A thing that bothers me about JW and Christmas

zagor

Is that they don’t celebrate it but are quite happy to accept gifts or money given by many companies at the end of a year as Christmas gift. In fact, I’ve heard all sorts of excuses ranging from “Well that’s our money that we’ve earned over the year anyway” to “well we shouldn’t really offend anyone”

It looks like as long as you are receiving money or gifts its okay. (Kind of like when some folks donated money to WTBS believing that it was to support republican campaign at election – of course wtbs never gave money back it went to “worldwide” preaching campaign)

I mean if you don’t believe something shouldn’t you stand your ground regardless of circumstances?

roybatty

True. I remember a few years back when I was the engineering manager at a large company I would always receive all types of x-mas gifts from vendors, usually sent to my house. Omha Steaks, Harry & Dave's fruit, gift cards for fancy resturants....it was great. Now that I think about it, I don't ever recall returning one of those gifts. :)

Confession

I remember comments like this when I was a JW, zagor. Did my company usually provide a year end bonus? Yes. Did I go to the accountant and tell them not to give me that bonus? No I didn't, just as I didn't return presents to other people who'd give them to me.

jack w

I think JW's as whole do a good job maintaining their "integrity" when it comes to not getting involved with X-MAS and with most stuff they are against. It's not easy. It's one of the things I give them credit for. They stick to their guns for the most part. One of the most restrictive religions out there, and yet most of them succeed in staying true to their beliefs. It's a tough, judgemental world out there, and I see many other religions buckle under pressure and comprimise their beliefs. The witnesses by and large don't do that. Although they are equally judgemental of others.

jack.

DavidChristopher

Good point! It is like they are "strong", They can live a very restrictive lifestyle, and yet resist "challenges" or "accusations" that they are doing anything "wrong". How is that possible? Could it be they really believe in what they are doing deep down? It is comforting to me, that we can acknowledge this. It really is.....

Virgogirl

Our elder at work is a mail carrier and receives cards and gifts from his route for Xmas. He brags about the gifts and cash inside the cards and definitely does not return anything!

Benjamin Belial

I can understand accepting a bonus at the end of the year at work, but bragging about recieving Christmas cards and money in the cards to people? Bragging in and of itself is sinful, much less bragging that you got cards from people celebrating a day dedicated to the Devil. (JW explanation.)

lucifer

it's true, my grandparents(never jws) always tried to give me gifts around xmas, not on the exact day but say three days later, and i knew what it was and my parents would just say" its your own decision to accept them or not" HAHA who asks a 9 year old if they want gifts or not, of course i took em!

Inquisitor

A non-witness friend of mine was always broke from buying gifts for birthdays, Xmas etc etc.

Once, having just bought some very expensive gifts for several birthdays in a week, she learnt from me that although JWs do not celebrate such events, they happily accept presents or cash from any "insistent" friends or relatives. She said with tongue-in-cheek, "WOW.. where do i sign up? I'd save me heaps that way. Get presents all year and not need to give any away!"

Jokes aside, i wonder why the WTS has not been draconian about accepting these items.

1) Do they normally get a BIG XMAS present from some secular business/corporation in December? And thus silence is literally golden?

2) Do they reason that whatever the r&f receives eventually adds to the wealth of the organization? ( I wouldn't bet my money on this one though)

Any ideas??

INQ

IP_SEC

I accepted them but it always bothered me to do so. I think the reason I did was because I knew some elders that did too. The excuse was that it wasnt a christmas gift but an end of the year bonus.

I dunno, my end of the year bonuses always came in a card that said Merry Christmas or my boss/manager/owner would always say Merry Christmas in connection with it.

You can rationalize just about anything eh?

A thing that bothers me about JW and Christmas

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