Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Curse of Music.

by donny 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Lynnie

  Well once again with the JW's it depends on who you are if you get in trouble for listening to the "wrong" kind of music. Here in Seattle I currently see the 30 something witnesses going to rock concerts of all sorts all the time. Of course this group is one of the "cool groups" so either they just fly under the radar or the elders just seem to ignore their attendance to all these events! I don't get it! They always seem to have time for these type of events but I don't think going out in service is ever a priority! HA!

  Before I made my escape at 19 (I'm 56 now) all the music I listened to was scrutinized by my very devout male cousin (uber witness now) but he could get away with listening to Jefferson Airplane, Beatles, Led Zep, and various others. My mother would complain about what a waste of money it was to buy that "trash music" when I deviated from what my cousin approved of! I was able to fool her with the Eagles Albums that I bought saying it was "country rock" instead of rock and roll and somehow that was better! (Of course she never listened to them, just made assumptions!)

  I was so glad to be able to choose my own music once I left without the third degree on what I wasted my money on this week! Stupid! Oh classical music was okay of course!!
• 

  wasblind

  A brother gave a talk from the podium one sunday about Music

  and that we should not listen to the kind that express emotions about

  certain desires , and activies becuase it will lead you to do these things

  What he fail to recognize is that songs are an expression of what people

  have experienced in their lives

  Unless a person has not lived, what else would they write about

  Oh. I forgot Silly me

  They can write about " Waitin' on the Kingdom " to start livin'

  .

  Oooooh, I can't wait til I die to start livin'

  .
• 

  James Brown

  I remember several times throwing out my collection of Blue Oyster Cult records.

  The name and album covers seemed demonic. I would throw them away and then buy them back.

  I have them all now.

  Blue Oyster cult was the only group that scared me. Not Sabbath or Zepplin.

  They are my favorite living group today. I have seen them many times.

  In fact Buck Dharma lives down the road from me here in Florida.

  My best JW friend and former next door neighbor has a band and Buck comes and

  plays with them from time to time in the local bars. I have pictures of it

  Also I have every piece of music that I enjoyed digitalized except 1 song.

  It is a song that they play at the rowdies soccer games here in Florida.

  They play it today. But they also played it back in the 80's

  If I could find out the name of it. I could capture it.
• 

  BluesBrother

  The founder of The Salvation Army is said to have declared "Why should The Devil have all the best tunes?"......

  Truth is that all of us music fans in the 70's to 90's suffered from music prejudice and criticism from The Society and of course the local enforcers. There never was a "Christian " music scene in the U K , unless it was distributed small scale by Church groups and Christian bookshops . The issue was the current trends, either rock then heavy (metal) music the punk and rap...all have been slated by the WT and if you liked it you were in disrepute.

  It did not stop me becoming an elder and continuing to love rock music, of the heavier kind, Led Zep, ZZTop, Deep Purple etc. When I was WT Overseer we once had to stage an "important" visit to an aunt one Sunday so as to get me out of conducting a WT study that slated the music I loved .

  It became useful when I wanted to get out of eldership , doing my fade. The others and the C/o were trying to make me change my mind, when I "confessed" to th C/O that I had this practice of listening to such music however, he visibly paled , and I was off! - quicker than you could say Guns and Roses
• 

  TotallyADD

  Flipper I love you even more. All those groups were the ones I liked also. I remember those elders on stage talking about how bad rock music was and didn't have a idea what it was about. There was one who said the only music you should listen to was country and western. I was in shock. All that sex and leaving someone for someone else. That was alright but don't listen to Pink Floyd "Dark side of the moon". After all we all know the dark side of the moon is demonic. LOL The WT could care less about anyones enjoyment. All they care about is your money and loyality to them. What great memorys you all brought up. My very first 8 track tape song I played in my 1970 plymouth duster was "Black Majic Women". It was great. I still love that song to this day. Blues Brothers right on man. Totally ADD
• 

  sd-7

  I guess I didn't really listen to much music that had lyrics for a long time, because of the JW issues. Well, that and my love for Star Wars music. Heck, I didn't have my own music to listen to until I was nearly out of high school. At the very least, I knew it was common sense not to share too much of any of my music preferences with anyone else. Now I tend to just not listen to any music with lyrics if my wife is in the car, unless it's something I think can pass the paranoia.

  --sd-7
• 

  Magwitch

  I was 11 years old when the Eagles song "Life in the Fast Lane" came out. Loved this song until my mother said it was not proper to listen to a song called "Wipe in the Vasoline"
• 

  sd-7

  "Wipe in the Vasoline"

  LOL! What was she thinking about? I've noticed that when you're looking for bad in a song, you'll hear lyrics that aren't even actually what's being said. It's amazing how that works.

  --sd-7
• 

  Violia
• 

  Satanus

  This used to puzzle me, when i was jw. A pioneer that a roomed w used to psyche himself up, for field service w music like the dooby brothers, ccr and rock of the era. If the wt worked as a religion and a life style, kingdom melodies should have done the trick. Btw, this pioneer is a circuit overseer, today, and so is his father (and his wife;).

  S