by nowawake14 20 Replies latest jw friends
Paganism from my view is just a mental fantasy. It's not real. So why do jws get mad at it anyway?
Basically because it contradicts their own mental fantasies .
Its a point of loyalty to which god, their god is real all other are false are dont exist, they exist by Satan's hand to draw people away from the true god Yahweh.
I think the JW definition of pagan is often blurred with unbeliever.
Aint that the truth. It wasnt until I was about 15 that I learned that "pagan" is an actual religion. My uncle (another exJW) actually is a pagan. It's rather insulting, I feel, to label every other non-JW Christian religion as pagan.
JWs use wedding rings and wedding cake which originate from pagan traditions.
Paganism from my view is just a mental fantasy. It's not real. So why do jws get mad at it anyway?
Bigotry doesn't become you. Paganism is not defined the same in the real world as it is in JW terms. There are actual religions that are called Pagan, Wiccan, Heathen, etc. They have their own beliefs and rarely believe in one male-normative God. They also rarely have beliefs that align with the ignorant stereotypes attributed to them.
Use your computer skills and look them up. They are real but they aren't what the JWs think they are. They are all religions and spiritual beliefs. You don't have to agree with them to acknowledge their existence, but denying them dismisses a lot of people with their own belief systems. If you want to be a bigot, then feel free to keep thinking that way. If you want to be open to letting people believe what they want to believe then don't dismiss entire groups out of ignorance.
“Pagan” was simply the Israelite term for the rural poor who were left behind in Canaan and Jerusalem during the Babylonian captivity.
since those who were taken were the upper classes, they looked down upon the poor rural Jews they returned to, because their religious ideas had now diverged. The Babylonian captives had absorbed religious ideas of their captors - for example the concept of light and dark, of absolute good and absolute evil - and had lost the anthropomorphised god with human frailties (such as jealousy) that those left behind still retained.
Envy
Tameria2001 - "The ironic part about the whole pagan debate with the JW is that almost everything involved in a JWs life started out with pagan origins."
Bingo.
Hell, go back far enough, and damn near everything involved in human life has "pagan origins".
I think an easier question is, Who do JWs like that isn't/aren't a JW?
I can remember when pinatas and going to a luau were considered pagan. The WTS reconsidered on that.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102004486#h=14:0-16:499
Piñatas I read with interest the article “The Piñata—An Ancient Tradition.” (September 22, 2003) It left me with some questions. The ties to false religion are well-documented. But the article seemed to take the position that as long as it doesn’t bother someone’s conscience, it is OK. What about birthdays and holidays such as Christmas?
S. W., United States
“Awake!” responds: Christians refrain from any celebrations or customs that continue to involve false religious beliefs or activities that violate Bible principles. For example, the Bible definitely puts birthday celebrations in a bad light. (Genesis 40:20;Matthew 14:6-10) However, if it is very obvious that a custom has no current false religious significance and involves no violation of Bible principles, each Christian must make a personal decision as to whether he will follow such a custom.
And Luaus
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102002410?q=luau&p=sen
Although the luau may originally have had some connection with false religious practices, the word has simply come to refer to a Hawaiian banquet. Many Christians may therefore conscientiously feel that they can participate.
The Piñata article/issue was a real ‘wobble’ for me.
It showed how deftly the Watchtower could play out their own so called bible principles to suit their agenda.
It seemed to me that saying the Piñata was OK had something to do with winning a certain large and fast developing ethnic community, where the Piñata was a treasured tradition.
It just seemed suspicious in it’s attempt to rationalise the keeping of such a tradition that clearly had ´pagan’ origins.
It’s all so exhausting to me these days, the mad, mad world of Watchtower reasoning!
nowaway14 - "Why do JWs hate pagans?"
'Cause they're told to.
