by Anony Mous 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Juneteenth may not be religious but it is more political. From what I read it celebrates black people’s freedom from slavery. Witnesses are supposed to be “ no part of the world” and as such they would leave such “worldly” causes alone . The correct thing , in their view, would be to direct attention to the Kingdom to make all men equal.
It is my guess that if the “patriarch” elder knew of this he would stop it.
@BluesBrother: that was back in the day. Obama broke a lot of JW, as he was hyped up to be the savior of the black community.
I remember there being talks with not so subtle hints about not putting your trust in men or participating in elections regardless of how historic they may be at the conventions and meetings before the election.
But they let it slide, because drawing attention to disfellowshipping an Obama voter would be media suicide. And that just opened the floodgates, it gave permission for a whole host of political activity and obviously has permeated throughout the leadership, 12 years later they were actively promoting the COVID shot and whereas during various global issues (protests, wars) they usually came out with some article it very obviously references, they haven’t done that recently.
Anony Mous, of course, even though they realise that disfellowshipment for voting for one candidate would be seen as the gigantic dick move that it would be, they probably still disfellowship* where a candidate/cause is not so protected by the Zeitgeist. Wouldn't it be nice if the idiots on the GB would come to the realisation that forbidding the vote is a gigantic dick move in any way, manner or form?
Does anyone ever foresee a time when a GB member says something about wanting to be seen on the right side of history?** 🙄
* "Remove" 🙄
** You could argue that they used to be on the right side of history when they would try to wrap themselves in concepts like freedom of religion and other freedoms, but now they waste their time in court trying to cover up crimes. They could have fought for the freedom to meet and to go door to door during the lockdowns, but they folded like a seven high poker hand***.
* I use it too much, but I happen to like that saying
Just JWs doing what most JWs do. 3rd Gen calls it "Cafeteria beliefs"....they pick and choose what THEY think is important. Father's Day, Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, and Juneteenth are non-religious, innocuous holidays to most JWs. Even so, because of Watchtower flip-flops and overzealous Elders, celebrations are kept on the down-low.
I know that behind the scenes jws have many ways to tell themselves it is okay to celebrate despite WTS official positions on them...shows that jws are only concerned about getting "caught" by humans not their god.
ijwfq 59 (frequently asked questions) direct link to WOL: don't click if it will trigger you: https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/502019300#h=43:0-47:358
Or reasoning from the scriptures book:
What is the origin of the practice of setting aside a day to honor mothers?
The Encyclopædia Britannica says: “A festival derived from the custom of mother worship in ancient Greece. Formal mother worship, with ceremonies to Cybele, or Rhea, the Great Mother of the Gods, were performed on the Ides of March throughout Asia Minor.”—(1959), Vol. 15, p. 849.
This article is fairly recent and lists holidays that are also non-religious of the ones not to celebrate (just reporting, not supporting)
From Blondie's link: (Emphasis is mine)
"To avoid implying that they trust humans rather than God to solve the world’s problems, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not join in Youth Day or Women’s Day celebrations that support political or social campaigns. For the same reason, they do not join in Emancipation Day or similar celebrations. Instead, they look to God’s Kingdom to solve the problems of racism and inequality."
