JW's Celebrating De Facto Thanksgiving (page 2)

zeroday

I would scorn my family every year at Thanksgiving time when they would invite me over for dinner saying it was associated with paganism. One thursday (just happened to be Thanksgiving) a pioneer sister and her family invited me over for dinner. I can not tell you how nieve I was and went. To my SHOCK AND HORROR the table was completely decked out with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner I mean EVERYTHING. Each placemat had an autumn leaf with the persons name on it.I stood there and thought what a hypocrite I would be to sit down to this dinner after riddiculing my family for years about this very thing. I sat...

Masterji

TMS,

"any of us would have been horrified to think anyone would view this as compromising our
faith. "

Not me.

M

IP_SEC

eeeyep. turkey dressing and the whole nine yards. hey everyone is off. its a win win. too bad for light mixing with darkness.

7

TMS

My wife reminded me of another development of our Turkey Day hypocracy. Our longtime North Little Rock neighbors Ernest
and Willie Whitehead had a mild argument about our so-called abstention from the holiday. Ernest couldn't stand the thought
of our family going without turkey and trimmings on the day. He wanted his wife Willie to take us an assortment from their
feast. Willie refused, saying it would be offensive to us. "I don't think they would refuse a gift!" was Ernest' response.
To settle the argument, Willie called us and explained the situation. She asked us point blank if we would refuse their gift.
We said we certainly would not as long as they understood that we really didn't celebrate the holiday.

In minutes Willie and her girls brought turkey, corn bread dressing, a delicious strawberry dessert, vegetables etc. It was
fabulous and we came to expect it each year until we finally left the area.

I'm surprised I forgot that. De facto Thanksgivings are just one example of the lengths we went as JW's to rationalize behavior that
never needed rationalization in the first place if we had not been so desperate to preserve our theocratic privileges in a mind control cult.

tms

Cellist

Not only do the JWs here, and in my sister-in-law's area, celebrate Thanksgiving in de facto. They also have a Christmas dinner (Dec.25) and a big party on Dec.31 lasting until after midnight Jan.1.

We never did as JWs. Fortunately, we lived far away from our worldly family, so we didn't have to make fools of ourselves.

Cellist

knock knock

My mom has been a witness for over 40 years and for most of the last 30 she's cooked a big turkey dinner with all that goes with. And this year...she and other family will be at my house and guess what's on the menu. lol And I have laughed for years when she gives the "it's the cheapest meat there is..." explanation. But, if I made a big deal of it I'd be eating at McDonald's or something. Nahhhhhhhhhh.

freyd

The rationalization that turkey was cheap used to just fracture me. I call it the annual Turkey Sacrifice when upwards of 300 million people all think that eating a turkey is a good idea. Talk about being no part of the world......personally I thought fasting on Thanksgiving was a good idea.

owenfieldreams

We did it every year. Not to defend the org, but keep in mind that the US version of "thanksgiving" is not rooted in a "pagan" custom or religion, like so many of the other secular holidays are. It has it's roots in very early american judeo-christian history. This was the main rationalization that I think my family and others in the area had, as opposed to the shop-worn "well, turkey is cheap this time of year" old saw....

purplesofa

I think of all the years I was alone on Thanksgiving while my family was together.

What a waste and what a kook I looked like.

purps

JW's Celebrating De Facto Thanksgiving

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