by gringojj 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
My parents were hard core anti-birthday people. To this day I can't remember their birthday or the birthday of my siblings.
It's definitely a teaching that isn't as easily understood and I feel that many families acknowledge birthdays now. They just don't throw or go to birthday parties.
Big Dog just hit the nail on the head. In my opinion, a good portion of their doctrine is their just to give JWs their identity and differentiate them from "false religion."
I'm with the rest of you. I can see making sure you don't go overboard with birthdays, but you have to at least acknowledge them, if for no other reason than to know how old everyone is.
I get an annual email from my mother. It never actually says "Happy Birthday", but at least she acknowledges it every year. This past year she has become even more active in dubland so it remains to be seen if I will get another email this year.
Purza
I wouldn't tell my Mother or anything, but the last two years of her youngest great grandchildren's birthdays, she attended knowing full well what was going on.
My Grandmother was a dedicated Witness from 1972. She wasn't your MOST fanatical Witness, in the fact that when I found out about the false prophet I called her and she said "I can understand how you feel like that." Unfortunately, my Mother wasn't privy to most of the conversations that I held with my Grandmother. I knew, that in the late 90's she had begun to doubt the veracity of "The Truth." I was hoping that she would totally come out of it, but she never had a chance before she died.
When she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in the mid 1990's, she had a lot of memory problems, of course. She had had a habit of picking up all the older sisters abd bringing them to the Kingdom Hall. From what my Grandfather said later, the brothers told her that she couldn't do it anymore because she was making all of the elderly sisters late for the meetings because of being lost. This hurt her very much, so my Grandfather says, and she quit going about 3 months before she died.
When she died, my Grandfather had a Witness f8uneral for her, because she was a Witness. My Grandfather went with her to the Kingdom Hall for 25 years, and he says they haven't been to visit him after her death. During the Witness funeral, it wasn't to celebrate my Grandmother, but the religion. It was an advertisement. Thank heaven my cousin, Jeremy, was allowed to share a poem that he wrote about our Grandmother. I sat there and gritted my teeth the whole time, and I know my family was afraid that I'd make a scene, but I didn't.
CG
Ridiculous
Consistency is the hallmark of accuracy and logic is the art of non-contradictory measurement.
You can measure the accuracy of JW thinking by the contradictions and inconsistencies.
The days of the week are all named after false gods.
The Sun god= Sun day
The Moon god= Mon day
The Norse god Woden= Wednes day
Thor=Thurs day
Freia (norse goddess)=Fri day
Saturn (Roman god)=Satur day
Yet, the JWs are not in the least offended by using these false religious and satanic gods in everyday speech and in their publications. They, instead, strain out the gnat of birthdays and swallow the camel in the process.
Tsk tsk.
T.
They differ just for the sake of being different.
This applies not just in the areas of birthdays but regarding the cross and the flag. In these other two areas the scriptures supporting these beliefs are obscured or played down.
I told a brother something in his house was straight out of a Catholic Church... I was a studying Catholic at the time...he told me to pull out a US dollar bill... he showed the the pyramid with the all seeing eye...and made me a deal...
If I got rid of all my dollars...he'd get rid of the Catholic relic...
I let it go... but was always puzzled...
u/d(of the you'da think I saw it coming class)
JOB 1:4
birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. (WEB)
his day; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. (ASV)
His sons regularly went to one another's houses, and every one on his day gave a feast: and at these times they sent for their three sisters to take part in their feasts with them. (BBE)
on his day; and they sent and invited their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. (DBY)
his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. (KJV)
And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. (WBS)
his day; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. (JPS)
'in' his day -- and have sent and called to their three sisters to eat and to drink with them; (YLT)
Birthday celebrations among JWs is one of the dirty little secret most won't confess.
Believe you me, plenty of JWs celebrate their birthdays and that of their loved ones in a hush-hush way. Done very privately.
Cake, gifts, music, drinks and all!!! Not everyone is invited, of course.
DY
I didn't buy gifts or make cake for my kids but on their birthdays I'd let them pick out a restaurant they wanted to go to. I feel like a jerk for depriving them of a few gifts and a party now....especially since I've learned that there were some in the congregations who secretly celebrated birthdays with family dinners and gifts.
There was something I read on one (or maybe more than one) website about good ol' Judge Rutherford and how he came up with some of his "new light". Seems like he was more interested in having some sort of big reveal to announce at the conventions or in the magazines....at least that's how his announcement that the new name of those in his organization was going to be "Jehovah's Witnesses" seemed to play.
I should look up when the whole birthdays-are-evil thing was introduced. It's like there was a mission to erradicate any simple little pleasures in life in order to set JWs apart. The drunken "Judge" was a reprehensible, egomanical bully who seemed to delight in coming up with new ways to oppress people while not living up to some of the most basic standards of decency himself.
