I recently had this article sent to me by a friend
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 9:31 PM Subject: A well-written article (by a brother) who lives in Arkansas and is an elder in a Spanish congregation there. Dear friends:
How can you have escaped the advertising promoting a new movie--that has made more money than any movie ever made. That is the publicity I have seen in the news this past week. I could only wonder about the name of it for it was a word I had never used, or that I could remember
The article continues. I find it quite disturbing that this article is going around lately.
First of where do we receive our spiritual food? What channel is being used to deliver information we need in a timely manner for Jehovah's people? He utilizes the faithful and discreet slave class through articles in the magazines, publications and letters read at the congregation. Not through articles who we do not truly know the source.
For someone to write an article, set a precedent to follow and then send it out is very, very dangerous. We do have articles about not doing that from the proper channel. We do not utilize other methods than what Jehovah has provided to relay information like this. We do not know if the source is indeed an apostate or other. We have been warned about sending articles like these around. This person may well be correct in his views on the matter but at the same time it is not up to him to descide and set the rules on this.
Recently at the assembly we talked about the Fellars who were right about a few teachings but instead of waiting or going through the proper channels promoted their own teachings and ended up seperating from the truth. I know this brother was not promoting his own teachings but it starts out like this and we truly do not know the source. He could very well be an apostate in sheeps clothing.
Resending the article that did not come through official channels could be supporting someone we do not know, which is part of the dangers of the internet.
We should not doubt others love of Jehovah or view them any differantly on what Jehovah has set as a personal choice based on his principals. We do not make a rule out of something Jehovah himself has marked a personal descision. There are articles that support this very aspect.
Setting standards and precedents for others is not a good thing. If it was okay to set these precedents the Branch would come out with a list of dos and don't. A list of movies to see or not see, or simply create a blanket rule. So specifically calling out one movie and saying Christians should not watch it is setting a precedent which if not coming through Jehovah's channels is not acceptable.
Some have said "if worldy people think it is bad" Problem is we cannot gage the world's view in most instances. There are "Christian" denominations who teach alcohol, sexual pleasure in marriage, dancing, contraception and things like this as wrong. Remember everything in Satan's system is unbalanced. So yes you do have conservative Christian groups going off on that movie. Their opinion truly does not count.
I have seen a real danger with these posts and strong opinions about the movie. I have even seen brothers and sisters doubt others love for Jehovah. So a fair warning do not go past the things written, do not support sending messages that are opinion based and setting precedents for our brothers and sisters. WE cannot make rules out of things Jehovah himself has dubbed a personal choice.
AVATAR does have a hindu background in the way of the name which has been modified in our own language. That happens alot with many of our everday words. I would assume if the name Avatar was not used then we would not be having this discussion.
AVATAR is derived from that early Hindu understanding. We use it in our modern English when it comes to electronic representations of ourselves while online or in a game.
Other examples of words we commonly use with religous undertones. Monday-Sunday. Wednesday = Odin's day; Thursday - Thor's day; etc. So now we ban all movies with the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
The movie itself is not about a godlike individual or spirit who came down into a body. It is about a human being who becomes an alien using modern technology. The planet itself is a giant computer. That information I found on the internet along with the information about the Hindu backdrop. So if it's on the internet it is true.
Also if you ban the movie for it's "pagan" Na'vi people, then you must ban things like "Sound of Music" which shows Nuns and crosses. Any movie depicting Indians would be on the no list since they usually do some sort of chanting.
If anything this movie is violent and shows people with bad imitative behavior. It also has some sensuality.
The point is if you are going to set a "ban" on something make it clear and concise and not based on things that could be looking to into it. It's a violent movie, violence is bad, plain and simple. But trying to look deeper into the movie than what is really there, makes us look like extremists. The movie is violent, that's all a Christian needs to know to descide to stay away.
Setting precedents for our brothers and sisters and spreading our opinions is not good and there are articles for that. We cannot dictate something that Jehovah has left up to our choice.