The Husband has a birthday coming up in a few weeks. Since it's his first, I've decided to have a party! I invited some friends over, as well as 2 of his former co-workers/friends from back in our JW days (they are not & have never been JW), and I plan to grill. It should be fun!
The JW logic for not celebrating birthdays is the following:
No proof that Jesus celebrated his birthday
No proof that the apostles or other early Christians celebrated their birthdays
The only 2 birthday celebrations mentioned in the bible involved murders (baker in the old testament and John the Baptist in the new testament)
Too much glory given to 1 person when we should owe all our glory to god
Scripture in old testament says the day of one's death is more important than the day of one's being born (logic for that is because one has made a name for him/herself by the time they die -- illogical if the death is a newborn)
Personally, the day my children were born are 3 of the best days of my life. Why shouldn't that be celebrated? Additionally, who is anyone to tell me what I can and can not do in my personal life???
I found a list of things JWs can't do. Number 78 states that they can't celebrate birthdays. The whole list is pretty informative, actually. Read through and click the links provided. You might find it enlightening.
Some of the other things on that list are grey areas and some depend on the individual and whether they can think for themselves. (If they do, it's hush hush.)
I have never been able to "conform" to the religious teachings of my upbringing. Although I was not a JW, other denominations of biblical teachings have some "cultish" type of rules, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI celebrate every joyous occasion. Birthdays, marriage, because the sun rose that day. Every day is a celebration and I choose to celebrate any way I want. :D
I couldn't finish that annoying list. :-D But the ones I read, I found a bunch I broke the rules on. And a bunch I wouldn't do even today anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe WTS micromanages its members. They aren't allowed to think, because they shouldn't rely on their own understanding.
But, one thing I feel about them is that there are people who seem to be happy being micromanaged. They have fear and the religion they chose soothed the fear for them.
What I dislike the most about that organization is the shunning. I think that they are misusing the scriptures to control their members. I think the practice of shunning is abusive. If they actually had the Truth, they wouldn't have to control their members so tightly and shun ex members.
Janet, I think I'm going to make that a topic for my next blog post. I want to dig deeper into that. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThe birthday ban was introduced by Brother Funspoiler himself, Joseph Rutherford. who wanted his people to be "different". Hence, no birthdays, no Mothers Day, no Christmas, no enlistment, no flag salute, no national anthems. The WTS scratched around for some added justification and the reasons you provided above are the best they could come up with.
ReplyDeleteI joined the cult in the 1980s and was prepared to sacrifice birthday celebrations, but when my wife and I had a coupe of beautiful daughters, that began to change. WHY could we not celebrate their births? WHY should they and their friends not have a party and gifts? And then .... WHY should my wife and I not celebrate our births as well? Why would a wedding anniversary bring a smile to God's face but a celebration of a little girl's birth make him angry? It made no sense.
Around the time my wife and I were roaming the internet, encountering a whole range of discontented and ex-JWs whose outlook mirrored our own (paving the way for our eventual escape) I found a very good essay that argued that since EVERY mention of dogs in the Bible is negative and pejorative, that would similarly suggest that God hates dogs and JWs shouldn't have them as pets. The logic is just so weak and stupid.
So we left, and over the next few years, although we went through varying stages of anger and bitterness and a sense of betrayal, our lives have become much much happier and the massive mental load that hung over us has been lifted.
We met some nice people in that cult and sadly some of them remain in it, trapped and not realising it. Some of them begged us to return, asking "But what about the girls?" as if we were consigning them to a gory death at Armageddon. So much of our defection was for the girls, so they could live their own lives, celebrate birthdays, fall in love with who they want, have fun, make choices.
Fuck Jehovah's Witnesses.