Quietly singing Praises' to Jah

by plmkrzy 6 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  plmkrzy

  I was reading "Remembering" and It made me remember how deflated the air always seems when it comes time to stand and join together in song.
  Once in a while, depending on the cong. I was visiting , someones voice would stand out in the crowd and sound like they were actually singing from their heart.
  I remember the last assembly I attended several months ago, the man sitting next to me stood up to sing and I swear you could hear him over everyone else and there were over 11,000 people in attendance that day. All of Long Beach must have thought only one person in the convention center was singing.
  I use to wonder why, if these are people who have found the one truth, aren't they singing louder?
• 

  refiners fire

  JWs are one of the most emotionless churches Ive ever attended.
  And I speak from experience , Ive attended heaps of different sects and churches. Theyve all got their foibles, their own individual feel.
  Each sect that is.
  One of the things about dubs is they dont show much emotion, they dont get excited. Not at meetings anyway.Though we used to get plenty excited on Saturday nights, away from the ever watching eyes of control. On its facade,Its all very restrained, very dry. Almost as if the less human feeling is manifest the holier it is. Why does this manifest in the church?
  I dont know, Ive thought about it but dont have a clear answer.
  There is a great pride within the "organization" in "rationality".
  A pride in reasoning ability ( while, of course not actually practising it) wheras a lot of other churches seem to relish emotional displays, even tears and supplication.
  Thats just where dubs are different is all.
  It could be worse. You could have been in a charismatic church where, every time you go to church youve got to find the energy to convince yourself to yowl, roll on the floor and gibber.
  Id rather sit in a dub meeting.
  Whichever you go to, theres no escaping complying with required behaviour.Whether dumb submissiveness, "holy laughter" , or weeping and supplicating on your knees.
  
  Remember, years ago? The congregations used to have their own orchestras. Some creaky old sister on the piano plonking away 5 notes behind the singing congregation? Too much humanity in that. Not enough uniformity. Stamp that out and have universal recorded music, every cong playing the same recording, at the same volume at the same time.
  I guess its all just more evidence of how controlled the church is.
  The members instinctively know its tightly controlled, even if they dont consciously admit it. Their personal restraint in public
  behaviour is demonstration that they accept the control as of God.
• 

  plmkrzy

  refiners fire
  Yah! I completly forgot about the piano player. I do remember that! but that was way back when I was still a kid.
• 

  refiners fire

  I reckon you must be about 35 years old.

  Entertainment was slim in a dub meeting wasnt it? maybe a snicker of laughter once a week, a gag once a fortnight. An unintended gag at the expense of an incompetent speaker now and then.
  Most of the time though...
  Boredom Boredom BOREDOM.
  And watching the clock.Looking out the window at real people doing real things in the real world.
  Another world..
  Remember.
• 

  ballistic

  Here comes the mind control bit again. What another head fk, teaching all these people to "love" the truth... the truth consisting of mainly field service and meetings. Deep down, I bet most hate the meetings just as I did. But somehow I managed to hoodwink myself into believing I actually enjoyed it. God, what a martyr I was.
• 

  belbab

  I was thinking of this this past night, Singing that is. I was recently reading of a psychology test or relaxation process where part of the process was to hum a tune for a few seconds then count quickly from one to five, and then hum again.

  The explanation for this was that humming was say on the right side of the brain and counting to five was on the other side. The other side being the emotional, artistic, wholistic, side. Then I realized that this is what singing is. Also there is an exercize where the names of colors are in print, but the print color is a different color than what the letters spell out. You are asked to read the words quickly as possible, and it is difficult, because the two sides of your brain are in conflict.

  Now getting back to JW singing, and why is it emotionless? Because it is all left brain, intellectual, all message, words. The music is uninspiring, mechanical, to fit the words. Some of the most beautiful music in the world is religious music. Ava Maria, Handel's Messiah, Amazing Grace. The words are minimal, the music, stupendous, awesome.

  So as some of you are saying, No more one finger piano players, no more inspiring music written by religious people from the past. Canned music, the same songs picked out for all JW meetings world wide. It would be interesting for someone to note what songs are picked for funeral talks if they have them.

  Back quite a few decades ago at my high school graduation, the graduates sang as a choir, the song Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your head and sing...Hosanna, Hosanna Hosanna to your King. I still belt it out once in a while from the bathtub. Twenty years of kingdom songs, I can't remember the tune or words to any of them.

  belbab
• 

  happy man

  Hello there, here in Sweden we still have the pianoplayer, my wife, and also a violinist, so it is not like you say, only from tejp or CD
  once aain, you putt out the wrong messege, why?
  You are inn some way forced to see evrything widh negative glases, also inn this not so important thing, funnyn peopel
  i must say.