Birthdays..... Now A Conscience Matter (page 5)

wannaexit

When my son started school so did the invitations for birthday parties. Being a very loyal dub I would call the moms and explain why my child would not attend.

In trying to explain why birthdays were wrong I realized how stupid and nonsensical these explanations were.

In part I feel that this realization helped me to verbelize my doubts . I was already disturbed by the wishy washy policies. And i had a gut feeling that my son was being deprived of something so innocent and that one day governing body could turn around and change it's mind.

And lo and behold i believe that they are stearing towards that.

Wannaexit

new light

Why do JWs celebrate wedding anniversaries but not the anniversary of birth itself? Surely one could dig up some Pagan origin for W.A.s. It seems the WTS has some sort of personal problem with birthdays. Maybe the Judge or some other cranky old fart was self-conscious about their age or something. Dig deeply enough, and you could find any number of reasons for or against any special day. Somebody had some hang-up on birthdays, IMO.

The Bible definitely puts nude bathing in bad light as well but Witnesses I know have no problem with this practice.

You da man, Gary!

Latte

Newlight,

I quite agree!

It seems the WTS has some sort of personal problem with birthdays. Maybe the Judge or some other cranky old fart was self-conscious about their age or something. Dig deeply enough, and you could find any number of reasons for or against any special day. Somebody had some hang-up on birthdays, IMO.

Now if you go back and read the crazy 50?s stuff, you could easily pick up on this fact - about a lot of subjects, (i.e. tipping hats, doing bible quizzes rather than party stuff.) Someone really didn?t like anyone enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, this stupid birthday ban has stayed with us. I do believe that the amount of meetings is a throwback to the early days when maybe people had more time - yet again they won?t reduce the meeting?s. The kids take the brunt on that one too.

This organization is stagnant, will never change.......

Latte

Ok....I couln't resist it. Here's a snippet from 1952. ......

One final point of utmost importance, whether it is a shower or wedding or reception or just a friendly gathering of witnesses. Control the activities so that some edifying results. Silly games are for babyish people; mature Christians have advanced beyond them, left them behind. Sexually suggestive or passionate dancing to blaring jazz is not for Christians, though proper dancing and music cannot be condemned. When Jesus attended a wedding feast he used the occasion to glorify God, performing his first miracle, the turning of water into wine. (John 2:1-11) And we can be sure that he did not get in any line to kiss the bride either?so we leave such woman-exalting practices back in the creature-worshiping world, where they belong. Instead of any such looseness of conduct or excessive use of food or drink, we should control activities and regulate entertainment into profitable channels, such as the singing of Kingdom songs, playing Scriptural quiz games, relating field experiences, and so forth. Not only will such things be a proper relaxation for us and get us better acquainted with one another, but they will be helpful to persons of good will that may be present and impress them favorably with Jehovah?s people. (bold mine)

XQsThaiPoes

And we can be sure that he did not get in any line to kiss the bride either

Jesus kissed a man how come he wouldn't kiss a woman? Are they calling Jesus a punk? Queer as Christ? Them fighting words.

I knew the wts was changing it is all those GC writing the articles and the GB too feeble to catch the plot holes. WHo ever stamped the pinata article goofed.

So a minor article gets out the door like pinatas and every since the "society says" ban they dont allow themselves to black list things by decrees anymore. It is done by observing bible pricipals. Plus no b-days are bad for the bottom line.

The blood issue is now called the "misuse of blood". So if you have a blood transfusion with the 4 main parts you are misusing them but the wt is not banning them.

observer

I think birthdays are definitely not a Conscience Matter according that article. It clearly states: "For example, the Bible definitely puts birthdays celebrations in a bad light." I think that is what a JW should (according WTS) think about it. Or am I wrong?

jwsons

It's not new. Sorry to say, for I still keep a "Daily Manna" in purple color with all the list of Jehovah's Witnesses' birthdays in my Sydney's congregation (The Hub)

Maybe the article only use as a tactic to justify the selling pintanas at ALDI supermakets around the world to bring money back to Watchtower

jwsons

johnny cip

funny the wt only brings out bad birthday's from the bible. why not print about the birth of christ and john the baptist. did not the angels rejoice in heaven over these birthday's and even many came to worship the birthday of jesus. job's children had birthday parties, moses talked about his 120 th birthday. these are just off the top of my head. i'm sure if i looked there are other birthday celebrations in the bible. is not the birth of child a gift from god? i'm sure some of the bible scholars here can post many fine godly verses about birthdays. john

M.J.

A common cult manipulative technique is the use of the linguistic "double bind", which has the effect of forcing a person to do what the controller wants while giving an illusion of choice. I think we got ourselves an example of this here:

Statement 1 : Christians refrain from any celebrations or customs that continue to involve false religious beliefs or activities that violate Bible principles.

Damned if you do.

Statement 2: 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.

Here's the illusion of a choice. The WTS still holds all the cards to interpret what carries "current false religious significance" and what does not, so in reality, there is no personal choice involved.

RandomTask

Much of JW doctrine on Birthdays and holidays can be traced back to Rutherfords personal upbringing. They try to use the bible to explain their beliefs, but the beliefs do not originate with the bible. No JW scholar back in the day said "hey, in my further investigation of the bible, I believe that the celebration of birthdays and Christmas are Wrong!". It was more like, the Judge thought they were bad and thats how the witnesses were going to believe and "hey WT scholar, go find some verses to back this up".

Birthdays..... Now A Conscience Matter

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