by Ed Daly 24 Replies latest jw friends
Time for some open-ended questions.
"If they are this dogmatic about birthdays, I wonder what other things they are dogmatic about?"
"For a religion claiming to be so peaceful, happy and unified, I wonder what set your study conductor off?"
"How might you find comfort in the bible on your own without the help of an organized religion like the Witnesses?"
Good luck Ed- it's great that you are getting all this informative feedback. Here's one that helped me quite a bit on the birthdays:
http://watchtowerletters.com/birthdays.html
Also this man and his wife were DFed over their little boy's party and it was in the local newspaper:
Hi Ed,
Keep on the subject of the child. As mentioned, "If JW's can get so upset over children's birthday parties...what else?" We'll tell you.
If the son EVER wants to:
join a club, play a sport, go to college, go to dances, (among many things) it will be looked upon in the same manner. They are needless rules to keep control of the congregation. But it will strangle the life out of a childhood.
Make sure she understands this...the birthday conversation is JUST the beginning. Seriously.
How can it be wrong to celebrate birthdays when the angels celebrated Jesus' birth? Luke 2:8-14
Reopened Mind
Show her the scripture in Romans 14:5,6
One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.
I feel that the approach is best tailored to the individual. What sort of a person is your sister? She is evidently a devoted parent so what issues would get most to her, in addition to the birthday?
Refusing a life saving blood transfusion to a dying child?
Being told what toys to allow, or not, to give the child? ( I refer to the video of Caleb and his Sparlock wizard toy)
Being willing to shun a teen child or upward, who has left home and "left Jehovah"
The child abuse problem in their ranks
Accepting a woman's role as subordinate to her "husband as her head".....Whatever will get to her.....
Some people respond to logic and reasoning about failed prophecy, the calculation of dates and times, the assertion that Jerusalem fell in 607 BCE when archaology supports 587 BCE, the frequent miss-quotes in their literature, the UNO scandal..
You can see that there is a great field of various issues. Finding the right one may take some time but your sister and her child must be worth it.
Welcome Ed!
I think you deserve a "Brother of the Year" award for working to protect your sister from Watchtower Corp. Stick around and let us know how things develop. We'll do everything we can to help.
As far as her study conductor, your sister should tell her that the child isn't having a "birthday", instead it's a "Smurfday"!
In case you haven't already heard, JWs are very smurfphobic.
What if those two Bible accounts JWs use to "prove" birthdays are wrong involved wedding anniversaries instead?
By the same "logic", no JW could celebrate their wedding anniversary, as these would be considered "Satanic".
"The {S C] could not quote verse of course but said all birthdays in the bible where evil things"
By the end of their conversation my Sister said she could see the vein’s coming out in [SC] neck and her face was red with rage saying “obviously you don’t have a proper grasp on the bible”.
This is hilarious considering the study conductor could not reference even one of the two Bible verses that mention a birthday!
