Thanksgiving

by tresdecu 4 Replies latest jw friends

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  tresdecu

  So, as a dub for many years. This is one I could never really explain to people. Does the WT condemn this holiday (Thanksgiving) in writing somewhere. I don't remember really ever reading much on this one, except maybe in the school brochure. My wife was ok with cooking a big TK dinner on FRIDAY but 24 hrs earlier would have been a big no-no. I teased her about this pretty good too.
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  james_woods

  As I recall, they smugly referred to it as "The WORLDLY Thanksgiving Holiday" in the literature - and freely complained that it was an excuse for gluttony.

  I do not think they openly complained that it was "pagan", however - as it is clearly NOT.

  Basically, witnesses were not supposed to do it basically because other (christian) religions DID.
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  undercover

  The reason it's hard to explain to outsiders was that we couldn't rationalize to ourselves. When it comes to Thanksgiving, birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day and similar innocent holidays, the reason for the WTS to dissuade their followers from celebrating isn't because of paganism, or false religious idolatry... it's to isolate the JWs from the "world". The more they can create a separation between JWs and the world, the more the followers rely on the WT for support in allowing themselves to deny simple pleasures from innocent celebrations. In time, the world and it's holidays are evil, their refusing to join in celebrating becomes righteous.

  For religious holidays the WTS is able to point out the "pagan" and "heathen" connections to supposed "christian" holidays, creating a controversy (at least in the minds of their followers) over the holiday. For non-religious holidays, the influence comes from KH talks and assembly parts, and to maybe even a larger extent, word of mouth - or what we could actually call it - peer pressure.

  Take Thanksgiving. No real scriptural reason to shun it. No religious reason. No pagan reason. But since it is "worldly" it is beneath Jehovah's people to partake. If left to their own devices, without condemning speech of the holiday, I dare say that most JWs would partake in this holiday. But with the pressure from the platform, and the pressure to conform to the ideals of being a JW, most shun it, even when it goes against their very conscience.

  But the WTS does seem to be losing influence. I've noticed that more and more JWs actually partake in Thanksgiving. They refuse to call it that, but they celebrate exactly as the "world" does, including celebrating it with their non-JW family and friends. And they do it without a pang of guilt...they just keep quiet about it and hope they get away with it.

  It is a hypocritical stance, in my opinion. I go through this every year with my JW relatives. They're oh so righteous all year, but they conveniently drop their JW guard on this one day so they can associate with the rest of the family and enjoy turkey, ham and pumpkin pie. But come 7:00pm or so, it's back to the self righteousness as they pack it up and head to the KH for the Thursday night meeting.
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  wha happened?

  yea how do u villanize a bunch of people, happy to be alive and not getting killed by the locals?

  To me it falls in the anniversary catalog.
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  tresdecu

  Thanks for your comments! one little bump, then I'll leave it alone :-)