Why Entertainment Got Banned in the Watchtower

by WTWizard 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  IsaacJS2

  One thing I've noticed is that a lot of the things they take issue with cost money, sometimes lots of it. Christmas presents, movies, cable/satellite TV, birthdays, violent sporting events...these often cost a fair amount of cash. On Dec 26th, for instance, many people are pretty much broke after all that shopping. But not Jehovah's Witnesses. That's money that could best be spent in the donation box. The more money you have, the easier it is to give it away. These things also take up time and increase the odds that a Witness might make "worldly" friends who might introduce them to new, cult exposing ideas. It's subtle, cumulative thing that can have a big impact over 5 or 10 years in a person's life. Discouraging them cuts down on the number of anti-WT thoughts and activities a person might have.

  Just a thought.

  IsaacJ
• 

  undercover

  Isaac's got it...

  The Society isn't against entertainment. They're against anything that costs their workers time and money. Time and money that could and should be spent in marketing the WTS products.

  So they rail against certain forms of entertainment, like movies, video games, hobbies, music. The WTS' idea of entertainment is faithful JWs eating meals together. You gotta eat, so you might as well as lump your recreation time with your eating time. This leaves more time for field service.

  The WTS keeps harping on this because the dubs aren't following the counsel. They're enjoying entertainment pretty much the same as everyone else. They go to movies(maybe not R-rated, but 2 hours is 2 hours), they buy/download music, they have expensive hobbies. I know many MSs who play golf every weekend. I know one brother who rebuilds classic cars. Others go on extensive vacations two or three times a year.

  Even though we see the controlling factor of it, the dubs are somehow using reverse cognitive dissonance. They hear what the WTS says, they know what the counsel is but yet they seem to ignore it and go with their entertainment and hobbies. The WTS created the monster, now they can't control it.
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  moshe

  I remember the elders demonizing the early video games - like the Atari. It is all about control and preventing the youth from playing with non-JW's.
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  WTWizard

  Maybe that's why they closed it out. They tried demonizing it. They tried counsel. They tried balancing entertainment with service (of course, favoring buying time out of entertainment and into service). But people wouldn't listen. So that left them with two options:
  (1) Loosen up, recognizing that people are going to have fun so they might as well accept it, or
  (2) Clamp down so that people wouldn't be getting entertained while they are supposed to be in service.

  The control freaks predictably chose Option 2. They knew that loosening up would stop them from having as much control, even though in the long run it would slow the exodus and help bond the congregations. After all, a lot of what kept them together through the late 1970s and early 1980s was the fun times they had then. But they chose to tighten up to keep that control. And now they are going to pay for it with a mass exodus, hopefully sooner than later.
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  daystar

  I'm less interested in this than that they effectively banned get-togethers. They did, didn't they?

  I mean, I remember all those big, wonderful get-togethers where we'd play badminton while the dads sat on the porch "watching" the homemade ice cream maker. We were close back then, the whole congregation. We felt like family...

  Then, I heard, that large get-togethers were banned. Horrible. Stupid. Corruptive. Divisive...
• 

  WTWizard

  Yup, they did away with get-togethers. Until about 1983, they had fun rollerskating. Then came the Evil Disco issue of the Craptower, and that was ditched. One by one went the other fun gatherings that held the congregations together (get disfellowshipped, and you lose them). They would have picnics at rented pavilions at parks, until about 1995 when these were stopped. Weddings are also kept small. And now, even baby showers are getting stripped of the games (I have seen a few posts where someone got hounded for holding one with three clean games there).

  It's getting so sterile that they effectively already banned entertainment as far back as 1998. I think that if they go all the way, it is going to cause people to leave. Get disfellowshipped now, and all you lose are those wonderful opportunities to maintain the Kingdumb Hell or go out in service all ^@ ing day long. What a shame.