by confusedjw 24 Replies latest jw experiences
What are people's experiences here of JW's who let their kids play sports and the consequences for them?
For instance did you know any kids who played Little League or High School Football or Basketball?
Any Canadiens who allowed their children to play hockey at any of the levels?
What happened to the kids or parents if anything?
Confused
Confused:
Generally any form of extra curricular activities are frowned upon. Anything that is organized and may conflict with bible study, meetings and field service is a no-no. Personally my parents didn't allow me to join any sports teams, but I rebelled, and joined a few school activities. Basketball, Volleyball etc.
It's a sad situation really. Many jw's were excellant athletes, and would come under the microscope, once coaches saw their special skills. There was one fellow I grew up with, who probably could have made it in professional hockey. Or at least a hockey scholarship, if he could have continued his education.
One of the first things wife and I did when we exited, was to enroll our kids in after school clubs. Soccer and Navy cadets.
This policy sucked.
I was good at football, our high school coach would always be on me to try out for the team, but I never got to play....I hated it!
Now my brother is going through the same thing
After a lengthy discussion with a couple of the elders, my dad finally relented & I was able to join FFA & a couple of other activities, but that's about it.
None of us were allowed to play organized sports in school. One of my brothers is still complaining about that 40 years later.
I had to sneak around to play basketball in high school...
Sincerely,
District Overbeer
I always thought that I could have made the basketball team. I played lots of pickup games with JWs and neighborhood kids and loved to watch the game and study different coaches gameplans(having grown up in the ACC and SEC area). But, of course I wasn't allowed to try out for school teams. Not even the intra-mural teams. I wasn't even allowed to go watch the high school games. I could go watch college games with other JWs, but not high school games. Go figure.
bodily training is beneficial for a little...
I got so sick of hearing that.
I never played any sports. I probably could have made the 6-8th grade basketball team that played in my community. I had my growth spurt earlier than my classmates. Definitely the freshman football team. They always had a shortage of players. The freshman basketball team would have been iffy. The varsity basketball team would have been quite a bit more competitive and by that time my peers had had their growth spurts and I was no longer one of the tallest ones. I did play in the band which I know is frowned on more in some congregations. My high school band wasn't the best in the land, and we only practiced after school twice a week for 2 hours, so it didn't require the time commitment that better bands required or some of the sports teams required. I eventually had "privileges" taken away for being the drum major in the band, although they were returned later.
I knew of one guy who played on a tennis team for another high school. As far as I know he's in "good standing" with the JW today.
I was never into sports (possibly because of the JWs). However, I was very much into music. I was allowed to take "band" as a subject, but I wasn't allowed to be in the youth band. The music teacher was really trying to convince my mother to let me join, but alas, nothing happened.
Yep, I missed the sports train myself. I always remember loving gym class so much because it was the closest thing I got to organized sports. If I would have been allowed, I don't think I would have joined the football team(I always thought those guys were a bunch of jocks) but soccer and tennis would have been really cool. Maybe a little basketball but hey I'm not really strong or anything. Good thing I'm super skinny but I could see where not being involved in any sports could be very detrimental to your short and long term health. Even to this day, sports really don't interest me and it's because I repressed the desire for so long. Those WT bastards, when I was there I noticed they had all kinds of sporting equipment and courts for the bethelites, it's a wonder they even know how to use them.
