The JWs don't like Chess

by mickbobcat 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  dropoffyourkeylee

  I am an avid chess player, as hopefully my avatar shows.
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  waton

  doykl: how about checkers, hare&hounds?
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  stan livedeath

  They are neutral toward video games, except those they consider to be violent or immoral.

  oh ? i didnt know they were available. sounds interesting.
  
  
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  waton; I mostly concentrate on chess, but I have also learned Xiangqi (Chinese chess) in the last few years and I find it very enjoyable.
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  jwundubbed

  I was raised as a JW from birth. I also left in '95. My father played chess. I was in the chess club in middle school. I knew kids that took small magnetized travel chess boards to play on the way to and during the intermissions of conventions. There was nothing wrong with playing chess in any of the 12 congregations I attended in my youth.

  We also played Risk which actually mimics war. What we didn't have that other kids did were games like Candyland (too magical) and Twister (involves bodies intertwined).

  Now that you mention it, it seems very strange to me that magic and social games were more censured than games of logic and strategy, i.e. war.

  Everyone I knew growing up that could afford it had a Nintendo. My younger brother had a Gameboy. My parents didn't pay attention to what games he had once he started buying them on his own. I'm guessing parents aren't much more involved now than they were back then.
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  mickbobcat

  There were a lot of witnesses who did not follow the direction of the society like JWundubbed. We had a family from California who moved in and would go to school cake walks and other events that made the congregation uneasy. The society at least did when I was in look down on Yoga,even gave talks on why JWs would not join and nor do Yoga, Chess, even had a talk on are you addicted to caffeine in coffee and or Tea. Does not matter what a brother or two did or said I was going more for what the JW cult stood on it. I have seen congregations who were not very strict have beach beer keg parties. I have also seen whole congregations almost dissolved and restarted because of not following the rules. I may wright a letter to the HQ and ask what they feel on Chess. The usual rule is if there is nothing new that has come out they will default to the last thing there was on it. So I would bet dollars to doughnuts that they still don't like the cult members to play the game. For two reasons, one is the old Tower that said it was based on war strategist, and the second is it takes up too much time to master. Time they think would be better spent reading the cult literature or cart work. BTW Jwundubbed, I had a Nintendo NES and when JWs would come over their kids would get all big eyed and I would say do you want to play and to the one the parents acted like I wanted to take nude photos of them. Not kidding I got the stink eye like crazy.
  
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  truth_b_known

  The Watchtower's stance on the game of chess is a great example of flip-flopping. The Watchtower has been anti and pro chess in its printed literature.
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  Terry

  First off, once we realize Jehovah's Witness governing attitudes are PURITANICAL, OCD, neurotic, and disconnected from practical everyday life, we must accept
  the fear based rationale isn't really "rational" but psychiatric!
  
  "This specific need for control often comes from a deep sense that control is inherently lacking in the world, and needs to be asserted. Control freaks generally believe they have to create order themselves, as they can't trust anybody else to provide that stability for them."
  "Perfectionism, even though it usually has a good reputation (wanting to do everything 100 percent can't be that bad, right?), can actually be a seriously crippling voice in your head, demanding absolute excellence and delivering horrible punishment if that standard isn't reached. Which it never is."
  Justification for aberrant behavior is much easier if it comes direct from God.
  I hardly ever met a male JW who wasn't quite obsessed with sports.
  In Texas, it is football. Nobody ever preached against the "war-like" dark side of football from the lecturn.
  Cherry-picking what is good and bad for JW's conforms to the personal tastes of the one in charge.
  Rutherford was a heavy drinker. He railed on like a maniac against Prohibition as his righteous cause for many years (importing illegally from Canada the booze supply for Bethel.)
  The WT leaders are a neurotic bunch of misfits hellbent on control-freakish pronouncements.
  There is nothing reasonable going on - ever.