by Robert_V_Frazier 28 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Imzadi
I know of ones who were disfellowshipped for celebrating christmas. They may have been able to avoid it if they had begged forgiveness and said they would repent...elders The wt has softened lately in that they allow some flexibility for jw women when their husbands celebrate christmas.
I know of ones who were disfellowshipped for celebrating christmas. They may have been able to avoid it if they had begged forgiveness and said they would repent...elders The wt has softened lately in that they allow some flexibility for jw women when their husbands celebrate christmas
Well, that explains why my friends attend mega Christmas parties with family out of town, but don't put up a scrap of decoration at their home. They do the same for Thanksgiving and Easter. He doesn't want to go without celebrating, and she doesn't want to get into trouble. How long can people walk this kind of tightrope?
Iz
I believe it was the end of 2000 that they ran a QFR that said that JWs with nonJW mates should allow a Xmans tree in the house and even accept gifts and go to Xmas parties if it keeps the peace. Of course this was written for legal reasons. Many cases of kid custody have gone bad for JWs because they have taken the hard line on the holidays in a divided home. I don't know how this article plays with the r and f. I have been gone since that time. I'd be very surprised if privately the elders don't counsel resistance or at least begrudging minimalism. I don't know how they would draw the line in such a scenario.
My sister and her husband were DFed over celebrating X-Mas.
Gumby
No specfics, but I was told that you could not be DF'd for celebrating birthdays because it wasn't a religious holiday. Marked maybe. I know there are people who will say someone was DF'd for this, but not around here.
Blondie
A number of years ago an elderly inactive sister was re-activated just to be disfellowshipped for having X-mas decorations up on her door.
Yet there was another elderly sister, who lived by herself, who would put up a X-mas wreath in which nothing was ever done. Go figure?
I've always wondered about this. Can a JW be disfellowshipped if he is the only one living in his home who is JW? For example, if a JW woman has a non-JW husband and the husband insists on having a Christmas tree, can the wife be disfellowshipped? If not, what other sanctions or penalties might she face? Would she be "encouraged" to either get her husband to convert or divorce him? Answer is NO -- I actually know a brother who is a JW elder and his wife is a non-witness and she still cooks him Christmas Dinner on Dec 25th - -he is an elder
It is strange how so many witnesses can accept that someone is sleeping with someone else, and gets df'd, but if one celebrates a holiday, wow, that person is totally gone, so far into the world. It seems as holidays are worse than sex outside marriage, or anything else one can get df'd for.
When I was an active JW, I worked with a fellow JW who used to "supervise" my activities - lol. One day I was eating some birthday cake from a fellow coworker's party and she told the elders. Get this, this elder told her to mind her own business. I think the elders in my former congregation have let me totally alone because of my father is so well-liked by everyone. That's my take on it anyway.
My nephew & his wife were DF in Montreal for celebrating Christmas with the tree etc>>
