I watched the children's video. Pretty slick. Do Jehovah's will or else your parents and God will be very, very sad. Maaaan, I feel for Caleb. This is Manipulation 101. The WTS does do us a favour by laying down the real reason children - and adults - conform. It also explains the Witness demeanor by day two of convention (grim determination), and their slogging steps in field service. "...must not make Jehovah sad..." I think from now on I am going to call them Blue Witnesses.
How about living by principle...like reverence for life, kindness, generosity... than blindly following some incomprehensible instructions from a Blue God?
Besides, Jehovah of the bible is not blue. He's red.
And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. - Exodus 15:7
Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. - Exd 22:22-24ΒΆ
And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it [is] a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. [Moses talks down Jehovah] And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. [Exodus 32:9-14]
I cannot recall Jehovah being sad, unless you count Jesus weeping for the people. And Jesus wept for the ignorance and suffering he saw; not out of disappointment.
I also feel for Witness parents, who get the unenviable job of laying out unrealistic expectations, then when the child fails, to bottle up the redness behind a mask of blue misery. Hug the child on the way to study.
Did you notice how Caleb's natural exhuberance was systematically extinguished?