by ezekiel3 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
What the hell??
...Brothers and sisters, it has come to our attention that there are some of you who might have a life. Please put it away; you can have a life after we've used you up for what we can get out of you...Shame on you for not furthering the Organization's Jehovah's interests with all your time, money, and energy.
That just makes me mad. And I had a friend who says she feels sorry for ME because of my "lost hope"...
Even though the quoted material from '91 is worded in hokey JW speak, it still promotes an essentially healthy attitude. Hobbies can be an important therapeutic aid in many aspects of your physical and mental health.
The more recent material advising JW's to be "boxing up" their hobbies strikes me as a noticeable deviation from the '91 material and a futher sign that the JW organization itself is not healthy.
They talked about this at the DC. Only a few witnesses are gonna actually use this for a while... Unless they start talking about it more like they talk about youths getting baptised. God I will be building arks till I'm 20.
good grief so what in the world can these people do?? *exasperated sigh*
no wonder so many of them are so mentally ill!!
I agree with TD that although a bit frootloopy, the first article is a refreshingly positive one, coming from a JW mag. But the recent one, suggesting that a "good Christian" gives up his or her hobbies, signals a significant shift. So what's changed in the years between 1991 and 2004? I think there are two spectres haunting the 'Tower that stand behind this shift: bad association, and the internet.
One major aspect of hobbies are that they are something that can link you to others. It's only natural to seek out and "fellowship with" people who have something, in this case a hobby, in common. It gives a JW a chance to bond with another JW, or even worse, a non-Dub(!), via means other than the channel provided by the WT. And we all know how the 'Tower feels about that scenario.
Further, in this day and age, the best way to link up with people who have hobbies in common, is via the internet. And again, we all know what that means to the 'Tower.
So, a dedicated hobbyist within the JW movement is, by WT standards, endangering himself or herself spiritually. He or she is cultivating regular contact with outsiders who may well turn out to be moral and ethical people, equal to (or even better than!) the Dubs themselves. In using the internet to broaden the hobby experience, the JW hobbyist may also stumble upon a group whose common interest involves the doctrines and policy of the 'Tower itself. And the 'Tower certainly doesn't what that!
Stephanus,
Of the "can read an awful lot between the lines, sometimes" class.
So, a dedicated hobbyist within the JW movement is, by WT standards, endangering himself or herself spiritually. He or she is cultivating regular contact with outsiders who may well turn out to be moral and ethical people, equal to (or even better than!) the Dubs themselves. In using the internet to broaden the hobby experience, the JW hobbyist may also stumble upon a group whose common interest involves the doctrines and policy of the 'Tower itself. And the 'Tower certainly doesn't what that!
*ding*
Think you've hit the nail on the head. What are hobbies to the WT?
Honestly, it's more amazing they ever encouraged hobbies at all.
Honestly, it's more amazing they ever encouraged hobbies at all.
And you've hit the nail on the head there, too. The 1991 article is the anomaly; not the 2004 one.
Constructing a model tabernacle or temple may likewise improve your knowledge of the way God?s servants worshiped long ago.
Now, a model constructed according to these instructions would really help me appreciate the lively and compelling contents of the book of Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 40
The East Gate to the Outer Court
5 I saw a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man's hand was six long cubits, each of which was a cubit [1] and a handbreadth. [2] He measured the wall; it was one measuring rod thick and one rod high.
6 Then he went to the gate facing east. He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep. [3] 7 The alcoves for the guards were one rod long and one rod wide, and the projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubits thick. And the threshold of the gate next to the portico facing the temple was one rod deep.
8 Then he measured the portico of the gateway; 9 it [4] was eight cubits deep and its jambs were two cubits thick. The portico of the gateway faced the temple.....
It goes on and on for three chapters (Ezekiel 40-43)!!
Anyone here likes Ezekiel??? Nevermind...
How long or tall is a darn cubit? And how big is the rod??
The thing I always think about when they come out with this lunacy is... can they disfellowship you for it? Nope. If you have elders who hate you, anything is possible. But really, what can they do to a person? Nothing. Nada.
A fresh new guilt trip, that's all it is. They've been giving the guilt trip for years to people spending excessive amounts of time watching television or using the computer, so, now they can't have a hobby either. Before, who could shame you for gardening? Well, all of you gardeners out there, watch out, you're just as bad as the couch potatoes. I never saw anybody get disfellowshipped for watching TV either, come to think of it.
They sound more like barking lunatics every day.
