it wasn't clearly defined. see, i was an expert on the X-Men...and i had that very Wolverine comic from the early 80's. i'd read it...many times. AND THEY WERE LYING. there was NOTHING in there about the occult. so WHY WOULD THEY EVEN ATTEMPT TO MAKE THAT CLAIM? ah, they looked at the cover and saw a weird looking man...a 'monster' man. sitting in the dark. and the title...'Wolverine'...i can almost bet they heard something similar to 'wolfman'. who knows.
  any kid with a working knowledge of the marvel comics universe in the early 80's would've looked at that and had the same reaction....
  'Nuuh Uhhhn! THATS NOT TRUE! Wolverine is not occult! YOU'RE LYING!'
  
  that's 'child-speak' for, 'You're trying to use superficial stereotypes bandied about for years by fundamental right-wing idealists to push an erroneus conclusion!'
  they hadn't even bothered to read the comic. they'd seen the cover and made blanket assumptions based on 1950's era stereotypes.
  they hadn't even read it and they just LIED. isn't lying wrong?
  
  and they'd lied about Wolverine. which pissed me off.
  and jacked with one of the pure joys of childhood i enjoyed...guilt-free.
  call me petty...whatever:
  i'll never forgive.
  
  [img]http://www.metstarcomics.com/shop/images/uploads/wolverine3.jpg[/img]
• 

  wha happened?

  Isn't it a fine thing when the WT can take an honest 12 yr old and turn him into a pathological liar, for the truth
• 

  VM44

  Here is the comic book cover from the link Unlearn provided.
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  We had a local presiding overseer (now: COBOE) say he assumed DIRTY DANCING wasn't about dancing after digging in the dirt, so its just something Christians should avoid. The point is that WTS or members like to make blanket decisions on everything for everyone.
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  Kojack57

  Unlearn: The BORG always tries to take away everything fun from kids. It's a shame we had to sacrifice our pleasures for a worthless CULT.

  Kojack
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  C6H12O6

  That wolverine cover does not look like it is connected with spiritism or the occult. This sort of "judge a book by it's cover" thinking makes the WT out of touch with reality.

  The same thing happened when the batman movie,"The Dark Knight," came out in 2008.

  Hardcore dubs around my area were up in arms about the movie simply because of the title.

  Just based on the title, they assumed it was about spiritism and evilness without having any solid proof to back it up.

  Poor saps, they missed out on great movie.

  I can't wait to see them try to demonize "The Dark Knight Rises" this year.
• 

  Morbidzbaby

  This has happened with a lot of things that kids get into and enjoy. I can see their point with things like Harry Potter and it's outright use of magic and sorcery...that goes against their beliefs. But picking out something so frivilous and ridiculous like comics is just straining out the gnat, in my opinion. X-men isn't occult or demonic, though it can be argued that it involves evolution in some form.

  My biggest issue with this subject is simply that the Watchtower preaches that everyone has free will and has to make their own choices based on their conscience...but then they print things that basically FORCE your conscience to decide in favor of their stupid rules and doctrines. This in effect robs a person of that free will and serves to either 1) Make their conscience oversensitive to every little thing, or 2) Make their own conscience completely useless and force them to just follow along as drones no matter what they truly feel.

  Free will, indeed.
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  hamsterbait

  Why the hell Witlesses make such a big fuss over magic and the occult - things that actually dont exist, except in the minds of believers (and of course Jehoobie - who hates this non existent magic crap - what a waste of his superabundant energy!) is beyond me.

  Read the books of Joshua and Judges, things that supposedly DID happen at Gods command, and tell me what you would rather have your kids reading in their free time.

  HB
• 

  jgnat

  mmmm, Wolverine. I'd pick up my son's comics once in a while, and Wolverine was my favorite. Occult? huh. Perhaps they could stretch it a little and use Wolverine as a cautionary tale regarding our modern war machine. Of which Wolverine was a victim.

  Thanks for bringing back warm memories.
• 

  tec

  I remember that cover! (from the comic, not a wts magazine) I collected Wolverine comics when I was a teen. Sold them to move out west, but loved them.

  Peace,

  tammy