by nowawake14 40 Replies latest jw friends
Remembering what day you were born on to keep track of how old you are is not same as celebrating your birthday. Reminds me of some jw mothers who would not supply the DOB of their children to the school because it was celebrating a birthday. Hard to fill out forms and applications.
I remember what day the 4th of July is, that doesn't mean I am celebrating it.
Well let me spell it out for you. It is part a very ancient heretical social position called:
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival [like birthdays] or a new moon or a Sabbath.
Birthdays and holidays let you feel chummy with coworkers, schoolmates, or non-JW family.
They want you to feel like you are obeying something mystically important when you refuse that cake at the office. They want your kids to feel like Jehovah would strike them down if they get a cupcake on some classmate's birthday. That way, they might feel more normal about obeying Watchtower in other things.
They don't want you to feel like your worldly brothers and uncles actually care about you.
In short, it's a cult.
OnTheWayOut is correct. They do it, in short, because they are a cult. Cults use tools such as asceticism as a way for adherents to feel holier than others who are either unable or unwilling to subject themselves to such denials.
Some adherents will wear their suffering as a sort of badge of honor and may feel that there will be some bigger reward for their self denial.
JW's are known for not pursuing certain talents "for the Kingdom"..... like sports for example. There is obviously no biblical rule against sports as a way of providing for your family. And many Christians are famous sports figures which brings good publicity to Christ.
But JW leaders put a huge guilt trip on anyone pursuing this because it does not fit with their quasi ascetic lifestyle they promote.
It's hard to keep someone depressed and "barely holding on until Armageddon" if they are a successful public sports figure making millions and praising God for it.
It benefits the organization for its adherents to be different without just or reasonable cause.
Birthdays, Thanksgiving day, Mother's day, etc.....there is no biblical reason whatsoever to avoid these celebrations, while simultaneously condoning anniversary celebrations, graduation parties, baby showers, etc.
But....it does serve as a litmus test to see how loyal you are to utterly stupid and pointless regulations.
If you are willing to overlook the hypocrisy of denouncing Mother's day due its "pagan origins" and "honor of a creature", yet are simultaneously willing to overlook the pagan origins of wedding rings and overlook the "honor of creatures" at a wedding anniversary party, all because simply "we say so", then you are "one of us".
Same reasoning with beards - are you willing to follow this completely arbitrary, irrational, and pointless unwritten mandate? Good, join the club, now you can have some "privileges".
SIR82:
What you said hit the nail on the head about “a litmus test to see how Loyal you were..”. Yeah, I always felt the JW religion was obsessed to the point of craziness about people being ‘loyal’ and they tested the waters to see what people would tolerate.
It was almost like that childhood game of “Simon Says”:..”Simon says put your left hand on your head, etc.” You had to go along with this. Of course, this had absolutely nothing to do with the bible or spiritual things as far as I was concerned. But, it had everything to do with EGO and following the leader.
I saw this nonsense in one congregation I attended where it seemed everybody was bending themselves into the shape of a pretzel to humor a cantankerous older JW..If you didn’t ‘follow the leader’ it was taken as a personal affront and you became the target of character assassination. Yeah, I witnessed it.
Birthdays, Christmass, not giving money to the Gobshite Body and corporation. All these unreasonable things make the culties feel like they have special knowledge. In turn this makes them feel special/blessed.
It's typical cult manipulation. It's the, 'we're different, therefore we're right!' technique.
Think how many religions have their own little quirks that make them feel different and therefore specially picked by their own version of imaginary sky mafia boss.
Religion IS a snare and a racket.
Let's review, they're all cults.
LongHairGirl - " I suspect the reason the JWs are against birthdays - more specifically- birthday parties, is they are afraid you’ll spend time with non-JW family and friends. That’s a no no. They are very threatened by you having a good time with people who aren’t JWs..You might not want the religion anymore."
This.
It's a means of further socially isolating members from non-members, with a so-called "Biblical" pretext.
IMO, it ain't even that subtle.
Good point Vidiot
There is a constant division implied by the JWS religion itself in how they are acknowledged as being more righteous than other practicing Christians and the WTS leaders have intentionally tried to create that identifying illusion.
So birthdays were pointed out has having pagan origins and because of that they are unrighteous in the eyes of god as it were.
There is some truth to that but birthdays as they are socially performed today are not related to religious worship, they are an expression of love and respect to an individual on the day they were born.
This activity from a sociological perspective aids in building relationships out of that expression of love and respect.
In the bible John the Baptist was recorded to have attended a birthday, so from a Christian perspective is it really something immoral or unrighteous in the eyes of god ?
It's about 3 things:
1. WT control
2. Turning JWs into organizational clones rather than individuals.
3. Making JWs feel superior to other religions by reason of supposed superior understanding of the Bible.
