There was an awake article, I believe last year that basically gave the green light to go ahead with ahead with things that once were pagan, but have since lost their pagan connotations. Of course, this was left up to your conscience, and the usual matter of not stumbling your brothers was brought up.
Over on Witnet, one member mentions an inquiry to the Society regarding "toasting" at weddings etc, and they basically left this to the individuals to decide.
Now, i've never seen anything wrong with stuff like this myself, and this whole "pagan" thing has never made sense to alot of people. I mean, doesn't everything really have some "pagan" origin? And who cares? Where does the bible say we can't do something, just because pagans did it?
And throw into the mix that some pagan things are acceptable (ie the classic wedding ring example) and others are not, or like "toasting", were not acceptable. Then you have the stupid "what's the difference between anniversaries and birthday scam. Talk about confusion and not making any sense at all.
Well, i think they've started to realize just how rediculous all this stuff is, and how lots of members don't see what's the big deal with all this "pagan" stuff. Once again, the ground work is laid to abandon so many things that made us "different".
Slowly the religion is changing to appear "normal", and probably by abandoning these little rediculous things that we've become so known for blowing out of proportion is one of the most major ways to make the religion more appealing to the masses both inside and out.
Its quite sad actually when every little detail of your life was dictated. Even that someone had to write into the Society to see if it was ok to tinkle your glass, that grown men would meet together and waste time thinking about this, then tell you, "its ok now to tinkle your glass if you'd like".
*** w68 1/1 31-2 Questions from Readers ***
At wedding receptions frequently a toast is similarly offered to the health and happiness of the newlyweds. Understandably, some have questioned whether it would be Scripturally proper for Christians to share in such toasts.Certainly there is nothing wrong with a Christian’s wishing a friend happiness and good health. Nor would it be improper to do so as a group. The spiritually older men in the first century concluded a letter to the Christian congregations with an expression meaning, essentially, “Good health to you!”—Acts 15:29.
But is that all there is to “toasting”? Why do the toasters raise their glasses, or lift their mugs and clink them together? Is it in imitation of some custom? Note what The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th Ed., Volume 13, page 121, says:
“The custom of drinking ‘health’ to the living is most probably derived from the ancient religious rite of drinking to the gods and the dead. The Greeks and Romans at meals poured out libations to their gods, and at ceremonial banquets drank to them and to the dead.” Then, after showing how such pagan customs survived among Scandinavian and Teutonic peoples, this reference work adds: “Intimately associated with these quasi-sacrificial drinking customs must have been the drinking to the health of living men.”
When most people join in a “toast” they probably do not imagine that they might be copying the custom of lifting up a libation or liquid sacrifice to pagan gods, yet that could be so. Without question, a faithful Christian would not share in an actual pagan sacrifice, realizing that “you cannot be drinking the cup of Jehovah and the cup of demons.” (1 Cor. 10:21) A mature Christian would also avoid even imitating false religious rituals. This spiritually mature course would please Jehovah. Remember, God specifically warned the Israelites against copying religious practices of the pagan nations round about them.—Lev. 19:27; 21:5.*** w52 5/15 319 Questions from Readers ***
Jehovah God and Christ Jesus are not honored by having pagan customs of toasting switched to them, or to humans. God’s Word the Bible instructs us in the way to honor him, and we do not add to his Word on this point, and especially not when the addition comes from pagan customs. In shunning this custom of toasting, along with many other objectionable customs, we may appear narrow-minded to worldlings. So we are. But never forget for a moment that our Christian narrowness is our salvation, just as the world’s broadness is its destruction.—Matt. 7:13, 14.
Talk about a 180 [url] http://discussion.witnesses.net/Forum67/private-8QWKRq0/HTML/000156.html[/url]
Path (disgusted)