DISCO! . . . . . shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing, oh yeah!

by nicolaou 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  nicolaou

  Below is a cut & paste of a Kingdom Ministry service meeting outline from 24 years ago. I swear I can remember this exact meeting. I was 15 at the time and could not belieeeeve what I was hearing!

  What are your JW-Disco memories?

  *** km 5/79 p. 2 Meetings to Help Us Make Disciples ***

  WEEK STARTING MAY 20Theme: Glorify God by Bearing Good Fruit.

  8 min: Song 88 and general announcements. Introduce theme of meeting with brief comments on John 15:8 and 1 Peter 2:12.

  15 min: Does Disco Glorify God? Discussion based on the material in the first three articles in the March 22, 1979, Awake!, making local application. Draw out the information in the articles by involving the audience with questions such as: What is disco? How popular is it in our community? Why do people go to discos? What evidence is there that disco has homosexual roots? Why is this a matter of concern to Christians? Why are disco?s roots in ancient fertility dances also a matter of concern to Christians? While not all discos may be the same, what are the outstanding characteristics of disco? Are these things that glorify God? Why are disco movies such as "Saturday Night Fever" objectionable to Christians? What spiritual as well as physical dangers are encountered at many discos?

  15 min: "How Christians Should View Disco." Talk and discussion of final article on disco in March 22, 1979, Awake! Raise and discuss following questions, drawing comments from audience: (Read applicable paragraphs.) What advice was given a teen-ager by a disco magazine? What are some of these harsh realities in the world today that are so often confronted at discos? How have some Christians been harmed spiritually by going to discos? What evidence is there that just because something is enjoyable, that does not make it pleasing to God? Although social gatherings can be upbuilding and fine, emphasize the need to watch one?s conduct. Explain what developed at early Christian "love feasts." Encourage all to work together to keep the Christian congregation free from the unrestrained spirit of the world. At all times our conduct should glorify God.?1 Cor. 10:31.

  17 min: Discussion of Our Kingdom Service insert from the beginning of article to the end of the section "Maintaining Honorable Conduct" (pars. 1-13). While this will primarily be a talk, elder should bring audience into discussion by asking questions that highlight such main points as making plans now to attend, commendation for improved conduct, applying Bible principles daily. Emphasize thoughts especially applying to your congregation.

  5 min: Service announcements. Song 55 and prayer.
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  minimus

  I remember that one! By the time this article went to press, disco was just about dead. It's amazing to see how they spent an entire meeting knocking "disco". The funny thing was, I used to go to the discos just about every night of the week....of course I was very discreet since I was a pioneer and MS at the time.....And thankfully, we can see how terrible disco was! The faithful slave surely does know what's best for us.
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  expatbrit

  Those articles were written shortly after Freddie Franz' boardroom tabletop rendition of "Love To Love You Baby" met with stony silence from the rest of the GB.

  Expatbrit
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  nilfun

  LOL, Expatbrit!
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  Sassy

  I remember that too. We had actually (JW friends of my ex husbands and I) been going out and dancing. The places at the time we had gone to in the past had remodeled to keep up with the disco rave. I still can't figure out what was so bad about it.. never did..

  I don't miss disco however.

  ~~Sassy~~
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  dobby

  My disco memories as a dub - I was 10 in 1979.

  I remember being fascinated with "disco" Watchtowers and looked with a secret thrill at the ladies in the spaghetti straps and slits. They were so bad but looked so good!

  I remember the argument about disco having roots in ancient fertility dances. At the age of 10 this sounded like a lot of baloney to me because all dancing really has it's roots in something from the past that is likely religious. Besides it conjured up pictures of people stomping around in ceremonial dress - you know really "gettin' down" and frankly the hustle is pretty tame by comparison. Maybe The Freak was closer? Was that a dance or just a song? So Chic!

  Finally, I was very confused by the word "discotheque" (I think that's how you spell it). I just knew the word disco and when seeing discotheque in print in the WT I wondered were they came up with such a word and how did you pronounce it anyway? But of course they would know the proper terms for these kinds of things.
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  Leolaia

  i was 9 years old....i liked the music a lot, i would hear it on the radio when we drove home from the meetings so ironically disco music and Thursday night service meetings kinda go together for me.... But, being only 9, it was all very simple....Saturday Night Fever was rated R .... it was very, very b-a-d. The pictures of discotheque dance floors in the Live Forever book and in the magazines always looked very worldly, so ..... so very, what's the word, demonic! They just seemed to be those evil worldly places where ppl smoked, did disgusting drugs, engaged in evil sexual immorality (porneia....yuck), it was a veritable epicenter of satanic worldly-ism....

  Leolaia
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  GentlyFeral

  I was a young adult married homebody when the disco hysteria started. So I mouthed all the arguments: "It's immoral, it's hypnotic, it's gay-influenced..."

  ...and, under my breath, "and it's butt-ugly, too." Truly, I thought it was so jejune; made me sick. But then, my parents raised me on swing music and blues, the Beatles, classical music and rock.

  GentlyFeral